One Silver Tear

Silver moonlight glittered on the surface of the sea. It spilled through thin veils of dark clouds that danced over the night sky. The constant beat of the sea filled my ears, sounding like breathing or heartbeats, steady, dependable. One single tear sat frozen on my cheek. One tear against the ocean. I don't know how long I'd stood there, or how long I would stay. I just watched the sea as it moved in and out, in and out. 

The emotions inside me swirled like the dark clouds in the sky. Sadness and longing for someone long lost, longing for someone that I'd never even met and longing for those feelings to disappear, to go away. These feelings were mixed with a hollowness that hurt even more.

I moved closer to the shoreline, letting my bare feet sink into the cold wet sand. I liked the feeling of the cold. It matched the coldness in my chest. I walked until my feet was covered with an ice-cold layer of seawater, then I stopped. Some of the strongest of the stars penetrated the veil that tried to cover them. I looked up at them, wishing I could be as cold and strong as them. The pain in my chest that I now was accustomed to was stronger than ever before. Unshed tears burned like ice behind my eyes and one small sigh escaped my pale lips. It was the first sound I'd made in hours and was so full of the sadness and hopelessness that resided in my heart.

At the sound my sigh, the sea slowed. I looked up to see that the thin veil of clouds now had reduced to some small wisps in the edges of the night sky. When I turned back to the sea, there was someone standing in front of me. I was too chocked to even react in any way more than staring. It was a man, young or old, I didn't know because his face was hidden in shadows. I wasn't even frightened. I was too tired to be. The pain could not get any worse. If this man was about to kill me, I would welcome it. As I thought it, the man laughed softly.

"No, I am not going to kill you. I am going to make you an offer." His voice sounded much like the sea. It was calm, but you could hear power just under the surface. It took me some moments to realise that he had answered my thoughts, that he somehow knew what I was thinking.

"Then who are you?" My own voice sounded flat and tired. A crooked smile appeared on his face, not quite hidden in the shadows.

"A friend, at least for now..." He tilted his head a little bit, letting the moonlight shine on his face. He was young, not much older than me, but his eyes looked old. They looked as old as the sea itself.

"It  hurts, duesn't it, having your heart ripped from your chest?" He took a step closer to me, and when I watched his feet it looked as if he was somehow one with the water, not in the water. "Well, not literally, but it's pretty close." he murmured when I didn't respond. He was wearing pants in thick cloth, looking like ancient fisherman's pants from Rome or Sparta and a thin shirt. I honestly couldn't care less. I was numb. My feet from the cold, my heart from loss and sorrow.

"Yes, it does." I finally answered him, realising that the boy would not leave me alone, my voice not more than a whisper over the sea. He took one last step, closing the small distance between us. I had to look up to be able to meet his eyes. They were blue, not a light blue but a dark powerful one, like the sky just after the sunset or the blue of a dying flame.

"Then I know that you want it to go away, you want the pain to ease." the boy whispered back to me. I nodded, not trusting my voice enough to give him more of an answer.

"I can give you that. I can take the pain away, the hollowness. You will never have to face the demons of your past ever again. They will be no more than a memory, one that will eventually fade." the boy from the sea said, his voice seducing and strong. Warning bells started to chime in my head, overpowering the urge to say yes to his offer without a secon's hesitation. What if he's going to kill me? I thought. I had never wished to die. Now when I had a choice between life and death I cared more than I did when I thought he was going to kill me. I still wanted to be me, not to be lost to what ever happens when you die. Before I could even take a step back he smiled a thin, sad smile and said; "No, I am not offering you death. I am offering you a new life, a new existence. A life without pain. " The words sounded like something from a fairytale, untrue, but the way he said it somehow made them true. I didn't doubt that the things he promised were real.

I could feel the cold burning of tears behind my eyes. It sounded to good to be true. No one had ever said that there were even a chance that my problems could be fixed. No one had comforted me with words of better years to come, of that my life would get better. I had always had to hear that that's just life, there's nothing to be done with it. That's how it is, live with it. I had  always felt trapped in a life I didn't belong in.

"Where will you take me?" I asked, my eyes on his lean chest. He lifted his hand and put it under my chin, making me look straight into his eyes."And what do you want in return?" I added a moment later.

"To my world." he said and took my hand as he started to walk slowly into the sea, " and all I want from you is one of your silver tears."