𝘚𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘴, 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘓𝘪𝘦𝘴

The Hanging (part 2)

The moments have gone too fast. Love lasts forever in your hearts but cannot last forever in the lives of the people who love.

Love. The one act that can bring two people so perfectly together. True love hides no secrets. Secrets. The choice a person can make to be truthful or to hide away. Secrets result in lies. Lies. The worst part is saying but not telling. Lies can cause the secrets to be revealed. When secrets unravel, love comes crashing down.

This is all I think as I am taken towards the stage. Love. Secrets. Lies. Lies. Secrets. Love. Secrets. Love. Lies.

That is all I have known. What I have been born into. What I wanted to stop.

As I am turned by the Guards to face the crowd from the stage of death, I glimpse Wymond: a sorry state but still the Hunter I fell in love with weeks ago. I can see the pain rebounding off him from the way he holds his body; shoulders down and hands balled into fists.

I look out to the ready and waiting spectators below me. It is packed. The whole town has come out to watch this show.

Finally the King steps up to a podium far from the towns folk - or scum - standing and chattering below. He raises his head and addresses the audience.

I do not listen to what that bastard has to say though. I focus on my deep thoughts of what happens next. Where one goes and what one feels. I am ready. I am.

I risk a peek at Wymond and when he feels my eyes on him, he turns his head to me. There is such a strong connection there that we know what we are both thinking. We are ready. I smile at him and immediately feel insane for doing it but I do not wipe it off my face. He mirrors me before turning back to the crowd and showing them that he is not afraid. I do the same. As my eyes skim the horde, they fall on a familiar face. White blonde hair, an important stance, but he is within the folk. Ferox is not by his Kings side but standing with poorer people. Our eyes are locked. They are still locked when people begin to cheer and the Guards move around me. I see them flash with something and all at once he dissolves into the rabble. With the strange connection broken, I am bought to my senses. I take another look at Wymond just as he looks at me. The noose is placed over my head and tightened. With my hands chained, I cannot repel. Even if my hands were not restricted, I think that I would not try to break away. All the time, my eyes are trained on Wymond. I will make sure his face is the last one I see. Those eyes will be the last ones I see. I hear a roar from the crowd but it is as if I am underwater. I block everything out. Everything. I suddenly hear Wymonds voice in my head from after he was tortured: 'what has happened has happened.' It is in that split moment that I recall the happiest times of my life: being with Lena - a far off memory from when we were young; meeting Wymond, falling in love; countless nights in which Lena and I would get no sleep - stealing food from the kitchen in pure darkness...

Still Wymond and I stare at each other. Somewhere in the distance I hear the crowd roar again. I know it is time. We know it is time.

Simultaneously we say our dying words.

"I love you."

I cannot hear his voice but I see it in his eyes. The last eyes I will see.