The Book of Lucien

A year has passed since he left, yet every night he returns in my dreams; silent, distant, and impossible to reach.

And all while, a presence unseen watches over me, guiding me through grief, guilt, and the pieces of the person that I have refused to let go.

Lucien.

"What are you doing here?"

His voice reaches me, familiar yet distant at the same time. The warmth of it no longer exists.

There is no anger in his expression. No confusion. Rather, something else that settled into his gaze.

I understood it way too quickly,

the disappointment.

The cause of his suffering, it is the selfishness of mine. The refusal to let him go.