“Ah… I almost forgot.”

  The voice of the man bleeding out on the asphalt was faint. He brought a hand to his neck with great difficulty, and a metallic jingle resounded in the night. From his bloodied fingers hung a silver cross, gleaming, spotless. It didn’t stay that way for long, as thin droplets of red soon began dripping down the chain.

  “This… is for you. I know-I know you don’t believe and… you must think it’s dumb and sappy but, like this… maybe I can keep protecting you after I’m gone, eh?”

  And he smiled. Sabrina, her head hanging low, extended her hand without realizing and felt the cold metal against her.

  “Haha, what a mess, huh? I couldn’t… couldn’t even hold hands with you, though… I’m sure you’re not the type anyway, heh.”

  A white, frozen speck fell on top of their interlaced fingers. Snow.

  “You’re free now, but y’know… that life you told me about, I would’ve loved to see it… with you. Ha… Haha… What’s with that face? Are you sad?”

  That comment was the last straw; Sabrina couldn’t keep it in anymore.

  “O-of course I am!”

  “...Promise me. From now on, don’t ever stop. Break through those walls. You have… to see that horizon, no matter what. Can you promise me that?”

  The frozen specks of white were raining upon them now, piling up all around them, atop their clothes, atop the puddle of blood growing at their feet. Sabrina nodded, almost automatically.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  The man’s tired, near-sightless eyes looked up at the night sky. And a nostalgic smile formed on his lips.

  “Look,” he said. “It’s snowing.”

  -

  “It’d be nice if it snowed. Then again, it hasn’t snowed in Saffron for over fifty years, so…” She realized what she was saying and tensed up. “I don’t really care, not like it makes any difference to me,” she quickly added.

  “Ha! You are a brat, see? You wanna play in the snow, don’t you?”

  -

  “H…hey,” Sabrina muttered, an edge of desperation to her voice. Her hands were trembling. “What-what I said at the Gym earlier today, that… that I didn’t care about you, that was… all a lie, you know?”

  Silence was her only answer.

  “...Hey?”

  His cold fingers no longer applied pressure against hers.

  “You… you heard me, right?”

  She was shaking so hard the jingling of the chain was all she could hear.

  The wildest, most ridiculous thoughts piled up on her brain one after another. She wondered, against all logic, if there’d be a way to turn back the clock, to save him… any way, anything.

  Kneeling over his body, both of her hands pressed so tightly against the cross it hurt, Sabrina lowered her head and spoke, caring not for how ludicrous and pathetic she sounded.

  “Please, if you’re there… if you’re really there, please, I-I beg you… bring him back. I don’t care what I have to do, please, I’d… I’d give anything, I’D GIVE ANYTHING!!!”

  The scream tore her throat apart. She hadn’t even noticed the tears falling, crystalline, over her bloodied cheeks. After a few long seconds, her expression shifted. Twisted into pure, boiling anger, she let out another scream and punched the blanket of snow beneath her, burying the cross deep into it.

  Would it…

  Would it be so bad… to lay down and die here, alongside him?