I cross one knee above the other, perching on a cloud. I glance down to see your feet break waves that have no colour. You stare up at me. Watching. Until the last ripple takes your mouth. Nose. Eyes. Until you disappear beneath the windswept seascape. I don't laugh anymore.
Did you ever ?
My eyes peel layers from the surface, and I watch you dwindle slowly downwards. Still staring up at me. No questions in your eyes anymore. you know why you are here.
you remember why the mountains weren't yours to climb.
You pushed another off of them.
Why the storm wasn't yours to weather.
You drowned another to save yourself.
You left your soul tied to the anchor shaft when you pulled yourself back--
to life.
It's your soul now, that pleads for your return. Calling you ever downwards. Pulling your toes back to where it strangles in the blue-black dark. You kick.
Suddenly.
You realise, just where you might be going. This darkness has a face now. Many faces. You know the others that are to come.
Each one glows pale. Effervescent in the blackness. Each face, has a story to tell. To which only you know the ending.
Each face wants a piece of your soul. A piece of your life, to take back what should have been theirs. What would have been theirs, had you never come along.
Regret seeps into your eyes as you realise the consequences of the little things, so many years ago. But never remorse. Sadness enters my heart as I understand that you will never be free. Not every story has a happy ending. Not even mine.
But I, the storyteller, know only the story that I see in front of me.
I tell the tales as they happen before my own eyes. And in that I have no power, but the power to weave the fable as a quilt that is meant to be undone.
I leave my knots a little looser. I hold my breath too long. And I hope that one day you will exist to untie the knots you have tightened all these years. To unravel the thick threads of a destiny that no one would ever wish upon another.