Because I Love You✔️

Chapter 140: Reflection

He waved, tentatively, as if he were unsure.

"You're the one I used to be," Xaphile said to fill the silence. "Me and you... we're the same person now. We're bound together, aren't we?"

The other him's aquiline head rose a little, eyes gleaming brightly.

"You're the one who spoke to me when I first ended up here," he said, and then his heart clenched. His next words were whispered. "The one... who gave me a second chance."

His pain at the memory of dying flooded through his body.

His reflection recoiled from the mirror with a soundless jerk, eyes widening when Xaphile began to cry a little; tears rolled down his face freely. He hiccuped, then moved forward, setting his forehead against the glass, not understanding.

And yet, somehow, understanding perfectly for once.

He may not have understood the hows any more than he had in the beginning, but now, meeting this boy after everything he'd seen and learned, he did understand one thing.

His other self had given up the life he'd been living after meeting him in wherever that dark place had been, and he had done it all for his sake. The words he'd heard just before waking up, those soft inquiries as he'd lay lost and alone in the darkness, right before he'd faded away into death.

"Ah... I feel you... so strange, as if we are connecting. You are myself, yet you are not happy? Why is this?"

"I don't know... I don't remember."

"Have you ever been happy?"

"Yes."

"Then... why are you so sad? Your pain... is agonizing. A sensation of terrible loss. Who did you lose? Someone important? Someone... you loved?"

And he'd remembered her.

He'd hurt so terribly.

"Gods... such pain... even I cannot bear it. Be this death or a dream, you will not remain unhappy. You are brave. You are going to live and love again. I swear it."

That voice rang in his ears as he looked at the boy in the mirror.

"Thank you..." he tearfully whispered, breaking down into pieces. "Thank you for giving me a second chance when I didn't deserve one. Thank you for giving me your life."

His reflection withstood his sobs without blinking, allowing him to bellow out his pain and sadness for what must have been hours.

Xaphile's body shook and writhed and lashed, his fingers dragging down across the mirror, and all through it he cried as if the world were ending.

He fell to his knees, hands dropping into his lap, long hair sliding down over his shoulders, staring at the ground through his tears, still crying heavily.

He hadn't deserved a second chance.

He truly believed that with all his heart, but he'd been given one anyway.

He didn't know what good his other self had seen in him, but he felt unworthy of it, even now.

Eventually, though, he fell quiet, lifting his eyes and staring at his reflection with an agonized, baleful feeling deep inside the core of his soul. 

The faery in the mirror had squatted, hands on the glass, eyes glimmering with pained tears.

He looked like he wanted to do something, to say something, to help him. His mouth moved and as he spoke silently, a single tear slid down his cheek.