A knock came at the door, close to eight at night, strange hour for a visitor. Maybe they’ve got the wrong house, still they just knock harder. I slowly creep around the furniture, making my way over to the peephole. Outside the door is Jonah, my brother in law. Almost as angelic as Justin. He’s got a temper, but he’s dedicated his life to hunting down missing people. I hadn’t heard from him in months. After Justin’s death we drifted apart, both of us reminding the other of the missing bond.
“Hey, little late for a house call,” I smile and let Jonah in.
“Sorry for dropping by so late,” he lightly touches each of my cheeks with his own. “Couldn’t remember where the house was from the ground. Had to wait until night so I could fly unseen.”
“Too good for a car like the rest of us,” I joke.
“That’s why I ride a motorcycle. Next best thing to flying.”
“You should try Mercedes,” I let him inside.
“You should try flying,” he takes a seat in what grandpa would call the good chair.
One thing Jonah did have over Justin was a sense of humor. Three jokes and Justin might not talk to me for the rest of the night. Jonah could go back and forth with me all night if either of us was drunk enough. We used to drive Justin insane which is why he always made sure we wouldn’t be in the same spot with an open bar. We had some really good times together.
“What made you stop by,” I ask?
“I’ve been having a tough time. It’s the anniversary of Justin’s death. I made it through these last few, but this year just feels really hard,” he tilts his head back and stares into the ceiling.
“I know the feeling, even now I’m so used to him doing certain things for me that I just expect it. I ran out of gas so many times after his death. I just expected him to fill up my car,” I shake my head at myself.
“Cars need gas Ci-Ci,” he brings his head back to the conversation.
“And we need Justin,” I add.
“Miss him every day. We were twins, not identical, but he’s still like my other half. I mourn him every day.”
“You won’t have to for long,” I keep my head down.
“What are you talking about? I’ll mourn my brother forever.”
“Not if he comes back,” I try not to play my hand too much.
“There is no force on this planet that can pull his soul back from the heavens.”
“What if his soul never left?”
“What did you do,” his tone quickly shifted, a hint of rage.
“I saved him,” I produce the diamond from my purse.
The diamond had grown to become the size of my fist after finally capturing the entire essence of Justin’s soul. Sitting there in the center of the table we both stared at it. The man we had both loved was gone, yet his was sitting right in the middle of my living room coffee table. I had already come to accept it, but Jonah was in shock. He was clearly having some issues accepting the whole situation.
“You can’t do this,” Jonah breaks the silence.
“I can, I’ve studied it over and over again.”
“No, he’s my brother. You shouldn’t have done this. You shouldn’t have done this.”
“What was I supposed to do?”
“Let him die.”
“How could you be so cold,” I ask shocked by his answer.
“We all have a time to die and we can’t always decide when that is,” he argues.
“What would you have done if the love of your life was dying in your arms?”
“I’m going to make us some tea,” I excuse myself while he sits in silence.
I’ll give him some time to come to terms with what’s going on while I brew the tea. I probably should have told him sooner. I can’t blame him for being upset with me. How could I? I trapped his brother’s soul here on Earth. I don’t get why people can realize what I did was for the greater good. I would have never done something like this if I had nefarious purposes.
I hear a crash and rush back to the living room. Jonah is already gone, door wide open. Where my coffee table once stood is a pile of wood. Atop it sits the remnants of a smashed diamond. The pieces slowly shrinking as Justin’s soul leaves them behind. I know he disagreed with me, but I couldn’t believe he would go this far.
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