Page 53 of Cherry Moon

All will be gone.

“If I don’t…” I swallowed a cruel ball of anxiety. “If I don’t jump into those shadows, then it’s…goodbye.”

That had to be it. Make a sacrifice for him. Do this and make things right.

My lips tingled from his kiss. But he wasn’t close enough to kiss, too far away.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Let your heart be full of him. Let it beat.

Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

“G…”

The shadows took him away.

“Please…”

“Aki?”

The hole shrank again.

Almost time.

“Don’t leave me.”

I turned on the spot, the walls thick with darkness closing in, coming for me. Ready to take me away from him. End it. Start the next part of my existence without him.

“Not without him.”

“Don’t leave me.”

My eyes fell onto the shrinking hole. Within seconds, it would be gone and the walls would have me. I felt the pull of the next stage, the whispers from the other side.

“I’m not going.”

There were too many days ahead of me in need of coloring with yellow roses and other flowers. I wanted to hand him bouquets in the land of the living, not mourn him in the afterlife, waiting to see his face again.

Yes. Yellow roses. I wanted to give him yellow roses again. After that first time, they were always red or pink or some other flower, never yellow.

I jumped into the hole, opening my eyes to a kiss.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

AKIRA

His eyes fluttered open, his back arching as he gasped a sharp intake of breath.

“G!”

I tumbled off him, spreading myself out alongside him. The elation felt like whiplash.

He’s alive. He’s alive. He’s alive.

He coughed, gasping, turning to the side.

“G.”