Dedicated to the wonderful person I call Rhea. Thank you for being such an inspiring friend.
- Liz
Why did you leave me? You promised me.
He stood back, head tilted up towards the grey sky, rain pattering softly onto the muddy ground. It was quiet, peaceful, alone. He took of his hat, and crushed in in his grip. Then he released it, his gloved hand falling limply back beside him, as the hat drifted down to rest in the dirt.
"Why did you leave me?" he whispered, broken.
You promised to stay with me.
He pulled a single rose from a plastic bag, as perfect as they day it was grown, even though it was over a week old. He nestled it close to the stone, pushing it down so you could see the names written there.
Stephanie Edgely.
The sanctuary had finally caught up with them. Ghastly and Ravel had done their best to stop it, but when the Supreme Council found out about her being the World Breaker, there was nothing that could be done. They had run.
Darquesse.
When they caught him, he fought. He sacrificed himself for her, but it hadn't been enough. And as he had felt himself growing more desperate, the sound of her panicked screams filling his head… Lord Vile. And now he was a target too.
He remembered suggesting they split up, double the targets means half the pursuers. He remembered watching her sprint into a forest. Turning to face the enemy. Preparing to fight. He remembered hearing her scream, abandoning his fight, racing back into the trees just in time to see her collapse to the ground, her long black hair fanning out behind her, blood splattering against the grass.
Valkyrie Cain.
He vaguely remembered his own shout, rushing to her side, kneeling beside her. He didn't care about his muddy suit now, not when she was –
Not when she-
Where have you gone?
But it was too late, always too late, as she smiled sadly, and said –
And as he knelt in that quiet glade, with the trees swaying in the breeze, a clear sky, such a gorgeous place to visit, but it would never be the same, not with the tragedy witnessed there, and as he knelt beside her cold, limp body, that gentle glade grew cold and dark, the trees bent and cracked by the weight of they howling wind, and across the clear sky, such storm clouds grew, that the air was dark with rain, and he didn't bother to manipulate it, he didn't care about a mere storm, but she stayed dry and still in a bubble of air of his making, and suddenly it stopped, because –
Because –
He remembered.
He remembered her. How she used to steal his hat, how she would smile at his jokes, how she always knew what he was thinking, could always tell how he felt, knew every tilt of his head, understood him better than he knew himself. How he was happier with her, how he felt empty when she was gone, how she had made him a better person, how she had saved him countless times, and the look on her face when she would say –
Until the end.
And he remembered her as she told him to wear the navy-pinstripe suit for her funeral, remembered everything she did, everything she stood for, everything she was, the good and the bad, and remembered that one time, when she told him –
And he remembered how much he loved her, how he promised her to stay with her, how he saved her, how he –
How he –
I hate you.
But that wasn't true. He loved her. He loved her so much it hurt, so much more than he had said, why hadn't he said, so much more than his own life.
But he remembered how much he meant it when he said –
How much she meant it when she said –
"I love you."