as the earth crashes open, down down they fall entwined.   a sudden blessed blast of air and she has wings.   her body turns in space and in a moment she floats from him..  

they are falling, a distance so great there is no gravity.  it is as if they are standing still.  

he reaches towards her and she arches, long hair cradling, a veil in a soft breeze, it blocks her movement as she tilts just so and eludes. now each are falling alone towards light below and perhaps salvation.

it is like this for what seems eternity.  perhaps that is how long they fall, there is no way to for us to know.  

she cries remembering the great flood of her tears, how they washed and then split the earth in two forcing them to tumble down into the great chasm as they were swallowed whole.  

she remembers his terrible mouth, how he would come to her over and over again, eyes growing larger with a mad desire to devour her.  she shivers with cold, even as she can feel the fire of him emanating in waves of fury and frustration.  he is always too close, never far enough away.  

as they fall he is perfectly still, making not a sound but imperceptably reaching towards her with long tentacle fingers,  holding her gaze as he tries again and again to touch her, to take her.    

she turns her gaze away, stricken with sadness.  he was never a dream but true, those eyes shining with malice and even joy.  she is too innocent to know it is not his nature to care where or how they were nearly destroyed.   it is beyond him to consider it.  nor can he think of anything but how he will hold her, possess her again.   for this creature of darkness there are no rules or reason.  there never were. 

after a time she drifts to sleep and peace comes as she is relieved of all sorrow and fear.  settling within her dream she sails once more through calmness but now to vivid colors and a sense of peace.  she sees herself bathed in light as she croons to the earth.  she can taste honey and white clouds.  she is free. 

but darkness will wait forever

cunning he sees she sleeps and stretches his impossible fingers to grasp her quiet still form.  clutching her now, ahhh, he thinks as he encircles her wrists.    he surrounds her so completely like a black cloak until all that can be seen as they descend in stillness is a great dark figure with enormous glowing eyes and within it’s core, her light of truest white flickering flickering, falling.

she lay in the prison of his arms listening for a heart that is not there, hoping to hear him breathe but he will never.  What is this beast with enormous eyes like platters, like wheels, like worlds of destruction, death, hate and possession? 

they each sense they are falling faster now.  in his fear and excitement he grips tighter.  it is coming to an end.  she accepts there is only death to save her from him.

finally a crash and his great body stiffens around her, his last and greatest possession of her in fact saves her as the force of impact thrusts her from his grasp, throwing her into darkness.  he is unconscious, bleeding, perhaps mortally wounded.  perhaps he will someday find her and beg for forgiveness, but this is another story. now he is nearly dead. 

she is alive. the stillness of the night and her body are strange to her.  she gently runs her hands over her face, her arms, her legs, her stomach and feels no blood, no pain.   perhaps she is safe, she can not know.  

and what is safe? only a word so foreign to her, she discards it.

she is alone.  her tears have opened the earth, perhaps they have saved her.  she lay on a soft bed of moss she has been graced with and permits herself to cry with happiness.  she does not know where she is, but she senses she is safe now and waits for the dawn.  she need not dream anymore.  she can live.

(click below to read part one and a short essay on writing these two pieces)

The Tinder Box (a modern fairy tale with no fairies)

Some thoughts on learning to write (The Tinder Box)

art at page top: Antony Gormley, "Still Falling"  

painting at page bottom: Whistlers "Falling Rockets"