Sorry that took so long! In case you were wondering, this chapter was supposed to be 'Like or Love?' I'm having serious problems with that theme for some reason, and I'm thinking of just changing it. So, when you review, please leave an idea for a prompt, and let me know if you're okay with me changing it. This one is short, and really sad...
He slumps in front of the cold, gray stone, which sits unsympathetically behind a fresh pile of earth, now drenched and muddy as it soaks into his clothes. His shoulders shake and his tears mix with the rain as he leans forward to grip the top of the grave, other hand fisting on the muddy ground. Six feet below where he kneels, caught forever in a wooden embrace, is the most important person in the world to him.
"My fault," he whispers, voice broken and choked with sobs. "It's all my fault, Al..."
The name brings fresh sobs, bangs hanging over his face, the wet golden hair plastered to his forehead. He throws his head back to scream, utter dejection and pain clear as it rings through the foggy, wet night, so similar to another scream only a few years ago, but a different situation, a different outcome.
Not far away, a woman picks herself off her kitchen table, and, not bothering to put on a coat, exits the darkened house. This time, she'll be there to do something about it...
He tries to stand, but his body is too weakened by the loss, and it's all he can do not to collapse and die right here, in the mud of his brother's tomb. Instead, he sobs as though the world has ended. And his has, crashing violently as soon as his brother's body hit the bloody ground...
She forces her exhausted limbs to move, running and stumbling across the wet plains. She has to get to him. Shehastoshehastoshehasto...
He never cries, but it's all he can do. He can't do anything. He's never felt so useless, worthless...that feeling he had when their mother died, that feeling of need, that exhausted him yet, at the same time, filled him with adrenaline, has increased hundredfold...
...what does he have to live for now? Could he give up his soul to save his brother's...?
...anything to be forgiven...
He feels a warm hand on his shoulder, and the broken remains of his world stops and his golden eyes widen as he looks up at the tear-stained face of his lover, the only person he has left.
Something clicks in his mind as she moves her hand to rest on his cheek.
He can't leave her.
"Just cry," she whispers, unaware of his epiphany. "You're forgiven, Ed...he would never blame you…"
Without another word, she kneels down next to him and buries her head into his neck, begging him wordlessly to stay with her...and he responds by pulling her in as close as he can.
Together, kneeling in the pouring rain, the two sob into each other, mourning for the missing piece of their complex puzzle.