She Saved Ryan Denning

It was 2 AM and the moonlight poured through the window pane, highlighting the pale sleeping face of Ryan Denning. He breathed slow, his bony diaphragm moving to the beat of his steady pulse. His bedroom door creaked open at a snail's pace. Ryan was submerged in the darkness of his slumber for he could not dream.

A thin female figure in a black hooded cloak and dark hair floated in.

She sat down on the bed and pressed her pale, soft, and full lips on his forehead. Ryan awoke from his slumber with widened eyes that were not filled with fear, but with awe. The lady had a face covered in fair skin as white as piece of chalk and it looked smooth. She looked at him with an iris that had its color shrouded in the shadows. He found the sight of her visage strangely peaceful and beautiful.

“I'm surprised you haven't leaped out of the bed in fright. Most people would have,” said the Lady.

“I'm not sure I can tell you why I didn't,” said Ryan.

“I can,” the Lady said with a smile while brushing her cold velvety fingers over his cheek.

“How? You're a stranger.”

“Oh, love. I know you better than anyone. I've been studying your life and soul for awhile.”

“Oh really?” Ryan asked as he tried to prop himself up.

The Lady gently pushed him back down and with a warm smile asked him to lay back down.

“Yes. Your past haunts you. You don't know what to do with yourself. You've lost your purpose. You can't decide what your purpose is. You won't. You can't even decide what makes you truly happy,” the Lady said.

“You're right. I don't have a purpose. But my loved ones make me happy.”

“Oh, honey. Your loved ones cannot help you find your purpose,” the Lady replied rubbing his shoulder.

“You're right about that,” Ryan responded with a deep sigh. The Lady held his hand with her cold fingers. This soothed him.

“I would like to fall in love with a good woman someday though,” Ryan whispered.

With a mysterious tear dropping out of the darkness that shrouded her eyes, she said, “But you you won't allow a lady to fall for you.”

Ryan's breath started to become fainter than when he slept.

“True,” he sighed.

“However, you've been waiting for me for along time. Your heart aches for me.”

“I can love you like no one ever has for all eternity. And we can be together in peace.”

Ryan propped himself up a little and this time she allowed it.

“Who are you, mysterious and lovely creature?” he asked. Pointing to the moonlight outside, the Lady leaned in closer revealing eye color that matched the moon's glow. He couldn't stop admiring her beauty from then on.

“Come with me into the the night and love me forever.”

“That sounds nice, but why me?”

“Because you've been waiting for me and no one has ever looked at me the way you are now.”

The Lady kissed him with her freezing lips and he embraced her, feeling more alive then he had in four years. Her icy breath had breathed the will to go on into him.

“I love you already,” said Ryan.

“That makes me so happy. Come with me into the night and we can leave this troublesome world.”

“Yes please,” Ryan said with the first genuine smile that he could recall in a long time.

The Lady took his hand and flew him out into the starry sky. The world never found Ryan Denning's body.