• I’ll Be Waiting for You
    I Promise

    When he arrived he saw her frail body lying motionless on the white hospital bed with her head bandaged with white gauze. Her skin colour had changed to the dull white of the walls that surrounded her and she looked as though she would fade away into the sheets around her. It had become impossible to see where her body ended and the bed begun. The only splash of colour was the dark, red blood that had stained the once white bandage; the reality of what had happened stained her once beautiful and innocent life.

    He rushed to her side, and carefully held her hand between his, her body felt so fragile that he was afraid that even the touch of her skin would break her. He raised her hand to his heart, and believed that maybe he would be able to transfer some of his life into her, but failed. There was a realisation that any attempt, no matter how much effort went into it, would not succeed. His grasp of her hand tightened, as if that by holding her here she would not be able to escape, would not be able to leave this world. A small tear started to form that eventually swelled up around his eyes until his vision of her was blurred, and slowly it fell from his eye lashes and rolled down the side of his face.

    “…I … waited…”

    At the sound, his attention immediately returned to her. The sound was innocence personified, gentle and warm, like the first words of a child, so significant that it would be remembered for a lifetime. Her eyes slowly opened, and she strained to spread a smile across her once pink and full lips. With that one movement she shone like an angel. She looked directly into his eyes as if they were the only ones in the universe, struggling to will her mouth to release the words she had been repeating inside her head.

    “I waited for… you”

    That moment would be cherished in his memory forever. He wrapped his hands around hers and vowed never to let go, never to let that moment escape. If they could stay in that moment forever, he would not hear the high-pitch of the flat line; see her eyes slowly close; see the smile slowly fade from her lips; feel the warmth of her body slowly fade away; smell the scent of her favourite perfume drift out the open window; or have the dead weight of her hand slowly fall from his grasp. However, time continued no matter how hard he tried to hold on.

    He looked into her eyes wanting desperately to remember every memory they shared: the feeling of her presence, the way her gentle smile would brighten up his day. He leant over her body, slowly raised his hand to her face, and gently stroked her cheek, afraid that too much pressure would break the only part of her that was connected to this world. With one movement he stroked away the single tear that had fallen from her eye.


    Word Count: 515