Two Pieces of a Puzzle ✔

Chapter Twenty-Four

ELIOTT

He pulled away at the speed of light, his eyes as wide as saucers before eventually managing to breathe out in a silent voice, "What did you just say?"

"Eric," I repeated. "I told you I remember you."

His eyes turned glassy and he turned to look down at the grass, blinking furiously, "Eric?" 

There was so much pain in his voice, it hurt my heart as well.

"Eric," he repeated once more. "God, I haven't heard that name in so long."

He tilted his head back, still blinking the tears that were threatening to spill out at any given moment away. He cursed under his breath before standing up hastily, "Come. I need to show you something."

"Huh?" I voiced in confusion before deciding not to question it. I simply followed him.

He walked straight past our bicycles that were laying on the grass, mine on top of his. He didn't even turn to look back once to make sure I was following him - I was pretty sure he already knew I would follow him, despite not knowing where we were headed. 

Because, like I said, I trusted him. 

I trusted him with my life.

After what seemed like a year of walking, we came to a sudden halt. He looked back and took a hold of my hand. I was too nervous to focus on the electrifying sensation at that moment. 

I could barely see anything. Everything was being swallowed in whole by the menacing fog. 

And so, I didn't look up. I looked down. 

I continued to look down as he guided me to his destination - and when we finally stopped, I looked over at him before looking anywhere else, "Where are we?"

"Look," he insisted, pointing toward the ground.

I obliged.

A tombstone.

Here lies Eric Zhang. 

I took a step back - then two.

Was this some sick joke?

"Eric, what is this?"

"Eliott, I'm not Eric," he let out shakily. "Don't you remember me?"

I glanced over at who I thought had been Eric this entire time.

That was when I noticed something I'd never noticed before. 

The little mole below his eye. The same mole I had pointed out to Eric whilst we were drawing little stars on his brother's face. This was his brother, Elias Zhang.

"This can't be," I said, beginning to feel a little dizzy from the sudden revelation. I held my head in my hands. "What on Earth is going on? I-.. Elias, what is this? Why is he dead?"

He stiffened up at my choice of words, "Well... it's a long story. Are you willing to listen?"

At that point I'd spend a year listening to what he had to say.

"Ten years ago," he began. "He killed himself ten years ago. Only a week after we had moved to our new place."

I was too broken to utter a word. 

"He was hurting and we never really saw it," he stated, a pained grin on his face. Even in the dense fog, I could see the way his lower lip quivered with every word. "He wasn't even living for himself. He was living for others."

Live, even if you're living for someone else.

"God, I always hated being told that after he had passed away. Live, even if you're living for someone else. Look where that got him! To his own end. He died living for others, Eliott. That was all he had been doing his entire life - living for others."

I said nothing, only listened with a thousand daggers piercing into my heart. 

"And people had the audacity to call him selfish. He spent his entire life doing something he didn't want to for others - and the one time he does something for himself, they call him selfish. I'm not even mad at him for leaving, I'm mad at myself for not noticing," he said with a bitter chuckle.

 "You should've seen my parents at his funeral. They'd never let him get a tattoo before - he never even told them about the puzzle piece tattoo. They found out at his funeral. They were always strict about tattoos and such, never let us get them. But when they found out, they literally started shaking his dead body, begging him to wake up while saying that they'd let him get any tattoo in the world if he just opened his eyes."

"He died living for other people," he finished, looking down at his feet. "And that's why I got the tattoo. So I would still keep a piece of him with me. He always spoke about you to me, even after we moved."

I looked back at the tombstone, not realizing that tears had already begun pouring down my cheeks. 

"I'd blame my parents too. They knew he was rotting away, but all they did was stand and watch. They let him die. But that's not the problem."

"Then what is?"

He glanced over at me, "I did too."

I felt a pang in my chest before swallowing, "I-.. I never really got the chance to give him a proper goodbye," I cut myself off short to wipe the tears away from my eyes, letting out a quiet laugh filled with nothing but agony and despair. "It sucks that this is how I'll be saying goodbye."

"At least you have the chance to. It's either now or never."

With a small grin, I read the words on his tombstone once more before letting out a sigh.

Maybe it was time I let him go after all.

"Goodbye, Eric. Rest easy."

"I'm sorry I wasn't the guy you were looking for."

"That's okay," I reassured him as we began to make our way in the opposite direction, our hands stuffed into our pockets. "I'm glad I met you actually. I'm pretty sure I like you too."

"I thought you liked me just because you thought I was Eric."

"Not gonna lie, that was the reason in the beginning," I admitted. "Then it became more of.. the way you made me feel, I guess. I haven't felt like that in a long time."

He grinned, "That's good. I got you something."

He pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to me.

A fortune cookie?

I let out a quiet chuckle before breaking it open to read out my fortune. 

'Move on. New love will find you.'

And I turned to look over at Elias once more.

That was the first time in ten years that my heart had fluttered for someone who wasn't Eric.

Through my ten year journey searching for a man that never existed, I ended up meeting him.

Him was no longer Eric.

Him was now Elias.

I had found my moon. 

I had noticed him and he had noticed me.

And thus, our story came to an end;

Piece by piece, then all at once.

We were two pieces of a puzzle.