M.A.I.

((sorry. This had to be re-uploaded))


No matter how much time passed, she knew that the pain would never completely go away. Leaving Iram was the hardest thing that she had ever had to do. They had both agreed upon it though and she knew in her heart that is was for the best. Maria would always love him, no matter how many years separated the time of happiness that they had shared till the time when and if they ever met again. It was easy for her to travel. She had little with her nor would she need much anyway. Her food was always free even if it was not freely given.

The clothing she now wore spoke little for the fine life she had come from. No more silks or satins. No more lace or embroidered tapestries. The soft velvet that had lined her “bed” was now nothing but a passing dream. She would miss it yes, but not so much as to beg to come back to him. Maria had experienced the fine life, had known what it was like to love another more then yourself. She knew what it felt like to literally give your life for that person and know that they felt the same.

There was that pain again in the pit of her stomach. Twisting, always twisting her emotions of love, hate, envy, and remorse together. No. That was wrong. There was no remorse in her to be mixed with her other emotions and then boiled deeply into her body, turning flesh to ice and hatred. The first item on her list of things to do was to get as far away from Iram and his home as possible. She needed not the temptation of return. She was still learning this trick but it would help her travel faster. Some of her kind liked the shape of bats or ravens. Others liked to do the job for themselves, huge wings spread out so that it frightened the masses as they flew overhead. Maria was more subdued in her entrances. She was not one for grand entrances. Mist was her choice for mode of travel.

She wandered out to stand on the balcony attached to her room. The night was new and there was a softness to the current, even this high up. The crisp cold of the night hurt her not for her body was colder yet. Tears had left tiny crimson trails on her face, all meeting at her chin to drip off and land on the rail. The stone quickly soaked up the liquid, as if it too thirsted. A shiny little thing was clutched in the hand she pulled from her pocket. Maria raised it to her lips and kissed it gently, as if paying homage to this life she had known for almost a century. She set it down on the rail next to the small crimson splatters that still stained it.

Closing her eyes, she took a few deep breaths and felt her body become lighter. The gentle wind that blew, tugged the fine mist around her body away and soon more of her followed. It took several minutes till she was completely gone, the only things to mark her passing where the tiny stains from her tears, the empty hanger that stood out in her wardrobe, and the locket that Iram had given her on their first meeting so long ago. The long muslin curtains seemed to wave a mournful fair well to their mistress as the wind picked up and snapped them to and fro. From the balcony, the delicate mist seemed to dance around the almost full moon before it vanished totally from the realm that had been it’s home for so long.

This is the story that neither thought would ever exist. This is the story of Maria after Iram.