Fragments Gallery
Then He Was Gone
"My life for your life."
Those were the last words I had heard him say before he stepped from the ledge into the fire. Those five words and then he was gone. He took my place.
After all I had done.... After all the pain I had put him through he had still been willing to do that one last thing for me. Why? Why had he done that? Why had he still cared?
I don’t understand. It should have been me. It had been my burden.
Tears ran down my skin as I numbly stared at that window, at that ledge. It didn't make sense. I had broken his heart and he had still given his life for me. I'd never intended to hurt him, but things never turn out as we might wish. I'd asked him to be there for me when I was ready but then found that I couldn't be there for him.
All I'd wanted to do was let him down easy, but it hadn't gone well. I'd lost him.
Then when he told me how I'd made him feel he lost me.
But in spite of everything he took my place…
It had started out fine. He'd wanted to talk to me so we met in our old spot; it was a small alcove high in an outer wall of the factory. The alcove was well lit, if a bit sandy. Both streamed in through the open full height window that covered the outside wall. Beyond that exposed portal was an endless sea of rusty sand. As elevated as we were the view was always breath taking.
It was a safe place; we both knew that while there we would be alone. It wasn't much but it was ours.
We were talking things out when they found us.
Their shuttle had flashed in and come to a hover beyond the open window. He had looked out through the portal as the shuttle pulled up, confusion clear upon his face.
It was them, they'd found me.
"You have a debt to us," the shuttle operator had rumbled, "Time to pay it."
He saw the look on my face and his confusion had dissolved. Without hesitation he had stood to take my place. I wish I could say that I had tried to stop him, had I been less stunned I would have; but instead I only stared in shock as he walked to that open window.
Outside the shuttle had shifted upwards and a wall of orange energy phased in.
"My life for your life,” he had said, his eyes locked on mine, as he took that last step.
His body had dematerialized and been swept up into the bottom of the craft. The orange light dissipated and the shuttle flashed out of sight. They were gone and I was alone.
One thought kept racing through my mind; it was me that they had wanted. It had been my bad pact that had brought them down on us. But they didn't care; they had their captive. They had their slave.
I don't know what to do.
He was gone.
Gone.