A small headstone marks the place where she was laid to rest.
She wasn't buried here, of course. Nobody knows where her body is. That's okay, though, she thinks. This is enough for her. Just this small headstone makes her smile.
She stood by Keane the whole way. The year she lived while traveling with him, and the month that followed with her laying in the red snow.
Red isn't really such a bad color, she tells Ollie. It's my favorite color, did you know? I only wish it didn't insinuate such awful things.
The little boy sits by Robin and his sister, and they're all holding hands. They're watching over Keane, the last living member of their small family. And she watched over the boy she loved, and wonders if she would have fallen for Keane if given the chance.
Perhaps, she thinks, she already had.
On her birthday they light a candle and set it atop a small, paper boat. Keane reads a small speech he wrote for her, thanking her for everything, and telling her that he will see her again. The boy she loved reads his next, and she smiles. She is happy that they have found happiness.
Forgiveness.
It is something that is only now portraying its full meaning. Before the world ended, people took it for granted, and it was expected.
But when the world ends, it becomes the permission for which one can continue to live their lives. To live on.
And she forgives.
She is only love, and forgiveness.
YOU ARE READING
When the World Ends
Science FictionThe world ended in ash. The two that walk through the rubble of their world experience both the best and the worst of what humanity has become--when the world ends.
