"I never knew—" Aerie mumbled, guilt filling her, "I never thought of that."
"And the situation here isn't so good now either." Cade said under his breath. "Something would definitely happen to Rinne, and I have to do something probably now. Warn her about it, maybe."
"I—" Aerie started.
"Hm?" Cade said, "What do you want to say?"
"I— I knew that you had your reasons." Aerie started, "and— and I- I never blamed you for anything. I knew you had your reasons, whatever it was. But—" Aerie took a deep breath and drew a piece of tissue paper from the paper box, "I— I couldn't stop thinking of the life I — we used to have. I wanted a happy 'family'. Thats all. All four seasons seemed like winter, really. It was cold. The people were cold."
"It will be okay, Aerie." Cade said, "you're here now. And you are safe now. I promise."
"Cade—" Aerie said, breathing in cold atmospheric air so hard that she coughed, "You know, I hated the sweet dreams more than the nightmares. I saw you, and I saw myself in them. And I hated that. Every single one of them. Because the pain that swallowed me every time after I woke up was not worth the joy I had when we reunited."
"So please— can you please tell me that you are real? I don't want to wake up." Aerie said, "I don't want to know that I am alone again." She hid her face behind her hands when she finished her last word, cheeks now bushing red and hot.
"I am real, Aerie." Cade said softly, "I have always been. You can pinch me if you want to."
Aerie looked up. The red stains now filling her eyes. She wanted to believe that this is true.
"I would be there whenever you needed it."
She wanted to.
"What if you leave again?" Aerie asked simply, "what if—"
Cade wrapped Aerie in his arms before she could finish. Aerie could feel the warmth. Something that she had never felt in dreams no matter how real it was. It was real. Cade was real. "I'm sorry."
"I forgive you." Aerie whispered. She no longer held herself back. She no longer held herself strong. The embrace was warm, but her tears where hotter. She allowed it to roll down her cheeks, and stain onto Cade's brand new coat. The wool irritated her face, but it did not matter.
"You have to go." Cade said, "its not early now."
Aerie released herself, and prepared to walk out of the office that she guessed, had stayed in for three hours. "Guess I will see you tomorrow."
"Oh— wait!" Cade said, stopping Aerie before she opened the door knob.
"Your scarf." Cade said, arranging the messed up ball of cotton that wrapped around Aerie's neck. "Its all messed up."
"Oh. Thanks, I guess? Its comfortable, by the way." Aerie laughed. She looked at her scarf which had always been there. It wasn't really messy in particular, if you asked her. But one of the wool strings turned bright red on the scarf after Cade brushed and arranged it, making it now the highlight among all the other bright white strings.
"If anything happens to you again anytime in the future, it would protect you." Cade said cheerily, and hid both of his behind his back.
"What?" Aerie asked.
"Oh. Nothing." Cade said.
"catch you later, then." Aerie said, and opened the door.
Cade waited until he could no longer hear any footsteps. When he was confident that Aerie left, he pulled the pen the was in his pocket and put it onto his table. The ink jet is now empty, with little red stains lying around. A moment ago, it was full. But now its barely any regular pen hitch had ran out of its ink.
YOU ARE READING
Aerie's Fallen Immortal
Fantasy"The Only is dead? It's only for those that are powerful enough to know and gullible enough to believe." There were immortals. There were immortals that could turn the world over, immortals like The Only. There was The Association.. The organization...
