"So I guess this is it,
itn's it?
There are no more chapters,
right? You said we were getting close and that was a while
ago."
I stared up into the sky, it was the same old sky there had
always been, except for some rainclouds that hadn't been
there a few minutes ago. It wasn't raining, but they were
still floating up there, grey and dismal.
You begin to ask me something.
"Don't ask me how I know, I just do. Things just feel
really final right now, like the downward slope is starting to
level out. Eventually... We'll hit the back cover,
right?"
I sat down on a bench-had that been there a few minutes ago? It
was too hard to tell.
"Did you say yes? I think I heard you. Your voice keeps
getting harder to hear."
Thunder rumbled, but... it wasn't like the thunder I'm
used to. It sounded like you, and it sounded sad. From one of
the clouds a single drop of rain feel on the grainy wood of the
bench.
"... You're crying, aren't you? I'm sorry,
I'm really sorry. I wish I could change this. I wish I
could reach where you are."
Thunder rolled again, and behind it was a voice. Your
voice.
"Me? I'll be fine, I thinkg. I don't know if this
has ever happened before. I don't really know what happens
when you... close the book."
You ask me if I'm afraid.
And oddly, I"m not.
"No, actually. Because... whatever happens to me when you
close the cover... you can always open the book up again,
right?" and that's when the answer hits me, the
realization jolting me to stand again. "That's it,
isn't it? You can open it back up. The words won't
change, but I'll still be here. You can meet me all over
again, and I can meet you, and everything we have will come
back."
It's raining now, and the clouds have merged together, and
in them, for the first time, I see you.
You are the most beautiful person I have ever seen in my entire
life.
You're crying, but it's quiet, and maybe that was the
sound of your tears hitting the paper.
I realize that we don't have a lot of time.
"Listen- before it's all over- I want you to know that
everything, all of this... even being over, it was worth it. It
was worth it to meet you, to get to know you. Even if when you
close that cover and I disappear-it was all worth it. I love
you."
You love me too, I know it, I can feel it, just like for a
moment I can feel what it would be like to hold your hand.
There is a very long pause, and I realize you're prolonging
what has to happen.
"You can do it."
For the first time, you have to be the hero. You have to close
the book so we can keep going.
"I beleive in you. "
The sky gets darker, slowly, but then it gets light again, and
your face is still up in those clouds. You open your mouthand
for the first time I HEAR you, not just feel what you're
saying or understand you in my own head, your voice comes
through the pages in your world and into the reality of mine,
and it reverberates and I can hear every little nuance, down to
the hitch from your crying.
"I'll never forget you," you say, "I'll
come back soon."
-FIN-
Plot twist:
"I love you." She whispered softly closing the book.
Her fantasy must end and he must die with it no matter how
great their love. Tears fell from her eyes, landing upon the
hard worn cover of her most beloved book. The book in which
lied the love of her life. the book that loved her back. She
ached to open it again but she could not continue like this.
She must moce on and live a life not in her precious book. Sobs
racked her body as she walked to the shelf. It was only for a
time, she told herself. That she would come back again and read
the story of her love again and that she may fall in love
again.
Whipping her eyes she turned toward the door, but froze in her
tracks.
A man stood there, concern lining his every feature. She knew
that face. It was exactly as she had pictured it, from every
line of his jawto the exact color of his eyes. This can't
be possible.
"Why are you crying?" Oh, his voice. That was his
voice. It was as soothing as she had imagined. Her knees grew
weak and her mind went numb. She struggled for words as he
approached her slowly, he knelt before her and touched her
cheek, worry etched in his gentle movement.
"What's wrong? Has something happened?"
She could only choke out, "You're real?"
~W r i t t e n b y t
h e l o v e l y u s e r s o f T u m b l
r~
