best mistake • e.d

Epilouge

dear scarlett,

i lied about the fourth letter being my last.

well, that ruined everything.

i just noticed something.

i would send these through the mail, but i don't know where you live anymore.. so with that, i'm going to burn them.

i'm not going to lie when i say this.

i love you and miss you terribly.

but i need to get past my old life i had with you and start fresh. i need to move on just like you did. it was easy for you, of course. but you broke me completely, and it's going to take a shit ton of time to get over it.

i wish you the best.

goodbye, scarlett.

- ethan

Ethan finished his last letter and ended up stapling all the papers together. He never kept a copy of these. He wanted them gone and out of his life for good.

The letters were not meant for him to keep for a memory, anyway. Ethan only started to write these to get the emotions he was feeling, out of his system completely. And for that, it worked.

Who knows if Scarlett will ever come back into his life and repair the damages she made on him. She may never, even if she will sometime in the future, Ethan's scars will always be there. Not physical scars, but emotional ones.

Ethan loved this woman more than he loved anything else in his life. He always had to put her first. Before anything or anyone, including the most important people in his life; his family. Scarlett made an impact on his life. Now that she crushed him, he will never go back to the way he once was next time he ever gets into a new relationship. If, that is, he ever does.

Ethan reread the letters over once more and gathered them up, holding them tight to his chest. He grabbed a lighter from one of the kitchen drawers close to the fridge and stormed outside of his apartment. He didn't need a car to get to where he needed to burn these papers. No, he walked 'round yonder to an old, dark alley. There stood rusty, metal bins, cardboard boxes, and stray animals wandering around. He clutched onto the papers to his chest again as if his life depended on it, and slowly glanced around the alley, looking at the walls filled with graffiti.

The poor boy was beyond scared of his surroundings. Ethan has always been scared of dark, creepy things. This here alley, was one of them. His body shivered, leaving goosebumps crawling all upon his skin, in every single place. The way he would get rid of his frightened emotions, was to hum a song to himself. Any random song of his choice, it stuck to his head and soon enough, the fear would go away in an instant.

Ethan reached the rusty bins and saw there was already used up coal in there, all black and chalky. He carefully laid all of the papers in the bin, all stacked in one pile. Ethan took a breath and exhaled, letting out a long sigh before lighting the papers on fire.

"I love you, Scarlett." he says to himself. Ethan switches the lighter and places it against the stack of papers. The stack started to burn off slowly, black ashes started to form.

Ethan watched the fire rising for about fifteen minutes. Shortly afterwards, the fire started to go down, now all remaining was complete ash. The black ash of his emotions he wrote out on paper just for Scarlett, now destroyed.

He threw the lighter in the bin, not wanting to keep it either. Another painful memory, a small lighter that destroyed every ounce of his heart even more.

Before walking away back to his apartment in the complex, he turned around and glanced at the bin, letting a tear fall to his cheek.

He made a vow to himself; to never make that best goddamn mistake ever again.