The beach was, and always would be, Broderick’s favorite place to be. He loved everything from the salty sea air to the waves rushing beneath his feet. A cool morning fog clung to the air and made him feel alive. There was nowhere in the world he’d rather be but at that beach.
This was where it all began.
However, it wasn’t the scenery that brought out the longing from his soul. Standing only a heartbeat away was Jay, her back to him, facing the endless sea. This was her favorite place, too.
There was no tension, no frustrations. All that was left was sadness. Perhaps it was the fog that made it so. The mist, carried from the sea by the wandering breeze, condensed into droplets on their skin. As they fell away, they took with them the barriers that suppressed the two ancient souls.
“Tell me something, Broderick,” Jay said, her back still to him.
“Anything,” he replied with unspeakable emotion. He was lost in a daze, falling hard under Jay’s unintentional spell – her voice, her smell, her touch. The very thought of her was enough to send him over the edge. Little did he know that she was feeling the same way.
“Was there ever anything we could have done? Was there ever anything we could have done to have saved them?” She turned to face him, her grey eyes meeting his silver-streaked gaze. “Saved us?”
Broderick stared at her for a moment and heaved a long sigh like a great wave crashing down on him. “No. There was nothing we could have done then, and there’s nothing we can do now.”
“Then it’s true. We’re too far gone, aren’t we? Have we already lost to our past mistakes?”
He knew that with every question, Jay was slowly drowning herself in regret. With every passing breath, she was letting her humanity succumb to the warrior inside her; without her humanity, she would not have to live with the weight of her past on her shoulders.
But Broderick would never let himself lose. He wasn’t going to lose the war, and he wasn’t going to lose her. He had to cling onto that one hope.
Without saying a word, he closed the gap between them and wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace. “When we fall, we fall together,” he whispered in her ear. “The promises that bind us and tear us apart, the life we wish we could have had, the mistakes that define who we are, the path laid before us, and the road less travelled - we will face them together.”
They fell into silence and stood motionless, letting themselves fall apart for the last time. There would soon be nothing left of them but shattered fragments, but for now - for this one last moment - they were whole.
The morning air was cool like the water than ran from their eyes, falling like the tears that they refused to shed. It wasn’t until that moment that they realized their hearts could shatter into a thousand pieces without making a sound.
