by Joe Stanley

3

How right I was about how important you are. You are many things to many people, and to that man you love, you were everything.

How right I was about the terrible power of your love. It is greater even than the mighty spell you have woven. The horror of it strikes me less than the awe it leaves me in.

Never doubt that you are loved. From beyond even the grayness, the man you love, loves you still.

This freakish state, this wretched pain, my own humiliation, none of these is too great a price to pay to share your company. Indeed, how blessed I would be if that was all. But it is not.

I cannot be the man you love. His life has ended, he is dead, He is gone. I can never be him. I am nothing more than his shade. But his love for you lives on in me.

I am not the man you love, but I love you all the same.

How could I claim to care for you and permit this charade to carry on? You must grieve for him so that you may heal and move on. I know it will not be easy, but I know that you are strong.

For you, I must find the strength to break your spell.

I go now. Damn the pain, I will rise. I have but one step to take, out of the circle that traps me in life and holds the hand of death at bay.

I go now back into the grayness and golden, glowing eyes will light my way.

-end-

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