How long had we been standing there? It could've been a few minutes, a couple of hours or a whole eternity. It didn't matter. The pain won't go away. The scar won't heal. The wounds were too deep.
Shinichi was frozen in his stance. He was kneeling on the soft ground with both his hands grasping the fresh dirt. Words hadn't passed between us ever since we arrived here. Just choked silence.
Not the companionable silence we're used to. This was different. This was definitely different.
"She wouldn't want you to cry for her." I said softly. Voices sounded so unnatural in moments like this. He merely looked up at me with his blank eyes. Eyes that used to shine excitedly when faced with a challenging case, or glowed with determination in protecting others. Now they were just…void.
I felt his pain. I truly do. After all, I loved him. I still love him. I'll keep loving him, even when my body turned to dust. But Shinichi loved her.
And there was nothing I could do about it.
When she left, there was an imprint in Shinichi's heart that would stay there together. She left behind a big gaping hole in it that even I could not fill. No matter how hard I tried, I could never find a place in there.
His heart belonged to her. It always had. There was never any room for me.
Even now, when she was gone.
When her body rested peacefully inside the earth. When her smile, her laugh, her voice was nothing more than a memory.
"I never got the chance to tell her how I feel…" Shinichi said, his voice hollow.
The wind blew fiercely. The leaves rustled. Birds flew away in swift flaps of their wings. The sun was setting. It was going to be dark soon and the cemetery was going to close. The temperature dropped noticeably.
But those were events that happened in the outside world. We were in our own world. A world where there were only the three of us. Shinichi, her, and I.
The wind blew again, so hard this time that it penetrated our invisible shield. The whistling screamed attention. I began to listen closely. I closed my eyes.
"It's time to leave…me…behind. Move on…I'll be watching over…both of you."
It was her voice. It was really her voice. Her spirit had returned to comfort us. Behind my closed lids, I could almost see her looking down at us. Her eyes had never looked so sad. But she was smiling. And she looked so peaceful.
I opened my eyes. Shinichi was staring at the sky. It was full with stars now. Time had flown by so fast.
Tears glistened in those beautiful eyes. I reached out and wrapped my arms around him. He didn't move. He kept looking up at the sky. Perhaps he was seeing her smile again. Perhaps he was saying how much he loved her.
"It's time to leave, Shinichi." My voice betrayed me. I hadn't meant for the tears to drop.
"You're right, Ran." He replied.
And we left together, leaving Shiho behind. But we knew that was only her mortal body.
Her immortal spirit will stay with us.