Haunted Heart

Let your thoughts drip from your mind and into paper, in that, you'll find freedom unparalleled.

[hauntingstoryteller]

« You should leave, my love. »

Aiden felt cold, so very cold. He didn’t know if the chill came from the window, or if his body was freezing up from the inside out.

Long black strands of hair fell over his arm and on his pillow, hair which belonged to the woman who held his heart. Her head was resting on his shoulder, luminescent eyes open and filled with longing.

“Leave, please, you’ll only wither away if you stay” he begged.

“No” she said, voice airy and oh so sad “Dear, I love you so.”

He gasped in pain, chest constricting. He was dying and she just wouldn’t leave. Tears fell down his face, leaving a trail that burned like fire over his frozen cheeks.

“My love, please” he begged once more.

“No.”She raised herself up slowly and swiftly climbed over his body, straddling his lap.

He bit out a scream, chest heaving and started coughing up blood. He stared at her, still as mesmerized by her beauty as the first time he had laid eyes on her. She was gazing at him with such longing, looking radiant in her white nightgown her long black hair contrasting sharply with the color and her pale skin. He couldn’t help but raise his arm up to cup a cold clammy cheek.

He burned with how much he loved her, how much he adored her. 

His chest heaved as she bent down.

“No” she repeated, her lips a breath away from his.

She closed the distance between them and kissed him slow and sweet. As she came up, Aiden couldn’t look away from the red staining her mouth, the blood nearly shining on the otherwise blue-tinted lips.

“No, my love” she crooned lovingly “You’ll be coming with me.”

Aiden arched his back, a soundless scream caught in his throat, as she wrenched her arm from inside his chest. His still beating heart held in her hand.

Oh, how he loved her so.

  -hauntingstoryteller

[hauntingstoryteller]

“I can’t do this anymore” he said gritting his teeth “It feels like I’m reaching for the sun on wings of wax and the only fate that awaits me in the end, is the fall into an unforgiving sea. While the wax melts and burns and eats at my skin as cruel as the sun I long for.”

He flopped to the ground smiling bitterly.

“Comparing yourself to Icarus, Now?” mused his sister from across the room.

He turned his head slightly to the side to stare at her, frowning, “What if I am?” he bit out “Do you know how much time I’ve spent working on this project? And now everything is falling down around me. Wouldn’t you have felt the same?”

His sister hummed putting her notebook aside and putting her pen to her lips, before answering.

“Well…I am no Icarus you see. I wouldn’t have flown on wings made of wax. No, my wings I would have fashioned from silver and gold. And as I flew high in the sky, the rays of the sun would reach for me longing to embrace me in their heat. Whenever I would glide down, the sea would lap at me yearning to see me plunge into its depths. But I would have never paid neither the sun nor the sea any mind. ” she smiled softly eyes lost far away “No, what I would have been aiming for was the moon. Ever waxing, ever changing, lighting the way through the seemingly endless darkness of the night. After all, why choose Apollo and his scorching flames when Artemis’ embrace is a cool healing balm to the soul. It isn’t the sun that bewitches people everywhere, but the moon that keeps their unwavering gazes, that holds their dreams and whispers of them to the stars. The moon that enthralls and courts the minds, a silver apparition, a wraith, wrapping around them and leading them to sweet slumber.”

The boy blinked, more thoughtful now than anything else “You have a way with words” he said.

The girl snorted and threw her pen at him making him glare “I am a writer after all what did you expect?” she asked “Now get back to work and stop looking at the big fat star of daylight, you’ll go blind. And reach for the star that has learned all about your ambitions and dreams from the moon.”

“You really think I can do it? Reach for my star?” he asked.

She whacked him on the head with her notebook and snatched her pen when he swiped at her with it.

“I have learned, brother mine, that moon-spun ambitions and dreams come forth to you and turn true the moment you truly believe in them and in you”

 -hauntingstoryteller

[hauntingstoryteller]

“I thought I had lost myself” he said; head tilted back and hair flying in the breeze. “I’d look in the mirror every morning and balk, wondering who was the person staring at me with those dull lifeless eyes. It didn’t look like me, it didn’t feel like me. Oh…We had the same face, the same height, the same hair, the same nose, and the same damned freckles everyone and their mother told me looked cute. But it wasn’t me; it was a stranger staring back through the mirror wearing my skin. And it frightened me, because I knew it wasn’t me, but nobody else could see it. And why couldn’t they? Why couldn’t they just see the stranger staring at them through my eyes?” he turned towards his companion and sighed “It makes you feel so tired, and you just want to sleep because the thing you dread the most is opening your eyes in the morning and looking at that taunting reflection in the mirror. Looking at the person everyone says is you, the person everyone believes is you. And the person you don’t recognize. It chafes at you in the long run, not knowing how you lost the spark that made you who you were.”

“What did you do then? How did you find that spark again?” asked his companion, curiosity and sympathy swirling in his eyes.

“That’s just the thing. There was nothing to find. I hadn’t lost anything, how could someone just lose himself? No…What made me, me, wasn’t lost. It was buried under so many expectations, and molded into something it wasn’t. So I did what I had to do, I unraveled the chains around my heart and mind. Broke the mirror that brought me so much strife and relearned what made me who I am. And those same people, who couldn’t see me before started asking why I changed so suddenly.” He snorted and cocked his head to the side with a smug smirk “And do you know what I did? I laughed in their face, I laughed at their ignorance. Because no one but me can dictate who I am”

-hauntingstoryteller

[hauntingstoryteller]

Have you ever felt like you were falling down a deep, endless chasm ?

A colorless, wide, empty abyss. You're all alone, surrounded by insidious, vicious, grating voices. The thoughts that chafe and cut right down to the soul. Your heart seems to weigh so much, that the beat echoing inside your chest sounds like warning bells. And you're coughing, you're chocking, because your lungs have frozen over from the cold. So every breath you take slices through you like shards of ice.

But then, that person walks in. And it could be a friend, a sibling, a lover, a spouse...They walk in, and they look at you and they smile. And suddenly, your feet touch the ground, you're not falling anymore. Your eyes can actually make sense of the colors surrounding you. Those snarling, hideous things inside your mind are safely locked away. The weight over your heart lessens, its beating finally sounds right. Warmth fills your body and you can breathe anew. The frost that had taken over your lungs, blissfully, falls away.

And you smile back, softly, achingly sweet. Because after so much time you feel alive again.

-hauntingstoryteller

[hauntingstoryteller]

"Such beautiful wings you have little one." 

A smile stretched on the old wizened face, while maroon eyes glimmered in delight and crinkled at the sides."They captured all the colors of the world. And when the feathers catch the light, my dear, they shine like the brightest of gems." 

Wide, doe eyes stared at her in childish wonder. The small figure they belonged to, utterly captivated. "And your stardust eyes, my sweet. Such mischief you got into, to steal them from the sky."

 The child blinked, startled, and giggled "I didn't steal from the sky, grandma."  

"Didn't you little one ?" she asked playfully, her eyes so incredibly fond. Her only answer was a beaming , dimpling , knowing smile and the shaking of a head. She watched golden curls fall into even more of a disarray and smiled. "How about your hair then, dearest child ? Have you not stolen each and every strand from the sun ? " she asked. 

The child's eyes widened once more, and delighted laughter filled the room.

"Mama who are you talking to ?" Maroon eyes softened as they locked on the woman who had just walked in. She couldn’t help but smile softly, lovingly, as her daughter's hand moved to caress a round belly. 

Colorful feathers caught the light, gleaming, and her smile widened "Someone you have yet to meet Sweetheart" she answered.

 And the child laughed and laughed and laughed ever so joyful.

-hauntingstoryteller

[hauntingstoryteller]

I met her as winter came. As our eyes met, the spark of love burned bright into our hearts. We walked together under the sun, under the moon. Her eyes captured the light of the stars. Her heart was as vast as the sky, and her mind held whole galaxies. I called her mine and she called me hers, and in our embrace we held the world. There was nothing I could ask for, nothing I would wish for. As long as I had her by my side I needed nothing more. But even as that spark of love became an inferno. The sun could light the sky no more, the moon abandoned the night. And the stars no longer held my sight. The sky shattered to the ground, for I could no longer feel the heart that used to beat alongside mine. A storm of darkness enveloped the world. Everything fell into shambles, only ruins were left. And only when my beloved was taken from me, did I understand why Hurricanes were given people's names.

 -hauntingstoryteller

[hauntingstoryteller]

She was dancing in the moonlight, grace and beauty in every step. Anaël watched spellbound as she moved, long black hair twirling around her form and alabaster skin glowing with inner light. He could almost hear the music she was dancing to. It sounded like freedom. She looked like freedom. She stopped suddenly, and held out her hand to him in invitation, smiling softly. He extended his hand reaching for hers, a smile creeping slowly, hesitantly, onto his face.

How he longed to join her, to dance with her, to be free like her.

“Anaël”. 

The smile fell of his face. He turned around leaving his back to the painting. His arm fell listlessly to his side. The Nurse who had called him held a cup to him “Here, your pills”. He looked at the medicine with dull eyes, before turning back towards the painting.

The dancer had tears running down her cheeks, bright green eyes, just like his own, full of sorrow. Anaël reached blindly for the cup. She hid her face behind her hands, tears overflowing between her fingers and body wracked with sobs.

Anaël smiled without humor and swallowed the pills dry. 

-hauntingstoryteller

[hauntingstoryteller]

"Mama?" She called,voice hoarse. "Yes sweetheart?" "I had such a vivid dream last night" She raised her hand towards the red, red sky and smiled wobbly "I saw a Child standing atop of the world. On their head, and over golden curls, rested a Crown of Stars. Their eyes of amber shone ever so bright as they looked at me and smiled. And Mama...Oh Mama" she choked as tears finally fell from her eyes " I felt so at peace there. But I couldn't stay and they smiled oh so sadly at me." She hugged her knees to her chest and looked at the withered ground underneath her feet  "And I wish I could have stayed Mama. I wish I could have stayed." She sobbed brokenly.

-hauntingstoryteller