The Apple of Eden did mysterious things, and one of them was saving my life. Although now I wish I could have died then, and finally be at peace, instead of sitting here, by the tombstone that has Cesare's name engraved in it, but his body does not lie in the earth below.
They took me away from the Vatican and into the countryside of Rome. After lying, practically dead, in a bed for eleven months I was able to walk on my own feet with the help of nurses. The Apple gave me my life, in exchange for the health and sanity of my body. I had forgotten what it felt like to not have your head pounding constantly and I had forgotten what it was like to function properly. Cesare was gone at the time I began to walk again, but one afternoon while I was out on the veranda, slowly walking around the gardens, I heard a voice and the sound of the reins of a horse.
"Louise, is that you?" he shouted, clearly shocked at seeing me standing upright.
He jumped off his horse and ran from the gates towards me, and my heart fluttered at seeing him. I did not have a real look at his face for almost a year, and he had aged heavily. His beard was not any longer, but it was thicker, and his hair was longer. The bags under his eyes were darker, and he looked… deprived.
The nurse had told me to not make any sudden movements, so against my desires; I stood still and opened my arms to Cesare.
"Darling, I've missed you so much," I sighed.
He held me tightly and said, "I thought it was a ghost, but it's you. You are really here, aren't you?"
"I cannot walk properly or I would have ran to you, dear Cesare," I said, holding his thinned face in my weak hands.
He then picked me off my feet and carried me easily around the garden.
"You never need to walk again, I will carry you anywhere that you wish to go," he said.
I had wondered if waiting so long had made him impatient, and I wondered if he had abandoned the love he had for me. What if he had a new lover at the Vatican waiting for him, and he just came to bid me farewell, in the heart wrenching way that I did to him?
He noticed the sadness in my face and said, "Have you changed your mind about me again, Louise?"
"Heavens no," I gasped. "I fear you have changed your mind about me. I know you could never have waited patiently for me for a year."
He stopped and placed me down on the same bench where I had decided to leave him those years ago. He sat down beside me and after a moment of silence, he spoke.
"What did I ever do to deserve such a wonderfully sickening feeling? I thought you would die. The Apple saved your life, but you were absolutely insane. I waited, but I cracked after the fourth month. I admit, only because I wish that you know nothing but the truth, that I had several women join me in my bed while you were sick, but I never cared about them. You must understand that I have needs, Louise, and I cannot let my heart and my body break at the same time. There was no way to fix the heartbreak, so at least I thought I could spare the liberties of women. You were the only one I thought about, in bed or in battle, and I loved you for all your horribly irritating traits. I loved you even when I couldn't say it. I wished to hear you say I love you, because I knew that my love was unconditional but yours was changing. I loved you when you lied to me about where you left in the evenings, I loved you when you abandoned me for two weeks to learn how to become a traitor, and I loved you even when you defied me and ran away with the Assassins. And when he stabbed you and we were in the carriage and you sighed, in a deathly whisper, that you loved me too, I wanted to take all the pain you felt and place it upon myself instead. Louise, my sweet lamb, I cannot begin to fathom how much emotion you have stirred in this cruel man."
I remembered every single word he spoke to me, and I recite it now, even when I know he will never speak another word to me again.
(Sorry for posting chapters so late! This is a little chapter before the FINAL chapter I post! That will posted by the end of May, at the latest, and I thank you for being committed to my unprofessional and small short story)