Dark Shadows

"You have destroyed yourself for far too long," he chided softly.

I glanced away. The sun was too bright, and my body was weak. He sat by my bed, placing his hand delicately on the striking white sheets, just a few inches from my leg. The hospital bed was hard, cold, but I didn't mind. It was only the smell that I was never fond of. The familiar smell of bleach and cleaners. I could never get used to it.

"The darkness has slowly and painfully eaten you away. Why do you never fight it?" he continued. There was a playfulness in his tone. But I knew him too well.

"You know," I replied coldly. My voice was hoarse. When was the last time I used it? I couldn't remember.

"I don't."

"Don't play."

"I never play."

I scoffed. "I gave my soul to the darkness a long time ago."

He placed his hand on mine, right on top of where they had placed the needle that connected to some liquid hanging above my head. I shuddered at how cold he was, but I didn't pull away. Instead I closed my eyes, and kept quiet. This was familiar to me as well.

"But you didn't give it up," he said.

"Didn't I?" It was my turn to smile. "Funny. I've walked around without it for as long as I can remember."

I felt his thumb slip into my palm and gently rub my skin. "It was taken from you, a long time ago."

I was silent. Unwanted tears appeared on the corners of my eyes, and fell freely onto my pillow sheets. I heard the bed creak as he moved closer, and then I felt his hand gently wipe them away.

I finally turned my head to face him. His eyes were dark as night, and his smile was crooked, deadly. I should have been scared, but I've seen this face many times. Welcomed it, in fact. Searched for it, found it, but could never get myself to take it.

"You've done well by yourself for so long, my child," his expression did not change. He remained stoic, except for his lips, which tightened into a fine line. "Will you come with me today?"

His voice was raspy, and there was a glint of something I couldn't quite read in his eyes as he asked me this. Excitement? He continued to run his thumb in circles across my pale skin. I don't remember ever being so lacking in color.

"If you come with me," he offered, his voice lowering to something of a soothing tone. "I will take away all of your problems. All of your burdens. You will never have to worry about that hole in your chest ever again."

I looked away. He's said this to me many times in the past, but never has it ever been more enticing as right now. I watched the ceiling aimlessly for awhile. I don't know how long. Time is another concept that has slipped past my grasp a long time ago.

"You've struggled to find something, someone to fill that nasty, dark cave you've carried around for so long," he said, as his hand moved up to caress the deep scars on my arm. My eyes flew shut at the feeling of his freezing cold skin on mine. Rough, but pleasurable in a dark and peaceful way. I felt the thoughts in my mind slowly quiet down. And then I felt my heart beat in my chest pulse only in every other beat.

I struggled to open my now heavy eyelids, only to be greeted by his grinning face, hovering over me. I wanted to fight. I wanted to push him away. But I didn't. I couldn't. I wanted him more than any of that. I wanted him more than life.

"Will it be quiet?" I managed to ask.

"Very," he replied.

"Will you hold me as you take me?" I asked, feeling the heavy tiredness overwhelm me like a thick blanket.

"Yes."

My eyes shut closed, and so I felt every part of my body did. I felt his arms embrace, and I welcomed it like I had never done so before.

"So take me, Death," I whispered. "Take me, and never let me look back."

Death's cloaked enveloped me slowly, and quietly as he promised. All I remember hearing as he took me up and away, was a steady beep from one of the monitors that was attached to my body -- that lifeless bag of skin and bones that I had finally, finally parted from.