Finding Him

49l Kiss Me

"I love you." Something touched Daniel, drawing him out of the darkness. Pain was the result of his consciousness and while he tried to groan, his lips adamantly remained glued together. The pressure increased, something warm littering his skin. "Don't leave me, please don't leave me." Hadassah! His head pounded with pain but through it all, he recognized her voice. The scent of her skin filled his nostrils as he felt her lean over him and plant a kiss on his forehead, a soft sob escaping her lips as it made contact with his head.

Why was she crying? He wanted to ask, to pull her close and take her grief away. He wanted to kiss her until every tear on her face was wiped clean. He wanted to hold her in his arms and keep her there forever. And so, he did. Or at least he willed his arms to do so. He willed his body to detach itself from what he assumed was a bed and he willed his legs to move. Yet, no matter how much he desired it, no matter how long he desired it, his body stubbornly failed to take command from his brain.

It must have been days before Daniel finally realized he was paralyzed, his entire body refusing to function at his command. He heard everything; Hadassah moving about in the room, conversations going on around him, Hadassah pleading with him to wake up. He heard Helena -for that was her name, was it not? It was a while before he even remembered who she was, having lost most of his recent memories. He especially could not remember how he got this way, how he became trapped in his own body, a fact that nearly drove him mad.

He felt every touch to his head, every kiss, every time his hair was being shaved, every time food was forced down his throat. He felt Hadassah's grief, when her body laid next to his and her tears wet his face and for her sake, he fought. He fought against the ailment that kept him still and confined to a bed. He fought against his arm's inability to pull the woman he loved more than anything else in the world, close. He fought against the debilitating sadness and frustration that battled to keep him confined.

"Daniel," Hadassah whispered one day. He could tell from the tone of her voice that she had been crying. It wasn't that her tears was anything new, but it tore at his heart. He desperately desired to hold her, he thought, her hand smoothening his cheek. He desired to hold her, to see her, to love her! It was a strong desire, a desperation that made it nearly impossible to breathe. "Forgive me."

It was the last time he heard her voice, the last time he felt her close and after that, she was gone. Her scent was replaced by a foreign one, one he guessed belonged to a maid. Her footsteps no longer rang in the room, her hands no longer smoothened his cheeks; she was gone.

The realization filled him with desperation, a burning, undeniable desperation to not lose her. He could live with anything; blindness and an inability to control his own body, but he couldn't live without her.
Dasa! He screamed, his spirit crying out for her. He wanted nothing more but to leap from his confinement in search of her. Dasa! Dasa! He willed his body to comply with his mind but it failed him. Dasa! Dasa! He struggled, unwilling to lose the battle this time, unwilling to lose.

Dasa! A sharp sensation registered in his mind, causing him to pause from his inward struggle. Confused, he willed his pounding heart to be still long enough for him to understand what it was that had taken place.

Dasa? There it was again, the sensation. He stopped screaming inwardly and paid attention long enough to realize it came from his toe; he could move a toe!

✴✴✴

"We are getting married!"

The loud sound of the applause rang in Daniel's ears, the memory clouding his mind until he was slamming his body against a hard surface.