Going and Gone

Her dark brown eyes meet mine. “May,” she gasps. “I’m trying—to…to hold on…and it’s not…working…I’m sorry.”

“No,” I murmur. “No. Cass. No, you gotta…you gotta…you gotta stay.”

“I’m trying,” she whimpers. “I can’t.”

“No! Cass! Look at me, look at me!”

I’m trying to stem the flow of the blood, but it covers her entire abdomen and we both know there’s nothing I can do.

“Take care of—”

“NO!” I scream, rocking back and forth. I know I look deranged, but I can’t help myself. She’s slipping, and so am I. Around us, people run and scream but nothing exists but me and Cass.

I remember the moment when we met again after five years of silence. The grin she gave to me, like the time meant nothing. We’d both changed, but we recognized each other easily. Sisters until the end, she once told me.

And here it is. The end. Because here she is, dying on the ground, and I’m right next to her but all I can do is watch her die—and there’s not a damn thing I can do about it.

Her eyes focus on nothing and I scream at her that she can’t leave, she can’t leave…

But she does. And the worst part isn’t that she’s gone, but that she didn’t take me with her.

She just left.