| HIS WORLD |

He wasn't ready to say goodbye. Not then, not ever.

After she was gone, the world grew quiet, drained of all color. Each day blurred into the next, and no matter how many times he sat by her grave, she never came back. But at night, in the fragile space between sleep and waking, he began to see her again-standing in a field of wildflowers, smiling like she never left.

At first, he thought it was a dream, but then he realized he could shape it, control it. Night after night, he built a world for them. He brought back her laugh, the warmth of her hand in his, and the life they were supposed to have.

In this world, she was real. In this world, she was his again.

And so he stayed, slipping further into the dream, away from the emptiness of his waking life. Because in the dream, she could never be taken from him.

And that was all he needed until...