Rain

Her heart was racing as she continued down the darkened streets, her feet splashing the puddles that were growing larger by the minute. The lights had gone out not twenty minutes before and the only light to lead her was the intermittent strikes of lightning and the flicker of candles in the windows she passed. 

The phone call she had received before all the power went out had ripped her from her house without thought of shoes or coat and the storm had plastered her hair to her neck and face as she tried to shake the water from her eyes. How much of the water was tears? How much of it was rain? She couldn't tell.

Her toes had gone numb from the cold of this wintry rain. A brief memory lit her mind's eye of the day she had met him in a storm much like this--only it had been summer and they had danced...

She made out the sign of Drury Park with the help of yet another flash of lightning, the roll of the thunder vibrating from her toes to prickle along her spine. 

Nearly breathless she finally called his name. "James!" She shivered violently--cold? Adrenaline? Fear? There was no answer as she strained her vision, frantically looking over every piece of the park that she could make out as she happened upon it. Her calls pitched higher, more frantic with every disappointment. 

Lightning. A crumpled heap burned on her vision under a tree... the oak tree. 

"James..." his name whispered across her lips as she stood frozen for but a moment before making her way toward him, tripping over her numb feet and the edge of the sidewalk. Her feet sunk into the puddles in the saturated grass as she struggled up the small incline to finally drop to her knees beside him. She hesitated before reaching over and pulling him upright with his back against the oak.The lightning that lit his face reveal a long gash on the left side of his face, the blood trailing beneath the collar of his shirt. 

"James," she said softly caressing his face just past the gash.

His eyes fluttered open to look at her, a smile tugging at the right corner of his mouth. "Hey there, beautiful. I wondered when you would come along," he said, his voice husky with cold and strain. She gave a short, bitter laugh at his saying the same opening line as their first meeting in Drury Park.

She shook her head as she opened his coat enough to see the dark crimson spreading over the white of his shirt. She sniffed pathetically before looking back up at him, the lightning lighting his face for her to see. He watched her, his eyebrows furrowed just slightly as he reached up to stroke her face. "Don't look at me like that," he said softly and she felt her throat constrict around the accusations she wanted to throw. Why did he have to come to this park? Why hadn't he run like she asked him to? Why...why was he dying?

Instead she pushed her hair away from her face and half stood, trying to bring him up with her. "We need to get you to a doctor, James. Before it's..." she began but he pulled her back down with whatever strength he had left to him.

"Too late," he finished. "Besides," he murmured, "if I were to live, then you would still be a prisoner."

"No! I've made up my mind. We can escape together. I won't allow him to use me a day more... I--" she said stroking his face, willing him to see that she was stronger than when they had first met. But he was shaking his head and caught one of her hands in his. It was at this point that she realized he could no longer move his left arm. 

"Mary," he said. Just her name. Nothing more until she took a deep breath and looked at him--not to continue her train of thought but to listen to him. "I would not wish to free you from one man to have you become my prisoner." She shook her head wanting to tell him that she did not understand. "You'll understand one day... your freedom has been paid for... now, learn what it is... to be free." 

"But..."

"Mary," he whispered once more, and she looked at him, her heart squeezing painfully as another fork of lightning lit the park and his face. His beautiful, perfect face. She had fallen for the angel while in the hands of the devil. 

Mary kissed him almost before the thought permeated her mind. His lips were warm even as he lay dying, a testament to who he really was. Her own personal sun, she had thought at one time, but now a dying star. His arm wrapped about her waist for the last time as he kissed her softly, briefly, before allowing his head to rest on her chest. She shifted slightly so she could hold him in her arms one last time. 

They stayed like that for a time, Mary's breathing almost steady aside from the sniffs triggered by the tears that continued to slip with the raindrops down her cheeks onto his head, James' breathing getting shorter. His head shifted slightly and she looked down at the crown of his head.

"The beat of your heart...." he said, his words quieter now so she had to tilt her head further to catch them. "It matches the rain..." She let out a slightly strangled laugh, trying for light.

"Is that so?" Mary said just a soft. 

He hummed in a tired acknowledgment before whispering, "I find peace in the rain..." 

She hugged him more tightly at that before the silence returned.

It was broken only by the roll of thunder, although even that was drifting away with the eye of the storm. The rain however didn't give any sign of relenting. On instinct Mary kissed the top of James' head. 

"I love you, James..." she murmured. She felt him release a sigh and he stilled and the rain let up...misted...then stopped.

Writing prompts from pinterest are fantastic things aren't they?