Final

My eyes followed her every move. But I didn’t notice how she danced across the room, her eyes sparkling excitedly. My mind didn’t process it, I just watched.  

That’s all I could do lately: watch her. When she left the room, I followed. I watched her, I stayed with her, and I couldn’t seem to keep my hands off her.
She was so happy

How could she be happy after all that torture?

I didn’t understand.

I couldn’t understand.

She just couldn’t forget. Not after everything that happened.

How could she forget?  

That’s why I watched her. I was trying to find an explanation. And so far—I couldn’t find anything.

She stopped dancing across the room. Her small joy turned quickly to worry as she scanned my face. Our eyes locked and we stared at each other for a long moment. Alice opened her mouth, as if she was going to speak. But thought otherwise and closed it and silently walked over to me.

I sat unmoving, my eyes still followed her as she sat down next to me. She wrapped her arms around my waist, and rested her head against my chest. My arms responded by holding her closer.

“Jasper?” Alice asked, her voice barely over a whisper.

“Yeah?”

“What’s going on? What’s wrong?”

I didn’t answer—just closed my eyes.

“You’re worrying me.”

I opened my eyes, meeting Alice’s intense gaze. We stared at each other unmoving for… minutes?… hours? Only Alice’s confused emotion came through my numb mind.

Alice’s emotions slowly turned from confused and scared to a pain-staking sadness within a matter of minutes.

“What happened Jasper! What happened while we were gone? You went missing and we were looking for you for days! I couldn’t see you! It went…black.” Alice whimpered.  “Do you know how hard it was! Not being able to see your future! I thought you were dead! I was… so scared.” Alice started to sniffle, and cried, burring her head into my chest. But no tears ran down her face.  

I still held her close—but didn’t answer.

“Jasper please…” She begged.

I looked into her worried and troubled eyes. “You” I whispered. “I watched, you. I watched your father disown you and I watched him leave you in that God forsaken place. I watched him leave you in the hands of that damn man. I watched you get called a monster and go through unbearable amounts of torture for it. And I was there—I tried to help. I really did. I held you as you cried. And I tried to comfort you whenever I could. But I watched your spirit die and I felt every moment of it.” I took a breath, not daring to look down into Alice’s eyes. I already knew her emotions. I knew what I would find. But Alice sat up on her knees and stubbornly lifted my head to look at her.

Her pain has hit me in waves through her emotions but her eyes were worse… much worse.

I whispered, “And through all that… you still smile.”

Her eyes were in pain but she quickly took hold of my body and squeezed me tight. She was trying to comfort me.

“I always knew,” She whispered, “I always knew you were there.”

Not another word was needed to be said. We sat in silence knowing that although Her Past may have been dark—Her Future was bright.