AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Then we talked about the special moments of our lives, going into such great detail that I could picture not only my memories with perfect clarity, but his too.
I drank in his words and stored them away to pick apart later. I would remember this moment forever and no one could ever take it from me. I loved being in his presence, being around him.
How crazy it was that I should meet him here, half a galaxy away from my small planet, our lives and histories and existence, having nothing to do with each other at all.
And yet, we were born to be together.
God, or the universe, or whatever was the conductor of this strange experience we called life, really did work in mysterious ways.
When morning rolled around and it was time for our time together to end, I didn’t want to accept it. I hugged him and clutched him close.
The last time we would hug.
And this time, I couldn’t hold the tears back. They rolled down my cheeks and gathered at the tip of my chin.
When Ohara pulled back, I was surprised to see tears in his eyes too, brimming but not quite rolling down his face. He took a deep breath to steady himself.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I shouldn’t cry. I know that—”
“Hey,” he said, tilting my chin up to look at him.
I refused as I didn’t want him to remember me this way.
“Hey,” he repeated. “This is not the end. It’s only an end.”
“You mean we’ll be together again when we’re dead?” I said. “I don’t want to wait that long. I want to be together now.”
There. I had said it.
Despite all my promises to myself that I wouldn’t, I couldn’t hold it back any longer.
He slipped his fingers through mine. “Our hearts are joined. We are as one. And so long as we draw breath, we will always be together.”
“We’re not together!” I growled. “We’re not in the same room… in the same building… We won’t even be on the same planet!”
“Our connection does not require such superficial things.”
“Superficial?” I snapped. “Superficial? You call holding hands superficial? You call kissing superficial? You call making love superficial? Those things are everything!”
My chest heaved with exertion. Never before had speaking been so difficult and required so much from me.
“No, they’re not,” Ohara said softly. “They’re nice. They’re gifts. But they are not everything.” He placed his fist on his chest. “This,” he said, “this is everything.”
Then he took my hand, folded it into a fist, and placed it on my chest. “This. This is everything.”
I knew he was right.
Even with him gone, he was always still going to be with me, at least in spirit. Nothing could tear that part of him from me. But I still wanted his touch, his smell, to hear his words and see his body.
I shook the seeds of understanding off before they could take root. I didn’t want to understand, damn it! I wanted to be upset and angry!
“It’s all right for you!” I snapped. “You’re getting out of here! I’m never getting out!”
“My mate,” he said, and he spoke so softly, so gently, that it took me by surprise. “I have been at Ikmal for ten years, and yet only now do I realize, I was never truly a prisoner. I am a prisoner now. A prisoner of my heart and soul. You have caged me and I never want to be released.”
He reached into his pocket and took out a necklace that glinted in the overhead lights.
“Take this,” he said.
