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Three | He lost her because she was brave

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These were the dark days where corpses lined the streets and bodies filled the gutter. The stench of decaying humans assaulted the village along with the smell of insurmountable fear.

Death had come for all, creeping up on anyone, at any time.

He reared its head in three distinct forms. The first, a form that attacked the lung and complicated breathing, resulted in unquestionable death within a mere two days. The second, a form that caused boils on your body - under arms, on the neck, led to acute fevers and the vomiting of crimson red, yet another sign that meant death. The third, a form that attacked the groin regardless of sex, was painful and lethal, all the same.

Death had made them all lose their sanity, as ignorant people scrambled for cures. Many sacrificed their humanity in a bid to live, killing their kinsmen, hoping to be first in line, for a cure that was never extant.

Few even realised that this was why they could not live; Heaven would never grant someone a life that was snatched with brutality from the other.

It was amidst this chaos that he and she met, yet again, in this life, a life guaranteed of tragedy.

He was a doctor; she was a nurse. They grew a bond amidst the war. They were soldiers, they were partners, they were lovers. For several months they raced hand in hand against death, they all had fears, but carried with them only courage to the battle. For several months they succeeded, they escaped the black pursuer's clutches.

"You are the biggest fool I've ever met," he said to her. Who would run into death's embrace but she?

"And you are too," she replied. Who would stand off against death, but he?

She grew up in a monastery and in the arms of the Lord. To Him, she had everything to give.

He had no family left for they had all been taken. He had nothing left to lose.

Because she met him, for once, she wanted something for herself.

Because he met her, for once, he had something he feared to lose.

But they could never run from death for good.

And when he found the swells on her thighs one day, he knew that it had caught up with them. He knew it was the end.

"It seems my Lord has called for me." She smiled. "Don't cry, we knew this day would come."

He nodded, even though it was taking all of him to hold it back.

"I promised you forever, and that means if we fail this time, and even if we did in the past, we will try again, the next time, and the next, and the next, until we find forever."

And when she left him, he did not shed tears.

He knew someday he too would join her at heavens' gates.

For the rest of his life, he walked the battlefields alone. She was his armour, she was his drive. He was raw and vulnerable without her, but he pushed himself to go on. He would find the cure and achieve their dreams, even if he had to do it alone.

He would die having given his all, not as a broken man, not as a wasted coward. He would live her legacy of bravery, the very thing that led them to each other.