บท 106: He’s Still There

MICHAEL

I stared at my hands in disbelief as Desi became a memory between one blink and the next. I felt as though I’d held her heart in my hands and I’d watched it turn to ice. And crushed it to dust.

Or had she crushed mine?

But it wasn’t her, I knew it wasn’t.

I saw the serpent twisting over her heart. I knew all too well what that meant. I felt the pull of this place, like the very ground grasped at my feet, my hands, my heart and mind. It felt like a cancer that wouldn’t stop until I lay demolished in its wake.

Taking a deep breath, I forced my sorrow to a dark corner of my mind and faced the river. Suddenly those boulders seemed like a great idea.

The lava-water-liquid-ice crept past the rocky shore like grasping fingers. I decided not to think about it.