To Sing of Life

It was raining heavily that night, the kind of icy rain that chilled you straight to the bone. He had started out running, running and running and when he couldn't run anymore, he walked. All sense of time had escaped him---had an hour passed? A day? A year? He couldn't tell. All he knew is where he came from, and where he was going.

Hope dangles on a string

Like slow spinning redemption

Winding in and winding out

The shine of it has caught my eye

And roped me in

So mesmerizing, and so hypnotizing

I am captivated,

I am...

The rain hadn't let up; he saw the reflection of the fast-moving drops in the streetlights. He pulled his cloak around himself, his teeth chattering, the sound ringing in his head. He was a shell, a ghost of a person, his life was nothing but lies and honor and mockery and pain. Except for her. She was all that he ever truly had, and then she was gone, away from his cruel words and cold stares. He never realized he needed her more than anything. Could he even have her back, hold her again and be complete again? Hope fluttered in him, and he wondered if he dared to acknowledge it.

Vindicated

I am selfish

I am wrong

I am right

I swear I'm right

Swear I knew it all along

And I am flawed

But I am cleaning up so well

I am seeing in me now the things you swore you saw yourself

Walking, walking, he kept walking, not wanting to think about what would happen if he stopped. He couldn't stop, even if he tried, his body was on autopilot, his feet moving one in front of the other, step step step step. He focused on her, the distant memories of her smile, her laugh, the way she used to look at him; her warm chocolate brown eyes made his cold gray ones melt. It made him feel a tiny bit warmer.

So clear

Like the diamond in your ring

Cut to mirror your intention

Oversized and overwhelmed

The shine of which has caught my eye

And rendered me so isolated, so motivated

I am certain now that I am...

Vindicated

I am selfish

I am wrong

I am right

I swear I'm right

Swear I knew it all along

And I am flawed

But I am cleaning up so well

I am seeing in me now the things you swore you saw yourself

She was getting married soon---he didn't know how soon, he was not invited, but hearsay got him very far these days. It was to him: his rival, his enemy, the boy who could save the world when he would only pollute it. He hated him for being there for her when he was not, murmuring kind words in her ear when he could only find horrible ones, looking at her with the eyes of a lover instead of the eyes of an enemy. He reached her doorstep and stood under the awning, pushing back the hood of his cloak and running his hands through his longish white-blonde hair, luxuriating in the shelter. It was late, the wee hours of the morning---it would certainly be rude to ring the doorbell, but etiquette was far from his mind at this point. He reached a hand out to touch the doorbell, but she was already standing there. She was clad in an ankle-length white silk nightie, her long red hair curled softly at her shoulders. Her deep brown eyes, the ones that used to look at him with such love were now filled not with anger as he feared, but with surprise, shock, and fear. She uttered his name out loud, soft as a prayer, wobbling with uncertainty.

"Do you love me?"

It was all he needed to know. She opened the screen door and stepped out. She looked up at him, at what he had become, and tears welled up in her eyes. She looked back down at the diamond on her left ring finger, and back up to him, right into his eyes. It was one of her deep soul-searching looks that she would give him back when she was his, when he was whole. It seemed like forever that they stared into each other's eyes before her expression changed. He could not put it into words, but he knew what it meant. She finally saw him as who he was going to become, who he had resolved to become during that long walk.

"Yes."

It was strange, he thought to himself, how one word can change the course of everything. She moved toward him as the tide would move towards the shore, and he took her in his arms, lowering his head so that their lips met. The passion he had held back for all of these years came pouring out through the urgent, frantically lustful way their tongues intertwined and their hands, groped for the warmth of each other's bodies.

So turn

Up the corners of your lips

Part them and feel my fingertips

Trace the moment, fall forever

Defense is paper-thin

Just one touch and I'd be in

Too deep now to ever swim against the current

So let me slip away

So let me slip away

So let me slip away

So let me slip against the current

So let me slip away

So let me slip away

So let me slip away

So let me slip away

Vindicated

I am selfish

I am wrong

I am right

I swear I'm right

Swear I knew it all along

And I am flawed

But I am cleaning up so well

I am seeing in me now the things you swore you saw yourself

After a minute or an eternity, she pulled away and looked up at him. She unwrapped her arms from around his neck; he noticed that her right hand was balled up, like she was holding something. She unclenched her fist, and held up her outstretched hand for him to see.

In it was her diamond ring.

Hope

Dangles on a string

Like slow spinning redemption...