Last updated on November 21, 2021

              I opened my eyes, and bright yellow light poured into my sight before my surroundings came into focus. I lay in a glade, the sky raining down her sunlight. Soft grass beneath my back had been matted down, and scattered flowers painted myriad colors against the green of grass. Dark blotches of red, blue, and purple blended with the surrounding sea of golden light. The stillness of the forest unnerved me. I heard not the buzzing of insects, the gentle whisper of the wind, nor the chattering cries of wildlife.

              I tried to sit up. Soreness threw me back down. I grunted in annoyance.

              “You should stay down,” a girl’s voice said behind me. “You’ve been hurt badly.”

              I shift my head in the girl’s direction, looking to see who it was.

              “We meet again,” she said.

              I looked away in contempt.

              “You seem different . . . .”

              Despite my pain, I sat up. “So do you.”

              She knelt next to me. I averted her gaze.

              “How are you?” she asked. “Why are you alone?”

              I said nothing.

              “Where are the others?”

              “I’ve left them.”

              She frowned, confused. “Why?”

              “I chose to.”

              “What happened to you?”

              “I could ask the same of you.”

              She sighed. “Don’t be like that.”

              “How do you expect me to act?” I growled. “I haven’t been the same since I met you!”

              Her chin lifted into a pout, her lip almost imperceptibly quivering.

              “You never knew how much you hurt me,” I said. “You never realized. Have you any idea what I’ve been through in the past three years?”

              “I’ve actually met some of the others,” she admitted. “They told me of your hardships . . . I wanted to see you.”

              I stood up to leave, grunting as I clutched my side, feeling the warm liquid seeping through the bandages. I nearly collapsed.

             She caught me, but couldn’t bear my weight, clumsily laying me down. “You need to rest.”

              Black dots swarmed my sight. Dizziness swept through my body. She gently laid me onto the ground. I realized I couldn’t breathe. I gasped and my vision focused again. Her head blocked the sun, but I could still see her beautiful face. I slowly blinked once, and I saw my hand upon her cheek. Her large brown eyes looked into my soul. I felt naked, vulnerable, exposed. I didn’t care. I liked it.

              I sighed tiredly, weakly placing my hand on her cheek. “Why did you have to leave me?”

              She spoke softly, almost whispering. “You know I didn’t want to.”

              My hand fell from her face and onto my heavy chest, right above my heart. “You know, sometimes I wish I wasn’t so ignorant or foolish. Maybe then . . . things might have been different. Maybe then . . . we could have been together.”

              She took my hand, and held tightly.

              Glistening liquid filled her eyes, eventually building up into a droplet. The gleaming bead of sorrow sailed across her smooth cheek, leaving behind a path of memories. The droplet survived its trek, now making its way to her chin. A moment passed before it froze, then it dived into the air below. In an explosive crash, the boulder of liquid smashed into my tunic before diffusing into the cloth.

              I felt the cold wetness touch the skin above my dying heart; my pain lessened.

              “Some things never change.”

              Her eyes filled, and pain took her face. She held me as I closed my eyes in surrender.