All Trolls go to Heaven (Rewrite)

Chapter 28

Poppy stared wide eyed at Branch as she slowly shook her head in disbelief at what he had just told her...

"N... no, Branch... you... you can't..." she whimpered softly, tears beginning to form in her beautiful pink eyes. "You can't..."

     With a sigh, Branch looked away from her in despair as he clutched his watch tightly in his hand, his ear twitching slightly as he listened to the soft ticking coming from it...

"I'm sorry, Poppy..." he finally muttered softly, so softly that the young queen could barely hear what he had just said.

Tears now flowing from her eyes, Poppy quickly jumped into Branch, hugging him tight as she began crying into his shoulder, refusing to let go of him...

     It took a moment, but the little blue troll finally hugged back, his eyes slowly falling shut as his heart ached in sorrow, knowing that this would be the last hug he ever shared with the love of his life...

"Please don't do this," Poppy begged, her face buried deep into Branch's soft skin. "I... I have to... you can't stay down here for the rest of your life," he said, pulling away slightly from the hug so that he could look her in the eyes. "It's no good for you... You'll be miserable. And... and I just can't stand to see you miserable..."
"I'll be miserable without you!" she cried, wrapping her arms back around him. "And if you go... I'll... I'll never see you again... you'll be gone, Branch... lost in eternal pain and sorrow forever... you'll suffer... forever... is that really what you want?"

At the sound of that, Branch took a deep breath before gently nuzzling his head into hers.

     "You deserve to be happy, Poppy..." he finally whispered into her ear, hugging her close to himself. "Even if it means... I won't get to be..."

     Again, he pulled away, Poppy seeing the tears sparkling in his crystal blue eyes as he gazed sadly at her...

     "You're more important than I am, Poppy..." he continued softly. "Your happiness... your life... it's worth so much more than mine..."
"Branch..." Poppy started, but he quickly cut her off, continuing to speak as he looked her right in the eye...

"I love you, Poppy. So much..." he told her with a slight smile. "Ever since I first met you... I knew I would do anything to keep you safe... to keep you happy... and this... this is just one of those things I have to do... for you..."

Again, he pulled away from her, wiping away his tears before slowly beginning to walk towards the bunker elevator, his head low and ears drooped down in despair, knowing the painful truth of what needed to be done...

"You promised you would never leave me!" Poppy suddenly yelled out after him, her voice mixing with both anger and sadness. "You promised, Branch!"

He froze at the sound of her words, his heart sinking painfully down into the pit of his stomach as he slowly turned back to face her...

"I did promise that..." he said softly, struggling to hold back his tears. "But I also promised I would protect you... no matter what... and if I can only keep one of those promises... I choose to protect you. I will always chose to protect you..."

     "Branch..." she whispered again, taking a small step towards him. "Please don't..."

Without a single word, he looked away from her, grabbing a map off of one of his shelves before stepping onto his elevator.

"King Peppy..." he finally said, looking to the old troll who had just been standing around this whole time observing the entire conversation, having no idea what the heck was going on... "I'm gonna need you to help me with something..."