You seem well.

  Why thank you. Where’s your coffin?

  It’s over there. You just can’t see it.

  Still getting used to that selective sight thing.

  You never get used to it.

  I see… but you’re holding on well, right?

  I am, I am.

  We all are.

  That’s worth toasting to. Where’s your water?

  Right here.

  Well, let’s toast to it.

  Here, here!

  It was really worth the sip of saltwater. Coughing, it was her turn. “I love you,” and both him and her seemingly fell back into their own minds, their own routines.

  How are you holding up?

  Good… she was confident in that even though she aimed to sound extremely confident so that they would judge her favorably.

  That’s good. But you have to tend to him as much as you tend to yourself.

  I’d say it’s the opposite – easy to tend to him, harder to tend to yourself.

  They were all in agreement. And she nodded too.

  I will hold on for as long as I have to. Again, really confident so as to be extremely clear.

  No end in sight, pointing to the quiet one and said, lost the mouth in the last storm.

  Storm?

  Different every time.

  Correction: Different for everyone.

  No need to explain because she simply knew all of a sudden. It was the harsh truth that the dead share. Drank the rainwater. Didn’t even really want to but thirst rose up like a fire from within. Always a fire. And at that moment, right after swallowing, the mouth disappeared. But then, she believed that she’d be careful.

  They pointed to her face, how it sagged.

  You can be so sure…

  It bothered her, but she held up; she needed them to believe that she would be holding on for good.

  He said, “I love you.” She recognized that it would soon, once again, be her turn to be his savior.

  She was responsible for herself and, because of it, she had to be there to save him as much as he would most definitely be there to save them both.

  HIS TURN

  A person would do anything to hold on if it meant never being lonely. He matched up the words until what he saw on the horizon was a perfect measurement in description of the kind of shoreline he desired to see in the distance.

  Beaches.

  A beacon, a lighthouse light directing the coffin to safe shores.

  In this night, the moon finally there, MOONLIGHT, something he had missed the most, if one could really miss anything now.

  A skyscraper.

  Another skyscraper.

  A series of smaller but visible buildings lining the area between skyscrapers.

  SOUND and another SOUND.

  It didn’t matter what those sounds were as long as they were sounds, something indicative of society.

  He crafted the city landscape from out at sea. He could almost taste the smell of fried dough, the kind you could smell in heavy clouds when walking the boardwalk of any popular beach.

  He wanted to sense something even if it meant tasting what was normally smelled, smelling what was normally tasted.

  Most of all, he wanted to hold on.

  He bargained for this to be where they would be.

  Here, between any real place, the nonexistence, the area inside walls. Whatever it might be called, he leaned toward never letting go. Now that would seem impossible, sure.

  And it would be, but don’t let the hopeless-suddenly-hopeful ghost kill a romance before the romance really started.

  He again turned toward her and held back. Before there could be any concern, he touched her lips to his. They kissed and in that single sign of affection, he handed her everything he saw.

  When they touched lips again, it wasn’t a kiss. They held lips, suctioned them tightly around both mouths, and waited until tongues touched. Waited some more until the tongues began to move, switching places. Tongues so tight he could hear the voice returning to him, the gruff and often growling voice climbing back into his throat, and her cheery voice leaving.

  But that couldn’t be it. It wasn’t enough.

  In order to hold on, he needed more than just his hands, and she needed more than just her face. They needed to return everything they had borrowed. They needed to be themselves.

  He opened his mouth to speak, and told her.

  It was no longer merely talk of the mind. It was talk.

  It was telling.

  HER TURN

  With the borrowed now having fully become hers, they brought themselves close and mended all that needed mending. First they turned to the coffin, recognizing that their pairing must have been on purpose, meant to be, because there was only the one coffin.

  The coffin shook as she spoke in her own voice, the words that do not matter much for this tale, outside of this manic moment, so they will not show up here.

  The quick and plain decision was that as long as they weren’t alone, they decided to hold on, and holding on involved caulking the coffin, not letting the invisible water sink them.

  She cut her arm, but only after telling him that she would.

  He nodded and did the same. Cut arms, they brought color to the once-invisible water. They used their hands for good, cupping the water and splashing it overboard. Did this for quite some time until the water lowered.

  Next she felt every square inch of the fabric of the coffin for hairline cracks while he examined all four sides. With their own bare hands, they plugged the holes with pieces of their skin, be it from their forearm or their thighs, their bodies were now theirs to use how they saw fit.

  In celebration they paired up whatever was left of their senses with whatever was left of their bodies.

  Afterwards, the sex that she had desired for so long, the sex she never experienced in life, felt perfunctory. She dismissed the feeling in favor of the fact that it was still the sex that she had craved. It was the sex that only he could give her. Perhaps the expectations exceeded the actual act. What she was surely positive of was the fact that she cared for him, and cared for him deeply.

  She was glad that it had been with him rather than someone else. And when it came time to speak without restriction, the result of having held on so long, the speech returned to her and him, it was surprising to find that both chose the same three words they had said countless times:

  “I love you.”

  If this was all they could be, they would take it.

  Inevitable though it was, letting go, they held on and it was a holding on that involved facing themselves.

  More they did, they sensed and smelled and swore that they had never borrowed, they were satisfied enough with sharing their solitude, this purgatory. This aftermath.

  Demise would be the setting of their romance.

  Their romance would be spacious “I love you’s” in the waiting room between life and death. They would love and be genuine at a time when no one was genuine, at a time when time elapsed and people, everyone, the masses let go.

  And by that it could only mean finally letting go, seeing how life is a series of escapes and ledges, an admirable duration of holding on. Hold and be held, that is life.

  And this, this is death. There could be no love without first being a death.

  HIS TURN

  Having bargained to hold on, he now feared how much left he had to lose. No question about it, there would be loss. He feared the coming dawn. Nightfall wouldn’t last for much longer.

  This, her in his arms, would not last much longer.

  She shivered when he didn’t shiver, and he had begun to shiver nonstop. But at least they had faced themselves and could say anything to each other to shelter each other from their fears.

  His fear grew with each turn, and he answered before she could ask, “Yeah, we’re having fun.”

  Much like a hero in any other story, he needed to feel like he had the power to make a difference. He wanted desired needed to play that role.

  The tale goes on like this. It gets darker. It invokes fear in both him and her. The conditions quickly turn merciless.

  The role may be fake, and it is, but it is his strongest hold, the only means of holding on. It will get so much worse the more they are willing to admit to their demise.

  She leaned into his arms, a cuddle that was kind and gentle. Too bad he couldn’t enjoy her company.

  He was too concerned, as if he could now see the coastline, and a line of riflemen aimed at them, looking to pull the trigger and force them to let go. He had to protect her.

  His biggest fear was that he would slip away and yet she would remain. Alone.

  Neither could face the feeling of loneliness. Never could.

  A protector, fatherly and of a far-fetched sort, he held her more than she held him back, but it was perfect because it was all they could do. Having so much to say, he couldn’t begin to tell her of what might be watching from the ocean’s depths.

  To allay that worry, the worry so real, he treated her with fantasies, “Maybe we can do a duet.” Anything to occupy or entertain her doubled as preoccupation and, when she seemed to believe him, really believe him, he almost forgot where they were.

  It could have been a boat and they could have been only a few paddles away from a beach.

  “Maybe we can see who is the fastest swimmer, one straight line and back.”

  He clicked his tongue.

  “Maybe we can fish for new fantasies if none of these worked. We could look for the one that you wanted, the one that is on the tip of my tongue, but I can no longer remember what it was.”

  Fantasies were all they were and barely that. They were his buoys more so than hers, but she’d still kiss him on the cheek, still laugh or giggle, and, if none of the above, she at least smiled that smile, the one so perfectly practiced it erased the creeping dangers from view.

  When she wanted a drink, he cupped his hands and plunged them into the cold waters. He saw in the water the reflection of the sky, now a light blue. Soon it would—

  But she wanted water, and that was enough; water was what she needed, and until he gave her the water, it was all he could think about.

  He cupped his hand and lowered it into the water. Bringing it up to her face, her smile inverted to a frown. She coughed, spitting the water, telling him to try it. It had turned acidic. The seawater tasted like copper and wouldn’t stay down.

  He leaned over the edge, dry-heaving.

  She asked him what it meant and he shook his head, “Not yet. Don’t start until it starts.” He had to be confident. There could be no alternative. But of course, the shark appeared at dawn, little more than a ripple in the water, sleek and silent, barely noticed, until he saw the fin circling the coffin.

  The shark was an omen.

  It brought with it everything he had feared.

  This belongs to you. Now let go.

  Arms tightening around her, “I’m not letting go,” he said under his breath.

  HER TURN

  His arms were heavy and warm. She hid from the cold inside his embrace. There was cold only because she couldn’t bear to be anywhere but in his arms. The cliché of new romances and the desire for consistent affection and contact existed as a cliché because it was true. It was the only reason she held on.

  Her grip so tight on his forearm, she wasn’t avoiding demise because she wanted to remain. She avoided demise because she couldn’t bear to have him go.

  Somehow he had turned her into his own buoy, his only reason to remain, and it was because of this that she would remain too. Hold on because not holding on would cut them in half.

  Severed: her error, as always, ruined everything.

  Little kisses kept him from losing focus. In his arms, she wasn’t afraid. However who did he have to confide in?

  She took and never gave back. This is what she believed. Based on how he acted, it might be true.

  All the fantasies fed were just cause for a genuine smile.

  The plainest fear was that he wouldn’t be able to keep the coffin afloat. What could she do…?

  Nothing.

  Those little kisses were enough until she coughed, spitting out the water he had given, and the entire charade, from her eyes, shattered like the night. Clouds formed yellow borders as if to taunt her. Soon. Soon there will be no way to hide.

  For this to work, one character has to know more of the story. One of the two characters needs to be able to read these lines. Every single line read in the past tense, and therefore clearly understood of the implications of being where they had already been. The burden that’s his was nowhere near as heavy as the burden she carried. Every single one of her actions and inactions concealed the true wreckage of this tale.

  Forget all about the water. Forget how it tasted. She had known all along how it would taste. Coughing was better than swallowing it down. Eyes shut. That’s right. Shutting one’s eyes would save the moment, the moment that, she imagined he wasn’t able to enjoy. Because of that, she felt a tinge of pity, followed by the truest range of self-loathing, how one must feel when completely alone, silenced from all connection.

  She shut her eyes from it all and enjoyed how this felt, how she felt: timeless and safe. Here is all she needed. Right now.

  When his grip tightened around her chest, it was enough for her to notice that the moment had passed.

  She could feel his shivers through his bloated belly. Though she couldn’t see the shark, the effect of its appearance seeped through him right into the pit of her stomach.

  She bit her lower lip, tasting what he had tasted upon sipping seawater.

  She could see the sun quickly rising. Its appearance brought not the beauty of a sunny day but rather what the ghosts had warned her about.

  Love could be so blinding, it almost fooled her into thinking that she wouldn’t have a problem holding on. To think, forgetting the trajectory of the story, foolishly pretending that it wasn’t going to end the way this is written to end. Looking at him, she could see it plain as the previous day.

  They finally have each other, where no one could ever judge what they had, and yet neither would be able to enjoy it.

  Counting how many turns remained, she knew there wouldn’t be much time left. And then she saw it.

  A shark fin.

  Right on cue.

  HIS TURN

  Shortly after the shark fin, the sun gave its warning and receded behind a cloudy, darkening sky. The sun had no reason to remain. Gave them little more than a warning before it left him to fend off the drizzle that soon became a soft, delicate rain.

  “Stay in my arms,” he warned.

  It would be right to keep her safe. Whatever it takes.

  He looked over the edge of the coffin. The darkening sky made it difficult to see much of anything. He wouldn’t be fooled; the shark was there. And indeed, soon enough, he saw it.

  Worse: The shark could be seen in the water, the light grey of its body, the dead stare a reminder of his demise.

  The inevitable demise.

  How foolish must you be to hold on? Life has elapsed. It was time to let go. Pass on. The aftermath would be the afterlife, as dictated by blind faith. What waited for him over the horizon, past the words of warning that seemed to block his view? He wouldn’t be able to know without letting go, without letting the coffin float in that direction, the direction where only he can go, the direction where they part ways.

  No. Words on the horizon read like commands:

  KEEP HER SAFE.

  CLOSE YOUR EYES.

  SHE LOVES YOU.

  LOVE HER BACK.

  To which his replies were instant, honest, and true:

  He would.

  He did.

  He does.

  He always will.

  The hero role took hold and the soft rains and darkened sky tore the moment, replacing it for the beginning of what would be a deeply-rooted fear of the sea, of the waters and what they hid from him, rising to the surface, building into a boil.

  He saw it on the horizon, the one statement he needed most:

  YOU CAN.

  And it might have been new, what happened next; his actions, so admirable of a fight to pull her close, to live in this moment, despite the plain melancholy of this tale:

  It is told in the past tense. Living in the past, there is no present to save you, no future to explore. All that can be merely was, and if it weren’t then, it never would be.

  And this is how it will come to pass. It already had, now is merely a retelling of the tale. Not for the sake of it but for his sake, a hero in death, a simple man in life.

  The shark ran its body into the coffin, pushing it to one side. Hold her. Hold her now.

  “No!” he shouted.

  The rain grew stronger. The softness of this rain concealed the true danger. What little hair he had left wilted. Skin burning, bubbling, and peeling. Not that he felt any of it.

  There would be no feeling. It was only physical.

  The pain, it had long since passed. A hero held on.

  A hero must.

  HER TURN

  The shark shook the coffin, which shook her to the core. She couldn’t stop shivering, having failed to recognize the extent of her fear until perhaps that moment. Whatever she denied, they would spell it out for her. Them. They returned, right as the sun retired for good. For good, they said.

  It won’t return.

  Why is this happening? she asked.

  It already happened, they replied.

  A showcase of their own loss, missing arms, mouths, eyes, bodies in a state of wreckage from a continual plight against demise.

  The fact that they are dead. The fact that they denied their death, turned every moment into a moment all its own, a moment of war upon the inevitability of the universe’s energies. Or…

  Simply stated, it went against understanding.

  They were dead, but...