A Petal as a Promise
I remember coming to lie in this field of Erica's every time I needed some place to think, a place for quiet and solitude, but know, I use it as a place to take my final breaths, a place where I can scream with no one to hear me.
I've already said my goodbyes.
I'm sure there are those who are wondering about my disappearance as I've not shown up at work but being the excellent reapers most of them are, they'll return to work, letting my memory fade into the darkness, even those to have claimed to have been friends such as Ronald and Grell would forget me, to work towards this own forgiveness.
The only reaper I wonder about is Eric. I'm curious if he'll forget me just as quickly as the rest or if he'll put forth the effort to try and keep my memory alive, but if I let myself live in complete reality for a moment, I know he'll forget the fastest so he can move on to one of the secretaries. "Ya bastard. That goodbye of yours was too damn heartless."
I can feel my body tense at the sudden voice but the accent and deepness of it tells me who it was without needing to use my eyes. "I thought it'd be easier."
"It's never gonna be easy."
I give a faint gasp as I feel Eric's arms pull me into an embrace, his arms tight around me, his head on my shoulder. "Why did you come here?"
"I was lettin' ye leave without a hug."
That alone brings a smile to my lips. With how far along the thorns had gotten, I found smiling so hard to do, but Eric, even in the worse times, can make me feel something more than loneliness. Even now, I don't feel like I'm doing this alone. I let my arms come up to wrap around him, resting my cheek against his blonde hair, closing my eyes as tears gather then begin to fall. "Eric."
"Alan." He whispers, his voice breaking just the slightest.
Far too soon, I can feel my body start to finally shut down and the grasping ethereal reaching for my soul. "Eric." I say, using my fingers to stroke through Eric's hair. "I'm leaving now." His arms tighten around me and for the first time, I feel tears against my neck.
"Don't go."
I say nothing else; just continue stroking his hair until it feels too difficult to keep my eyes open. Stopping my hand, I let it rest on Eric's shoulders as I let my body go.
Eric could feel him leaving, the younger reapers body fading from his arms until his arms were empty. The tears he had tried to hold in, the small droplets Alan felt now fully burst from his eyes. He fell forward, grasping at the ground, tearing out Erca's until he a small jolt went through him when a petal landed on the tip of his nose. He went cross-eyed a moment before removing the petal then another fell and another and another until Eric was caught in the midst of falling petals. Swallowing down the lump in his throat, he forced himself to his feet as he watched the petals float towards him and the ground.
In a split second, his emotions changed. The pain and anger he felt fled leaving behind a feeling of peace. With his tears still running, he lifted his hand, catching more petals in his palm, keeping the first one that fell in the gentle grasp of his other hand, using that one petal as a promise to Alan that every year on this day, he'd return to sit and listen to the ghosts of their past and the spirits of what could have been.
