Page 119 of Diamond Kisses

Taking her hand, I kissed the starburst on her palm. “Or?”

“We can try again.” She rested her head over my heart. A heart that no longer beat like a man because I had no such need for such fragile things. The heart inside me was pure energy. Pure love. Everlasting and eternal.

Ily kissed that heart.

It vibrated to the same song as my beloved.

“I think I’d like to stay…for a little while,” I whispered.

“Yeah…me too.” She smiled.

But as we stood on our own personal star, veins of black webbed across the glittering grass. Faster and faster, blacker and blacker.

Shoving Ily behind me, I tried to protect her from the threads of evil.

But I was too late.

The cracks grew wider.

A chasm appeared.

I fell.

Screaming.

* * * * *

“Get him stable!” a man yelled.

“I’m trying!” a woman shouted back. “Keep the fucking helicopter still, and I can do a better job!”

“You heard her!” the man bellowed. “Fly better.”

“Fly better, Mr Mercer?” A short huff. “We’re doing the best we can. We’re overweight. We told you—”

“And I told you to get us to Paris immediately!”

“Yes, sir.”

Something sharp pierced my vein.

The discomfort dragged me out of the endless black chasm where I’d fallen. My eyes cracked open. All I saw was hell.

Dr Belford hovered over me. Jewels crowded the dark and noisy place. They all swayed and bumped into each other as we jarred and swooped through the sky.

My heart leapt with debilitating hope.

Ily.

Peter…

Not there.

Horrible memories choked me.

T-They were so cold.

Covered in blood…

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