Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast
In a field I looked into going past,
And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,
But a few weeds and stubble showing last.

The woods around it have it—it is theirs.
All animals are smothered in their lairs.
I am too absent-spirited to count;
The loneliness includes me unawares.

And lonely as it is, that loneliness
Will be more lonely ere it will be less—
A blanker whiteness of benighted snow
With no expression, nothing to express.

They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars—on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.

--Robert Frost, Desert Places

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"I'll be okay."

She always said that with a smile, her green eyes shining as she believed in those words. Even if she only said them in her mind, they made all the difference.

Even when she was hurt, she would be okay. Even when she was lost, she would be okay. Even when it didn't seem worth living anymore, she still promised them that she would be okay, and, in saying that, that they would too. It was her way of being strong, her way of holding them up. They always had her to turn back to, to smile at when things were good. They always had her to hurt, to yell at, when things went wrong. They didn't like what they did, and neither did she, but she took it, knowing that they needed to do it to be alright again. Later they would come and apologize, ashamed of what they did, and she would smile and say those magic words that told them they were forgiven.

But even magic can't bring back the dead.

She used those words to push away the loneliness before, but now she cannot, not this huge barrier, even with her strongest thoughts. No human is great enough to do that. He wasn't.

He can still see her, kneeling there in the mud and the rain, her head bent over the gravestone, forehead touching the silvery grey rock that had her mother's name engraved on it. He couldn't think of anything to say to her, anything that would make her smile again. All he can see is her, soaked in the rain, bringing back his own memories.

They are there long after everyone else is gone. She has not uttered a sound, but he knows that she is crying. She has kept her tears silent after the raven left. Now he just wishes that she would scream.

Slowly, she stands, after the sky has grown dark behind the clouds and mist has risen up through the heavy rain. She walks towards him, and he places a hand on her shoulder, a question.

She smiles up at him, though this is a sad smile, one full of doubt and pain and sorrow. He can't tell if there are tears on her face or if it is the rain as her emerald eyes stare up at him, the same as her smile.

"I'll be okay," she whispers before walking on, her shoulders straight, carrying the burden high.

He can only hope that she will be.