The light circled the cold stone beach as she wept. I watched from above helpless, dying to end her pain. Rising, she wiped her tears and climbed the lighthouse steps. I still watched.
Days passed and she was endlessly vigilant. If not for her sister bringing her food she might have died. I wished she would die. It was better than watching her suffering.
“I can mend her broken heart,” He whispered to me. Enticing as he was, I resisted.
But, her heart didn’t. Her resolve waned under the pain and I felt the agony as if I were still living. Yet, she waited in that light house, watching the incoming ships.
Finally, she broke. She wept and begged me to return. She cussed me like the sailor I had been in my former life, and I decided it was time. I went to him, and begged he let me live, for her.
“Yes,” he agreed, “But you owe me.”
She cried when she saw me walking across the beach, arms outstretched. I saw her shocked face in the lighthouse window. I waited.
After a few minutes I frowned and went to see what was keeping her. I froze as I saw her crumpled form next to the staircase. All I heard ringing in my ears was his laughter mixed with my own sorrow. She had fallen down the lighthouse steps.