The Spider & the Storm

by Kelsey Kingsley

But grief had a funny way of being evergreen, no matter how much time had passed, and it was as fresh as it’d ever been now.

“My soul doesn't know how to not love yours. All I had to do was meet you to know that I had been put into this universe to hold you and protect you and shelter you from every terrible thing that had ever come your way until you were strong enough to face it on your own. And whenever that happens, if ever it does, my soul will stand beside yours, even while the rest of the world has been conditioned to run from us both.”

Those words touched my heart with the promise of the worst heartbreak of my life if she were to die before me, yet I found every bit of salvation within them, and my soul longed to curl up beneath the shelter that only she could provide.