She screamed. Her mind fell to shambles as her body knelt, then lay on the concrete. Clutching at her head as she bit back the anguished cry, tasting blood in her mouth.
“You knew this could happen.” A voice whispered in her mind, a dagger point dragged down a forearm.
She watched him there, feeling his addictions thump against her mind.
“You bonded with a drug user.”
Again she screamed as her body refused the black ash from him. It hurt. It hurts.
“You cannot change him.”
But that wasn’t what she was trying to do. She was scrapping away the rust to reveal what she knew was there. Not changing him, she was helping to restore him. She was loving him not the murk coating him. The man, not the war paint of misery.
“Look at him.”
She did. The mortal she loved. He knew that life wasn’t about surviving, yet that was all he knew how to do. He was more than flesh and bones. More than origin.
He was created to be alive.
The concrete was cold beneath her, numbing the pain for a moment. His pain.
He didn’t know that every time he turned back… every time he fell back to scooping ash into his mouth. He tainted her. He hurt her. Her being burnt it away, burning her along with it.
“Lost cause.”
Never. She wouldn’t waste her being on lost causes. Her master would never leave her to drown alone. She could never leave him here. She spat, watching the black ooze hit the pavement.
“Life is not kind.”
The voice was correct, yet it was not telling the whole story. This was her choice. Kindness is a choice. Love… love was a by-product and gift of God.
She gritted her teeth, feeling tears slide down her cheeks. And how she loved his spirit. She loved the fire that burned there. She loved the man yes. Some say to love is to let go. Freedom from a cage.
She had freed him from a cage coated in tar. He had been destined for a slow death, enamoured in death’s empty promises. Evil’s allure.
And yet, a priestess had heard him. A Warrior and child of Yahweh.
“You cannot force him to leave the darkness behind.”
She nodded and gripped her stomach, feeling acid churn inside her. Watching him for a moment longer, she threaded light, love and faith around him. They danced in golden threads, invisible to the eyes. They joined together at the end, braided into a cord. They sang of memories, of the happiness coated within them
“I can only create a path to follow.” She whispered, tightly holding the cord as she unsteadily climbed to her feet. “Come home.”506Please respect copyright.PENANAJcUBy1jdqU