Hiya all, here is another chapter for you to read. I hope you like it.

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4. Teddy Day

Frank Zhang & Hazel Levesque

"You will live, Frank Zhang! I love you!" Hazel screamed at the top of her lungs, her cries echoing over the blurred battle noise in the background.

She stifled a sob, wiping her nose on her sleeves. Her eyes were overflowing with tears, the brine running all the way down to her chin.

"I'm sorry, Hazel," Frank coughed, choking on the smoke around him.

"No! I love you! You can't die!"

"I'm sorry," he repeated, this time more certain. He will soon be gone, and he knew that very well.

"Don't say sorry. I am sorry. I have to save you. Please. Don't say anything else. I know you will live," Hazel tried to believe what she said, but it was so hard for her to convince even herself.

"Sorry, Hazel. My time is up. Remember, I will always love you, okay?" Frank whispered, wisps of dust coming out of his mouth. He couldn't breathe; the smoke burned his nostrils, and his lungs felt like they were being sucked out by a huge vacuum cleaner. He coughed once again, this time more horribly than before.

He knew his end was near, very near.

Hazel couldn't bear to listen to what the son of Mars was telling her. She loved him, and it was all too painful to even think of getting separated from him.

She couldn't imagine leaving.

So she put her hands around the dagger buried inside Frank's chest and gripped it tight. And then she pulled and pulled with all her strength, but she could never make it budge, let alone take it out.

She whimpered in pain as the rough leather of the handle scraped her palms, making them bleed. But she knew that if she stopped now, she will never be able to forgive herself.

And then the Praetor left her fiancé's side and ran to the crater beside them, in which lay the burning wooden stick. The one that was Frank's lifeline. It was hopelessly burning in the raging fire inside the pit.

She reached towards it, but the riding flames held her back. It was impossible to get the stick, impossible to reach it. But Hazel was determined; she had to save Frank, her Frank.

She swooped down again, her hand almost touching the charred wood. But alas, it was too late. The wood turned to ash and crumbled as soon as her fingertips touched it, snatching away her only hope, her last chance to laugh again with her fiancé.

The daughter of Pluto stood; her legs about to give way. With a stabbing pain in her heart, she turned back, staggering towards where her happiness lay, and with tears in her eyes, collapsed next to his ashen face. Whatever was left of her shattered into a thousand pieces at the sight of Frank's blue lips and lifeless body. She held his limp hand - as cold as ice - as he lay there, silent and unmoving.

But Hazel didn't notice all of this; no. She only saw his eyes, staring back at her. Shining and glassy, all glazed-over. They looked almost like before, like nothing had changed. She remembered how Frank always used to look at her, with his dreamy, excited eyes. Yes, they used to shine exactly like this.

But the only difference was that now they were blank, hollow. There was no life, no thrill in them. They were just like two open windows in an empty house. You could only look into them, but there was no one to look out back towards you.

And then she saw it, peeping out from her fiancé's coat pocket: a little glimmer of metal. She grasped the cold chain and pulled it. She gasped when she noticed what it was.

In her hands was a delicate silver bracelet, with a little charm in the shape of a bear dangling from it. Of course a bear; he had proposed to Hazel while he was transformed into one. She winced; the happy memory itself seemed distant, like one of her past life. It was physically painful.

On the little wooden charm, it was engraved, in a small but neat hand-writing: "H+F".

A sob rose from deep in her throat, burning it like acid. Her lungs felt like they might burst anytime now.

The daughter of Pluto could not hush herself anymore. She let out all the tears she had held back till now; let them flow out along with her grief, her fears, and her pain. Waiting for it to all drain out of her.

When her determination was sturdy enough to hold her together, she took a deep breath.

And so she pushed herself up, still swaying on her feet. It was difficult for her to accept her fate, her loss, her separation from the love of her life, but she will be strong. She had to be strong, if not for herself then for others; for Frank.

This was what Frank would want from her.

As Hazel Levesque turned her back towards her happiness, a tear trickled down her cheek. It was heartbreaking to leave her home, her everything behind her. But she had to.

She staggered along the way towards a new albeit a bleak, agonizing life. But she will mange eventually, she had to.

Her only regret would be leaving without saying goodbye.


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