At the End

She promised to return to me, at the end.

It was clear that the end wasn’t that far off, now. He lay in his hospice bed, starting at the dull white of the ceiling. He was alone, for the moment. Friends had been here off and on, but it hurt to see them. It hurt to see the pain in their faces when they looked at him.

He was wasted and pale. The cancer sprawled through his body had left little to keep him breathing. Soon enough, it would leave nothing at all. The few visitors he had became fewer and fewer as the days stretched on. While he welcomed their company, it did not make him truly feel less alone.

He had felt alone ever since she had left him, all those years ago.

I will return to you, at the end.

Those were the last words she’d said to him before vanishing. They had spent a blissful year together. He had never been happier. Finding someone so perfect, so joyous, so beautiful was something he’d never dreamed of before. And yet he had. That one perfect year.

But she couldn’t stay, she said. She had revealed that she was not mortal, but a dreamling. A creature of another world. Their time together was all she had hoped for when she came here, but she knew it could not last. A year was as long as she could stay.

So in those last hours, she had told him of her world. Of the endless thoughts and imaginings that could make any wish a reality. He had said he’d come with her. That he’d give up anything and everything to stay together. But that couldn’t be. All she could leave him with was a year of wondrous memories and a promise.

He could feel the end coming. His heart fluttered. He gasped for breath. His vision spiraled into dark. And yet still she had not come. A tear leaked from his burning eyes. All his life he had waited, and she was not here. There was nothing left to hold onto, and so he let go. Darkness and numbness overtook him.

And yet his vision did not fade. A bright light came to him. And then a face.

I have waited for you, my love. Welcome home.