It has been 10 years since the breath of ice engulfed my body. The warmth that kept my fingers intact busted at the seams of the stranger’s hands. My ears lie in a deafening silence, while my mind lies in the screeching of my own subconscious. I began to feel like I was drowning in the dark abyss of nothingness, and my eyes darted back and forth under the blanket of skin that started to freeze. The fear in my chest slowed to a steady beat, as the warmth faded, and my fingers fell away.

I look down at my pale body and see the stranger lying on the hard, concrete floor next to me, crying. I drifted down to get a better view of the stranger’s face.

It was not a stranger. It was my husband. My words were muzzled, he could not hear me. The color began to drain from his face when the warriors wrapped their warmth around me. My chest launched into a burning, electric pain. It jumped in between the discomfort and suddenly, I was once again aware of the flesh against mine, and mine against the hard floor. Breath of warmth enclosed around me when my eyes weakly cracked open.

I shifted my body to see my husband lying motionless. I cried in terror to see his blue lips drooping to the floor. The warriors scooped him up and took him away from me.

My mind finally grasped onto reality, and I understood why I found myself trying to balance on the tightrope that separated life from death. The warriors whispered the truth through my ears and down to my pounding heart. My husband, the one who vowed to defend my life, fell back on his word when his sanity escaped. The evil entity that was weighing his spirit between his feet convinced him that he could no longer take it. But the internal battles were more than just dragging his feet through cement, he decided that he could not exist in the affliction of life. But somehow, he convinced himself that I felt the same. He held my hand as he slowed the beating of both of our hearts, and the warmth of our bodies melted through our pores. The warriors swooped in and brought my skin back to a flourishing state, but the sins of my husband were too heavy for the warriors to carry.

And the thought of my lover suffering for eternity is devastating.

I never fell into the trap of love again, for the next time the breath of ice engulfed my body, it would be the last.