The Sad Angel And The Sea

Golden dusk dipped its radiant hands into the tossing dark ocean. The waves, nearly black now in the dying light, softly whispered upon the white sands. They spoke of untold horrors, and splendors. They wove tails of brave seamen whom ventured their waters in search of gold and adventure, of Poseidon who’s ever seeing hand guided and crushed them. The chilled waters of the royal Pacific curled around her bare feet as expressionless green eyes searched the horizon. The thin gauzy white cloth fluttered around her frame and stretched out to sea, in the same motion as her sweeping silken blonde hair. Dancing in the breeze it looked like a swaying wheat field on a warm day right on the verge of harvest, the strips picked up hues of gold, orange and red from the setting sun making her hair glow like a fiery halo, angelic in all accounts. The soft light remaining from the sun illuminated off of her pale skin, covering it with a false healthy glow. Soft pink lips sat parted slightly, stuck in the middle of a word she couldn’t seem to finish.

A lone gull flew overhead making his way to his nest for the night, as the soft echoes of barking sea lions faintly made their way across the cove. The spot on the beach now sat deserted as her footprints lead a path up a thin, sandy ravine, surround on either side by a rock face. Small sharp grasses sprouted from the sand and the rock, biting at her ankles and legs, and sinking into the bottom of her bare feet. The path became slightly speckled with blood by the time she reached the top. From the ledge the ocean looked even bigger, more vast than it ever could to one person, like an endless black silken sheet being tousled by unseen hands some where beyond the rim of the horizon, like it rested in the place the sun had stagnated out of sight. Lifting her ivory face to the newly risen moon she closed her eyes softly as the wind and pure refreshing rain placed their delicate kisses on her countenance. Spreading her arms in a welcoming embrace she invited the night to her, the sheet fluttered about her body wrapping around her arms and sides, stretching its corners towards the sea. Opening in its middle to reveal her milk white skin, unprotected to the night, to the blackness. For some time she was still, not moving, inviting the sea to take her. Making peace with the dark black beast that swallowed her love… begging it to give him back to her longing heart. Ready to give her self to the sea, if nothing more than to join him forever in eternal happiness.

The sounds of soft treads on the ground, only barely, whisper though the air. As the man with the dark hair and the kind, sad eyes approached her slowly, as if not daring to interrupt her sacred pleas. On the right of his face he bore the mark of hate, a reminder of his past life and a constant source of regret whenever he looked upon her. Never had the bargaining or pleading been with him… only with the sea, only with the immortal and uncaring sea. He lifted the blanket from his shoulders and gently placed it around her nearly bare frame, speaking her name quietly in the stillness. The pale angel gave him no reply, only accepted the blanket and stared off to the horizon, just as she did every night. His kind, weathered hand placed upon her waist he guided her away from the daunting edge, where she spent so many hours of her life pining away, and towards the small beach house across the white sands. It seemed like that was now all he could do... there was nothing to replace what she had lost, his only amends was to take her well being upon his self. To take her away from that cliff every dark and lonely night, give her warmth and a vain attempt at companionship. To try and give her the faint glimmer of hope she so desperately needed, and perhaps one day, if they both healed, he could give her back the love she so severely longed for.

For some reason unknown to him, the man with the kind, sad eyes looked back at the cliff as they walked. And for what was only the briefest of moments, perhaps not even the beat of a heart, there on the cliff stood a solitary man. Outfitted in a sailor uniform and captain’s hat, pale sand hair ruffled in the breeze and a smile was etched on his face. The man with the dark hair felt no threat from this man, not at this time, instead it was as if suddenly the sea stood calm, and the world held its breath for the perfection of the moment. And it was in that very moment, when a phantom wave swept up from the ocean and swallowed the smiling sailor as he bowed adieu to the kind eyed man; that very moment when a single flash of lightning split the darkened sky, illuminating everything to and beyond the horizon, that second when the rain suddenly stopped falling, and the breeze blew warm. It was then that the quiet, pale angel looked up from her path and at the man with the sad, kind eyes. And said in what was a small, beautiful and bittersweet voice, laced with something like utter sadness. "He isn’t ever going to come back to me… It will never give him back to me…" His only response was a helpless frown and a despondent shake of his head, then they lapsed back into silence as the air filtered between the rushes and the crickets sang along.

While she slept, silent and still, perfectly beautiful in her bed like a heavenly enchantress, he sat on the side of her bed for a long while watching her sleep. Some part of him wishing he could sleep as peacefully as she slept, never having to wake up from constant nightmares of a troubled and terrible past. He wished she could help him feel peace, as he wished he could make her feel happy again, like he knew she must have been at some point. He traced her lips and face with a soft touch from his seafarers hands as a single tear slipped down his face, following the path of the scar and falling onto the bed. With trembling lips he softly spoke into the darkness what he could never manage to say to her, in something so slightly above silence he spoke from beyond his soundless sobs… "I am sorry for what part of you has been destroyed, and I am regretful for what I have stolen from you… sad angel of the night, I don’t deserve to be near you. Please forgive a sinner for hating a man, and secretly loving a woman…."