Page 43 of Tangling Hearts

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Brendan

Questions: answered. Pieces: falling into place. Heart: cut to shreds. The same night.

The high grass brushes against my legs with every step I take. There is no calmness in the Italian field this time, or in me. The silence isn’t soothing anymore. More than once I have to hold my head to stop it from killing me. And when I walk, it feels like I’m on the edge of a cliff, about to fall, but there’s firm ground underneath my feet. It makes no sense.

I think I hear something.

I turn as though in water. A breeze whispers against my lips and my heart races. I reach up to find the soft fingers that I know now are hers, have been this whole time, but when I touch, there is nothing there. It was just the wind? The fingers have always been there. She has to be here. “Annie!!!” I turn in circles. More grass. More trees. More silence. “Annie! Don’t leave!”

“Brendan.”

Surprised, I turn around, because it wasn’t her voice. There standing behind me is Christiano, a vague version of him manifested from my memory. He’s looking at me like I’m a fool. “You have lost her,” he says, with a tone of sadness, his eyes downcast. He turns and walks away.

“Wait!” I try to grab him, but he vanishes in my hands. I look at my empty palm and see it begin to disappear, too.

Launching awake, sweat-covered and panting in my bed, I squint against the bright morning light, confused and shaken. I must have fallen asleep sometime after dawn.

What time is it?

Reaching for my phone… it’s after 9:00 a.m. I’m late for work. Great.

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