The Death of a Bachelor

Chapter Forty-five

"You're what I can't live without."
-Plumb, Don't Deserve You.

**
On winter’s first snowfall, Elena received a letter from Kieran. Her fingers trembled as she took it from the messenger, her legs wobbly as she ambled to her dressing table. Her anxiety was heightened, leaving her mind blank to any possibilities that could be contained within the parchment.

She opened it up, and instantly took notice of the red smudges on some parts of the paper, which could only be dried blood. His handwriting, usually so neat in its cursive, was messy this time. Some letters were crooked, some sentences falling out of line – as though he had written it with tremors in his hand.

Elena,

I hurt you deeply, I know.

My emotional baggage got the best of me, to the point where it drove me insane. I still am.

Aside from my mental state, every other part of me has been left in immense regret for what I have done to you. I can only apologise so much each day that passes, hoping against hope that each of my sorries reaches you, heart by heart.

I do not deserve your forgiveness and neither do I have a right to ask you this, but please do not forsake me, Elena.

She did not know where the tears came from, but they blossomed from her eyes like a blooming rose bud in spring.

You are the only thing that is keeping my mind from completely falling apart, keeping me stable. For without you, I am merely a shell missing a heart, mind and soul.

You are my heart, my happiness and my peace. And I’d be damned if I am unable to leave this field of death to return to you.

I want to see you, and I want to touch you more than I crave the warmth of fire in the snow.

I will keep fighting even though it diminishes my humanity, and I will not stop until there is no one else left to block me from coming back to you.

But I can only return if you accept me, Elena.

Her tear drops wetted the parchment.

I do not deserve your affection yet I hunger for it the same way I thirst for the blood of my worst enemy.

Tell me you will have me, my beloved. It is the only response I need to persevere in this retched nightmare, and to keep my heart beating.

Do one thing for me, please? Perform at the winter festival, as the Winter Fairy. You must shine; as you always have, as you always will.

Yours forever and beyond,
Kieran H.

Elena was weeping openly by the end of the letter. She held the parchment close to her chest and sobbed, not fully understanding why. The only thing she was sure of was that she wanted him back. She needed him as much as he needed her at the moment.

So without wasting time, she picked fresh parchment and stationery from her drawer and began to write. She could not stop the tears as she wrote down her feelings to him, wiping her face every now and then.

She did not care that the messenger could see how puffy and red her eyes were, or how runny her nose was from crying as she handed him the letter. She only wanted him to hand her response to Kieran as soon as possible.

Their destiny depended on it.

*********

Debra was beyond furious. She had just found out about the ongoing battle against the nation of Galvan and confronted her father about it. The confrontation was vicious, and left her with a more fiery temper than before.