Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
GAbrIEL
Aki’s body broke apart before my eyes, collapsing into a pile of cherry blossoms.
I blinked, submerged in numbness, my brain steps behind reality.
The flowers withered, becoming ashes.
“Aki?”
The room turned bitter, as if winter had been turned on.
“Aki?”
Sorrow pierced my heart, one shard at a time.
He’s gone.
The ache of grief tremored in my bones.
He’s gone.
A terrible truth, one I couldn’t swallow yet, remained glued to my back. Squeezing every drop of vitality from me, leaving nothing but a wasteland behind.
He’s gone.
“Aki…”
Laughter in my ears, faint yet cruel. Mocking me, mocking my love.
“Who…who are you?”
Only silence followed. Nothing but silence and the heavy, unbearable weight of loss.
Aki is gone.
“That’s right,” a horrible voice spoke inside my head.
My jaw tightened.
“Akira is dead,” the woman continued, every syllable grinding stone. “Away from you. Fading away. A memory now. The price you have paid for loving him. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead.”
A drumbeat of sorrow forced me to my knees. My heart shattered like a vase thrown against a wall.
“Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead. Dead.”
“Aki…” I whimpered “Aki…”
My life…
…my life is over.