Le Trésor Interdit
Joe Schwebke
kschwebke@charter.net

It was impossible to conceive.

But beyond any shadow of a doubt, he knew he didn't want to have to live without that certain sunny presence with attitude and cunning, that girl of infamous stature and unspeakable beauty, that girl that somehow stole that which could never be stolen.

‘Why did it have to end this way?’ he thought silently. He had taken her companionship for granted, and hadn't expected to lose her in just the blink of an eye–in just the time it took for that swirling, convulsing mass of color, space, and time to absorb her former captor–that bestial and chaotic entity–and return her soul to a place of rest. Even then, when he awoke on the beach, the lingering moments still hung vividly in his mind.

At that time he was also aware that he should have, by all rights and logic, forgotten his trying adventure as well as the girl. But he desperately clung to those memories, not allowing them to be stolen by the same writhing nothingness that tore their enemy from existence. Those memories were his and his alone, and he would only be content to share them with her.

And he could feel them trying to escape…but he would not let them.

The sound of the beautiful, eternal ocean then began to touch his consciousness, easing him from the soft, peaceful embrace of a timeless dream back into a certain, now restored reality. His eyes slowly began to take in a marvelous, crystalline blue of a life and animated splendor with which only the brilliant hue of her eyes could contend.

And at that moment, he then decided to dream of her by his side on that very beach, for even reality came second to that beautiful, enchanting, star–stealing girl.