• He begins to walk away, off into cataclysm grove.
    He fiddles with the cross around his slender neck

    Does he know I’m following him?
    Does he know how I feel…?

    …No…
    I know he doesn’t…

    I wish he did though,
    I hope he does eventually

    I get closer and tap his shoulder
    He slowly turns

    In his expression I see,
    Sympathy,
    Grief,
    Confusion,
    But most of all…sadness

    It’s not like him to be sad

    His red eyes, so full of emotion

    “Have you heard?”
    “Heard what?” I asked confused
    “I…”

    It’s not like him to cry, but at that moment I saw it…
    I saw a tear
    I stared at him, unable to speak
    I could feel tears beginning to weld in my eyes just at the sight of him

    I knew I was going to hear bad news

    “I know you love me…” he began “I know you don’t want anything bad to happen, but you can’t follow me, not this time…”

    The tears began to flow, my voice shook, my lip quivered. I cried.

    “No! You can’t leave. Not now…I…” I sobbed

    “Rita, there’s nothing you can do”
    “Tesu…”

    He walked up to me and placed his pale cold hand on my face.

    “There’s something I must do…I must do it alone…”
    “No, I lost you once! I won’t lose you again!” I practically screamed
    “Rita!”

    His face was serious

    “If you love me, you’ll let me do this…!”

    …he won…
    …there’s no way I could say no, not this time…

    “Why can’t I go? I said as he began to walk away.
    He turned his head

    “Personal reasons, family reasons”

    And he vanished into the mist