WWYP XIII: My Claire (~1,000 words) (FINAL)

She went under before the news came about. Before all
the experts and all the authorities assured us we would
be alright. And before they took it back.
My dear Claire, my one and only, would be comatose
during the end of the world.

What am I to do?​

Claire had a stroke.
No one expects a stroke. Why would you expect a stroke?
A youthful spirit like hers...

We... we may be old, but... but we can't be over. I
just... can't be alone.​

...I felt strange for being so apathetic toward the
news. The news about the meteor. It didn't feel
right to not care. But I didn't.

What am I going to do... what am I going to do without
her? Why can't she just wake up? We don't have time to
wait.
I'm... so lost. I can't think clearly and I'm always
cold. I'm cold but I'm sweating.​

Days blurred. Time trudged. Or perhaps it flew.

I rubbed her hands. They were warmer than mine. I
remember the warmth. I felt it as much now as ever.
The sun shone on her in her bed. The bed the doctors
put her in. The bed the stroke put her in.
The sun shone on her and I could see what it was that I
had. What it was I had lost.

Oh my God.
Lost?
No. No I haven't lost her. She's right here.
...Please don't let me lose her.​

What am I to do?...​

Familiar people, people who knew us--cared about us--
came to us and said we have to leave to go somewhere.
Somewhere to be safe. I laughed. Then I cried. They
consoled me. I remember them consoling me often.

Claire was moved to a wheelchair. I was put in a
wheelchair too.

These people helping us also cried often. Sometimes
they yelled at each other. They would yell at each
other but then they would kiss a lot too. It made me
look at Claire.
It made me picture her, us, when we were young. When
she was a waitress, and I wasn't hungry. When we talked
till midnight. When we kissed at the pier.
It gave me a real smile for the first time in days.
I would smile as I stare at her and there would be no
more yelling.

Planes didn't fly anymore. We were driven. These people
have been so kind. I'll make sure to thank them when
Claire wakes up.

Please... please wake up...​

I didn't know where we were going. It didn't matter. I
was away.

I was away in my twenties and it was wartime. I was on
the other side of the world, and I was looking into the
face of a man I killed. A life I had taken. I have
destroyed this person's family. How could anyone
do something like this? What the hell am I?
I'm a goddamn monster.
"No," she had told me. "You're no monster, my dear.
Monsters don't cry."

I was away and I was thirty. I was in the hospital
with her. The doctor walks in and he doesn't even
need to speak.
The baby didn't make it.
My core, ours, were shaken and crumbled, and we wept.
"He'll always be with us," she would repeat to me
through the tears.
"He'll always be with us and we'll always be together."

I was away to a time soon after my parents were lost in
the crash. I was in my bedroom and it was raining. I
would stare into the thunderstorm and feel paralyzed by the
future. By the uncertainty of it and by the hole in my
heart. I didn't feel I could leave.
I didn't feel I could leave until Claire called for me
outside our window.
She called for me in the rain and said, "My dear, it's such a
beautiful day. But I can't bear to spend it all by myself."
And she didn't.

Ohh... What am I to do...​

The people in the car didn't yell anymore. They didn't
kiss anymore. And everyone was so pale.

We pulled up to a church and we stopped. Everyone
remained sitting for a long while and no one spoke.
They eventually got out and Claire and I were taken inside.

There were many other people. There was soft whimpering
and embracing, but there was mostly silence. It was a
different silence.

There was stained glass. I remember the stained glass.
I remember the very color and shape of it behind my
Claire when it framed her unveiled face as we stood
before our family and friends and promised ourselves to
each other till death.

I don't know how long we waited there. I didn't know how
long we would stay. Or live. Claire and I sat beside each
other by a colorful window. I wanted to talk to her. We
would have said kind things and reassuring things and our
words would keep our courage alive.
The people around us needed courage. I could see them
growing more anxious as they observed the time. I could
see more and more people breaking down and abandoning
what hope they had.
I held Claire's hand and I waited.
I don't know how long we waited there.

What am I to do?...​

I turned my gaze to her.

Our promise.
That's all we have left.​

I leaned in.
I leaned in and I squeezed her hand and I said,
"I love you, Claire."

I squeezed her hand.
I felt a faint squeeze in return.

There was a brilliant light that engulfed the room
through the windows.
There was a rumble that shot through the ground.
There was a thunderous roar that pervaded the air.


She went under before the news came about. Before all
the experts and all the authorities assured us we would
be alright. And before they took it back.
But my dear Claire, my one and only, would make
everything alright.

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