The poison had nearly claimed him. His body felt like stone, his breath shallow and ragged. The air was heavy with earth and decay, the weight of everything he had lost pressing down on him. His mind, once sharp, was now clouded, and each heartbeat felt like the last.
She was gone.
The thought clung to him like a shadow. No matter how he tried, he could not escape it. She was gone, and the world had turned colder, emptier. His chest tightened—not only for her absence but for his own failure. He had promised to protect her, to stand by her side, yet she had slipped through his grasp like sand in the wind.
The poison spread insidiously through his veins, his body growing numb and heavy. Pain no longer reached him—only emptiness remained. The hollow ache in his chest mirrored the void where her laughter had once lived, where her touch had soothed him. Now, there was nothing but silence.
His mind drifted to the last time their eyes had met. Her face, full of fear yet determination. Her lips trembling with words she had never spoken, her hands pressing against his as if anchoring them both to a world they no longer fully inhabited. That moment felt like another life, distant and untouchable.
He closed his eyes, striving to recall the warmth of her smile, the softness of her presence, the way she had looked at him and promised she would never leave. But those memories blurred, slipping away as his own consciousness faltered. Each breath carried him further into darkness.
His fingers twitched, grasping at nothing, seeking a tether to the world. Only the cold earth remained beneath him, and the relentless poison sealed his fate. He remembered the quiet nights by the fire, the laughter, the unspoken language they shared, the love that had once been everything. All of it now felt like a distant dream, fading into the void.
A single tear slipped down his cheek—the last testament of his sorrow. He had tried to save her, to follow her through fire and storm. But it was not enough. Alone on the cold ground, he felt the crushing weight of his failure.
His hand rested trembling against his chest. He could not recall the last time he had felt whole, truly alive. Perhaps a part of him had died the moment he had let her go, believing she would be safe without him.
The world grew dim. The poison tightened its grip. He reached for the memory of her, tried to feel her presence one last time, but it slipped through his grasp like water. There was no comfort. No voice to soothe. Only the raw, unrelenting truth: she was gone, and nothing remained for him in this world.
With the last of his strength, he whispered into the silence, barely audible: "I love you."
The silence did not answer. There was no response, no sign that his words had reached her. Only the void remained.
And then, he let go.
His final breath was quiet. A surrender. The world went dark, and with it, he faded into nothingness, leaving behind only the ghost of a love that would never be fulfilled.