Snippits - Short Scenes and Stories

He entered the sterile facility with flowers in his hand. It always seemed too bleak, too clean for him in here. After all his love had adored colors more than anything. But in here everyone wore  low stimulating clothes made up of earthy tones of different shades of brown, beige, gray and pastel greens and blues. The nurses and doctors were distinguishable by their white attire but other than that everyone wore the same pallet of colors as they shuffled about their business.

Going up to the counter he announced himself and asked the nurse checking him in his usual question: "How is she doing today?"

"Better I'd say. She painted a little and now she's laying her cards in the day room", she answered with a gentle smile that painted her face full of wrinkles of a life well lived.

He nodded, turning to stroll down the hallway that would lead him into the day room. It was called that simply because most patients of the facility spent the day in this room. It had lots of large windows with reinforced glass to let the sunlight in, square tables with 4 chairs each were set up with space between them to allow for chatter between patients but also for private alone time which was what his love was doing today as he entered the room. He had never had any trouble finding her, not even in a crowd of people and today the day room only held around 10 people at first glance, one couple was playing chess, another 3 were watching TV and the rest of them either kept to themselves or held quiet conversation over coffee.

As always he beelined straight towards the woman he had always loved and always would. Through all the eternity that was their lifespan. Today she was dressed in a white soft blue dress peppered with flowers of a color he would describe as purple. She had loved this game when she was still herself, showing him colors when she painted and asking him what color it was. Fact was, he simply didn't see as many differences in her colors as she did. She'd describe the blue of her dress as soft baby blue and the color of the flowers as lilac. Over it all she was wearing a long sleeved cardigan in the same purple (lilac?) color as the flowers.

She laid out tarot cards in front of her, humming softly to herself with a smile on her face but she looked up when his body cast a shadow on her table. "Honey!", she greeted him with her smile growing and glowing at him. To him her smile had always been more vibrant than the sun itself.

"I brought you flowers my love", he said, handing her the humble bouquet. She'd never been a woman for eloquent flowers like roses and such. Her favorite flower being tulips in all colors, the brighter the better. But in here he could only ever bring her soft pink, yellow and maybe a touch of orange or purple here and there.

She took the bouquet of his hands and smelled the flowers, sighing in delight. "What are you doing sweetheart?", he asked her as he sat down across from her.

Her smile turned into a soft frown as she put the flowers down on a spare chair. "The voices want me to change the future again", she softly whispered, "But I can't. It's out of my hands. It's too many. So I'm trying to decide who to tell what to help them."

He nodded slowly. This was the reason she was in here. Not the visions and voices in and of themselves, after all she was an immortal being blessed with the ability to see all kinds of futures, even if there was only a 0,1% chance of that future actually coming true. The problem that had landed her in here was that she had no filter. Most other Seers could tune in on their gift and look for people or events they wanted to see but his love was missing that ability. Her mind constantly assaulted by visions floating around the time-space continuum. He himself was a mid-level telepath with a bit of a telekinetic ability. His telepathy had been enough to shield her for the first centuries of their life together but after a while the amount of visions lining up to be seen, to be heard had gotten out of hand and he couldn't help her anymore. Which was why she was here. With people who could. The doctors and nurses shielded her half the time and when the pressure was too high they opened a little valve in the shields to let the visions in. Today must've been such a day. It had taken a very long time for them to fine-tune this procedure. The first 200 years his love had been switching between a catatonic state and screaming so loud she popped her own eardrums.

"And what are the cards telling you?", he finally managed to ask, his hand automatically reaching for her, stroking her cheek as his powers reached out for her, trying to shield her from the onslaught of visions as he had done before. His shield was weak against the bombardment but for a stolen moment of their time it held.

She leaned into his hand, closing her eyes and just enjoying his touch. It was those moments when all problems seemed to vanish, when it was just them, no visions pushing into their intimate meetings. Those moments nourished his heart and his soul and gave him energy to continue on for just a little bit longer.

"That I need to decide between two people", she answered his question quietly, pushing a kiss to the palm of his hand.

"Want me to help you?", he asked, as he always did.

She shook her head and answered, as always: "I don't want to load the guilt of maybe making the wrong decision on you."

He nodded, stroking his hand through her hair and pushing it behind her ear. "There once was a time when it was just the two of us. Before your gift started taking over...", he remembered in a low voice.

"There once was a time when you thought it was just the two of us but at that time I already heard them. I was just stronger at ignoring them... but then they showed me what happened because of that and I broke little by little", she answered back, but the next second he didn't remember that she said that. As always her true answer to his everyday statement was deleted from his mind by what little telepathic power she possessed.

He could never know that she had never been fully his, that part of her had always belonged to the future, the voices, the visions. It would break his heart.