I held on. I did not let the tears fall.
In the end, I walked home alone.
Three days. That was all the time I had left before I was gone.
This time, I did not lock myself inside again.
The places I had once walked with him, I returned to them all. One by one.
The first day, I went to Lovers' Bridge.
Among the rows upon rows of locks, I found ours quickly enough. The face of it was carved with crooked, uneven letters.
"Alaric Nightfang and Hazel Ashvale will be together forever."
That day, he had held my hand as he scratched those words into the metal. His handwriting was always precise, every line deliberate, but the unfamiliar tool had made a mess of it.
I had laughed at him for a long time.
The tips of his ears went red. A rare, unguarded awkwardness.
"Hazel, my head is so full of you that I can't even carve straight. You owe me for that."
Before the words had finished leaving his mouth, he leaned down and kissed me.
I stood on the bridge now. Drew out the key. Turned it in the lock until the shackle released with a small click.
Then I threw it, hard.