The ghost of you hung in the air and I knelt before your demon.

I knew who you were. I had accepted my fate long ago, and far away in a time that never existed. Clinging to a hope you would see what I saw when I looked at my reflection in your eyes. The reverberation of rage in your voice told me you had not noticed. I bowed my head over my kneeling knees.

Keeping my eyes on the cement, I watched as your feet paced in front of me. I knew better than to raise my head, to catch your eye, to catch the fury that would follow.

There was a sadness in the air as I felt your disappointment. Your pacing feet did not display this disappointment. The shadow of the past, he hung hiding in the corners.

He weeped.

I was at peace, as the air hissed, and your fist caught the side of my head. My body slumped and sighed. I lay there for a moment before you realized what you had done.

Two ghosts brushed past each other. They turned in recognition and locked eyes. A lifetime of emotions filled the air, suffocating all who existed in it. Two ghosts dissolved into opposite directions.

You looked down in anger. Disbelief took over. When you pushed me, softly, with your fingertips, your ghost came back. That's when you felt the sadness.

It cracked at your hardened heart and you remembered. You cried your tears into my hair. Hoping, like a fairytale your tears would bring me back.

I gave up on the fairytale in the time long ago that never existed. The ghost of me hung in the air, only for a moment. It couldn't leave before knowing you were sorry.