takes

"W-What?"

I snapped my gaze back to him, my heart skipping a beat. He still have his eyes on the ground, and now I wish I could get a full look of his face. This must be a joke, a terrible joke like all of the jokes he had said.

But it seems that it was far from that.

"I am dying, Aneeka. I-I'm sorry if I took long to come back."

This can't be.

"No... No, you're not. Don't lie to me, Mason. Please, no more lies..."

He shook his head, and all of it came crashing down. It was then that what he said sinked into me, and I was drowning. Again. But now, he was drowning with me.

"Y-You... You can't die."

He can't. I don't want to believe it. I refuse to believe it. I refuse to believe him.

The bastard was laughing, like he was finding the situation amusing. Yet, it was pained, there was no joy or happiness. It was not what a laugh should have been.

"I left to get cured, but I'm dying anyways."

He hugged the flowers closer to his chest, and I wish that was me between his arms instead.

"I left for nothing. I left and I lost you," he whispered but I could hear it so clearly.

"I thought not telling you a thing would save you from the hurt, so I didn't. I didn't tell you why I left, I vanished completely from your world just so you couldn't see me being weak, suffering."

He shook his head once again, gasping loudly, hugging the flowers tighter.

Regret. That was the emotion radiating off him, an emotion I can feel tenfold, an emotion that reflects my own.

"But I was wrong. I was so so wrong, Aneeka."

I could here his smile from what he said, but I doubt it was because of joy or happiness either. I wanted to take his face into my hands and put his forehead against mine. He used to do it to calm me down back then. But now, I can't do it, not anymore.

He caressed the slab of stone between us, the stone I refused to acknowledge ever since it was made and put there. He caressed it with fondness, but I could see how his hand would shake.

Tears betrayed me as they escape from my eyes, not finding the strength to stop them again this time. Heart-wrenching sobs clawed through my throat, and muffling them with my trembling hands did little to none.

I want to finally see his face, but I did nothing to voice out what I was longing for.

Instead, I continued to wait.

Just wait.

Because that's all I can do.

"And now, you're gone. I couldn't save you at all."