I'll always be here

‘I’ll always be here, don’t worry.’

    The memories flashed every time her eyes closed. Hell, they flashed if she just got distracted. So, she tried her best not to get distracted. She worked herself to the bone. Sleeping peacefully had become a thing of the past. Actually, sleeping had become a nightmare for her. Ever since the incident, she hadn’t been the same. She just couldn’t be that way anymore.

 It didn’t stop the memories, nothing did. 

A small hand wrapped around her wrist. Aira didn’t look up. “Aira, you need to stop this. It’s not healthy. Please, we’re worried about you.” Her friend, Selena pleaded with her. 

It was odd hearing Selena concerned for her, for people. Aira still didn’t look up.

  “I’m sorry.” Aira said. It was an empty apology and Selena knew it.

“Aira, I’m sorry, but she’s gone. She’s not coming back.” Selena said with concerned bluntness. 

   That was something she had always liked about Selena. She told the truth, straight up, no beating around the bush. That didn’t mean that Aira really wished she didn’t.

“We’re going out tonight. Do you want to join?” Selena asked, pulling the book, Isla’s book, away. 

Aira looked up. “No, thank you. Can I have my book back?” She asked, grabbing for the book.

 Selena pulled her arm back and stepped away. She placed the book on the shelf she knew Aira couldn’t reach. “You’re not getting the book back until you leave this house.” She said. Her eyes looked glassy, almost like she was watching someone leave her.

 Aira stood up. “Give it back.” Selena looked upset, more upset than normal. 

   “No.” She paused. “Do you know why? Do you know why you’re leaving this house!?” She stopped again for a second, reigning herself in. “You haven’t left this room for weeks. Not unless you had to. This isn’t even your room, it’s hers. Just like the clothes you’re wearing. At this rate, I’m going to lose you, too! I can’t do that! So you’re going to leave this room, this house, and you’re going to live your life! You’re going to live your life! Because even if it doesn’t feel like it, that’s what she would want!” Selena’s eyes were filled with tears. Tears that threatened to overflow from her eyes. 

   Normally, Aira would feel bad for that, but normal wasn’t normal anymore. Now her eyes remained filled with tears just like those, never leaving. “No! You don’t get to say that! I loved her! She was everything to me! And now she’s gone!” Aira yelled, tear tracks fresh on her face. “... I loved her... and now, she’s gone.” Silent tears persisted down her face. Selena looked taken aback. 

Aira collapsed to her knees. Selena took a step forward, her hand out. Then she pulled Aira into a hug. The tears turned from silent to large, guttural sobs. “I’m sorry, but I can’t just move on, not without her.” Aira continued to cry into her friend’s shoulder. 

   They stayed there until she fell asleep from crying. Selena moved her over to the couch, out of the room of Aira’s lost lover. 

                                                          ***

  “So you’ve really never left this place?” It had seemed like a stupid question to Aira. 

    This had taken place years before, when they were both fourteen. Things had changed since then. It was surreal to see the place she had left all those years ago.

“Yeah.” Younger hovered her hands above the sill on the window. The sound of water flowing echoed from the mini waterfall in the pavilion. The room had softness to it, pastels and dull colors lined the room. That was once her room, and it still felt safe.

“That’s stupid; maybe you should go away for a while.” Isla hopped down from her place on the sill, stumbling onto some pillows lying around the room. Her mouth opened, making an o shape.

Isla moved over to a beanbag in the corner, grabbing a blanket to keep herself warm. She had always complained about how cold Aira kept the room, saying things like, ‘Not all of us are witches who can just magically fix the temperature.’ or ‘Are all witches this addicted to being frozen solid?’. Normally, Aira would send something back akin to ‘Aren’t elves supposed to have an increased body heat?’ and ‘I’m just a human with pretty glow hands and you can’t deal with it?’.

Of course, they kept her room cold because it just was not inconvenient enough to use magic to fix it.

“If you won’t leave this icebox, you call home. Could you at least warm it up a bit?” Isla complained from under the blanket from earlier.

Aira rolled her eyes. “Fine.” She raised her hand up, causing it to glow, and in seconds every part of her room, except the few feet around her, was sweltering hot.

Isla shot up and ran over to the windowsill. She jumped out into the decently warm outside and away from the boiling room. “What the heck!?”

Aira rolled her eyes and threw a water bottle at Isla. “Get out, don’t you have places to be?” Isla pulled a face and opened the water bottle.

“Nope, I’m free all day.” 

“I hate you.”

“Love you, too.”

   Aira’s hand stopped glowing as she pulled it down, allowing brief gusts of wind to clear the heat. Isla climbed back into the room, getting in the pillows. Aira watched as Isla mindlessly fiddled with the copper locket on her neck. She wondered where it had come from. That also begged the question, where had Isla come from, too? They had never talked about it up front, so all Aira had were assumptions.

“Do you wanna ask me something or?...” Isla looked up at Aira where she had been not-so- sneakily staring.

“Where did you get the locket from?” Aira blurted the question before she could really think, so it had a few more shakes and stumbles than she would have liked. 

Isla laughed lightly and pointed at the locket as if asking, ‘This one?’.

Aira nodded, shakily still.

“It was a gift from a past partner of mine a few years ago. They’re friend was a blacksmith, so they pulled a few favours from her.” Isla looked down and pulled the object into a better viewpoint for Aira. “Pretty, isn’t it?” Isla asked with a lopsided grin.

It was.

  There was an attention to detail in the necklace that Aira just couldn’t place. It almost looked magically weld. In places, it looked as if rusty vines were crawling over the locket. In the middle of it, a moondrop crystal brought everything together. It looked almost like a moon. The silvery blue contrasted beautifully with the warm copper. Parts of the crystal even crawled up vines, touching it. A very talented person made it, that much was clear.

“No more questions? I’m surprised.”

Aira looked back at Isla, who looked smugly back. “Where are you from?” This time, the question was more thought out, less in the moment. “I know you’re an elf, so you probably came from a clan, but you’ve never specified.”

Isla looked deep in thought, almost like she was weighing what she could and couldn’t say. “My family belongs to both the water and forest clans, so if you’re asking which one I belong to, it would be both.”

“No. I’m asking where you’re from.”

“I come here from Rylo, a small village I live in with some friends a mile or two from here. It’s a nice place. Who knows, maybe I’ll take you there someday.” Isla commented, lying on her back, eyes closed. The words were fond, happy memories laced the tone.

Rylo. Why did the name sound so soothing? 

“I want to see it.” She couldn’t figure out why, but she felt like she needed to meet this elf’s friends, see where she lived, meet her outside of their little meetings over the months.

Isla shot up, eyes open and focused. It was clear she hadn’t expected this.

“You sure, princess? There’s a good amount of walking.”

The memory flashed away again, swift to replace it with one.

                                                           ***

“There’s a gelato place about five minutes from here, if you want some. “Isla looked over at her after a pause. “You know what gelato is, right?” She asked, tapping Aira on the elbow to get her attention.

Aira looked over at her and shook her head a few times. Isla gasped.

“Let me get this curvy. So, you couldn’t leave your house, and then to put the cherry on top, they didn’t even tell you what gelato is!?”

Aira nodded absentmindedly, continuing to look around in wonder.

She should have been looking. It would be one more face to remember her by.  

“I’ve never been in an actual city before.” Aira commented softly, a dazed but present look in her eyes.

Isla grabbed her wrist and pulled her toward a shop. Aira looked up for the name, falling short when she couldn’t read it. Isla continued into the store, pulling her by the wrist. 

She walked up to the counter, pausing for a second. Then she started speaking what sounded like gibberish. The woman at the counter smiled and said something back. It sounded like a question.

Something was obviously going over her head, but what?

   Isla paused for a few seconds before answering the woman with a small laugh. The woman’s braid swung back and forth a bit, as she giggled at something Isla had said, probably. It went on like this for a couple minutes. Isla said some gibberish, and the lady responded.

  Aira took this time to examine the woman. She had long black hair, akin to raven feathers, tucked into a braid. Her blouse was worn with a black and silver corset, matching well with her dark complexion. With a closer look, she could tell the woman had pointed ears.

  Braid swinging, the woman turned on her heel towards the door.

Isla looked back over at her, smile on her face. The scene blinked, showing a look of horror on a crystalizing face. It shifted back mere seconds later, causing Aira to question if it had even happened. “You look confused.” She said with a giggle.

Aira cocked her head to the side. “I am?”

“That was elvish, you idiot. Did you never learn it?” 

“I’m not an elf. Why would I?”

Isla sighed. “I guess it wasn’t standard elvish, but most people, at least, know that.”

“I thought Elvish didn’t have a standard? Isn’t it different in each clan?” 

Isla just shook her head, “Native tongues, yeah, but we had to communicate between them.”

The elvish woman, Gib, Aira had dubbed her, came back with two cups with something in it. She said more gibberish: Isla replied and took the cups with a smile. 

 She handed one to Aira, who got shocked by the cold and almost dropped the treat.

Isla handed a cup to Aira. She took the cup, and the eventual spoon, handed to her and took a bite of the ‘gelato’. 

It was so good. It tasted like the ice cream Aira’s mom used to make for her. Don’t even get her started on the flavour. It tasted like chocolate and marshmallow and caramel with a pinch of salt. It was perfect.

She heard a laugh and looked up from the treat to Isla. She was laughing with the biggest and dumbest smile on her face, looking just perfect.

“You’ve really never had this stuff, have you?” 

   Isla’s looked good, too. It was a different flavour, and Aira was kinda curious about what it tasted like. So, she got an inch closer and rose to tiptoe. Aira ran her tongue over Isla’s lips, taking any residue of the gelato from Isla’s lips with her. 

Isla froze in shock, blush forming on her cheeks and ears. 

Aira laughed,commenting on the taste of the gelato, while Isla stood stock still.

Aira looked over at her friend and grabbed her wrist, pulling her outside. “C’mon, I wanna see more of the town.”

It flashed again, looking like a glitch in the world.

It was a new memory now.

They were sitting in a meadow with Isla’s other friends. “Look, I don’t get what people don’t get about the phrase, ‘I don’t heal dumbasses.’. It’s really simple.” Isla’s friend Selena explained, flapping all four wings. Aira and Echa laughed. 

“Aren’t Angels known for being talented healers and pleasant people?” Isla asked, grinning.

“Do you want to die?” Aira and Echa just laughed more at the threatening tone.

Isla put a finger to her chin, as if considering. “I mean, I feel like me and Satan could vibe.” 

***

It flashed again to a scene a few months later.

It flashed again to a scene years after and a few weeks ago.

Aira’s eyes watered as she looked at the arrow through Isla’s chest. She looked at the arrow through her girlfriend’s chest. 

She watched as the crystal formed from the wound. It showed her how fast Isla was leaving. 

Aira. Remember how I told you I would always be here?”

“Y,Yes?”

“That’s not changing. Right now, I’m leaving the physical world, but I’ll still be here.”

Her entire chest was covered now. Parts of it were already glittering away into the light. 

“Aira?”

All she could give was another held back sob.

“I’m sorry.”  

Isla closed her eyes and let her body relax, causing the process to quicken.

Tears ran down Aira’s cheeks as she cried. Repeats of ‘No, No, No.’ could be heard from yards away. 

The last thing she saw on her girlfriend was a mix of a grimace and smile, before she dusted away. As visible as the air.