Where We Ended

by Ashley Munoz

“You’re the closest I’ll ever get to heaven, to redemption or being found worthy. I look at you, and I see hope. Isn’t that all heaven is? Hope, eternity spent in the one place we can’t imagine living without? You’re that for me. You’re my religion, Natty. My place of worship and devotion. God wants nothing to do with me, but for some reason he still gave me you.”

“Forever, Caelum. I’ll want you for that long, and then longer when the devil demands my soul.” She kissed my chest. “He can’t have what belongs to me.”

“Let the stars see you, Caelum. Let the heavens witness how depraved and fucked I am to take you out here, right where all of them can bear witness to my obsession. I’m nothing but darkness, and I’ll continue to steal your light for as long as you have air in your lungs and you carry my heart within your chest.”

“I’m a stain on your soul, Caelum. There is no removing me.”

“We don’t end, Caelum. We just keep going, we’re like the roots that hold the crust of this fucking earth together. Bound to one another.”