If I had a heart it would have ached. Every twitch would have sent waves of agony through my body. The pressure would have burst my veins and drowned my world in pain.

As it was, my heart stayed icy, immobile. But there was pain. A lot of it.

As my lips formed the words that I knew were going to shatter her world, mine was taken apart, brick by brick, by the same torrent that I had set loose on hers. And in its place rolled wave after wave of despair, and loneliness. I forced my voice to keep from trembling as I ripped my chest open and tore out my sole reason for existence. More painful even was it to know that I was doing just that to her.

I could see the anguish in her face, it was written in every line of her face, in the set of her mouth and the shimmer in her eyes. The features that I had come to know better than my own face were marred with agony, sheer agony. I had to clench my hands into fists to keep from reaching out for her, circling her in my arms and kissing away every trace of sorrow from her face until I had erased every memory of it ever having been there.

I slowly took a step back. Then another. My eyes were still focused on her face, trying to hold on to it for as long as I could until I would have to let go. And let go I did.

Without ever lifting the veil of deception from my eyes I turned my back on the one thing I had ever truly loved. Tears I would never cry stung behind my eyes and I quickly pushed my legs to run. My feet barely touched the damp forest floor as I flew through the woods, away from her and towards nothingness.