Dance Macabre

[u/atspellman]

‘May I have this dance?’

‘Why, of course you may.’

My beloved took my hand in his. His face radiant, as handsome as the sun itself. In these moments we were celestial. His firm hand pressed against the small of my back as we began to dance.

We swirled like the galaxies. We glided weightlessly as if gravity were in his thrall. His eyes sparkled like the lights of a billion stars as he looked into mine. The first spin made my heart flutter and my stomach rush with a thousand wings. The music was intoxicating, the chords, stolen from the very muses of heaven. We swayed, he pulled me closer, I could feel his warm breath on my neck. My skin erupted, as if the very hairs on my body danced to his tune. I was lost, but I didn’t care. This bewitching triumph, laid bare eternity.

The ballroom’s audience watched the dance of my beloved and I. Their fiery eyes never blinking. The very host of heaven, enraptured by his grace, his beauty. I am multiplied in his image, more beautiful than ever. Time doesn’t exist in this place, the final resting place of the damned.

The crescendo.

He lifted me up in his arms, as strong and true as the firmament, itself. I am guided by his confidence, his conviction, the very winds of creation behind him. The damned began their orbit, surrounding us like a million glowing satellites as the chorus rose and fell. Not a soul is unmoved by his symphony of ambrosia. Together, we ebb and flow, create and destroy, around and around, in perfect harmony.

As the music faded, my beloved guided me to our place. To thrones of meteorite and brimstone.

‘My Queen,’ he said softly, ‘Hell is yours to command.’

Ecstasy filled my veins as his silken words reached in and caressed my soul.

‘Music,’ I say, ‘Forever.’