Page 146 of A Silence So Divine

Waves wash over me, pulling me further and further into the depths, away from the shore that Eden clings to.

Lips press to mine, words etched into my mouth that I’ll never hear, but I know exactly what they are.

Love.

Most things fall away now, save for that shimmering silver, like moonlight being spread across the ocean. I find myself gravitating towards it. An incorporeal tug.

I should have told my brother I love him. He should know, shouldn’t he? The way that I know he loves me?

Memories twist and sparkle, a kaleidoscope of life.

Memories of dinners, and laughter, held hands and shared secrets. Teasing, and gruff words, and rolled eyes. Andlove. For me. For them. A never-ending current, that not even Death can take from us.

The mist swallows me, the gleaming waters ebb. And I swear, clear as day, I can hear a bird sing.

I am not afraid to go.

I am not afraid.

I am n

Sixty Two

Eden

The world, along with its woes, disappear. It’s only the two of us, swallowed in the damp arms of the storm.

For a moment, I tell myself that he’s only sleeping. Creed, beautiful boy that he is, will be dreaming soon. Dark brown lashes, pointed to the heavens. Dapples of freckles—a map I’d followed endlessly on nights I couldn’t sleep. Lips a soft pink, prone to curling into mischief-laced smirks.

His eyes are unseeing—open and listed towards the sky. Digging my fingers into his flesh, I search for a heartbeat. The rise of a breath. Anything. But they’ve vanished. Only silence, and calm, as the world carries on like nothing has happened.

But it has. And as I know he was good, and just, and undeserving of this fate, I know that atonement rests in the depths of my being, waiting to be called upon.

The hand on my soul is eager, awaiting concession. This time, I don’t fight. It snatches my lungs, forcing out air in an agonized cry. My scream carries up into the clouds and out across the dust. The rain pours now, cleansing Creed’s body and carrying away his blood in a current that defies the scorched Earth.

Wail after wail, my life—my heart—splits in two, shredded and incomplete. The power cascades, my voice a conduit for the sorrow with no place to call home.

The sky shatters, opens. Light flashes in unrelenting bolts, and the ground rumbles deep in its core. The world leans into my sorrow, bowing to it. Rain pelts like shards of glass, slicing into my skin. But the storm is my own, and I feel no physical pain. Not when there’s so much to be felt in my heart.

You know the end.

Glancing at the sky, I curse the Fates. I curse my Father, and my Mother, and all that played a part in the demise of Creed Bastien.

But I cannot challenge the Fates. Nor my Father. My mother.

Someone must pay the price. And it will be my face, my pain,myanguish, that they look upon as they sink into the depth of whatever Hell their souls were born from.

Like a thread, I wrap my Gift around my fist and stall it.

My fingers are stiff as I close his eyes. I can feel the lack of him. This was merely a placeholder. He is somewhere else now.

I meant my words. I will find him.

Slipping my fingers into my shirt, I grip the golden chain that sits against my breastbone. I take my time undoing the clasp, uncurling his freezing hand and pressing the metal against the life line that resides on his palm.

With one last lingering press of lips, and a promise to return, I rise onto steady feet. My fathers words, piercing time and space, whisper into my ear, an echo of what I heard all those years back. In the storm, with the limp nestling in his palm.

You must have mercy on the Damned, Eden.