Companion piece to "Let Fallen Leaves Lay."
Scenario: Katarina has fallen. What else can be done?
The ceiling is high and you would appreciate it if it isn't for the fact that you can see nothing but the black casket at the foot of the room. It's cold despite the many bodies inside praying for someone who never asked for it. You move the flowers you cannot name that Darius had picked and you're sure that Kat would hate it. But it had bought the Hand of Noxus a softness in his shoulders when you accept the bouquet and put it inside the casket next to your sister's face; you think Kat approves of the gesture when the sun shines a little brighter through the stained glass windows. It illuminates the casket in a myriad of colors.
Talon stands two steps behind you, in the shadows, head held high and eyes straight ahead. His gaze is blank just as it always has been since your father disappeared but now, there is an even more bleak expression on his face. He looks at nothing and everything and you wonder if you should say something but you don't. What is there to say when you're both being torn apart to pieces by absence of the most important people in their lives?
You're not sure how long it's been since it was just you and Talon alone in the room but you no longer feel the warmth of the sun. It had reached peak and started to fall a while ago.
You're cold, colder than before, colder than when Talon slid noiselessly into your room that many night ago and laid his head on your shoulders; you had pretended not to see his body wracked with the pain of delivering the news that knew would come but dreaded ever since you were reborn with the body you have today. The mask you've been putting on all day is finally given a chance to slip when you feel more than hear heavy footsteps enter and echo.
You turn in anger because how dare someone come to disturb this moment and you come face to face with the Might of Demacia so far from his home. You hear, do, say nothing as he walks forward past you towards the casket.
His shoulders are as broad as ever.
There is silence as he places unlike flowers next to Kat's face and you swear you see him place a finger against her cheek… and the words tumble out of your mouth before you can stop it.
"Why didn't you help her?"
You feel the venom riding up your throat and know that what you're asking is heard when Garen's hand stills but you're no longer focused on the vision present before you but the vision in the past when you hear that the Might of Demacia was on the field when the his enemy was struck down.
"And why didn't you help her?"
You scream at the figure before you but he just stands still, bearing your guilt and anger with a straight back as if Katarina isn't lying in a coffin wearing a dress she hasn't wore since she came home with a scar over her eye.
You lunge at him but you hit steel; Talon is holding you back and you can feel his heart thundering in your ears just as yours shatter at the look on Garen's face as he finally turns away from the casket that bore the body of someone you had thought was eternal.
Your heart breaks at the sight of his face because you know that look in his eyes- it's the same look Kat bore after a battle won at a heavy cost. A look of someone stretched too thin that if stretched any further, they would disappear all together.
And you cry at the fact that no matter what you say now, it doesn't matter because Katarina is dead and nothing you say or do can bring her back. After all, just because someone has to come back doesn't mean they will. You reach out once more but it's a weak swipe as the Might of Demacia bows before you, head poised for a beheading. Talon's arms still hold you back but it matters not because you get the feeling that you're not the only one who loved and lost someone that day when your sister fell.
- Hope you enjoy~
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