Chapter 76 - Lets Break Up (2/2)

Clad in a maroon silk gown, her slender body was lying listless and lifeless on the top of a car. Blood had painted her fair skin in scarlet color. His body trembled when his illusion broke and he realized his biggest fears had become reality.

There was a smile on her lips even when she closed her eyes and that was all it took to break Darren into a crumbling mess. He held her cold hand and shook her, ”Ah-Xiu! Ah-Xiu! Please, open your eyes.”

But her lifeless body gave no response. Even when the paramedics took her to the ambulance, he didn't let go of her hand. He walked like his limbs didn't even belong to him. Everything hurt and if one asked what was everything, he might not be able to tell precisely. He just knew someone was squeezing his heart out.

The pain had always been invisible and subjective but that night, he felt the pain like no other. That night, he even saw pain with his own eyes in the form of her death. It was visible and yet couldn't capture that pain in his hands to hide her from it. His heart ache like it was torn apart and it magnified his woes.

The ache had turned dull like lazy torture that was finding it amusing seeing him disintegrate slowly.

Even when in the hospital he was told that she's already dead, he didn't listen. He didn't want to listen. He couldn't listen! He kept stroking her face, cleaning the blood off of it with care. She hated blood, he knew that. So, he tried his best to wipe her face clean.

By the time, they covered her face with a white cloth, Darren's burning pain had intensified to a hot volcano. He had lost all his control over his emotions. The tears were flowing like water out of his eyes. He clasped her hand between both of his hands and leaning his head against it, he whispered, ”Ah-Xiu, please wake up. I'm sorry for being late but please, don't punish me like this. How can you do this?” His voice was choked up and hoarse.

He tried opening her curled up hand and saw a crumpled piece of paper inside. It had blood stains on it now. It was her own handwritten note that read:

'I guess it was just wishful thinking on my part that I spent years waiting for a happy ending.

Now... I'm just too tired...'

Reading that note he looked at her face and fell down on his knees as he cried his heart out that had collapsed with her life. Now, his tears also stained that piece of paper as he asked, ”Just how tired were you? Just how alone were you? And why didn't you call for me? Was our relationship that shallow?”

He had turned that piece of paper and found another string of words...

'Dear Life,

I've cried enough. Let's break up now.'

He cried so many shades of agony that night but she was gone. He didn't let her go but he lost her. All that she left behind that night was her absence. A void in his heart that finally made him realize...

”I love you, Ah-Xiu! I'm tired of lying to myself now. But I'm too late anyway.”

*End of Flashback*