It will be like this forever. This place will always exist, no matter where they go. Because these moments are out of time. Eternal.
SAFE HERE,
COMFORTABLE
BELOVED -
STAY WITH ME.
There is a sudden absence of ambient sound, causing her eyes to open and scan the room for the source of the noiselessness. Somehow this utter separaton from life is as unsettling as the ability to ignore it was comforting.
THE TRANCE IS BROKEN
She recoils, ceasing to touch him; her movement disturbing the candle flames that provide their only illumination. Her mind (so still moments before) floods with images. The noise that fills her everyday life, from which she now knows there is no escape; and as she reaches to regain peace the shards of the shattered moment cut her hands. Break her heart.
It seems he is frozen, able only to stare at this foetal being. His eyes follow the path of a tear as it runs across her skin. The tear forms a river, sweeping him further from her.
This is how it will end: everything will vanish, leaving each with only the shrapnel of an exploded love for company.
* * *
His scream does not carry beyond the ring of candle light, but it wakes him from his customary dream, as it does every morning. He used to cast around for the source of his nightly torment. But now all he cares is this: when he awakes she is still beside him. Still smiling.