*Note: This story is mine and yet it’s not mine. It belongs to a storyteller who came to my court and gifted me this jewel from his magic casket. I’m only polishing this jewel so that it shines more bright. I’m merely keeping a Promise.

Requiem, I kept my promise now you better keep yours.

Do You Love Me Enough?

The stars shine down and watch us live,

Our little lives; and weep for us...

She looked at her reflection in the mirror. A stranger stared back at her.

She touched the outline of the reflection that looked like her, but wasn’t her.

She smiled; a weak, dangerous smile that went spiraling through the space between her and the reflection.

The reflection didn’t smile back the weak, dangerous smile.

He smiled back, just the way he always did.

She raced out of the penthouse, her heart in her mouth, her hair flying behind her in reckless rage. She jabbed at the glowering buttons of the elevator.

Once Twice Thrice

Every second that ticked by her, pushed her further on to the edge of dementia.

Funny, but this second she wished she could embrace dementia; with her arms open wide and her heart closed shut…

She prayed she could embrace Dementia…

The elevator slithered down like a somnolent beast that gloated at her in languid malice.

By now, she had lost feeling in her hands and her arms. By now, the only sound she could hear was a strange static buzz that whined in some remote corner of her numb, deadened mind.

She could feel the bile rise up her throat and she could feel nausea cloud her empty, broken eyes…

She wanted to retch.

The elevator halted at the ground floor and she rushed out into the open… There was a huge crowd gathered outside the building. As she neared the spot, the crowd seemed part before her eyes like the Red Sea.

As she walked into the maze of bodies that closed in on her once again; as if to hold her prisoner into their malicious labyrinth, she could hear snatches of whispers, suppressed sighs and sharp intake of shocked breaths that rippled through the warm summer evening.

She trudged on.

The Guard was standing there beside ‘it’… his mouth hanging wide open; lines of shock playing rollercoaster on his broad, pockmarked face.

He looked at her bewildered as she neared him; then he shook his head in two swift motions of pain-shock-pain and fell to his knees and retched.

She looked on.

Her eyes trailed the serpentine slither of red as it coursed down the ground; seeping into its very womb, leaving behind the impression of a river of cracked up dried lava; her gaze slithered forward onto the spot where ‘it’ lay… crumpled into a heap, sprawled into indignity; hands and legs contorted, broken beyond repair, stricken in unnatural angles…

Her eyes ran up and down ‘it’; in a cold, calculating manner till they fell onto ‘it’s’ pair of eyes…

And then she screamed.

Everything that has a beginning, has an end.

This was the end.

There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.

They had met in college. They had been in love. Inseparable, they were love.

He used to look into her clear blue eyes and he used wonder to himself if her could love her any more than her already did.

He used to touch her warm skin and he used to wonder if there would ever come a time when she would know what he wouldn’t do to watch her keep smiling, on and on… into a an eternity that lasted forever.

She used to watch his closed, sleepy eyes and used to wonder if he would ever know that she wouldn’t survive a day without his love warming her creamy, flawless skin.

She used to watch him lying next to her, his head nestled into her bosom; she used to wonder if he would ever know that she wanted him to love her this way, always…. into an eternity that lasted forever.

Their love was like a small, vibrant child; playful and innocent. It roared and laughed and writhed in naked glee… it shimmered like two bright stars in their eyes.

Their love was like a child that loved to play.

And they played on.

She knew that she loved him when they went to that college trip that balmy summer day; she knew that she loved him when she strained her ankle and he stayed back for her, while the rest moved on; he knew that he loved her when he took her in his arms, gently, carefully; when he laid her ankle on his lap and kissed her creamy, soft toes, her white translucent ankle… He knew that he loved her when he stayed back to kiss he all over, so soft and tender, while she pretended that she’d sprained her ankle.

It was seven years ago and they’d still play around; their love that was still a child would gurgle in pleasure and scream in delight… It would swim in their eyes and roll over their skin… it would burn in their hearts and it would ring in their souls… Yet… something about that love was growing old… there was a dankness about it that permeated their prefect universe… and they felt it…

He had stopped bringing her wild flowers and he forgot to wish her birthday the first thing in the morning; he didn’t gather her in his arms while she stood in the kitchen, cooking him his favorite meal and he wouldn’t dig his face into her hair while she stood combing them after a shower…

He wouldn’t ramble about his day, his face scrunching up into a cute pout; his eyes narrowing in anger like a disgruntled child and he wouldn’t tell her all over again that he loved her… more now than ever… into forever….

And she wondered. Wondered if there was love or if it was ever there… And she wondered if there ever was a forever…

And then she thought she’d had enough.

As he came back from office that day, his face creased with worry that made merry on his handsome-boyish face, she looked at him from the corner of her eye. As he settled onto the couch and switched the TV on, she came and stood between him and the TV.

Tears streamed down her face like an angry, unrestrained torrent.

She looked at his placid face and something tender snapped inside her. Her tears got angrier as she asked him, ‘If I really wanted something, and to get it meant you losing your life, will you do it? If I were to ask you to get the dove sitting near the window; knowing that you would fall, knowing that the ledge is too narrow, will you try it? Do you love me enough, to die, just for a smile on my face?’

He stared at her for a long time. And she stared back.

Her tears were clouding her eyes and she wiped them, minute after minute, from the back of palm. Her voice was cracked and sobs escaped her pursed lips. Her shoulders drooped morosely and she was heaving like small child, hysterical and grieved.

He stared at her face for a long long time and he saw a certain child-like desperation there that made tears sting the back of his eyes… and his heart mourn.

He looked at her face a little more and he said, ‘No. I wouldn’t do any of that for you.’

She stared at him with disbelief for a second or more and then she fell on the ground. She flailed her hands and she banged her head. Then she rose and began breaking glass all around her.

Crack crack crack… they went… pieces of broken glass that sounded like the chimes of innocence that once rung in their young souls…

She screamed, she cursed, she wailed and she sobbed. Then tired and bleeding, she fell to the ground, her eyes closed and her body wracked with sporadic sobs.

All this while he just stood in a corner; aloof and silent, watching her.

Then he walked up to her and gathered her in his arms. He carried her to the couch and laid her on it. He then began cleaning the cuts and splits on her white, translucent hands.

He said, ‘No, I won’t. I can’t die to see a smile on your face cause then I wont be there; I won’t be there to make breakfast when you’re feeling too lazy. My shoulders won’t be there for you to lay your head on them and cry. Then who would hold the bags for you when you’d go shopping? And then who would tell you that you’ve got a perfect figure when you’d put on 40lbs. You see, I have to be there; to hear you scream when you’re in a fit of rage, to clean your wounds when you hurt yourself. You see, I’ve gotta be around to tell you that you’re a silly girl, and to dab wet cotton on your nose…’

He said all that and he kissed her again; on her fingers, her palms, her toes and her ankle. He touched her face and he kissed her lips… he laid his head on her bosom…

She cried again but this time her tears were different. They smelled of love.

Then he casually walked up to the window; he was humming under his breath. As he stood by the window, so close… he asked her, ‘Do you love me enough, to see my love? Do you love me enough, to trust my love? And do you love me enough, to understand when I say….’

He then stared at her pale, beautiful face… and he blew her a kiss that flew and touched her face, her hair… her heart.

Her hair billowed in the cool air that blew in from the open window.

He smiled.

He then turned, and then looked back at her again, he said, ‘Everything that has a beginning, has an end.’

And then he leaned out of the window, and then a little more. And then a little bit more.

As he was leaning a little bit more… a scream filled the universe like it had been empty forever.

She ran across the room to him but till then… he had leaned a tad too more for her to be able to do anything.

He smiled and he shrugged.

She screamed. On and on… into an eternity that lasted forever.

And her I am… falling. I look up at her crying. She looks so beautiful.

I smile. I wave back at the smiling face that I loved more than I loved me…

I show her the flailing dove in my hands…

‘I got it for you...’ My lips form the words but the words don’t come out.

I close my eyes and I wait.

I open my eyes and I see her.

The last thing I want her to remember is my eyes looking into the very soul of her…

She is looking at me. She looks into my eyes.

She sees me. Finally, she does.