Untouchable

The desert sand remained unblemished under her alabaster feet as she floated with him behind the highest dune.
It was the only place she could create under such haste, a place where she felt confident she may have sufficient time to possess him completely. She had to try to protect him before they came to claim him.

She had tried countless times to collect him on the other planes, each time was a different scenario within a different dream. His dreams were the only way she would ever be able to reach him, the only way he could interlink with her mind, thus binding him to her. If she failed to find a way to touch his subconscious, he would be lost to her forever.

As she grazed the underside of the dune, she took care to camouflage her wings and her body to blend within the tan and orange shades of the desert lands. Gently she lowered him onto the powdery sand, taking care to avoid brushing her wings or her face against his elegant form as it settled like a jewel on satin. Her heart sank as she looked down at his breathtakingly handsome face. His heavy black lashes lapped at his cheeks like the waters of a serene ocean as he dreamt. His hair was gold and cornsilk and starlight. For a moment, her throat fluttered and she panicked, doubting she could resist kissing his full lips. His flawless neck teased her to nibble. Then she remembers what happens if she touches him.

The binding of a human to her kind is only achieved through invoking a strong emotional response, so she tries first to frighten him. From the little she knows of human nature, nightmares are a catalyst into the deep waters of the human subconscious. Eliciting emotion such that she may contact him, in his dream she hunts him through shadows and deep black forests, taking care to allow him to catch the hungry reflection of her gaze just so. Just enough to invoke as much terror as possible. Unfortunately, this only succeeded in stoking her own ample desire for him, she found herself longing to capture him and treat him as her prey. She longed to take him and tease his pleasure from him, to release him from the unnecessary objections embedded within his human nature. She longed to show him he could find pleasure with her in fear, if only he would trust.

The human subconscious is a mysterious and personal thing. Rather than surrender to his fear, his psyche slipped away somewhere hidden from her grasp.

Her next strategy would be the role of the unattainable siren. This was a heartbreaking endeavor because she knew she would need to hurt him so completely. She became everything his consciousness had ever conjured to create the perfect woman, inside and out. She filled his mind with comfort and companionship, their conversation always substantial and spiritually fulfilling. She had a way with humor that could melt even his darkest moods. Her body was an oasis in the driest desert. Every inch of her, every detail of her form was worthy of an eternity's attention. With cunning, she gained his faithfulness and his most intimate, passionate love. It was then that she broke his heart most cruelly. "Only so that I may give you mine" she plead, hoping the thought would reach him and that would finally be enough to send him to her arms.

He moaned and rolled his head toward her. She thought he was going to open his eyes. Eagerly, she anticipated the focus of his gaze. Instead he muttered something incomprehensible. She brushed her shimmering hair aside and lowered her ear as close to his mouth as possible without touching him. She whispered to him desperately.

"Please see me!" Teardrops formed icicles that spilled down her translucent cheeks. "I need you so badly." Again his head shifted, revealing to her the hint of a collarbone beneath his tattered shirt. She would have given everything she had to press her tongue there. The riches she had amassed, the estates she possessed, the lovers she seduced. Everything she had collected during the course of her eternity thus far. All of it just to know the taste of his flawless skin.

He began to moan fitfully, violently. He tossed and turned on the dune, his soul anticipating the arrival of the dark. Panic sat heavily on her chest and she found it difficult to breathe. Time was running out. She would give her eternity, and yet it meant nothing at this point. "More time! Please, please I need more time!" She screamed into the wind, entreating it to stop howling around her. She submitted to the reality that her pleading was in vain. The wind answered mockingly, informing her that she would never be able to barter her immortality for a mortal life lived with this man. This man whom she loved more than all the wonders she had seen and all the lovers she had taken in her 3,000 years combined.

They were so close, she could feel his mind reaching for hers. "NO!!" She screamed to the dead, heavy sky. Dark figures surrounded them. Her tears made heavy indentations in the sand as they fell. All she could do was look at his face and weep. Her tears fell like flakes of diamond upon his cheeks and brow. "Can I at least hold him?" She plead. The forms were silent but she knew the answer. It was forbidden.

His precious form began to fade. She could see the outline of his beautiful body in the sand as he slipped away from her. She knew she'd never see his perfect face or swim the deep ocean of his mind again. The tallest figure loomed over her as she sat curled in the sand. She drew her knees inward to hide her icy tears, but she know it could hear her sobbing. Her wings turned from sandy ochre to midnight as they folded onto her back. She heaved too heavily to hide her agony. She raised her head and looked sternly into his blank face. "I hate you." She said evenly, "And I promise next time it will be you sobbing alone in the sand, begging me for mercy."

The figure had no response to her threat, nor did any of the others gathered there to witness her love's passing to a realm where she could not tread. There was no mocking, no indifference, no sorrow. She knew her begging and her fury had fallen on deaf ears. She would be cursed to wander this plane of existence without him, not because she needed to atone for sins within her soul, but because she had dared to love the only one whom she could not reach.