Please bear with me, I've been thinking about how many people I've lost over the summer. This came up. Tobias and Flora are new, as is Freya. And they belong to me. Completely. Okay... so here we go.

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Stillness

(by Moonchild Thorn Gunner)

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“Flora Devlin… you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met.” The weak woman smiled lightly as her husband ran his fingers through he long, black hair. “And best of all, you’re mine forever.” She looked up at him, her emerald tinted eyes were cloudy… and she silently wondered how he could be so optimistic.

“Toby, honey… where is-” she gasped, “…Freya…?” He looked away from his wife and squeezed her hand with thoughts of their young daughter in mind.

“She’s with my mother… I… we need to be together while you’re sick.” Flora shook her head and tears escaped her eyes and she let out another strangled gasp for air.

“Tobias… I’m not going to…” Tobias quieted and fell into the hard plastic chair by her bed. He hung his head… and his shoulders began to shake with badly suppressed sobs. “…make it honey.”

“No… No… you can’t… leave me, Flora.” He waited with her, silently reassuring her that he was there with her until the very end.

And the end for her came within a few hours. She paled, her pulse weakened… and her smooth, ivory skin began to cool. Her vision began to fade, and the voice of her husband rang in her ears.

“Flora! Don’t leave me! Stop, no! Don’t leave me by myself! Please!” He was screaming frantically. “You can’t leave me, Flora, I love you!” She smiled blearily at her husband and tried to speak.

Regret washed over her. She couldn't say anything. Her vision and mind went blank.

Tobias felt himself die a little on the inside. The monitor played a solid note. He collapsed to his knees, his green eyes centered upon his motionless wife.

How could he tell Freya?

He didn’t know if he could live anymore… he didn’t know how to...

Not without his wife. He plucked his cell phone from his pocket and dialed his mother’s number.

“Hello, mother…?” His voice was monotonous. “It’s Toby. Flora is dead.” Tobias had never felt less alive in his life. “I have no reason to leave Freya under your care.”

“I’m keeping Freya here until I know you can deal with it…” She replied, suppressing her own sobs. “Toby, I love you…” Toby felt his throat close up and his vision began to fade. He felt over, on to the floor.

And as the doctor finally came in, she could no longer hear the droning of the vitality monitor. All she saw was a dead woman and her husband, passed out from exhaustion, on the floor.

There was an eerie silence.

There was an eerie stillness.

And nothing else.