She fought his embrace. She tried to break free, and the hero inside him, meaning the words formed around him on all sides told him HER WEAKNESS IS YOUR STRENGTH. He needed to be strong. Continue to be strong.For her.There he kept her close and when she continued to fight his grip, he held her closer until her face became buried in what he had come to realize:He was still an overweight and naïve man. Middle age in death is the same as middle age in life when the one you hold onto, the one with whom you share an intimate bond beyond explanation.How he had categorized this as subscript, considered briefly before the constraint to save, to be a hero, to protect, overpowered him. For that brief struggle, he experienced a thought in full, and he nearly let go. He almost did until the sea reacted, as if it had won. The waters froze; its freezing doing nothing for the sharks as their fins shattered through the ice sheet, bringing with it an entirely different kind of downpour.The rain from above continued to melt away his physical being.
