{Pastel}

It's delicate: the way his hands touch the bottoms of her face.  And her slow kiss, over his lips, it seems as if they've done this a hundred times before.  Every movement.  Every gesture.  Every smile and tuck of hair.  It seems too perfect.  Too perfect, to be real.

~ Promise ~

"Just don't let them change me." her voice was light as she spoke, under the pale sheets.

"Who?" I asked, while watching her eyes glimmer in the shaded moon light. The one shining down through the cracks of my wooden shutters.

"The people, promise me you won't let them. Promise me."

And the way her warm, though melancholy words felt across my cheek.
The way her cold legs felt tangled in mine.
The way her tears looked like sparkles as they slowly slid down the side of her face, landing onto the palm of my hand while my fingers brushed damp strands of hair..... I barely had enough breath to repeat, "promise".

I Think I Might Just Love You~

She was glorious from head to toe.
Her eyes a brilliant baby blue, and her smile more precious than a million gems.
 I couldn't help to stare. I couldn't help the ridiculous look on my face either.
Her movements were just so mysterious, just so lovely.
The way her hands fell and raised with such tact, while her legs danced so gracefully through the grass, made her look so fragile.
"Why do you stare at me like that?" Her expression was so flawless as she asked.
How her eyes rolled up from the ground to the sky. And her lips parted, ever so noticeable, to let her tongue smooth the cracks they held.
She continued her gracefulness as I spoke, "because you're just so breathtaking".
She stopped, and that smile she gave after my words, held my heart with such intensity I couldn't bare to be so far from it any longer.
So I took to my feet and walked to where she stood.
The long brown skirt she wore covered her ankles and there were flower patterns sewn into the fold of her white blouse, just below her collarbone.
She stood, wordless and motionless, as I clasped my hands around hers, slipping my fingers into the spaces between each of them, the spaces they'll always belong.
"Kiss me," she said, tilting her head to the side, readying for her request.
The request of a kiss, the one I'd given to her hundreds of times before.
So I leaned into her, about to steal a moment with her lips, and just before I did, kiss her, I whispered, "I think I might just love you."
With eyes still closed she whispered back, "I think I might just love you more."
And after we'd spoken, after I took her face in my hands and touched her so fine lips with mine, I knew she'd be now.... and forever.... my only desire.

(I Love You) With Every Piece I Have~

Lauren:
He holds me. Just like you would a baby, cradling me in his arms while swaying side to side around the hospital room. I can feel my heart beat running slower every time I try and breathe, and my insides closing in with every step he takes.
And for right now, all I can seem to keep a grip on is how soft his sweatshirt is.
I lifelessly trace circles in the fabric with my finger, keeping my head resting on his chest while I do so. 
Luke:
Her body is thin in my arms. Her weak limbs dangle as we sway. Her face is so pail and her lips are so blue I can barely tell its her, Lauren, the girl with the (literally) broken heart. And her eyes, she can barely keep them open. They're focused on me as I work my hardest not to cry.
Lauren:
He's afraid, theres no way you can miss it.
I watch his eyes. His dark, dark eyes, and how they never let mine drift, until now. But they'll open again, because he's not ready yet, even if I am. He's not ready to hear those high pitched screeches coming from those always lit monitors, and watch them turn off those loud machines that kept us awake every night while keeping me alive.
But they can't keep me alive anymore, the machines. My heart is to broken now, for them to keep my last breath from coming.
He knows, even if he tries not to. We both know, that no matter how hard he try's to keep me awake, I'm still going to die. 
Luke:
Her heart beat's are slowing, her eyes are more heavy, her breathing is lighting into gasps. And all I can do is watch. All I can do is nothing as my girl gets stolen from me, right before my eyes.
Its soon, probably now, probably within these last few minutes we get alone.
Alone, without nurses, or doctors, or counselors. Just me and lauren.
And soon to be just me with a body I won't want to put down, because they're gonna pack her away, send her somewhere dark and scary. And then I'll have to face the truth about what has just happened.
No. Just one more moment. Just one more, then she can go.
Lauren: 
He's crying now. And I can feel my body going numb.
"I imagine it being just like falling asleep," a girl had told me while we sat, both waiting for our EKG tests. "I hope it's fast," that broke my heart, because I knew it wouldn't be fast.
I knew because I had been told everything I needed to know, because I had asked them to tell me.
I regretted it after, I don't regret it now. Because now I am prepared.
Oh how I wish Luke was there with me when they told me. Then maybe he wouldn't be as sad now.
I can't feel his sweatshirt anymore, so my finger drops into place. "I'm gonna let go now," I tell him with barely any voice. 
Luke:
"I love you Lauren Craw, I love you with every piece I have."
Lauren:
Tears fall down my cheeks. Tears that belongs to me. "I love you too, Lucas Blue." 
Luke: 
"Okay, go now,"
Lauren:
So I go.

Racing To Nowhere~

"How fast can you run?"  For some odd reason, his question had made me smile.
"Fast," my fact had made him smirk.  I watched as his hand moved from his side to his hip. To his hip, to his neck to his lips. 
"Show me," he said pulling his fingers just an inch from his mouth.
I could still see his flawless smirk behind his dark hand. His eyes studying mine like they were the only two things in this world, and if I knew Vince, that meant a challenge. 
"Fine," I'd said, tilting my head to the side, "Race me."
And just like that we were off, racing into fields that held the smell of recently cut grass and the sight of an open sky above, holding nothing but a single cloud.
He hadn't even let me call go before his feet were already hitting the ground like lightening and his laugh howling to me from ahead.
I still won though.  

From Under the Sea~

I can feel my breath running out quickly.
The water blinding my eyes with salt.
I try to push my way up and out from it's grip –the tide– but it's too strong.
It has me, and it's not going to let go.
I watch my hands reach for the rippling sky above, praying that someone might come to my rescue. 
But no, the darkness just grows darker and the pressure just becomes more noticeable. 
I cant anymore. I have to, so I take my first breath I'v ever taken under water.
It is thick, not just in my lungs, but everywhere.
It is horrid and painful.
I try not to cry -can you even cry underwater?- I try to be brave, but brave has never been a history of mine, so I begin to scream.
I hear it through my ears. 
I hear the agonizing pain it holds. I feel it too. 
I feel my regret as it sinks in, and for this short time I have left, I despise myself deeply for what I'v done.
Can't you feel it? I hear a voice ask me as I let the water take me.
Isn't this what you wanted?
But it isn't, not anymore. I want to go home. I want my family.
But it's too late for that now, I am to a part of the ocean.
And it doesn't care what it does with me, whether throwing me around to rock after rock, or feeding me to the creatures I don't know to swim below.
I'm falling silently now.
My eyes are heavier and my limbs don't care about the sky above.
Actually, I should say can't care, they can't care, because they're too groggy to understand anymore.
So I let myself take one more breath, hoping that that will be the end, hoping that death will come.
It does.

A Burning Village~

The battle cries have hushed a bit and the shooting and booming of guns and canons has stopped, but the fire they started is still at intense levels. 

It ripples through the trees like a wave, catching and taking down anything -and everything- in it's path with intensity. 

My home, the forest, is being slaughtered before my eyes. Stolen, by evil things of flame. I stand and watch by the lukewarm window. 

All I can do is watch as white clouds of ash fall like snow all around, counting the minutes, my heart dropping ever so low with each second. 

I can feel my eyes prickling with tears, ones that threaten to fall every time a tree does.

Not many of us made it out. The Bennett's, I can see their house now. I can see the way the flames enjoy the old, rotting wood and thin frail walls. 

The Smiths and their seven children, too, never entered the Cadres Building. 

Half the Village is probably dead by now. 

I let some tears fall, but only a few, because I know if I allow any more, I won't be able to stop them. I mourn silently for the ones I knew and loved so dear. The ones who I will never see again.  

And as I do, I recoil a bit, because someone has caught my hand. The touch is rough, but I don't look over to see who it belongs to, because I already know. 

"Where do you suppose they are now?" I ask as I wipe the tears from my face with my free hand. 

"Dead," his words are there, deep and truthful (just like everything he says). I knew what he'd say, but it still surprises me.
Finally I look to him, bracing myself for the beauty. 

The reflection of the fires, I can see them in his eyes. Hues of orange and yellow swallowing all the hazel they hold, but his gaze is still the same. 

Gently, and beautiful they stare into me, trying to capture as much information as they can possibly hold. 

"Dead, of course, but what about after death? What happens to them then?" My voice is faint as I ask.
"Nothing. Nothing happenes Annie," my heart lowers, because I know he'll never believe what I believe. "But maybe. Maybe there is something," he adds.
It's hauntingly impressive, the way he can read me like a book with just one look. 

It's touching, so delicate, how its so easy to feel absolutely safe with him (my vulnerability making it even easier). 

He mostly just finds pain though. Mostly from the past. 

But once in a great while he'll find something new. Something I won't even realize is there until he points it out. 

He'll find happiness. Just a smidgen of it. But that smidgen, the one I need so desperately right now, he won't find it for awhile. It's been burned down so deep into the gravel by the fire that has killed everything I'v ever loved. 

Except for him. I still have him. So I guess now we'll just run away, because there's nothing left for us here. 

"It's time to go," he says grabbing my other hand, "say goodbye," and I do.