Diabolus: The Lost Phoenix

Chapter Thirty

BEVERLY WOODS

Two hands, holding each other. Holding so tight that the veins pop out on the skin of both of them. One hand has tiny, bony fingers, manicured nails; it's a woman's hand. The other one's skin is a lot more rough, a little scarred, but the one that's giving you a feeling of safety. A man's hand.

But the thing that confuses me the most, is a heartbeat. It beats in erratic rhythm, loudly; but as I listen more carefully to it, I realise there's only one heart beating.

Everything around is white, like those hands were floating in space. It's not heaven, or hell, it's just... emptiness. And just then I realise, the tiny and bony fingers are mine.

I lift my eyes up to see Kai, holding me, already looking at me. A look that was nothing but all love, the right hint of softness and care, a crease at the corners of his eyes. In moments like this, I always forget that he's actually an assassin. All that cruelty and anger is gone when he looks at me; and all the surroundings disappear, just like this time.

But he stands still, and for a moment, I think if he was actually real. A sudden gust of wind starts playing with his hair, lifting it up in the air and then gently putting the longer bangs back onto his head. He says nothing, and his body is frozen on the spot.

"Kai?"

My voice is echoing in the space when the wind shows no sign of quitting, only getting stronger with every moment, blowing with a powerful passion. It should feel like the freshness over my skin, it usually does; but this time, it feels like it's threatening us, breaking us apart, at the same time, making a fine flag of my tousled hair. And the only sound, the lonely heart, is starting to beat faster with every moment.

I hold onto his hand tighter as he still keeps looking at me, not moving, under his clothes, moving by the wind, I can't spot if his chest is moving; if he's breathing. I know I am far away from any inner peace, my fear, confusion surges so fast I feel like I'm going to vomit, I can taste saliva thickening in my throat and beads of sweat trickling down my brow.

Until another voice makes my eyes leave Kai's immobile face.

"You have to let go."

As I turn my head to the right, I see Avery, as if she was floating in the air. As if an invisible wall was protecting her from the wind that seems to take this place down, blowing stronger with every moment; and so is the heart, beating faster, louder in my ears.

Her face is serious, her usual warmth and softness is gone from those eyes that used to comfort me. Her golden hair, laying on her left shoulder; truth to be told, she looks more like an angel than a real person in her blinding white dress.

"Avery, what's going on?"

"You have to let go."

"What? Why?"

As the words leave my mouth I realise that I'm shouting, not talking, as the beating heart seems to be right next to my ear, taking away my hearing, and so is the wind, now almost making me lose my balance.

"If you want him to live, you have to let go."

"I don't understand..."

I look back at Kai, and nothing in his look is changed. Just his body, slowly breaking into million pieces. Starting from the fingertips of his right hand, and slowly climbing up. Destroying him.

"Kai...."

"I know it's hard, but you have to let go. That's the only way he will remain alive."

I feel the tears, stuck in my throat as I watch him slowly disappearing in the wind, pieces of his body are taken somewhere where no one can find. I know it's only a dream, but it hurts no less, seeing him looking at me with the most living look I ever saw, and at the same time, slowly dying.