The light had called to her, and she had stepped into it willingly, eagerly. Fear had died with her body, still and cold, blood pouring past torn flesh to pool on the unyielding pavement upon which her life had ended.
Her heart had sang, joyous, as the light had encompassed her. The years filled with loss, sorrow, longing, slipped away as that shining part of herself was returned to the paradise from which it had been born.
He wasn't there. A lifetime of waiting, knowing that he would be waiting for her when she followed him into death... and he wasn't there. A lifetime of virtue and goodness rewarded... and he wasn't there. Paradise, eternal paradise... and _he_ _was_ _not_ _there_!"
They spoke to her of justice, the scales that measured the good and evil of all mortal lives. They told of the sharp slant towards sin that had met his soul when his body had shattered into fine, grey dust.
They spoke of blood and death, pain and destruction.
She cried of forgiveness.
They proclaimed justice.
And she wept.
The broken souls of the damned reached out towards her, with gaunt, skeletal hands as she passed. The light poured from her, bright and pure, dampening the fires that danced against the bound flesh of Hell's captives. Their cries, desperate and pleading, rang in her ears.
They would not let her see him.
Lifetimes of suspecting what he would find, discovered to be true. Lifetimes of pain and torture, death and evil, rewarded by the fiery pits of the underworld. An eternity, without her.
Without her, torture.
They proclaimed it only fitting that he should suffer. They spoke of the balance of good and ill that had blocked Heaven's gates towards him, and marked him as their own.
She spoke of the demon that had corrupted him.
They told of the pain that had occurred by his hands, when a mortal heart still pumped warm blood through his veins.
She cried of change, of forgiveness.
They proclaimed that evil never changes.
And she wept.
They watched her, the Light and the Dark. Good and Evil, side by side, her tears washing over both. Both worlds rippled with each gasping cry that tore past her lips, the sobs hovering in the air, a plea for the soul of one who should have long ago lost any who would care for his salvation.
He is evil, they told her.
He is a monster, they told her.
He is death, they told her.
You are goodness, they told her.
You are pure, they told her.
You are life, they told her.
The tears continued to drift down pale cheeks, certain and longing and loving. I love him, she said.
Love him?, they questioned. Good and evil, life and death? It could not be.
I love him, she repeated.
What had his darkness to offer her light, they wondered. It could not be.
The scales have tilted, and the evil within him has spoken. The gates of Heaven could not be opened to his darkness. Justice must be met.
Slight shoulders straightened, eyes filled with tears and determination. Then cast her out of paradise, she told them. If the gates of Heaven would not admit him, then she would give up paradise and join him. For without him, she could have no joy.
It was not right, they told her. A pure soul could not be condemned. It was no more just to allow her light to dim in the darkness than it was to allow his darkness to invade the light.
Justice must be met.
And she wept.
Her tears ran throughout the worlds, Heaven and Hell trembling as each tear fell. Her light wavered as her tears fell, and there was no joy within her. Paradise did not exist, only the torment of her loss.
Darkness and Light, Evil and Good, sat side by side.
The darkness cannot come into the light, they said.
The light cannot enter the darkness, they said.
Justice must be met, they told her.
And yet...
There was no justice, here.
Without him, torment within her.
Within him, joy knowing that she loved him.
The scales could not balance between them.
A chance was to be given, a lifetime in which they could make the scales balance. His light grow to match hers so that Heaven would greet them both, or that her darkness could blossom so that Hell would draw them both into its depths.
Heaven and Hell parted, and life filled them both.
And she wept no longer.
~End~