Stay
Exit stage left.
“Don’t leave me…”
She held onto his hand, desperate, pleadingly. The tears forming in her eyes stung. The three marble walls stood strong, but everything else was crashing down. Out in the blackness, the city was burning.
“Stay. Please.” His hands were so soft.
“You know that I can’t,” he whispered. “I have to go. I can’t stay forever.”
“I need you to,” she rasped. Her chest was tightening. If only he would just turn around. She felt like a ghost.
“I can’t. I need to go, I’m going to miss my flight.”
“You can cancel it. Please, I need you to stay.”
“Darling, you need to understand-”
“No, YOU need to understand.” The lights shifted. Perhaps the room was spinning. The tears flowed freely now.
“You’re everything to me. Everything I have, everything I’ve done, it’s all because of you. I wouldn’t have made it this far without you. I wouldn’t have survived. I told you that. You KNOW that.”
The walls moved closer to them. He let out a sigh, turning his head. She could just see his blue eyes past his mahogany locks, still damp from the rain. It would turn to snow soon.
“I do know. I knew everything.”
“Before I even told you.”
“Yes,” he said quietly. “Before I read your letter.”
“Then you know why you need to stay. You know why you can’t go.”
“But you know that I have to.”
“You don’t get it, do you? You don’t understand it at all. If you leave, I have nothing. If you leave, it all comes crumbling down again. YOU gave me strength. YOU gave me hope. YOU did all of that.”
“…And where was I when I did all that?”
She paused, breath caught in her lungs. For a moment, her sobs were stilled. Placing the wine glass down, on the floor, he turned, sat in the chair next to her, and took both her hands. He held her gaze, and she was lost. Something was spinning, the room, the whole world, she didnt know. She just felt something in her core as he stared back at her.
“Darling, you speak of leaving,” he said gently. “I was never going to leave you. I never did. I never could. I was with you through everything, even when I was oceans away. Do you really think I left you? That I will leave you?”
A single tear made its way from his azure eyes and down his cheek. There was such sadness in them.
“I’ll be with you. Always. You know that I will. But your strength didn’t all come from me. You know it didn’t. And if you need it awoken again…”
He placed a hand gingerly on her chest.
“…You know where to find it. And my darling, this will only be for now. This was the first time, but you know in your heart it won’t be the last. We’ll meet again some sunny day. When the rains have passed, when the snows thaw, we’ll see each other again. But for now, I have to go.”
There was nothing but the two of them. There could have been a thousand people in the room, but only two of them.
“My head is quiet again…”
“It won’t always be. And I won’t always be gone. You know that, don’t you? That I’ll always be here, one way or another?”
She nodded quietly.
“Let me go, then,” he whispered. “It’s only for now. You know so little lasts forever, darling. The pain always subsides.”
“When will I see you again?”
“Whenever you’d like,” he smiled gently. “You know how to find me. And where.”
He reached across and wiped her cheeks. His hands were so soft.
“Let me go for now. I won’t take everything with me.”
“Promise me you’ll be back.”
“I swear it.”
Reluctantly, her hands fell out of his. He stood, still smiling, and turned away. “The sea calls me home, my darling.”
“Don’t leave me…”
He turned back for a moment, another tear escaping.
“Never.”
Exit stage left.
