The Rise

"Ella." He pled, I squeezed my eyes shut, blocking everything out. My hands reached up to my ears, my arm pressed to my body as I slid down the tree trunk. My knees came up to my chest and I buried my head in my dress, sobbing silently. I hear leaves rustling and then the sound of someone sitting down next to me. He wraps an arm around me and I collapse into his chest. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry El. It's okay. It's gonna be okay." My head snapped up, the wind making the tears that ran down my cheeks cold as ice.

"No. No it won't be, but it will be better if you stay." I paused, the wind picking up around me for a second time before I whispered the words that would bind us before any others. "Please don't leave me, Wilhelm."

"Never. I would never leave you, El." His reply was firm, with no doubt. I nodded into his chest, calming. He rocked me back and forth slowly, to the rhythm of his heart beat which I could hear so clearly through my hair which was the only thing between my head and his chest. The wind went silent and my eyes grew heavy under the weight of all that had happened in the last 48 hours. The last thing I felt before I drifted off to sleep was the steady rocking of him carrying me towards his house. "Go to sleep, El. I won't leave you." His promise echoed through the night.