𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐆𝐈𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐃

final chapter!!!! please do comment and vote :) will miss you all.

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"Are you my friend?"

You had awoken from your dream with a jolt, your eyes flying open. Silas's words from fourteen years ago played in your head — you blinked your eyes in mystification, before a soft smile surfaced on your face.

(You had not dreamt of the past for long. Back then, you used to wish for it desperately, thinking that those happy memories from your dreams would allow your jubilance in the present to flow once more.)

Those four syllables — that singular, terrifying question —  had changed your life. Over that strewn, broken corpse in the Imperial Garden — over the whisper of the wind, the sound of your heart thudding within eight years old-you's ribcage — you had managed out a shaky yes. What would have happened if you had said no? Would you and Silas exist? Would he have killed you then, putting a stop to the cycle and yet also destroying the emblematic relationship between the two of you?  

It was easy to dwell on the past, to fixate on mistakes and to remain rooted in the ground. It was easy to let the grief of time passing swallow you whole without any proper closure — it was easy to feel the sorrow of life moving on half-finished. There was a time you felt the empty spaces consume you: spaces that were once bursting with laughter and mirth. You had felt that the most when Silas left and when your mother passed away, and now you felt it brimming with love.

As long as there is love, you thought, there will be grief. Because grief is a natural remnant of love — it is proof, in fact, that my heart has once sung for someone else. Grief was love's natural continuation. You knew that now. You knew it was a continuation of the nostalgia you felt with Silas; the childhood you mourned in turn — oh, but nostalgia was a privilege.

You yearned for your memories, yes — but it had proved that you had lived a life worth living. Why did it take so long for you to understand? Why had it taken so long for those words to ingrain themselves in your brain? Perhaps you had been too narrow minded: too fixated on the past. Perhaps you had kept trying to live a life mirroring the past that you had neglected the present.

You rubbed your eyes once more, giving a soft sigh as Silas stirred beside you. You gazed at his face in content: his silky hair tickled your skin and his limbs entangled with yours. You could feel the ghost of his warmth sear over to your palm; you managed a giggle, slow and gentle.

You nudged him.

"Wake up, Silas."

The prince shifted, and then he cracked open an eyelid. Silas was groggy first, but when his senses poured in him, he caught the sight of you — and his eyes glimmered with delight.