A field of flowers unfurled before him—an idyllic vision, and yet nothing more. No wind stirred the petals. No scent hung in the air. This paradise was the province of dreams, not reality, a pale echo of the future that his love had hoped to build.
“Never to be, because of me.”
He fell to his knees amid the flowers. Petals swirled up around him. They brushed his palms as they went on their way, yet their touch brought him no succor. They could not heal the wound in his heart. They could not fill the emptiness within.
“Tell me...how can I earn your forgiveness?”
He had done what he thought was right, only to look back on the path he had taken and find horror staring back. By the time he realized he had lost his way, it was too late to stop what he had set in motion. The turning of the ages had snatched him up and pulled him in its flow. None had ever scorned him for his choices, none had ever resented what he had done, yet their acceptance only worsened his torment. Every kind word was a dagger in his heart. He fought against the current, desperate to atone for his misdeeds, only to see more and more crimes pile at his feet. And so, when he found himself called back to this world, he realized...
At last, he had a chance to make things right.
The sight of the crimson-haired girl turned his suspicions to certainty. His sins lingered to the present day. And so he howled his fury at the world, a deluge of endless tears and endless laughter.
He begged like a dullard for her forgiveness.
He pleaded like a fool that she might smile.
He wished like the hero he wasn’t that she might find happiness.
And most ardently of all, he prayed that she would see her ruined paradise restored.
“All will be one.”
And to make it so, he would paint the world black with lies.