Bogleech.com's 2017 Horror Write-off:

Beauty

Submitted by Regis Ethell (email)

(This is an epilogue to the story Music, Music.)




There is beauty in death, perhaps. Beauty in a vile thing. The beauty of life comes from its impermanence, doesn't it? 


We would dance together, under the moon. Lean in and move to the silence, the music of our hearts beating together. We would be carried by our beauty, alive and in love. Always. 


And.. there is beauty in agony as well, I suppose. Of finding the warm velvet heart of your life crushed, and a face you love twisted into an empty mask? 


A chance to move on to something new. 


I've made my vows, and I've made my peace. 


'I can't.. put it off. Any more.'


I will not be moving on. 


I don't know what kind of monster she's become, but I can fix it. Her. I know I can. 


'Get back in the truck.'


"You're staying here, I take it?"


Breathe in, breathe out. I can't leave her here by herself. 


'I'll stay here.'


Close your eyes. 


And we dance, carried by our love. We are alive, we are together. She carries me above, the world open, the sky dark, dark, glittering with the stars and the promise of life. Always.


The beauty of the world is all around me, and I only look at her.