She was brave and strong, but she was also all broken."
His fingers rested delicately on her cheek staining it with blood and he wasn't sure if it was his or hers, and while the blood trickled through the wounds staining his military suit, while the life slipped through the fatal wounds he had only one thing in mind and that was the only responsibility that while he continued to breathe he had the duty to fulfill: to let her go.
And letting her go was a reality that gnawed at his insides and devoured his heart in moments when saying goodbye in the most hostile circumstances was his daily bread. And there she was with the eternity of her radiant and innocent ignorance, her right arm hung lifelessly from her body while a trickle of blood flowed from the smile that in the midst of the war she gave him.
And he felt like a damn dog, as if her enemy was not the one behind in the trenches hiding in the bushes, but, standing there in front of him, the cause of all his pain and it was so ironic because if you look at her how could a human being smile while its flesh is being detached from the bone falls inert in front of you?
Some would say that she is not human, that she never was, but they don't know that war made her cold and senseless, she had conquered pain almost from conception and there she looked at him waiting for the next attentive order and dodging bullets and grenades."
The memories of the last moment Gilbert had shared with Violet were violent and intense in the midst of bombardment, blood and remorse, Violet watched as the study door closed behind the back of Gilbert's head and Dietfried's crestfallen, defeated gaze.
And she couldn't help but feel guilty, her heart was beginning to divide at the look of one or the other, but in reality her heart strangely had already made its decision, it was sense, guilt and remorse at having looked happy when perhaps Gilbert's life as she discovered herself weighed heavily on her.
The saddest feelings burned with them in that siege and the cruelest, most one-sided decision into a dark hole in her heart, one that would never stop hurting, a wound that would never stop bleeding.
"you must go, violet for whatever you love most please go" the major's desperation in his tone only made violet even more determined to stay and save him, violet reached out and tried with her teeth to drag him to a safer place, but the major's weight was too much for his scourged little body.
"violet... you have to live" he looked at her confused as to what they meant by live " is that an order?" she asked in a daze, the major sketched a slight smile, he looked up at her " I love you, from the bottom of my heart, live" ".
Violet was not the only one who felt guilty, Gilbert was carrying the weight of his own feelings, of his own selfish decisions, not realizing that Violet was actually going to do what he once asked her to do and that was to live, but deep down he wished she could come back to him once she found out what his words meant, that she could give meaning to his statement and in her journey she would not have found someone to call love.
The door thundered shut, inside that study the conflicting hearts of two brothers jeopardized the tranquility of the Bouganvillean home. Dietfried sat in his study leaning his elbow against the table and his cheek against his palm. Gilbert did not notice his brother and turned to the huge bookcase adorning the wall near the fireplace, a small green blanket on the chair caught his eye and he reached over to touch it. "Violet knitted it, she likes to read here."
Gilbert turned to his brother, his eyes hit her pupils like hurricanes, amidst Dietfried's surprise at how his brother was naturally drawn to anything that would lead to her, while Gilbert realized how Violet had brought warmth to his brother's coldest places.
Gilbert walked over to the table and sat across from his brother, Dietfried looked at him carefully, each and every one of his wounds, time does not pass in vain, and the things we do not say, we do not do make us slaves, Gilbert had lost an eye and an arm, but the toll had been more than physical, something of his soul had also taken Violet and the war.
Although Dietfried had not lost anything physical, his confidence had become insecure, and that determined and serious look had softened, maybe those were the effects of Violet, Gilbert bit his lips inside, remembering that he was the one who asked Dietfried to take care of her, without realizing it was him who took Violet directly to his brother.
Dietfried smiled stupidly, perhaps trying to make him uncomfortable in some way, then his hand rested on hers "welcome home brother" were the words that came out of his mouth and in a moment of silence.
