Ficlet - When You Awake

[indigoneutrino]

I've been going through some of my completed drabbles and ficlets on FictionPress, and despite how nervous I was about sharing this one at first I'm now quite proud of it. This is an original ficlet I wrote quite a while ago - when I was fourteen I think, and compared to the other stuff I was writing and that age this one is rather good. Initially, I was a bit shy about sharing it with everyone because I thought it might be a bit too 'smushy', but last year I got up the courage to enter it into Take A Break magazine's Young Fiction Writer of the Year Contest. It didn't win, but it got credited for a special mention, and since I'm quite pleased with it I thought I'd archive it here.

Title: When You Awake
Genre: Fantasy/Romance
Rating: G
Summary: Two lovers have one day left together, before one of them must return to reality…
Notes: I wrote this long before I'd even heard of Twilight.

When You Awake

Day came at last to that place beyond the end of time. At last the sun rose on that desolate place far beyond imagination. Day came when she awoke.

He sat beside her in those halls where she had lain sleeping since before time began, and now as she opened her eyes, for the first time in eternity light shone through the cracks in the curtains, and the great stone halls were illuminated with light, and seemed warm and friendly rather than cold and foreboding as they had done before.

He had one day with her. One day was all that had been allowed. But one day would be enough.

He took her hand and they left those great stone rooms, and walked along great stone corridors as they searched for an exit. But it was not urgent. It did not really matter. She laughed and smiled as he had only ever seen her do in dreams, and he laughed with her and was happy.

They found the way out, and they walked through it and left the labyrinth of stone. Outside rich, vibrant fields stretched before them as far as they could see, filled with flowers of every hue, and they ran among them, laughing and feeling alive again.

He held her, and it seemed to him that she was so light she could be swept away in the gentle breeze, her ethereal white wings rippling in the wind. He took a flower from the ground and twisted its stem into her dark hair, and she smiled, and kissed him, and stroked his face, and caressed his dark leathery wings, glad to be with her demon lover and no longer in the nightmare world.

In the fields of flowers they lay for a long time, while overhead the clouds rolled by, in the strangest shades of yellow, pink and orange. They lay together, and were glad to be with each other, even if it was for only one day, and then she would never wake again. Neither of them spoke, for words could not describe what they felt. In each others arms they lay, and the day that passed may have lasted for all eternity, for they were beyond time now. But at last, when the sun began to sink low in the sky, he broke the spell that lay upon both of them and spoke. In the quiet he whispered her name, and she watched him, and knew what he was about to say, but it didn't make it any easier for her to hear. "You'll have to go back to sleep soon."

She held his hand tighter and whispered, "But I don't want to."

With great sadness he reached out to her and pulled her closer to him, and caressed her face as he said what he knew he had to say. "I know. But you have to go back to Him."

"Him?"

"Your lover in the dreamworld."

She looked confused and desperate as she tried to understand him, "But you're the only one I love."

"I wish that could be true." She said nothing, but a single tear ran down her face. He gently brushed it away. "But you'll remember you love him when you return."

She didn't speak, but leaned closer to him and tried to savour the last few moments they had together. He wished so much he could keep her here with him for as long as this place existed, but that was impossible. "I promise I'll never forget you." She nodded and understood. "I'll be right here beside you. Forever. For as long as we both exist in this place I'm never going to leave you. And if you ever think you're alone just remember me, because I'll be here."

She nodded again, because there were no words to communicate how she felt. No words needed to be exchanged between them for them to know the truth.

When the sun sank below the horizon, she closed her eyes and he knew he would never see her open them again. She was lost now to him forever, and he had to keep his promise.

Moonlight caught the silver tears glistening on his cheeks as he lay his head down beside hers, and closed his eyes. In the distance he thought he could hear the sound of waves beating on the shore, but that must be a dream too because the sea was far away now.

In the fields of nowhere they lay together, while their world died around them now that she was no longer awake to bring the daylight. It was over now at last between them, their time spent together nothing but a sweet memory lost in a sea of dreams. And far beyond this place, somewhere back in the nightmare world, someone tried to remember what it was she had left behind.