Death and apple trees

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He couldn't look at her anymore; not when she was like this.
When her eyes shone with her joy he would look but not now. Not when she could barely lift her head to see him.
Not when her body was nothing but bones and skin.

She was dead.

Even though her heart still beat. Even though her chest still rose and fell. Even though she still blinked. She was dead.

She wouldn't speak. She wouldn't eat, and one week ago she had been so sick from fever that he had to bring in a doctor. But she had survived that. He had reeled her back from the brink of death only to find that her soul, her mind, was still there. That they had died long ago.

"Harley?" He had to swallow to stop his voice from shaking, he knelt down beside her, so close yet further than he had ever been from her side.

He took her hand. Limp. Cold. And his palms across it to generate warmth. She didn't respond, didn't curl her fingers into his, didn't pull her hand away.

She just blinked and continued to let her breath shudder from her chest in great rasps of defeat.

And all he could do was watch.

He had had to tighten the shackle yesterday, but he could've thrown the metal away and she still wouldn't have moved.
He could unlock it right now and nothing would change, she would blink and breathe and live. But she wouldn't run. She wouldn't even get up.

Isn't this what you wanted? For her to stay? No matter the cost, no matter the pain. Now she was here and wouldn't leave and he still felt as if he had been cheated.

Because this wasn't her.

Because she had drifted off into her own mind and he couldn't follow. And now all that he had of her was an echo of her past self. A living, breathing illusion of what she had once been.

He ached looking at her. Physically ached. That was how much it hurt seeing her this way. And that was why he leant forward and unlocked the shackles.

He took her palm and kissed her knuckles, hating that he could feel her every bone beneath his touch.
And then he turned and left, leaving the door open behind him.

Hoping more than anything that she would go.

He came back the next day to an empty room.

Except she was still there. Sitting where he had left her, eyes open, chest rising and falling in a way that spoke only of pain.
When he placed food next to her she didn't speak. And when he sat next to her she didn't respond.

"I love you Harley."

She just breathed.

"Harley I love you and I want you to go."

Her breathing didn't even change.

He stood, looked back at her, and walked again toward the door.

"Y-you can't keep- keep me h-here."
Empty words chased him through the threshold.

He turned and entered the room again.

"I know Harley, that's why the door's open, that's why your chains are unlocked."

He watched her head loll to the side and her eyes fall on the empty chains metres away.

She stared for a moment, two. Then she struggled to lift her head again and whispered two words to him.

"Thank you."

Then she closed her eyes and drifted away, again to a place in which he could never follow.

He sat beside her the next day, he lifted her into his arms and held her. Cried into her hair then brushed it from her eyes.

Alone he braided her hair, dressed her in the finest clothes he had, and brought twenty four apple trees.
In the centre of the back garden he dug a hole six feet deep, and surrounding it a grove of apple trees.

Alone he buried her.

Alone he watched the trees grow around his love.






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Hey guys sorry about the wait but at the moment I'm trying to finish Chasing Nightmares because I've been writing it for a while now and just want it finished. Because of this all updates will be slower do you'll have to forgive me for that.

Thank you for continuing to read my book, I know it must be hard with my absences and lack of consistency when it comes to updates.

Hope you enjoyed.

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