Colors

The unsheathing of the blade does not make her shiver, instead she stands tall and out of breathe; she’s tired and tiresome yet determination to stand. I do not have to put much effort as I swing down with my broad sword. A grunt of desperation escapes her lips as she catches the blade barely with both hands. My feet drag against the grain mocking her beliefs; there is no where for her to run or hide. It is impressive on how long she has lasted considering the knife in her chest; determined fool broke the hilt so she could not bleed out.

Her asthmatic gasps strain at her nose getting bigger and bigger; she knows I have her. I spin my sword from my heels for fun, she ducks but loses another curl; we both watch her curl fall effortlessly to the floor. “Why do you resist child?” with a smug smile of delight I ask. As blood slides down her chin onto her white gown she says “There must be a balance between the light and the darkness.”. I admit she is right but strength does not lie in her bones as much as denial does. I chuckle at her “What good has that served?” Her silence is a strong answer but I must insist.

“You and I both born into a world without light. We both developed nocturnal sight and a taste for blood. The light you want to balance our world is not pure, it is filthy, it is bloodied; it is not natural…at least not for us” sways from my lips. “Do you remember when you first saw the light?” She asks. I admit that I remember it very well. I was alone my whole life until what looked like a small bright candle lit across the way; I admit it was fascinating to see something new and from the vast darkness bore her. She smiled and with each gracious step pink smoke emitted from her feet like powdery clouds. The pitch black atmosphere looked strange to me. Objects and trees I never questioned how they look until I finally saw it’s color. I never knew the tree tops were so green or the many colors of roses; I never knew the night sky held so many stars in its hands. I had never seen the sun and she knows this; I know my well around the dark by touch and by sense.

“Of course, I witnessed colors individually opposed to being swallowed all together; what is your point? Your breathing is becoming faint and I can see your muscles are failing you.” I responded. She cocked her head to the side and slumped against the tree. I hadn’t realized the tree was there with the dark clouds hovering around again. Her once beautiful dress that hugged her hips is tattered with stripes of her leg peaking out from behind; stained with blood. Her eyes built with a fire that burns from within. Cracked teeth in her trying smile as the sword lays firm in her hand; she’s still trying. Her dry lips muster “Don’t you miss the colors? Don’t you wish to see them again?”

Her raspy wish causes lightening across the sky; damn it more light. “You’re the only thing keeping it all alive!” I shout. She tilts her sword towards me as if she’s hoping I would fall onto it and cries “Don’t you miss the colors?” Her attempt to hold her strong sword is admirable and yet still pathetic; I can end her before her death. “Of course, I miss the colors and textures I did not know I could see; but tell me what’s the point of missing something you let someone else tear down intentionally? I may not have had the light to see color and texture but my world was intact. There was a beautiful home I did not need to see in order to feel safety. All you did was stand still and ‘hope’ his winds would stop. What did you do to help nourish this land that I raised so well in the dark? Nothing. You brought a stranger in just to see his face and shared what was ours when I told you not to. You let him bring an axe to our once tall trees and hurricanes to our home; where there were rooms and locked windows. The doors are all busted. The windows shattered. The flowers pissed on and the food set out to rot. The sun blazes on my skin and has burned me many times. The rivers I swam in are the places he held my head under the water just for fun; while you stood there hiding and pleading from a far! What use are the colors if the stranger you let in, only came in to break everything just because they were bored, because the wind blew in a different direction. What is there left to see? I would much rather carve out your heart that keeps you alive beating for him and kill you where you lay; than to see the mess they have created.” Reality is reality and it is killing her slowly.

I kneel beside her face and ask “the knife he chiseled into your chest slowly had poison in the tip, if you let me pull it by the hilt your death will be endless and quick”; this is the only mercy I can offer her. She coughs “But this is all I have left of him. I’d rather see my blood than to see no color at all…” Before she finish speaking her atrocities I slide a small knife down the veins of her forearm from her elbow to her palm. She screams of anger and relief; with the last bit of light in her eyes “don’t let the color die”. The sky darkens and I watch the stars begin to fade from sight. The wreckage left behind I can no longer see. The tree her body lays against blackens it’s wood. Finally, I can fix and leave things as they should be. I stand filled with relief. I can hear her heart beating slowly for him still as she dies slowly. I turn to walk away to only hear the crunch of glass and as I look down at the reflection before it fades; I see him in the distance staring at me. I look in his direction and yell “She can no longer protect you and this carnage can not continue.”

He begins to run at me as I ready my sword. He jumps and at the last minute opens his arms and lands on my sword; then a sharp pain at my Achilles rings through my body. As we collapse to the floor, I see her take her last breathe wasted to protect them both. I lay in the glass and the blood of him and me; finally all the color is disappearing. Let me rest. Let me sleep.