Soul Search

 

 “Can I touch you?”

  “Go ahead.”

  She extended a cautious hand and caressed his face with her fingertips. He leaned in her touch, closing his eyes, a pained expression knitting his eyebrows together.

  “It’s been so long.”

  “Tell me about her.”

  “She is gone. There’s nothing else to be said. Vanished along with my spirit. My heart, my soul.”

  “…but I see you.”

  He froze, opened his eyes and stared at her in wonder.

  “I see your soul. It's right in front of me. Albeit resembling a corpse, it’s still there. And your heart too, I feel it. Look, your pulse is strong and humming under your flesh.” She took his hand, turned it palm up and placed her much smaller one on the translucent skin. Her voice was soft and soothing, barely above a whisper.

  He remained silent for so long she thought he slipped away again into the dark recesses of his mind. When he spoke, his voice was trembling slightly and he wouldn’t meet her eyes.

  “She was the only one who saw my soul…I don’t want to think about what this could mean.” He paused slightly then went on, his voice wavering, his head turned to the side. “Truth is, I see you too. From the first moment I laid my eyes on you, your soul was there, weaving in and out of reality.” She gasped and stared at him with a loss of words, still holding his hand. “ A nymph, that’s what it is. A ghostly, trembling, feminine body, in viridian robes, with a wan face.And it's so beautiful.”

  She blushed, her cheeks turning a rosy shade and let her eyes fall to their entwined fingers.

  “Do you think that maybe… the possibility of a second soulmate…exists?” She could almost see the rejection, his contempt palpable at the blasphemy that fell from her lips. But it never came. Peaking shyly at him from behind her lashes, she saw him pondering her words, a tired expression swimming in his eyes. His shoulders slumped and he sighed heavily, his warm breath tickling her forehead.

  “Since she passed away, I’ve been trying to lock away every thought about what we shared. The anguish, the overwhelming despair has eaten away at me… For so long, so so long that all I feel inside is emptiness.”

  “Then let me fill you.” She squeezed his cold fingers and looked past him, at his wavering soul, a decomposing phantom with weeping, hollow eyes. The kindled, small wings floating from its back fluttered weakly.  How broken must he be for his spirit to look so ill…

   Although she couldn’t see her own soul, he could and he stared with unblinking eyes as the ethereal being extended a vibrant green arm and her fingers brushed something behind him. A shudder ran through his spine and he felt warmth spreading in his limbs and chest.

  She touched his soul with her own and he felt it more than when her fingers grasped his for the first time.