Two Eternities

She sat up, stiff, the terror oozing from her eyes like conjunctivitis. Her arms rigid, veins bulging, looking like finely tuned piano wire pressing against the underside of her skin. The gaping hole at the bottom of her mouth tried to croak out something audible, but all that came was a low, throaty, guttural noise.

Is it possible to own someone’s soul for two eternities? That was the deal.
He gave me this one time. And I don’t mean Him, either. Just one time to see her again. One time for another eternity.

I wanted to reach out and touch her, kiss her, make love to her. I wanted to. I can’t. I am nothing, mist, merely an outline of myself. I wanted to say I love you one more time. I can’t. I have no voice box, larynx to talk with.

It’s cold up here, Earth is, even in the summertime. Hell, it’s downright frigid, pardon the pun. I miss it here, the sun and moon. Smiles and laughter at a funny movie or joke. I even miss the burn from popping hot grease from a frying pan, and believe me, it’s child’s play compared to the burn I experience.

Finally, barely awake as she is, her jaw slackens and her arms loosen, folding at the elbows like a jump rope. Her eyes fall until both the top and bottom eyelashes intermingle with each other. The rise and fall of her chest slows, her breathing shallower and shallower until she’s completely asleep. I watch, saddened that I have to leave, to never see her again.

When her eyes bounce left and right, up and down beneath her eyelids I am summoned back down. Back down to the depths of the depraved for two eternities. That was the deal. And it’ll be worth every Goddamn long, agonizing second.