I'm sorry.
Nothing else seemed like the right thing to say. Nothing else felt like the right words to use.
I wasted all that effort and time, I'm sorry.
I just wasn't good enough, I'm sorry.
I woke up.
I'm sorry.
Maybe I've let the hero mindset fester in my head for too long already, and perhaps I might have let my prior achievements lull me into this false sense of bravado, confidence, and security… had me thinking I could take on the world if I just believed hard enough that I could.
Genuinely, there wasn't a doubt in my mind for even a second that I couldn't get Ria to wake up. I was convinced forthright that no matter what it took, no matter what needed to be said, that one of these days eventually, when I wake up to the rays of the morning sun again, that she'll be there squinting and shielding her eyes from the glare alongside me.
Short chapter, my bad. I only had like two hours to write today because I was out helping relatives move places - I'm very, very tired but I gotta publish something, don't I?
Hope you still enjoyed it either way. Will see you ya'll folks in the next one!