If Ash had tried to touch me again, I knew I would never be able to bear it. But by myself, I was helpless and inert. Pain. Indescribable, excruciating pain ensured that not even a single inch would be spared of me.
The pain I'd undergo from the slightest contact, the wails of utter agony that'll resound across these very walls... more pain was the last thing I desired.
Ash understood that fact well and clear.
That's why her hands, blotched slender outlines from my point of view, would tremble and shake as she slowly, nervously lowered them around me.
Because more pain was what she was about to afflict me with.
I heard her voice, a fading echo that seemed so far away. What she said, how she said it, I do not know. But her face, her eyes, past the tears that streamed down my own, spoke louder than any yell I could muster.
"Forgive me."
I didn't know when, I didn't know how.