Prompt: Write a story based on the title of your favorite song.
Response: "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" by Death Cab for Cutie
The room smelled of age and paper and stories. You led me between rows of leather-bound spines. The library had been abandoned for years. The grand old building lay tucked between skyscrapers and busy lives. In the eyes of the government it was "historic" and thus immune to demolition. In the eyes of entrepreneurs it was a waste of space.
I closed my eyes, feeling my way behind you. No one read physical books anymore. No one but you.
The cadence of your voice lilting over small, enigmatic type was a stark contrast to the drone of pre-recorded, pre-approved novels. Poetry lingered in your pauses, your breath drifting away from the small LED light into the blackness around us. My thoughts followed it.
Now I stand between empty rows. The books were packed and shipped away to some museum back east. That happened almost a year ago. I see your face like an afterimage. Burned into my retina as you grin over your shoulder.
What should we read tonight?
I shrug. Whatever you want.
I sit down, folding my legs beneath me. The emptiness presses down on me like a coffin lid. I lean back, closing my eyes. In the dark, I find your words. They become you.
"Adieu, adieu! my native shore / Fades o'er the waters blue; / The night-winds sigh, the breakers roar, / and shrieks the wild sea-mew."
I follow you into the dark.
Copyrighted to Grace Wagner. Do not replicate without out written permission. 2013
UPDATE: Claudia Bookwright has also uploaded her answer to the prompt. Check it out here.
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