The tears burned in his eyes, the last cinders of a love that never grew hot enough for his comfort. What he wouldn't give for that one last second, one stolen moment, to speak the words…there was nothing he wouldn't give.
Cold hands, trembling with the weakness of body and spirit alike, pushed the tears away, and for a moment he pretended they could wipe away the memories. The fear as they fell into a black hole, the excitement of the 2012 Olympic Games, and the perfect way she could just smile and make his day brighter; they could all simply fade into the oblivion of his nightmares, as though they'd never even mattered.
But they did matter. They were the world to him.
He looked up slowly, and suddenly his breath caught in his throat. The inexplicable bride in white, who'd appeared before him without a warning, spun about in terror.
"Ah!" she squeaked.
"What?" he asked in confusion.
"Who are you?"
"What?"
"Where am I?"
"What?"
Her lip curled in fury. "What the hell is this place?"
"WHAT?"
His world might've ended, but the rest of the universe had to keep turning; he, as forever, had to keep running.