The Aura Within | Pokémon

Twenty Two | Until Death Do Us Apart

Everything around her was of no importance. The only thing that mattered to her was the life of the man she loved with all her heart. Layla fell to her knees next to Mark with a never ending supply of tears streaming down her face, like a river of sorrow flowing through. Her shaky hands pressed against the fatal wound that decorated Mark's torso, but despite all denial she kept telling herself, the reality was that the wound was beyond repair. The wound resembled a scarlet pool of blood that overflowed from the sides. Layla removed her hands from the wound and stared at them with horror.

"No way..." she mumbled in disbelief before looking back down at Mark. "No... no no no no no no..."

The brunette's hands fell limply to her side, her breaths quickening as her heart raced with anxiety. Her sapphire blue eyes kept producing tears as she stared at her lover's face, only catching glimpse of his empty grey eyes that were half covered by his eyelids. His mouth was slightly agape with dried blood staining part of his chin and his whole frame remained stiffly still. With denial still building up within her, Layla placed her hands on his shoulders and slowly shook him.

"Please Mark," she begged in a whisper. "Wake up... I can't lose you again. Please..."

She stopped momentarily, her vision being clouded by nothing but blurriness that was brought about by her own tears. Layla was trying her best to not break down, but it seemed like it wasn't working. All she wanted to do was cry, cry until she downed in her own tears of sorrow.

"All I wanted was to be with you again," she mumbled sadly. "All I wanted was to be part of your life once again..."

Layla brought her hand up and wiped away some of her tears, the blood on her hands now staining her ivory skin. It was the blood of the man she loved, the man who fought bravely to end the mess that involved her with something she had nothing to do with. However, was it worth it if the price was his life? The brunette tore her eyes away from Mark for a second and glanced passed him, her eyes landing on the slightly shriveled corpse of Fabian Starke. The fight to the death they both agreed to take on ended in a duel with both sides losing.

There was no real winner of this fight.

The brunette now placed her teary gaze upon Mark, who still showed no signs of moving at all. Layla moved a bit closer to him and used her hand to remove a stray lock of hair from his eye. She lowered her hand and caressed his pale cheek, one of her tears landing on it and sliding right off. From there, the sad reality of what had happened finally hit her hard. A sob escaped from her mouth before she collapsed onto Mark's upper torso and completely broke down.

Pain was all he felt as he slowly regained his limited amount of consciousness back. Arceus allowed him to say his final goodbye before he returned to the Land of the Dead because that's where he belonged. Mark flinched as he slowly opened his heavy eyes. He felt something heavy weigh down on his upper torso, vibrating with sobs. The first thing he noticed was a pool of dark brown hair, which instantly gave him the answer on who was sobbing on top of him.

With whatever strength he could muster up, Mark brought his hand up and placed it on top of Layla's brown locks. She froze upon contact, slowly lifting herself up to see who it was. Her teary eyes widened in shock as she saw Mark's eyes on her with a small smile on his face.

"Tears shouldn't stain your beautiful face, my dear," he mumbled weakly.

His hand dropped from her head and cupped the side of her face, using his thumb to trace over her cheek. All the while, Layla did not move an inch, still remaining in a shocked state. She thought for sure he was dead, but maybe Arceus showed him mercy and allowed him to continue living. Layla brought her hand up and placed it over Mark's hand.