I’d never seen it. I’d never watched it dissipate. I’d never seen the dim light.
There is was. In the eyes. The twinkle that trickled away. Color decided to bleed. Grey decided to leak. White disappeared and found its way onto the skin. And every frosted breath released from the throat.

I remembered freezing in the mountains. Off on another venture in hopes of discovering that missing something. I was trapped in a limbo in life. One event would lead to others, but nothing stuck. Nothing affected me. Nothing at all.

Sex, expensive food, money–

I’d never seen the life leave from the eyes. Wrathful, waging a war, to finally find that something. I wasn’t in a flaming crypt. No tree to feed the harpies, or the burning sand.

I was a fraud in a ditch. Stuck in a frozen wasteland while watching the eyes go cold and shallow.

As I crossed the River of Styx.

I would live again. And this time, for myself. Beyond the edges.