Stumbled over the first round of a Prompt Competition that's going to be run weekly by @riinawriter. You can also find her on Tiktok, Instagram, Patreon, via their Discord server which is the first place new prompts are getting posted.
It's felt like a LONG time since the Muse grabbed hold of me, shook me, and demanded I write the thing that she'd just shoved into my brain. But this was definitely one of those moments, and it paid off!
Thank you Rina, for the prompt! It was a lot of fun to complete, and it seems to have pulled my muse out of hibernation which is possibly the best prize you could have given me!
I waited for you.
Each evening, at the garden gate that separated the bordered flowerbeds and the neatly trimmed, sun-warmed lawn from the wild ferns and cool shadows of the forest.
The trees at the bottom of our garden stretched on for miles, and somewhere under those ancient boughs, you existed.
Bound to the night, once the sunlight slipped away past the feathered horizon of firs, we had met once and talked for many hours.
You had promised to come back. And you did.
Night after night.
Until you didn't.
****
I waited for you. The house that had, once upon a time belonged to my mother, was now mine.
The flower beds no longer bright with summer blooms, and the lawn stained with red and rust. Littered with the from the fallen leaves of the forest, the the failed promises you hadn't kept.
I knew the hidden depths of the woodland beyond the garden gate held secrets beyond my comprehension.
I knew, because you existed somewhere out there.
A being so beautiful no mortal man could hope to compare. With a heart so cold, I could never make you understand how it felt on those nights you never showed.
The days and weeks that passed in silence without your presence. An autumn chill crept in, between your visits. Making the time spent without your stories, your warmth, and your laughing eyes, that much harder to bear.
****
I waited for you. As the winter came and the hum of life drained away from the world.
I waited, but it was different. Time falling into a slow freeze, where each moment burnt like ice to my core.
As I grew older, the time between your visits had grown longer. But this time, the wait seemed unending.
I waited for you at the garden gate. The wind rattling my bones like the brittle branches of the bare-limbed forest.
The night dark with the shadows you so loved.
The snowflakes, as cold as your long-dead heart.
****
"She waited for you," my daughter will say. The next time you visit may well be the last. She had promised to sell the house, and the land beyond the garden gate, after my funeral.
But not before she has passed along this final message.
"She waited for you. But you never came."
And you will look at her from the shadows of the forest, with eyes that tell tales of our time together.
You will stare at her across the garden gate, the border of which you are not capable of crossing, and you will tell her why you did not come.
You might say that the passage of time looks different to a creature who cannot die.
You might say that you couldn't watch me wither away. Could not bear to see time ravage at someone you called 'friend'.
You might tell her that I am not the first you have lost, and I won't be the last.
But whatever you tell her, my daughter will not live the same life as I.
She will not while away the years, hoping for another moment of your presence.
She will not cradle the shards of a broken heart, that has been claimed by an immortal.
And never will she linger down by the garden gate.
