A Time Traveling Fairytale

Chapter 54 | Six Feet Of Earth

Elena's P.O.V.

A wounded soul never heals.

There is just so much a person can take. We all have our limits - there is a limit to everything. When we reach them, we break. You can't stay bent forever. One way or another, you crack.

And in the end, you're damaged beyond. You're destroyed. Shattered. Just broken.

"You can't see the future with tears in your eyes," my grandmother told me over the phone the other day, trying to comfort me.

I know her words were meant to help, however, whether I had dried eyes or not, I saw no future. It didn't exist. All my ambitions were gone; swallowed by the dark reality.

There was nothing left to fight for. Everything had lost its value and meaning.

And perhaps that's why I didn't even hesitate when I gave Carl the Norwegian waffle recipe, letting him obtain the secrecy and keep it until the end.

He looked confused when he received it, but most of all, sorrowful. "Why are you giving me this?"

My heart ached, and I wish I hadn't looked into his melancholy eyes. There and then, his blue orbs showed nothing and held nothing but raw pain. And it hurt to say the words that I knew would shatter him. "I think you know."

Carl closed his eyes and shut them tightly, letting my words sink in and be absorbed into the reality. He was silent, yet, his body trembled.

At last, he broke down. He fell to the ground as he could not comprehend the situation. So vulnerable and hurt, it was like watching someone drowning.

I wanted to help, but I was powerless. The only thing I could do for him was to hug his sobbing body that trembled in agony. However, my touch was helpless, just like our embrace that felt foreign and hollow.

But soon, it would all be over. Soon, I will beat the world at its own game.

Today there will be no winners nor losers.

***

The forest was the only place I was ready to face. It was time. Today is the day it will stop.

"There is a level of pain that is very difficult to describe," I spoke the memorized words of my last essay. My voice was carried by the wind that danced through the forest, birthing a peaceful scenery.

I was standing on a towering hill that held the view of a thousand trees. The sky was turning cold and dark, but the sun still fought to stay. It was a beautiful scene. A landscape empty of skies, but filled with pictures.

She stood there high in the sky, smiling and laughing like the bright star that she was. Old memories played on the twilight-canvas, causing an aching yearn to grow.

And then I was watching the movie of our story.

"Hey, could I borrow your shovel? I'm building a castle," she held a bucket filled with sand in her hand, waiting for a reply.

My younger self quietly nodded and gave the curly-haired girl the shovel, avoiding eye-contact due to shyness.

"Do you wanna help? We can build it together," her smile was wide and warm, shining like the start of our friendship.