For Just a Moment…a Moment Too Late.
I had just been given my second chance…the second chance at life, at acceptance, at happiness...and it was taken. Taken by a cruel soul who didn't even have the guts to reveal his face. She was gone. I was the enemy again. But did I take her? No. Why would I kidnap someone that important to me?
My little cousin Nettie, she had been taken at the speech at Gressenheller University, and we were frantically searching for her. The college campus was just a blur to me. A colored blur; and all I needed was that stroke of blonde to appear in my vision at the moment. But it never came.
I was calling her name over and over again, dashing across the campus and back again as if it was my own life on the line. Tumbling and flying across the cement and the tile, screaming her name into every possible area I could. If only I was faster…
Finally, after the longest hour of my life, I heard her weakened voice calling me back.
"K-Klaus…?"
I immediately stopped. I knew that tone. She had only used it when she was hiding something awful from me…I knew nothing good could happen from that tone…I was worried, to say the least. I called everyone off, to go search on their own, so I could be alone with her, like she always preferred it to be when we talked. Just the two of us.
I ran inside and found her there, lying on the ground. Her hair was sprawled out around her, and she was lying face down on the cold metallic floor. My heart sank into the pit of my stomach; something was wrong. As I approached her, I could hear her panting as if she had just ran a marathon…I dropped to my knees and held her in my arms. Her face was pale and sweaty, and her eyes were closed.
"Nettie!"
Nettie opened her shining blue eyes and looked at me. A very weak smile spread itself across her face, and it broke my heart.
"Wh-What happened!" I shouted; a very obvious worry in my voice.
Nettie pointed to something with a shaky hand, and immediately I turned my attention towards her direction. There was something on the ground. I looked a bit closer, and realized that it was a syringe. There was a bit of greenish liquid inside, and it didn't take much time to put the pieces together that she had been poisoned.
"I…Klaus…I'm s-sorry…but it's too late for m-me…"
Her fragile voice was breaking more and more as she spoke these words. Her blue eyes were focused onto mine, and tears were starting to gather under those blue irises. My own eyes grew wider a bit, and I could feel myself being torn apart from the inside out…it hurt seeing her like this…it really did.
It took me this long to realize that Nettie was not going to be alive for much longer…she was dying. And she had held on just long enough to tell me her final good-byes.
Knowing that one fact… it hurt more than all the years of guilt, torture, prison, and flashbacks did.
"I know that my t-time is running out, Klaus…but…"
She paused for a few very long moments, her eyes flickering in and out of focus a bit, the smile never leaving her young face. I felt tears welling up in my own eyes, my teeth clenched, and my posture shaking.
She simply smiled at me.
"…but…I'm glad…that I-I got to t-talk to you…in the end…I c-couldn't bear to say g-good bye to anybody else…so I trust that you'll do it for me…tell Luke that I love him so much…and tell him to stay strong…for me…tell them all…what I could n-not…"
I shot up and felt my throat tighten. I looked at her in the eye as best I could, and shouted everything I knew how to say at her. I told her it wasn't the end, that we'd go back to being a family, and that she didn't have to die. She could still be with Luke, and with Lanna, and with Maya, Remi, Layton, Flora, everybody…and all she did was smile at me. Her eyes were slowly beginning to shut; the tears welling up in her eyes were threatening to overflow.
"K-Klaus…"
I looked at her in the eye again. My own tears were falling at this point, dripping onto her face and her shirt. I couldn't help it.
"Y-You've been fighting against this world all by y-yourself…all this time…that's why I came…I c-came to h-help you…because, you see…"
She blinked, ever so slowly, before continuing. Her voice was merely a whisper at this point.
"I love you…Clive…I l-love you…"
Her pupils dilated.
"…Cousin…"
Her head lolled to the side, leaned against me.
"…Brother…"
Her eyes closed.
"…Pa…pa…"
A single tear fell from her right eye, rolled off my hand, and hit the floor with a small 'plip.'
And just like that, she was gone. She died with a smile on her face, and she died in my arms, without a sound. I held her head close to my heart and wept.