Chance Number One

Point One

I walked down the path I saw her take. It went through the woods, dark, cold, and unrelenting. I was sure, however, that at the end of it, I would find her and, once more, I would be able to hold her in my arms and tell her just how much I love her. But it felt wrong. Everything about that very situation was wrong.

She was running away. She didn’t want to be with me. She didn’t believe in what we were sharing.

And it made me stop on my tracks. My heart froze, and as if a thousand daggers had pierced it, shredding it into such tiny pieces to be easily blown away by a weak wind. I wasn’t giving up. I wasn’t going to stop and let her go because, I couldn’t. I needed her.

So much.

I took unsteady steps once again, each earning a heavy breath from my lungs; each leaving a painful imprint on my heart. I looked around and over and below, trying to find her trail, once again, set on my heart’s only wish.

“Steph,” I murmured, praying to the gods to let her hear me – my grief, my longing – and believe in what I had said before. “Steph,” I called her name again, thinking of all those other times in the past when she responded to my calls. A loud groan escaped my throat, just as tears started welling from my eyes. My limbs brought me forward, shaky and unsteady, but, at least, I was still moving.

And I continued to move, hastening every step as I kept on my task of chasing after her in this labyrinthine forest as if it had her in the center – as the prize.

I stopped – frozen on the spot – as I heard movement to my right. I turned, craning my head to see what or who was there, and then deciding to just go ahead and see for myself.

It was her.

It had to be her.

I found her.

Again.

But there was no one there – except half of the butterfly pendant I had just given her.