Falling through the sands of time

Falling through the sands of time, with only eternity for company…

Grains filling my stagnating memory, synaptics firing blanks through the sands of my mind…

I hear nothing, feel nothing, *am* nothing. Nothing more than a drop in the abyss of endlessness…

I’ve convinced myself this is it. Accepted my fate. But a fragment still wishes I could feel something… *Anything*, senses now numbed from the haze of nothingness…

But to feel again, would be to *remember*. What was, and the dream of what could’ve been…

Yet hope is now a falsity, humanity fleeing me as long-forgotten reality dissolves like sea-wash on sand…

Sand, sea, dream…

What is it, that is awash within these words I deliver you?

You…

…

Who *are* you?

How did you emerge here, as I sift through time and space itself, seeking my final peace?

Why do you join me in my death throes, when I know it’s almost over…?

You are but a trick of my mind, tempting me to consider an alternate reality…

One where this doesn’t exist… And my penance is paid… My penance...

I couldn't save her...

We lay under the Moon’s ethereal glow that night… Our world, in perfect balance, dark meeting light in mystical twilight…

The sea washed against the sand as I shuffled cards steeped in ancient mystery, my eyes still drawn to the light of Elune.

“What do you dream of, my love…?”she whispered, her beautiful voice echoing *ethereal* through my mind.

I divined my way through my third eye and revealed the first card, seeped in moonlit energy. Two cerulean fish, circling in perfect unison.

“The Piscean Dream, my dear. Where you and are as one…” We joined hands in those moments, her smile sparkling in the moonlight.

I smiled warmly then looked out to the ocean, witnessing the currents shifting sporadically.

“What is your direction in this lifetime, my dear?”

Two cards emerged for her. She carefully chose one, discarding the other behind her.

A crustacean next to the ocean. A crab, supporting a fully-grown shell. “Family. I’m seeking my forever family…”

“I can provide, I can protect, I'm the Cancerian with the home on my back". She wrapped her arms around mine in joy, as I gently kissed her sparkling lips under magical moonlight.

Time slowed so softly for us in those moments, as we supped on each moment like an elixir of life. Life never tasted so sweet.

Tears of joy fell from her face as we deeply embraced. But I couldn't help but glimpse something over her shoulder.

The discarded card lay face up behind her. And in those moments, I knew her tears were bittersweet.

One could ne’er forget the reaper’s face.

The 3rd card of the spread. The ending.

Death.

Everything went dark.

No… I deny this ever happened. Don’t let me recollect…

The Moon, our magickal protector, had disappeared…

We could no longer feel her ethereal energies seeping through our souls… No longer sense her powers protect us from what lay beyond...

True darkness was upon us.

And that’s when it happened. When my world changed forever.

A huge talon steeped in shadow ripped through the curtain of reality, and instantly tore through her chest.

Sheer horror. From the deepest hells.

Panic overwhelmed me as I could see she was already fading. Her lifeforce draining before my eyes…

I unsheathed my gladius and swung it like a man possessed, pouring my pain into every hate-filled thrust.

But these were smoky apparitions from the beyond, impervious to harm at the hands of mundanity. Their smiles widened, believing I was becoming exactly who they wanted me to be… Hatred incarnate…

No… I beg of you, stranger… I have accepted my fate… Do not allow me to delve deeper into the fragile lining of my mind…

Seeing myself reflected in the black orbs of their eyes, I slumped to the sands… Powerless to stop her from slipping away from me, her watery energies dissolving like sea-foam on stone. Agony filled my very being, the reaper’s scythe poised to strike… Death called out to me…

But before the scythe could reap my soul, the shadows simply…bled away, knowing I would suffer forever for my failing.

I knelt by her body, unable to fathom what had just happened. Her body was still whole, beautiful, the otherworldly talon not puncturing her heart, but her soul…

But, while her soul had been ruptured, I could still *feel* her energies, emanating from her body. And as hope kindled for me on the breeze, I saw something *sparkle*…

A silver heart-shaped locket, resting lightly on her chest. And as I unlocked it with my shaking hands, I could feel the remnants of her soul still present... The locket, saving her from the clutches of shadow…

Hope flooded through me, great elation at knowing her soul wasn't twisted by their malicious fingertips…

But, with one twist of fate, the shadows had their final say… In a split second, smoke coalesced around her, dissolving her body on the night breeze... Slipping through my fingers once more…

However, the locket survived... Falling down through the sands beneath us, pulled by deathly shadows...

Do not look upon my fragile soul. Tears crystallize in my ethereal eyes… I *feel* again, freer than ever before…

What falls is all that’s left of her. All that’s left of the Piscean Dream.

I am her protector. I must retrieve what was lost. I must be with her again, feel her again. To do so, is to be truly whole again. Like light and dark, Yin & Yang. Soulful balance must be restored once more…

So I must take the leap of faith, through the sands of time and through the cracks in real-space…

Free from tears and fear of failure, I now see clearly… Finally… Her heart-shaped locket, falling ahead of me… The remnants of her heart, her soul, almost within reach…

Thank you, fair stranger. My purpose has been restored, once more.

I am coming for you, my love…