Ethereal

She had been dead for many days. The musical echo of her voice still rang throughout the empty caverns at the edge of town, whispering nonsensical words. It was as if she haunted them, like she haunted me.
    When I closed my eyes, sometimes, her face would burn the backs of my eyelids. I was grateful for the reminder. Her silhouette shimmered golden. She was an angel now – she had been an angel in life, too.
    I found myself lurking the caverns many times after she died there. My hands would brush gently against the stone walls, crossing over small dents and cracks, in the faint hope that they would come across her. In the spaces between my fingers, I would see hers, glowing golden. In these moments, she was alive. We were one.

The final twilight was descending upon me when I arrived at the caverns for the last time. There she was, standing proud at the edge of the highest rock jutting from the ground. My angel. Her entire body was alight like the sun, but my eyes were transfixed upon her regardless. She watched me watching her.
    ‘Home,’ I heard her voice call out to me. ‘Home with me.’
    The moon was beginning to set behind the distant trees as I approached her. All the familiarities of her came rushing back to me; the touch of her skin, the light in her eyes, the whisper of her voice. The final kiss we had shared in these very caverns. The struggle of her body as she slipped from my arms, screaming my name, the fear and confusion haunting her tone.
    The blind rush of red.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ I said to her then. She was no longer human. She was a transient being.
    Silence fell over us. In my next blink, she was gone, and so were the memories.