24690 (24690 #1)

by A.A. Dark

“For who am I, if not a man? I’ve asked myself that question a million times. The answer evades me like the damned. And I must be damned to have been placed in this hell that swallows me by the day. I once thought by discovering the truth of what I queried it would set me free. But do cursed men ever find peace for their tainted souls? “Maybe I’m asking the wrong questions,” I read, glancing at West. “Maybe I’ve known the answer all along: love. “I once loved a woman. Once…no, I love her still. Her presence haunts the empty cells inside me, weaving in and out of the dark crevices like a ghost seeking recognition. Death has always been my friend. Even now, as I fight for life, when I close my ears to the screams within, she makes her presence know. Bump-bump goes my heart. But it is not my heart I hear in the silence of my unconscious mind. It is her laugh. Her moans and sweet calls for me to come back to her. I groan at the ache she manifests in my chest. Come back to me, she says. Return my love, she pleads. “And I cry. Does she not know I already do? Does she not feel me rushing through her bloodstream like she soars through mine? Bump-bump, she cries. And I cry back. Love me, I plead. Feel me, I beg. I am not without you, and you are not without me. We are together, even if we’re apart. “But she does not see that, because she does not see me. “I’m not dead, I whisper. Close your eyes, and you will see. Close your ears, and you will hear. Bump-bump. I am watching. Bump-b...