I couldn’t breathe through the smoke, but I couldn’t care less. All I cared about at this moment was making sure she made it out of this alive. I couldn’t let him win. I needed her. She didn’t have to leave. I begged her to stay.
“I can’t feel my legs,” she said, breathing heavier than I would like in this situation. She started to struggle to get free from the debris, even the slightest shift of the building caused her to cry out in pain.
The concrete was smoldering to the touch, but I couldn’t just leave her here. She stopped trying to lift it after a while and I worried she was gone, but then she spoke.
“It’s no use... It’s not going to move...”
“Just shut up and push!” I begged, groaning, and lifting with all my might, but I couldn’t move the pillar by myself. I wasn’t going to give up. I couldn’t.
She put a gentle, but fragile hand on my shoulder and I looked at her, tears streaming down my face. “I love you, Haves.”
“N-no... Don’t do that...” I pleaded, my voice breaking.
“Don’t do what?” she asked, a child-like confusion in her eyes.
“Don’t say it like you won’t make it out of here alive. Say something else.”
She had to think about it for a few seconds but finally said. “If I could be anywhere in the world, it would be with you.”
My heart broke as I listened to her words. She was referring to something I said ten years ago. I didn’t know what to say. She didn’t have an answer back then, but this is what she chose to tell me now.
How could those simple words be the last words, and first words, that I’d want to hear right now? If I saved her, I would be a monster. If I didn’t, I would be a monster. She never wanted to make it out of here alive. Was I seriously about to be selfish and try?
Yes. Yes, I was.
ns 15.158.61.39da2
