21(2023)

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2023

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2023

Austin climbs out of the car and looks out over the battlefield Whitney had placed her grandfather in. He looks out at it every morning while he sips his coffee on his patio. But, today he is standing on it while the soft evening breeze swirls around him. Many people died here at one time and to many this place represents death but to Austin, it has a softness to it, a place that brings a sense of peace - a place of final rest. Since the first time he came here with Whitney, he had always felt a connection to it, and today that connection will grow tenfold. He walks a few paces forward, standing under the same tree Whitney had chosen for her grandfather then looks back. He can only just make out his home in the distant hills. Yes, this is the place. Kneeling, he clutches Whitney close to his chest which holds his broken and shattered heart.

"I should have hugged you tighter the last time I held you," he starts then has to swallow the lump in his throat. Life is cruel. "You left me here...I would spend hours looking out at crowds of people, hoping to see your face. I would wake up at night convinced I had heard your voice, but it was only the low thump of my heart that beats in a broken rhythm. I don't think it will ever right itself...I don't think I want it to. I want to tell you that I hate you...but I never could, I never did - I just hated the pain. I missed you even though I knew I shouldn't. I held onto the hope that you would come back even though I knew you wouldn't. You never came back...until one day you did. I had just begun to feel human again, baby. I never thought I would hurt again like I did on the day you left me...but, I had been wrong. The pain that ripped through me when you came back to me like this was so great no words exist to describe it...I am hurting, baby. The world has lost its color, food has no taste and my bed is always cold. Were we never meant to be? I can't bring myself to believe that because even in death, baby, you are the love of my life. You and you alone own the spaces in my heart. You have left me in this world and I will live my life, but I will find you again in the next lifetime...I will find you and I will love you in every lifetime - your soul is tethered to mine. I never got to say goodbye, so I won't. I won't because there will always be a part of me that will hold my breath every time a door opens or a phone rings in the hope that it will be you and eventually when my time ends here the only thing I will leave this world with will be hope...hope that you will find me...where ever I am."

He lifts the lid off her urne and tips her ashes out, watching as the soft breeze carries her off to a world he will one day follow - where she will be waiting for him. He then sits down and leans against the tree. "You know, if I was any good at songwriting I would take your words and write a song with them," Harry says from his left side as he leans on the tree too. Austin chuckles and accepts a beer from him. "You are a weird little fucker," Austin says. Harry smiles and shrugs. "I am ok with that," he says taking a sip of his beer. "Look," Austin says pointing at the electric sunset. "I can honestly say that I never thought I would be leaning against a tree, sipping a beer, and watching a sunset with you," Harry says. "It is weird, I'll give you that..." Austin says.

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