“I will tell her,” Drei said when I started coming to again. I
felt different; I was just as close to death as I had been, but I felt emptier
now…less like a person.
Opening my eyes, even Drei was blurry, and his voice was
beginning to drift away from me. He bowed his head to kiss my hand, his cheeks
shining. “They removed the bullets…but you have suffered a great deal of internal
damage and blood loss, and…” His voice trailed off. What feeling I had left
told me his hands were trembling. “Your condition has been stabilized, but they
cannot be sure for how long.” Even without the air to tell me, I knew he was in
an immense amount of pain, and I wanted to stop him from hurting. As much as he
had put me through, I didn’t want that for him.
A spot of blue showed up and pulled Drei’s attention away. He
whispered at it to leave him alone. To go away. Slowly, he turned back to me. “I
cannot live without you, Abriel,” he murmured, the words barely reaching me. “The
past months have been so incredibly difficult—I am immeasurably sorry. I left
you alone and—”
“I love you,” I somehow managed, feeling wetness on my hand,
though that might have been my imagination. My lips formed the words, but I
couldn’t be sure they had been said.
“Abriel, no. Please stay with me, please—”
“Take care,” I mouthed, closing my eyes. There was no more
time to stall. It was done.
“You cannot leave me—Abriel, stay with…”
Everything was done.
I had failed.
No comments:
Post a Comment