Solus Soliloquies

Dearly Departed

The air is cold. There are tiny dust particles that floating through the corridors that illuminate against gentle rays of sunlight.

I aimlessly drift through this house and exist how I lived and died.

Alone.

I never associated myself with anyone since the death of my beloved Emily.

She always wanted a house like this. Quiet, quaint and secluded. When we moved in, the look on her face was enough to light its darkest room. "It was perfect," she said, and perfect it was.

We lived here for years. Perfectly happy with each other's company. Never venturing far into the world, nor ever going out of our way to bring new people into our lives. We just had each other, and that's all we ever wanted.

As the years went on, something changed about her. The light began to leave her eyes, the colour faded from her face. The loving, caring, benevolent Emily I loved was fading away. It was as though something had taken hold of her. Like something had infested her and sucked away her soul.

I did everything I could to help her but she pushed me away each time promising me that she was alright.

Eventually, whatever had sucked her life away had sucked her to a husk. One morning, I awoke to find her in the kitchen in a pool of her own blood with a carving knife clenched in her delicate hand. I collapsed beside her in shock my mind spinning with grief, guilt and helplessness.

I kneeled down and kissed her pale lips. She was cold as ice.

I continued to live out the rest of my days in solitude for no one could ever take the place of Emily. Without her there was no point in living. I tried to take my own life like she did, but I never had the courage for it. I had hoped that when my time finally came after years of waiting my darling Emily might welcome me into the afterlife. Her warm, graceful embrace reaching out to me as I see the light at the end of the tunnel but there was no light there was no tunnel there was no Emily. Just this house.

The air is cold, just like her lifeless lips.