If Only I Told You Sooner

---Katherine---

I watched Indigo's gold stitches fly toward me. The portal was only about Aaron's height now, and exactly large enough for one person to pass through. At the rate the portal was closing, I might not make it through if I waited any longer. As the wind buffeted me, I carefully lifted my left leg and stepped over the portal's lower edge that was two feet off the ground and into the other world. Then I removed my left hand from the portal's edge and began shifting the left side of my body out of the portal, bit by bit. Aaron watched the shrinking of the portal anxiously. Since I felt no resistance from the portal and my healing magic didn't diminish, I began to slowly move the rest of my body over too.

In the moment where my center of mass was at a precarious balance between worlds and my right foot was about to leave the ground, I felt something grab my ankle and yank me back. I lost my balance immediately and toppled forward while my legs flew back. I slammed onto the ground face-first, hard. Then I felt myself being sucked back, as if in a vacuum. Flailing, I just barely managed to grip the edge of the portal with both hands and stop myself. Looking back, I saw a skeletal hand tightly wrapped around my ankle. A dirt-brown skull with black hollow eye-sockets snarled up at me. Lord Victor! He wasn't completely dead!

I screamed and tried to kick him away with my other leg, only for him to grab my other ankle as well. I felt myself slipping as the ground beneath me slowly crumbled away. "You're not going anywhere, Katherine," his raspy voice growled. "If I die, you shall perish with me!"

As the blood-red magic tugged on Lord Victor, he pulled on me harder. I struggled to keep my hands on the portal. If I let go, the portal will unravel, and everything will be destroyed.

"Kath!" Aaron lunged out and grabbed my left hand. He was only able to pull half of my forearm out before I was yanked back again. Aaron fell face-forward on the ground, but he refused to let go. The two of us lied on the ground, face to face, on opposite sides of a rapidly closing portal. Aaron gripped my hand tightly with both hands to keep me from being sucked away completely. "Kath, I'll—get—you—out—" Every word was a struggle as he tried to counter the large force that was pulling me away.

I watched the fierce determination on Aaron's dirt-stained and blood-streaked face, only inches away from mine. My right hand was still on the edge of the portal, pushing out the blue magic that was still stitching the portal shut. For every centimeter I was pulled back, Aaron was pulled forward, until our hands were at the boundary of the portal. Bloody cuts gradually covered the back of his hands. 'It's not going to work. He can't pull me out.'

As the implication of the situation sank in, a swell of sadness rose up in my chest. I swallowed the lump in my throat. "Aaron, you have to let go. Your hands are going to get cut off."

"No!" Aaron shouted, way louder than I've ever heard him. I was shocked to discover that his eyes were rimmed with red. "I won't let you go. I'm going to pull you out, Kath. Just hang on." His face contorted with effort as he struggled. I saw Indigo's anguished-filled face. The spear trembled in her hand, but it never stopped glowing.

"Indigo, we have to seal the portal. It's the only way to destroy Lord Victor once and for all." I met her gaze. "You understand, don't you?"

She nodded, tears falling down her cheeks like pearls from a broken necklace. "Katherine, I—" She let out a choked sob. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She couldn't continue, but I understood. Something warm trickled onto my hand. I looked down to see blood running all over our hands from Aaron's open cuts.

"Aaron, let go. You're really going to lose your hands." I said gently. He gripped my hand tighter.

"No. I'd rather lose my hand than lose you!" Tears flickered in his eyes.

Meeting his eyes caused tears welled up in my own eyes. The lump in my throat returned.

"Aaron…" I tried to speak. He cut me off.

"Kath. I remember. I said I didn't remember, but I do." Aaron interlaced his fingers with mine—for a better grip or for something else, I didn't know. His hands were warm. His eyes looked into mine, and I felt myself falling into them. "That night, at Josephine's…I kissed you. I remember. I pretended I didn't because I didn't know how you'd react. But Kath, I want you to know that I didn't just kiss you because I was drunk. I kissed you because I like you, Kath. I like you, Katherine!"

Even though I was at the brink of being pulled away, even though the wind was roaring loudly and Lord Victor's clasp threatened to snap my ankles in half, I felt everything fall away. It was just me, and the boy I never thought would like me back. My heart thundered in my ears. 'He remembers.'

"For a long time, I wasn't sure how I felt. I was confused. But now I realize how stupid and blind I was." The pain in his eyes broke my heart. A single tear escaped his eye and splattered to the ground. Several more followed. "I should have told you sooner, Kath. I—"

I smiled at Aaron through the tears that now blurred my vision. Lord Victor's grips on my ankles were like iron. My legs felt like they could be pulled off me at any moment. Aaron was being pulled forward centimeter by centimeter, but he stubbornly held on. I didn't have much time left.

"Aaron, I like you too. I've liked you for a while now." I squeezed his hand. "I was always scared to tell you, because I didn't think you would like me back. I always thought that I would have time. That we would have time. Except, now, we don't."

"We have time. We will have time. Kath, I will get you out. We're going to go back to the Academy together, like we said we would. We promised that we would go home together." Determination shone in Aaron's eyes, but it couldn't mask the fear and pain that were in them. Blood from the open cuts on his hands formed a small puddle on the ground, but he gritted his teeth and held on.

Out of the edge of my eye, I saw that Indigo's and my magic were quickly sealing the portal shut. The entire portal shuddered as the red swirling void behind me pulled harder. Lord Victor clung to me as a fatal dead-weight, and I saw Aaron's muscles strain as he tried to hold on. If I didn't do anything, both of us would be pulled in—and Aaron would die as he crossed the threshold.

Aaron must've seen something in my eyes, because he began to shake his head rapidly. "No, Kath, no. Stop. Kath, no—"

I smiled sadly and squeezed his hand one last time. "I'm sorry. I'll miss you, Aaron."

Then I opened my palm, and my hand slipped from Aaron's grasp. At the same time, I channeled all the healing magic I had left into the portal.

"KATH!" Aaron's despairing face disappeared as gold and blue magic sealed the portal shut. His despairing cry was all I heard as I was dragged backwards into the void and my world was swallowed by red—red, like the roses that bloomed around the Academy; red, like Aaron's blood that stained my hand; red, like my beating heart that would soon stop as the nothingness devoured me.