In Death

Slowly it woke her. Like usual, at what always felt the same time of night, she heard the humming. Soft and even but warm, it buzzed through the air.

She couldn't understand what it was about the voice and its soft rhythm, but it called to her like a siren cal with its baritone warmth. Curving and enticingly it wrapped around her similar to a snug embrace. Maybe that was what it was about the humming. Besides its warmth, there was loneliness within it, making her want to comfort the person from which the humming came from.

Pushing up from the couch, which she had started to sleep on a few months ago, she moved up the hall towards the hum. Like a shadow, she quietly turned the corner and paused in step when she heard the voice singing instead of humming.

In waves of sadness and pain the tone washed through her, making her feel again; making her body swim with all sorts of emotions. It lifted her up in welcoming sways and held her suspended with a caressing stroke that made her aware of all around her. It made her aware of the soft breeze flowing up the hall from the open window in the living room; the bumpiness of the painted wall underneath her tensed fingers; her silk night gown brush against her legs; the pleasant and steady beat of another person's heart besides her own.

She couldn't make sense of all she felt, but sensed it as true as her own skin.

Moving up the hall and into one of the rooms she had began to pack, she immediately froze in the doorway. Her skin paled and her eyes widened at the sight of Gareth sitting in front of the bed half nude, dark hair shielding his eyes from view, and his hands strumming over the strings of his guitar. It was the same place, the same way he'd always sat when suddenly inspired to write a song.

Looking directly up at her and not through her, his handsome face spread into a beguiling smile, his green eyes twinkled with affection, joy and... sadness.

Not ready to believe what they were seeing, her eyes stared at him with a myriad of emotions flickering in them while her feet hesitantly moved further in the room.

Stiffly coming to stand before him, she felt her legs fold beneath her and the floor rise up to meet her body. Eye to eye, she stared into the depthless valley of forest, vaguely feeling the streak of tears that slipped down her face to linger at the base of her chin. As light as a hairs tickling she felt his fingers brush the hanging tears, and then his palm graze her cheek before it moved down her face to pass over her mouth in the same tender caress it had always stroked her face. Her eyes closing, she turned her face into the palm and gently laid a kiss in the center.

Her eyes closed tight as they were, she could feel the heat radiate from him and smell his usual scent of soap and spices. The energy that belonged to him alone settled around her in a soothing embrace. It cuddled her in a reminder of how she missed his touch, his warmth, him.

With so many questions on her mind and a loving glow in her eyes, she opened them to stare at him but abruptly found all her illusions crash in around her as she noticed he could no longer see her and would never see her.

Small Note: This short is an off-shoot of Inhibited Confession, the title is still on the table. Moving on though, originally I was trying to wait until I reviewed the long list of people I had to review, considering how I haven't been up here in a long while. In the long stand, I figured a good step to reviewing is by renewing myself with FP, so "thanks a bundle" to anyone who reviews.