I could hear it, his words as they vibrated through the air, through me. Even as he faded away in front of my eyes I could hear his words with the last gush of the air, chilling me to the bone. “So please...Don’t give up on me.” He whispered, before all of the noise behind me faded away. I pressed my hands to my eyes, shaking in the cold as the wind whipped around me. I could feel my sorrow in the silence of the clearing behind me, the howling of the wind, and the shrieking cry of my mother as she fell to her knees, left all alone in the clearing.
I ran to her, falling to my knees next to her as I wrapped my arms around her, and together we cried, like the innocent children we were deep down inside, both of us feeling the terror of our childhood selves thrown back in our faces once more.
