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Ο Ο Ο
3. Letting Go
The angel in my memory Or just the ghost I'm left with You're everything I'd wanted
- by Vancouver Sleep Clinic, 2017
Everything ended. Then it began again.
This time, It knew that the stupid man wasn't going to have much left to offer. It would be a much easier rewind. The window of opportunity was much larger.
So It reached in with a single thread of his own thoughts.
Backwards, reverse, spinning like a top.
Then it stopped.
And the world started spinning once more.
Ο Ο Ο
The amount of loss that Richie felt in that one moment was unmatched by anything— even the previous attempts. Perhaps it was because this time he knew he could have stopped it— perhaps it was because this time he had physically held him and felt his life force ebb away— perhaps it was because this time Richie was sure it wasn't a dream.
Regardless of what it was, Richie felt like maybe if he lay down right here and let It kill him, too, it wouldn't really be so bad.
Ο Ο Ο
He woke in a cold sweat, rolled over to the side of the bed and threw up everything that he had eaten that morning into the small trash bin by his bedside table. Shaking violently, Richie continued to dry-heave, sweat and tears coming off of his face in droplets, spattering against the floor and wastebasket.
When he felt his stomach begin to settle, Richie rolled back over and cried out when he felt a stabbing pain in his left ankle. He pulled his knee up to his chest, kicked his shoe off and looked— nothing seemed to be wrong. He was sure it had been sprained— hadn't it? Just a few minutes ago...
The image of Eddie's pale, sweat-soaked face, a square of gauze with a patch of red on it plastered to his cheek, normally so perfect hair wild and dripping with clear, salty perspiration. A faint smile, content with just peering at Richie, who could hardly breathe, could hardly see— but who was there, nonetheless. And then the light faded from those beautiful eyes, and for the second time in Richie's life, he had held the love of his life in his arms as he died.
