Then You Are Gone

e p i l o g u e

May 12, 2017

10: 23 PM

Corpus Christi, Texas

Dear Mrs. Holland,

Hello, Mrs. Holland. This is Hannah Rod, the little girl who used to live next to your house. How are you? I bet you're happy, because you finally get to be with your son and husband. I hope you are finally all happy, because I'm not, but please don't tell Ian that. He doesn't need to know that I'm unhappy, or that I'm currently writing in his journal. Please don't tell him I don't feel good right now, even if today is my last session in physical therapy I've been doing for a month now.

However, please do tell him that I'm sorry for acting like a kid that night. I acted like a girl, not a woman, the kind that would pour a boy a cup of hot water without thinking. Ian would get that. He might even laugh.

I'm so sorry. It never crossed my mind that maybe he needs someone, because he's one of the happy-looking guys in the school. He's always been surrounded with people and I never thought he'd be lonely. He was quiet but he always smiled when he got the chance to, but I never thought that maybe he was not really smiling.

I'm sorry for not approaching him even when I know he was going through something. I'm sorry I didn't ask where his bruises came from. I'm sorry I was too bitter to do those all. I was so selfish to think that I had a rough life with what I went through, when all I experienced is just a grain of sand to his desert ones.

I'm so sorry that I became one of the demons in his head.

Please tell him I forgive him with all my heart, with all of the stars above my head right now.

Ian, I hope you waited for me for a bit longer. When I was going to wake up, you slept, forever.

Thank you, for the Charmander. I named him Christian, although he goes with Ian. He's here for me whenever the nights are too cruel. He watches the night sky with me. He's probably tired of seeing me cry every night, but he never said anything, he just smiles. He reminds me so much of you.

Thank you.

Maybe in an alternate universe, you did not take that last step. Maybe in an alternate universe, you didn't jump. Maybe in an alternate universe, you found happiness, and I hope in that alternate universe, Hannah Rod forgave him. I hope, in an alternate universe, you found a new Hannah. Someone that would give you hugs when you're lonely, someone that would listen to your rants when everything is confusing, someone that would show you a little bit of love, and hopefully even more, that you believed life is worth living.

Maybe in an alternate universe, it's not just The End. Maybe it's a Happy Ever After.

Writing in your journal without permission,
Hannah Rod.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

THE END

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

AUTHORS NOTE

Hello. Everyone. I'm totally speechless at the moment and it feels like the ending just deleted the English Language in my head.

Please drop a review here. I would love and appreciate reading your overall review of the story.

- Speechless John