Love Short Story – Obligation
Photo credit: EmmiP from morguefile.com
He sat in the alley, his hair pushed out of his eyes to lie alongside his pale face. It was gray, the sky painted in streaks of dark and light, equally bleak and hollow. Dark slashes of rain arrogantly darted to the ground, splashing with impertinence on the cold black street. His eyes were closed, his eyelashes thin bars against the pale of his thin eyelids. Impervious to the cold he seemed, his hands clutched at his sides, his knees drawn halfway up to his chest, jeans becoming soaked in the downfall. He looked up slowly, his eyes peeling open, focusing on the dim outline of the brick wall before him; a harsh line through his obscured field of view. The alley was unlit, the absence of illumination causing his figure to serve only as an extension of the shadows, a shape taking form as he stood, arising from the dark.
She stood in the rain, her hair a lightness unconquered by the torrent. It was blue, the rain carving white lines into the landscape, bleak and unchecked. The sky had become black, a roiling abyss above her, filled with the tears of the atmosphere. Her eyes stared ahead, blue orbs into the vast reaches of the unobtainable future. Her hands hung in fists at her sides, small yet indomitable. Her resolute expression remained impassive as the rain fell on her cheeks, tears she had never cried. She took a step forward, planting her small foot on the black road, her gaze unwavering as she strode to her definitive goal. She closed her large doe eyes, the beauty within them fading as they became nothing but her pale lids, eyelashes fluttering quickly as she twitched when a drop laid itself immobile on her. The road lay in gray and blue light, the simplicity of nature’s illumination.
He walked, his stature tall and straight, decided against his fate and believing in his future. His clothes became soaked as he strode against the rain, the unforgiving wind driving its chill into him. Harsh stares formed in his mind, as blank as they were cruel, his imagined falsities sending him into a doubtful sense, impairing his resolve. Even as he progressed, he faltered, each step lashing his consciousness with a determined sensation of hopelessness, the doubt masterfully gaining the upper hand, sending him to his knees.
She tore open her eyes, the invitation of rest a temptation of her mind. She strode forward, locked in her mind; no dissuasion could force her to cease her relentless struggle towards her regressive objective. With the harsh gusts of wind behind her, she fell with the rain, letting the forces of nature push her along her path. Then, as the rain fell in droves of unending cold, she stopped, a recurrent thought bringing itself to her open mind. The loneliness struck her as a negative and depressive thought, her existence unequaled by another, no one to share the beauty of the rain with.
And they came upon each other, he still kneeling, frightened, and she in the darkest of places, her mind filled with the worry of solitude. And they saw each other, his bleak gaze quelled, her hard stare softened, both of their regrets, worries, fears, and sorrows falling away like some vast mountain in time, crumbling under the passages of a metaphorical sea, eroding the hurt and misery in their eyes. And as he stood, she ran, the rain liberating them from their vices, sending an ecstatic wonderment over the two of them. And they embraced, her hands folding into his, small fingers encased between his, their noses close, their breath sweet and warm upon each other. And they smiled, freed from the constraints of their fears, one with each other.
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