I had just done something unforgivable, and I knew it. I could not take it back, and for the most selfish reasons ever, I did not want to. I was not a selfish person, but I was a man alone in his ways, or I was. I was until just now when I selfishly brought the love of my life into my life. Not even ten minutes into my explanation as to what I had done and she was already running for the door. Her expression not one of fear, or regret, but anger. I had tried to stop her, she did not know what she would be walking into if she left, but she was determined and I could see it in her eyes as I tried to turn her around. I would not be able to stop her.
"Please do not leave." She turned her back to me and put her hand on the doorknob with every intention of leaving visible in her posture. "Please, just listen to what I have to say." Remarkably, she hesitated and I sprang upon the opportunity to convince her to stay. Not that I could do much, it was a hope beyond hope that she would even let me finish, but I needed to try. "I love you, there has not been a time in my life that I have not loved you, regardless of having met you yet or not. I know there was a time when you loved me too. Things have changed, but now there is absolutely nothing standing between us. We can be together... forever."
"Do you honestly have no clue as to how wrong you are? There is more stopping me from loving you now than any time before. Telling the truth now doesn't mean that you never lied before, and no amount of truth now will ever fix that." She turned back to me and her glare stirred up true anguish. I had never felt it like this and it hurt like no other wound had. "You ruined my life, Al. What you did to me can never be taken back and nothing you do now could ever make me love you again."
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"Nothing?" I could not believe I was about to do this, but somehow I had known I was going to have to. "You know what this is," I held out the mirror. "You know its value. It is yours, I am giving it to you no strings attached, my soul along with it." This was my final, last ditch, effort and she knew what I meant in the gesture. I was giving myself up to her judgment, hoping beyond hope she would forgive me.
"I'll take it," She whispered, there was nothing but cruelty in her words as she took the mirror out of my hands. "But only to show you the real truth. You have no soul to give." She threw the mirror down to the ground and it shattered into a hundred shimmering pieces. With a smile on her lips she snapped her fingers and they were gone. "Goodbye, Al. If we ever meet again, it'll be in hell."
"Please, do not waste everything I have given you and given up for you." She turned and walked out the door. Cold air flowed in the vacant aperture as I watched her walk away. There was nothing I could do to stop her now, I was powerless and she was gone. I would not see her after that for a long time, after I was a completely different person. After I had truly died, inside and out.