Chapter 251: The Last Battle

He's falling again and I can't stop him. I reach for him with the desperation of one who will not survive without him. The earth swallows his tall, beautiful form, devouring his strawberry blond waves, his hazel eyes flecked with green, until only one hand reaches upward for me, the earth eating him alive.

I scream his name, dive for him. It takes forever to hit the ground. It vibrates under me, the tiny seedling bursting from the dark loam that smells of fabric softener and spring. I have to leap away as the oak tree explodes from that small, green bit of life, erupting as though it had been waiting for this moment. It looms over me, vast and powerful, before it turns to steel.

My hands grasp for the metal tree, tears soaking the now hard ground, but he's gone and only this monolith of cold remains. But no, it's hot, heating up under my desperate grasp, burning me as I cry out and fall away.

Falling, into darkness.