Terrible, terrible things that weigh too much.
Terrible things I can’t undo.
Another stiff shake tosses my head around.My chin smacks against my chest, and a burst of red explodes across the backs of my lids as I bite my tongue that’s cold and clumsy, tasting blood.
Eyes prying open, I take in the blurry profile of a woman with familiar shape …
Colors …
Smells …
Butter and spice, cut with the sharp scent of fierce, erupting emotions that battle the musk ofhim.
Hands too warm and small andnot his.
Because he’s gone.
Because I …
I …
“I don’t want to feel.”
The words flow without shape or heart or the will to sink their roots into soil. Without the petals of hope, happiness, sadness, grief …
Empty as my empty heart—confirmed by a mighty, unfathomable entity. Cawed words that call me now.
I blink away, open my eyes on the empty, the cold, the end.
Peer into that fathomless pupil.
I drift closer …
Closer …
Something hard collides with my face, smacking me into my too-tight skin—crammed into all the nooks and crannies. “Don’t you dare die.”
I’m rolled across a sea of soft blankets I want to wither amongst. Ice clogs my veins as hands slide beneath my knees and back, and I’m tucked against a warm chest, lifted, floating …
Floating away from the smell ofhim.
I mumble.
Groan.
Plead.
“Geis ta ne vale—es tin nah!”
The string of sharp, crooked words lump upon me, the curled edges rolling off Zali’s tongue like a gentle pat after a scalding smack.
Guess she got my note. Meaning she knows I—
I whimper, warm mist settling upon my cheeks and hands. Gurgling, splashing sounds erupt around me, echoing, coaxing the image of a frothy waterfall to etch upon the back of my lids.
Again, I’m standing on the edge of that cliff, watchinghimdisappear through the pillow of mist, falling from my life in devastating detail.
I can see the pain in the flat pools of his eyes, his outstretched hands an invitation for me to fall with him.
