Desire
Heart's Desire: Think about something you once wanted so badly but never acquired. Write about how you think your life would’ve been different if you had received what your heart desired.
[Delirium, Neil Gaiman's Sandman, 645 words]
The doorway stood on the beach, not supported or framed by anything. Just a door that stood by itself, the knob gleaming as sunlight bounced off of it. There was a number carved onto the door, but the numbers had been carved out again. Slashed, it seemed. Clawed in a fit of violence, or petulance…
The younger Del had stood at this point many times, hundreds upon thousands of times, waiting for the door to open or, on occasion, opening it to peer beyond for a hopeful moment.
She had been waiting for him, for Destruction to come home. He was the one she needed at her side, the one who could make everything seem normal for a few moments at a time, sometimes even all the same moments in a row, several of them. Not just a few.
She craved his company because she knew he was the stabilizing influence, the reason that she hadn’t shattered completely during the change from Delight to Delirium… only fractured a bit.
On another level she knew something more, it was something she could not acknowledge even within herself… Something that only her sibling Desire even guessed at…
There were nights, long dark nights when she felt her sibling’s sinuous body slip in between the sheets and press against her, its voice whispering in her ear. It knew what she wanted, and it wasn’t afraid to speak of those things… Sometimes, in those dark moments when only they two existed, Desire would take the form of their lost sibling and in a completely uncharacteristic gesture of comfort and tenderness, hold her while she slept for a bit.
Eventually it had given up on the little game, or Del had outgrown her need of it, and they had grown apart for a while… but some part of Del would always watch that door, waiting for Destruction to come home to her. Not just to visit, but to come to her, ready to be at her side as it should be…
Del stands before that door now, her hand poised above the knob. Her belly is magnificently distended with pregnancy, the twins active and playful. Her lips quirk slightly as she drops the hand, puts it against her belly to feel the kicking. She takes a few steps back and studies the door.
Just a few months ago she stood here, in a field of burning flowers, longing for his return… but today she was grateful for his absence… The children are kicking within her belly and that brings her a particular pleasure, even though it hurts sometimes. The life, her creation… not by magic or wish, but by love… True life, and it was hers… hers and Patch’s…
And if the door had opened before now, the twins would not exist, she would not have Patch to love… A long held dream would have come true, but at such great cost…
Del thought she understood something, why Desire had comforted her in those early days, giving her the illusion of granting the wish instead of encouraging her to pursue it… because, much as it would deny the sentiment, Desire must have known the Del was meant for something greater than loving her lost brother…
Not that Desire would ever admit to believing in love, but it had confided in Del many times that the passion one found with humans was the greatest of all, because they were always filled with the need to live and love intensely… Always aware that the thread could at any time be cut short, and that each experience could be the last… and Del though that maybe, just maybe, it had been preparing her for when she would meet Patch…
Not that it would admit to that any more than it would acknowledge that love was more than a way of pursuing physical gratification.
[Delirium, Neil Gaiman's Sandman, 645 words]
The doorway stood on the beach, not supported or framed by anything. Just a door that stood by itself, the knob gleaming as sunlight bounced off of it. There was a number carved onto the door, but the numbers had been carved out again. Slashed, it seemed. Clawed in a fit of violence, or petulance…
The younger Del had stood at this point many times, hundreds upon thousands of times, waiting for the door to open or, on occasion, opening it to peer beyond for a hopeful moment.
She had been waiting for him, for Destruction to come home. He was the one she needed at her side, the one who could make everything seem normal for a few moments at a time, sometimes even all the same moments in a row, several of them. Not just a few.
She craved his company because she knew he was the stabilizing influence, the reason that she hadn’t shattered completely during the change from Delight to Delirium… only fractured a bit.
On another level she knew something more, it was something she could not acknowledge even within herself… Something that only her sibling Desire even guessed at…
There were nights, long dark nights when she felt her sibling’s sinuous body slip in between the sheets and press against her, its voice whispering in her ear. It knew what she wanted, and it wasn’t afraid to speak of those things… Sometimes, in those dark moments when only they two existed, Desire would take the form of their lost sibling and in a completely uncharacteristic gesture of comfort and tenderness, hold her while she slept for a bit.
Eventually it had given up on the little game, or Del had outgrown her need of it, and they had grown apart for a while… but some part of Del would always watch that door, waiting for Destruction to come home to her. Not just to visit, but to come to her, ready to be at her side as it should be…
Del stands before that door now, her hand poised above the knob. Her belly is magnificently distended with pregnancy, the twins active and playful. Her lips quirk slightly as she drops the hand, puts it against her belly to feel the kicking. She takes a few steps back and studies the door.
Just a few months ago she stood here, in a field of burning flowers, longing for his return… but today she was grateful for his absence… The children are kicking within her belly and that brings her a particular pleasure, even though it hurts sometimes. The life, her creation… not by magic or wish, but by love… True life, and it was hers… hers and Patch’s…
And if the door had opened before now, the twins would not exist, she would not have Patch to love… A long held dream would have come true, but at such great cost…
Del thought she understood something, why Desire had comforted her in those early days, giving her the illusion of granting the wish instead of encouraging her to pursue it… because, much as it would deny the sentiment, Desire must have known the Del was meant for something greater than loving her lost brother…
Not that Desire would ever admit to believing in love, but it had confided in Del many times that the passion one found with humans was the greatest of all, because they were always filled with the need to live and love intensely… Always aware that the thread could at any time be cut short, and that each experience could be the last… and Del though that maybe, just maybe, it had been preparing her for when she would meet Patch…
Not that it would admit to that any more than it would acknowledge that love was more than a way of pursuing physical gratification.