Chapter 96

At first, I flinched away, then I moved closer and flattened my palm on the small mound that I had thought was just a pile of sand. Tears rolled down my cheeks, and I couldn't stop them from flowing freely. Now looking closely at it, I could see the weeds sprouting from the mound like they were mocking me. The sight felt like a dagger getting piercing into my heart. My chest hurt so much it was as if my heart had been wrenched out of it, and it was groaning from the loss of what it revolved around. That was exactly how I also felt, a hollow emptiness. All these years, I had been waiting for Lucas, hoping against hope that he was alive, and then he turned out to be...gone. I had fallen in love with him, allowed myself to be consumed by those feelings, only to start hating him again because I wasn't privy to the real truth— he had stopped existing a long time ago. The poor boy, Lucas, had only wanted to make friends and experience the simple joys that most take for granted. He wanted to