"This is fine."
A ringing echoes in her ears. It's the first thing she registers before the pain. Her vision blurry. She can't make out any of the shadows forming in the darkness. She can't taste, but her mouth feels like it's filling with lead.
Blood.
The memories come back to her. About him. It wasn't supposed to end this way. Not her dying. That was always inevitable. No matter how much she tried to distance herself from her family's life the target remained.
She could've fled. She could've left. But her pride. God her pride wouldn't let her and now they both paid the price. A tear slips. They'll think she's crying out of fear or because she wasn't ready. In reality she cried because she had no choice but to force the one she loved to kill her. He'll hate every facet of her by the time she takes her last breath.
She cries not from sadness, but from relief. Relief that she protected him up until the very end. Relief that he'll never know the truth.
Or so she thought.
Because the truth, much like a body buried in the woods has a way of being found.
Never a question of if, but rather when. She gave up everything for him. But fate will always have the last laugh because as she took her last breath somewhere a few miles away a car will careen off the road and slam full speed ahead into a tree. Killing the driver instantly.
Leaving two souls to reconnect in the afterlife whether they wanted to or not.