Too Late
We are all broken, but some of us are more broken than others.
And, sometimes, our broken pieces cut others as much as we try to keep them from doing so.
“No.”
The word filtered through Cassidy’s lips just above a whisper, realization washing over her as she placed a hand gently upon Peter’s cheek. Tears began to pool at the brim of her eyes.
“You can’t leave me. Not now.” A few tears escaped and began rolling gently down her porcelain cheeks. “I love you.”
Her cerulean hues searched his lifeless face for any signs of a return. Signs that perhaps he had heard her words, but there was nothing to be found. He just continued to lay there, lifeless, with no hope of ever coming back.
She pressed on, keeping her voice soft knowing that if she spoke a decibel louder that she wouldn’t be able to control her tears.
“I’m sorry it took me so long. I should have said it sooner. I love you, Peter Herring. Please…just…just come back to me.”
Her voice broke on the last word as she tipped her head forward and placed the barest of kisses upon his lips. The tears cascaded freely now and she didn’t bother to stop them. There was no point. He was gone and she’d never felt more alone.
She was a believer. A believer in the saying that true love can break any curse, but this? This wasn’t a curse. Nor was this a fairy tale. She wasn’t a princess and he wasn’t a prince. A kiss, true love or not, couldn’t resurrect the dead. Cassidy could hope. She could wish upon all the stars in the universe, throw all her coins into a wishing well, but nothing would bring him back. That was the thought that broke her. Shattered all her beliefs in the fraction of a second.
He was everything that she could have wanted and she had him, but she continuously pushed her own feelings aside. He’d done so much bad that she refused to let herself see the good. The changed man. Now it was too late. She had realized too late that though she could choose to ignore her real feelings for him, they would never go away.
Deep down, she always knew it. Accepting it was an entirely different thing.
Now. Now that she had finally accepted it, now that she realized that she loved him as much as he loved her, he was gone. Taken from her. A past he’d tried to bury had caught up with him and now he was dead.
Her tears turned into sobs, breathing becoming a difficult thing to do. Her head was buried against the crook of his neck, hands gripping the fabric of his hospital gown, unwilling to let him go just yet. In that moment, it was just them. Nothing else mattered to her. Nothing.