Lt. Antoni Valenza
<Post Alchera; Post War; Life without Iskandar Shepard> For the first time, the gaps between my fingers were filled. I thought how fortunate I must be, how loved by the universe I must be to receive exactly what I needed after so long. How many days did I spend hoping, wishing, and praying for someone to fill the gaps in my soul in the same way? Now, I roll over and reach out. All I find is the emptiness of cool sheets and all the color fades from my world. Where once was a pleasant fulfilling dream now lies the emptiness of my own heart. Where are you? And why have you not come back? I still can’t accept your disappearance. There was a funeral pyre, but no body. You didn’t die but you faded from the universe as if you never existed. The only evidence is the memory you left behind. And memory pales with time. Please come home.















