"I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Madeline sighed. "I needed to see the moon once more."

"No." Roderick shook his head. "I'm sorry for what happened to you."

"We've been over this. It's not-"

"They think I'm crazy."

"Who?"

"Everyone," Roderick said. He tried to wipe the sweat from his forehead, but only succeeded in smearing dirt across his face.

"No they don't. They're just worried about you."

"The children throw rocks at me," Roderick said. "I hear their parents whispering behind my back. My friends won't talk to me. They hide behind polite goodbyes and urgent appointments."

Roderick slid down from the rock so he could face Madeline. Her curves were traced by the blue moonlight, her long curls matted, her face masked in shadow. "There are no urgent appointments in this place." He paused. "But there are plenty of polite goodbyes. Everyone in town is full of them."

Something cold and wet nudged Roderick's muddy hand. He looked down to see one of the town's many strays. The dog wagged its tail, tongue flopping about like a dying fish. Roderick patted the animal and steered it away from the basket that rested at the boulder's feet. The dog barked in frustration and pulled at Roderick's grasp.

"I guess not everyone in town avoids you," Madeline said.

The dog froze at the sound of her voice, its ears perked up to the sky. Then, slowly like a person knowing and fearing what they are about to see, the dog looked up at Madeline. The weight and strength used to tug at Roderick's grasp melted and the dog lowered itself to the ground, tail between its legs. A growl filled the air, a sound that nature had intended to be threatening, but came out as distraught as the dog appeared.

Roderick reached down to comfort the animal, but was rewarded with gnashing teeth that just missed his hand. Roderick jerked away, stunned.

The dog took a trembling step backwards without removing its eyes from Madeline's dark shape.

"He use to like me," Madeline said.

The dog took another step, jaws clamped so tight that a trickle of blood ran from its gums.

"I'm not meant to be out like this and he knows it."

At that, the animal turned and bolted into the woods. Roderick watched the brown shape fade into the trees, still feeling the cold moisture from the animal's snout on his hand. He picked up the basket and for a second his words caught in his throat.

"The women bring me food," Roderick eventually said. He dug into the basket and pulled out an apple as red as Madeline's lips had once been. He thought about this and all the wonderful times he'd kissed those lips. "They leave it on my doorstep, I think they're afraid to talk to me. Would you like something?" After fishing about he brandished a variety of fruits and vegetables. "I have salted meat also. We could..." He let his voice trail off when he saw Madeline's face.

"Not hungry," he said and let the apple drop. "Right, I forgot."

A drop of rain splashed against the boulder. Madeline ran her delicate finger over the wet spot. She rubbed her thumb and forefinger together and then studied their moist tips. "If it rains like last week this place will be underwater."

"I know. That's why I came tonight. Will you take a walk with me?" Roderick held out his hand to help Madeline down from the boulder.

She ignored the offered hand and landed lightly at his side. "It won't be long before I can't do that anymore."

She plucked a clump of hair that had fallen loose and landed across her shoulder. She examined the strands in the same manner she'd studied the rain drop, as if wanting to savor every detail.

"I'll walk with you," she said. "But not far."

Roderick smiled and moved to place his hand on her back. She shook her head and they began their walk.

The moon disappeared behind a blackened cloud. The forest was silent; its creatures huddled away from the impending storm. The couple strolled at arm's length like estranged lovers out to rekindle an old flame. When Roderick would attempt to step closer to Madeline or reach out to take her hand, she'd move farther away.

Neither spoke. Words seemed out of place in a night filled with so much tension. Roderick felt if it were possible to fit the unease into his mouth, he'd chew it up, spit it out, and make the whole thing seem so silly, so pointless.

The couple came to a clearing. Or what had once been a clearing. The ground had swallowed itself and a river ran below the steep drop. Trees and bushes hung to the muddy walls, their thin roots the only things keeping them from washing away.

"The river runs under the entire town," Roderick said. His words were like a hammer smashing out a window, ending the silence. "The ground will collapse and bury everything. The graveyard, too."

"You don't think you'll see me again," Madeline said.

"No...I mean yes...I," Roderick reached behind his back and brandished a knife. The sharp edge caught what was left of the moonlight and spit it back into the mist created by the rushing water. "I think I've found a way for us to be together, again."

"Oh Roderick." Madeline reached out for the blade. For the first time that night the couple touched and Roderick felt the sensation of her cold flesh run up his arm and down his spine. He caught the scent of her body and nearly doubled over with nausea. The knife dropped from his hand and into the river.

Madeline retreated. "If the river separates us...well, maybe it isn't such a bad thing."

"But I want to be with you," Roderick said, he was still shaky, but the nausea had passed with the wind and the smell. He wanted to be with her more than anything, his mind screamed to be near her, yet his body was disguised by what she had become.

"I'm not the same Madeline."

The rain came, a light sprinkle joining the mist as if the clouds were sending out an early force to prepare the way for the true foray.

"You are." Roderick stepped forward and before Madeline could pull away, he took her hands. The smell and her icy touch attacked his senses. He fought to keep from tumbling to the mud.

Madeline turned her head, but made no effort to draw her hands back. "That part of me is gone, Roderick. Gone to a place that my body can't follow." She looked down into the pit. "What I am now is just a shell."

Roderick let her hands slip free.

"I'm sorry." Madeline turned and walked away leaving Roderick to look on after her. He wasn't able to follow-his legs felt like rubber and wouldn't obey no matter what command he sent. He was sick, sick to his stomach and sick to his heart.

He'd lost Madeline once already and couldn't fathom the thought of losing her again. Her illness had taken her slowly from his arms, eating away at her body, while leaving her mind sharp and lucid as if wanting her to bare witness to her own decay.

The doctors had done their best to save her. Roderick knew this and respected their efforts, but at the same time loathed their inability to save her.

Once she'd died, her disease had changed forms and jumped hosts. The new symptoms were depression and sorrow and gnawed at Roderick until it exposed the madness below.

Roderick caught up with Madeline in the graveyard. She stood in her grave, only her shoulders and head exposed.

"It's still you, Madeline, you're not completely empty yet," Roderick said as he approached from the forest.

"Maybe not...but I will be soon. Let me go, Roderick," Madeline said. "Live your life and forget about me."

"How can you ask me to do that," Roderick said and the clouds released. Water poured over his head and bit into his skin.

Madeline spread her arms and looked up towards the raging sky. The rain drenched her hair and washed the mud off her body. She opened her mouth and the water filled it. Her eyes remained opened even as the rain licked at them.

"I wish I could feel," she said. She looked at Roderick, her pale skin glistening, her cheeks sagged and the corners of her mouth cracked, her once bright lips were gray, fading in the same why as her blue eyes. "Put me back in the ground...you don't want this."

Roderick stared at her then, stared at what she had become. It was true this wasn't the Madeline he'd fallen for, not anymore. Her soul and her goodness were someplace else, someplace wonderful.

"Madeline is gone, bury her shell," she said.

"Fine," Roderick whispered, even though he could barely be heard over the intense storm. "Lay down and let's be done with it."

Madeline did as she was told. Roderick went to the hole and peered down. She lay inside her open coffin arms across her chest and a slight curve at the corner of her lip-her last grasp at a smile.

Roderick found his tears warm in contrast to the falling rain. He'd been through so much and planned to come there that night and bleed away his pain the only way he knew how.

As he closed the coffin and the shadow of the lid blanketed Madeline's face, Roderick saw her as she'd once been. The arch of her neck, the blue eyes, the way her cheeks dimpled whenever she giggled, the smooth skin of her naked body catching the candlelight. The beauty that had once stolen his breath.

Roderick used the handle of his shovel to nail the coffin shut.

He then stood in the rain, hoping it would not only wash his tears away, but all his pain, all his remorse. The town believed he'd lost his mind and, oh, how he prayed this were true. If he were mad, he would no longer have to think, no longer have to dwell on all that he'd lost.

He set about the task of burying the coffin. The ground was heavy. The harder the rain poured the wetter and thicker the it became.

A yelp caught Roderick's attention and he turned. The dog stood a few yards away and they locked eyes. The animal was still trembling. Its fur was soaked to the point of parting across its back in a straight line.

Roderick knelt and held out his open hand. Having a friend, even if it was just a scrawny mongrel, would help to relieve the loneliness that Roderick knew would come with each shovel of dirt. The dog took a step forward and stopped. Its tail, had just begun to rise back to its normal heavenly stretch, rolled between its legs.

"It's okay. She's gone," Roderick said his words bit into his heart.

The dog took another step then danced about in a rigid circle. This out of place performance that under different circumstances would have been amusing, but the ominous night and the animal's constant whine was nothing short of chilling.

All sound ceased. The dog froze and starred at Roderick. Roderick thought the animal was going to yield its fear and come to him, but, instead, it let out a long and heart wrenching howl that seemed to reverberate off every inch of the graveyard. The ground shook and then gave way. The dog disappeared.

Roderick lost his balance and slid across the mud towards the hole that had eaten his companion. For just a second, he thought about letting himself go, letting his body launch into the open air over the darken cavern.

Roderick reached out and grabbed a headstone just before the decision to die was made for him. He paused to catch his breath and then hoisted himself back up.

Half the sea of stones had disappeared, the markers that were left leaned to one side or the other like spikes on the back of a sleeping beast. Roderick waited a moment and when the ground didn't collapse farther, he turned back to the task at hand wondering what and who else he'd have to surrender this night. He scooped up another shovel full of wet muck and was about to dump it into the open grave when a bolt of lighting light up the sky. The tree line before him was gone, dropped into the waiting jaws of a newly formed canyon. From where he stood it looked as if the world had shattered into a million little pieces and he was standing on one of the shards floating aimlessly through space.

He turned around. The great beast of the graveyard must have awoken, all the stones had vanished. The boulder swayed and then fell into oblivion. The world was decaying around him, just as his love, just as his life.

Roderick threw the shovel to the ground. Insane and sane, wasn't it all the same thing if you looked at it the right way. Maybe this wasn't the same Madeline he remembered, maybe parts of her were gone, maybe all the meaningful parts. But if he was going to fall apart, inside and out, he wanted it to be at her side.

He jumped into the open grave and pried her coffin open. The body's skin was shriveled and tight on the bone. The lips had peeled away from the teeth locking the face into a permanent grin. Unseeing eyes stared up at him.

Roderick laid down on the body and felt the bones give and the clothes crumble to dust. He shut out the world.

There was the crack of thunder and the tapping of rain on the lid. Inside, the coffin was pitch dark and Roderick thought about the blackness that ran through his veins. This emptiness could be no worse.

Roderick closed his eyes. The ground dropped. The coffin jerked to the side, hung for a moment and then rolled over. Madeline's body fell on top of him and he wrapped his arms around it.

"I love you," Roderick said.

Water seeped into the cracks. The sides groaned in protest as the weight of the mud pushed the wood to its breaking point. Together in their new bed, the couple was swallowed whole by the raging river.