Children of the Mirror 2: Remember Me

...Nineteenth Part: Krad...

Fine. If Emiko wants to kill me, then let her. How epic to die on Christmas Eve.

I began to doubt Dark completely. He was probably letting me stay with him out of pity. Sure, he might remember the dreams, but he doesn't care anymore. Not about me, or anything we might have had together.

Nothing.

Dark held the raging Niwa woman back, trying to protect me from her even though I had just given him a bloody nose. He didn't even seem to notice it. He just kept pleading her to stop; to calm down...

I wanted her to kill me. I didn't want Dark to have the honor of tearing me to pieces anymore. I just wanted it to stop. She could stop it.

But he wouldn't let her.

The tears I had been trying to hold back finally fell, gliding down my face, completely unnoticed by Emiko. Dark saw them, though.

I never wanted him to see me cry, but he would. Every time, he would be there, I was sure of it. If I did manage to live past today, he would never leave... me... alone...

But maybe that was a good thing.

"He's going to help me steal the Mirror."

Maybe there was still a chance...

Dark let go of Emiko and made sure she would stay before turning to me and staring at me for a long moment. He sighed, and held out his hand, defeated. "Come on. Let's go."

I took his hand, and the old expression I had nearly forgotten about slowly dissolved from my features. Now I was sure I looked wounded. Dark would know. He could see right through me, now.

But something in his expression let me know that there was something the thief wasn't telling me.

Dark squeezed my hand before leading me out of the room.

Emiko's eyes followed us out.

. . .

After pulling me through a house of disbelieving Niwas, we flew. Only when we took to the skies did Dark release my hand, but he glanced back at me every so often to make sure I was still following him.

The police force guarding the museum was limited in number – most of them were probably gone for the holiday – so it was effortless for Dark and I to get to the Mirror.

"There it is," Dark sighed, walking over to it. He stood in front of it while I hung back, a couple feet behind him. He took off the jacket he wore and took a step closer to it.

"Are you ready for the end of the world?" Dark asked softly, smirking. I hoped he was only joking.

I nodded, gripping his hand with an intensity that probably could have broken it, but he didn't complain. He pressed his hand against our reflection and the glass rippled again – it couldn't have really been glass anymore. His arm disappeared up to his elbow, and then he took a deep breath and stepped one foot into it. He was going in it, pulling me with him.

"Dark – wait!"

I had to say –

"I –"

"Dark, I love you!" I blurted. The words echoed faintly in the large room.

Dark turned to me, dropping the jacket. It felt like time had come to a sudden halt, and I waited anxiously for him to say something in reply.

I hadn't meant to say that. I hadn't meant to... I hung my head, shaking it slightly from side to side.

"Krad..."

I snapped my gaze back up to look at him, but held my tongue, waiting for him to say more.

He walked over to me wordlessly, just to stand closer to me.

I looked right into his deep violet eyes, pleading silently with him. "I want to go back, Dark," I whispered. "I want to be with you..."

Dark shook his head, chuckling quietly to himself. "I can't go back. Neither of us can. Krad, that life is over."

His soft words wrenched at my insides like no physical force could. I backed away from him. If I could just get around him... All I had to do was touch it... right...?

I made a run for it, dodging around Dark and reaching for the glass –

"DON'T TOUCH IT!" Dark yelled, snatching me around the waist and yanking me back before I could get to it. My fingers had been merely a centimeter from the reflection...

We fell backward, Dark still clutching me by the waist. I struggled, trying to get away. "Let me go, Mousy!" I shouted. "Let go! I want to... I want..." I couldn't finish the sentence. My voice was breaking up.

Dark held me close to his chest. "Shhh," he whispered. "You can't go back, Krad. You just can't."

"Why not!?" I choked. But I was giving up despite how much I wanted to go back. Dark was here and he was holding onto me and he wouldn't let me go. There was some comfort in that.

"Because you'll be lost to oblivion if you try it," he said bluntly.

"What...?"

"If you try to go back, it won't work. First of all: the Black Wings is dead, and that world was a part of it. Second: if you did manage to get back there somehow, it would probably pick back up right where we left off, which was what?" He waited for me to answer.

"We found the Mirror in the museum," I guessed, my voice almost inaudible.

"No. We were going through the Mirror into this world. If you stepped through that thing" – he pointed to the Mirror – "you would get stuck in an endless nothing between this world and the other, because there is nothing to continue."

"Oh," I mouthed the word, but there was no sound. I was going to break out into another round of tears any moment, I could just feel it. I didn't think I ever felt so miserable.

"And you know what else?" Dark said, brushing some hair back from my face.

I tilted my head up to look at him questioningly, trying to focus on him through the blur that resulted from unshed tears. I couldn't resist him anymore, either – there would be no point in it – so I gave in to his hold, leaning against his chest.

"You've been focusing so much on getting back to the relationship we had in that stupid Mirror world, that you didn't even try to give this world a chance."

I didn't understand what he was trying to tell me.

"You have me right here, Krad," he said softly. "In this world."

"Dark..."

"I love you, too. Okay?"

The tears finally spilled over, but now it was because of my sheer stupidity, more than anything else. Dark proceeded to wipe them from my face – or tried to. There were too many for him to catch them all.

"Hey, stop crying." He smiled crookedly. "You don't like crying in front of me, remember?"

I began to laugh. I couldn't help it. I laughed almost to hysterics an Dark looked so confused by it, that it only caused me to laugh harder.

"Krad? ...Are you alright?" he worried.

I nodded, shifting around in his arms so I could hide my face against his shoulder. "Just hold me?"

Dark laughed a little, too, resting his head on top of mine. "Of course I will..."

. . .

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Well, my friends... I suppose that's it for this story. I hope you all enjoyed it!

Merry Christmas!