章 815: Choices Reprised

I felt like a visitor in a hospice being here, sitting here at the small empty space at the side of her bed - grazed only scarcely by the warmth of her dim light - just staring, just waiting for… I don't really know… 

Something maybe…

And conveniently, just to add to the immersion, there was even a nurse here in attending - facemask and all - themed purple for some strange reason or another. 

It was almost like we were reprising a scene from the past, the three of us together. Meeting with Sera after traversing the forest deep in the night, stray twigs and leaves latching to the seams of my clothes, and there resting atop a bed of grass under the moonlit skies, I'd lay beside Ria - completely unknowing of what was about to happen, or just what I was about to unravel delving deep within. 

So many things have happened since, and yet through it all, stumbling down in every pitfall, rising up above every peak, Ria had remained ever fast asleep.