Chapter 46: ~ Since You Left Me ~
[Six years later...]
The greenhouse flowers were beginning to die. The once vivid petals of colour were faded, blackening at their edges. They no longer stretched towards the heavens. The once proudly standing flowers now bowed towards hell.
Amongst the withering flowers stood perhaps the one that withered the quickest. Her silver hair shone radiantly under the sunlight that streamed in through the glass panels. No one dared ask about her strange requests or her actions.
"You're here again," Lysander said, approaching the flower that had lost its reason to look up towards the sky. "I figured as much, since Sir Rothomore was pacing about near the greenhouse entrance."
The girl nodded slightly, plucking the dying petals off the flowers that were fading away nearby.
"Should we have them replaced?" He asked her with a slight frown. The flowers were now crumbling before his very eyes.
She shook her head, mimicking the sulking position of the flowers with her posture.
For the past six years, the girl had the gardeners plant the most beautiful flowers in the greenhouse. They would do as she asked, unquestionably obeying her desires. Plant the flowers. Do not tend to them. And leave them there to whither away and die.
The girl visited the greenhouse each day and watched the flowers slowly die. It was what she willed. Only when the flowers were entirely dead would she allow them to plant new ones.
Nobody understood why she liked to watch the flowers die, but nobody dared question her behaviour. Not even her father, the King.
"I used to think about how badly I wanted to give that child everything in the world," She said in a quiet voice, pulling the leaves off a browning stem. "Now I have everything in the world. Everything except for him."
Lysander said nothing. Instead, he watched the young lady with empty eyes and shining hair rip away at the flowers. His heart ached for the woman who had seen and experienced things he couldn't even begin to imagine.
He knew deep down that even time would not heal the scar left by Aiden's death. He spent every day drowning in feelings of guilt and sorrow. The guilt that he failed to save and protect his younger brother. The sadness left from his absence. It pained him in the worst ways possible and plagued his dreams.
"I only lived for him," The girl muttered as her hair fell over her face stained with tears. "I was only supposed to be alive for him. Just, just how... just how did this happen?"
She let out a cry that sounded like pure agony seeping through his skin.
"I failed," She muttered, tightening her grip around a thorny stem of a ripped up flower. "I failed. I failed in every way possible. I took his life. His position. I said I would protect him and then I killed him."
Lysander wrapped his hand around hers. Her crimson red blood looked like falling tears against the dying stem of the flower. The thorns pierced through her skin, spilling her blood.
"Let go," He pleaded against her cries. "Winter, you need to let go. You can't keep drawing yourself back in. You can't keep putting yourself through his death over and over again."
It's been six years. Six years since he last saw his little sister truly smile.
"It wasn't your fault," He consoled her with a shaky voice. "Please stop blaming yourself."
She shook her head, long locks of silver dancing in the sunlight. "All I've ever wanted was for him to live."
'And now he's dead and I'm alive. Now I've taken his place in this story.'
"He was happy," He told her, eyes glazed with tears. "Every second of every moment he spent by your side was time well spent."
Her hand loosened under his. He pulled it away from the stem, revealing the wounds she reopened again. It was always the same.
When the new flowers were planted, she would go about her days with forced smiles. She would push through, searching for her happiness that she once lost. Little by little she was able to return to her old life.
Just as everyone begins to think she's okay, the flowers would begin to then die. Then, she would end up here in the greenhouse all over again.
Lysander knew why Winter liked to watch the flowers die. The woman before him would use their lifespans as reminders of Aiden's death. She wouldn't ever allow herself to be happy. Instead, she was forced to return to this state of sorrow and emptiness.
When the flowers died, so did Winter's temporary happiness. It had been this way since Aiden left them. The flowers' deaths served to remind her that she wasn't allowed to be happy. She would intentionally draw herself back to this state.
"Let it bleed," She said, drawing her hand away from his. "My blood deserves to be spilled."
"What do you think Aiden would say if he saw you like this? Do you think he'd condone you holding yourself back from moving on and spilling your own blood?"
Winter glared at the red wounds that glimmered a strange shade under the sunlight. It didn't matter what he would say, since he wasn't here to say it.
"Aiden once told me that he'd follow me to the afterlife," She whispered, reminiscing about the night he held her hands and told her it wasn't okay for her die. "Do you really think it's okay for me to be here?"
Lysander hesitated. "Don't you owe it to him to keep living? Aiden's life was taken from him. How can you talk so carelessly about throwing something away that he should've still had? You should live for yourself and for him."
He pulled a handkerchief out from his jacket pocket and began to gently wipe her wounds clean. It was the least he could do for her. He wanted to help her wounds heal faster.
"The second you leave us and decide to follow him," He told her, "You double the pain we all feel here. Do you really think those feelings of remorse and grief will disappear? They won't. They'll be passed on to those you leave behind."
Winter's body felt cold. Her heart was heavily chained down by the very feelings he spoke about.
"Tell me, Winter Del Silvermond. How long do you plan on living like this? I think Aiden would beat the crap out of you if you showed up in the afterlife. He'd kick your ass and scold you for not living your life enough for the both of you."
She chuckled softly. It was an empty chuckle.
Lysander released her hand and watched as she lowered it hesitantly to her side. "Winter, you need to make enough memories for the both of you. Especially since Aiden can't do it for himself anymore. You can't do that if you keep bringing yourself here."
She looked up at him, eyes glistening with cold tears. The last thing she wanted was to fail Aiden again. Especially since she failed in protecting him the first time.
Winter paused. "Tell the gardeners to replace the dead flowers with new ones."
She turned her back on Lysander, her heels clicking against the stone floor as she walked away. Before she left the greenhouse, she turned towards him once more.
"And tell them to properly tend to them this time."
She wasn't going to let the flowers die anymore. Aiden was her other half. Aiden was what she thought to be her reason for living all these years. Ever since she entered this world, her life was all about Aiden.
She knew that she had lived her life so far for him and only him. Every night when he was here, she reminded herself again and again that her duty was to ensure Aiden's survival. From day one she accepted this as her fate. Everything she had done so far was to protect him.
She was willing to lay down her life to make sure he was happy. So just how did it all go so wrong?
"You're here?" Ezekiel asked her upon seeing Winter exit the greenhouse earlier than usual.
The once timid boy was now a man who towered over her. His body was defined and muscular, owing to his training. He was widely praised for his skills and accomplishments as a knight now.
Against Ezekiel's wishes, King Caderyn sent him away to battle in order to conquer neighbouring territories. Ezekiel refused to leave Winter's side after Aiden's death, but the King gave him no choice. He told the boy, who was now a man, that he would have to grow stronger in order to stay by Winter's side.
"Yes," She replied, raising a hand to shield her eyes from the morning sun. "I want to give them more time to replace the flowers."
Ezekiel frowned. While watching the young woman whose beauty was now unrivalled, he felt nothing but the desire to protect her from pain. He knew what the planting of new flowers meant for her.
"You still wear that?" He asked her, eyes studying the necklace around her neck that he had given her when she was nine. "I can buy you far better ones now."
She shook her head. "Nothing you can buy me will ever replace this. This is priceless since it was the first gift Zekie ever gave me."
"You shouldn't say things like that to men," He said, wishing he was more than just her knight. "Especially since you're a young woman now."
She giggled softly, but he could tell there was no happiness behind her laugh.
He reached out a hand to escort her. "Where are we off to next?"
"The apple tree," She told him, slipping her hand in his. "I wish to see our apple tree with you."
He smiled. This was more than enough for him. Even if he couldn't have her, he just wanted to stay by her side.
"Aiden. Peregrine. Rubika. Niana."
Ezekiel sighed. She was listing the names of the dead.
"Don't leave me," She told him. "Please don't leave me like they did."
He tightened his hand on hers. "I'll forever be yours and I'll forever be by your side."
'A lot has changed, Aiden. A lot has changed since you left me.'
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone