A/N: I know this is awfully short, but it made me sad and I didn't-couldn't-write any more of it. I'm sorry. It's sad. Don't hurt me.

Will felt the breeze somewhere beneath his jacket, but all sense of weather was gone at that moment. As he walked through London without really seeing the streets he knew so well, a thought occurred to him. A thought that hinted toward the assumption that all hope wasn't lost after all, a thought that lingered inside his head, bouncing off of the sides and rebounding to the front always. And the thought was only a single word. Tessa.

Even as he walked the dim streets, her name sounded fiercely and without resolve inside him. Tessa. Tessa. Tessa. Like the warm breath on his skin that spoke of summer nights under the stars. Tessa. Tessa. Tessa. So short, yet so perfect, he felt his heart lurch at it like it could grab hold and take him away from his life, the awful shell that was left of it. Tessa. Tessa. Tessa. And suddenly he was at the Institute again, seeing Jem and Tessa standing on the porch, their lips entangling in a horrifically painful caress. Tessa. Tessa.

And they were on the balcony again, kissing with fury and passion so fierce, it could not have merely been the effects of lemonade, could it? Tessa. And she was there. She was there standing in front of him with such a look on her face, a look that made his insides churn like butter, a look like she feared for his sanity, her gray eyes holding the question that belonged to no set of spoken words. He laughed a little. He did that enough himself, wondered if he was still sane, if his very mind was not shattered like a glass greeting the floor with a clash. Suddenly, though, he was aware of the fact that she was standing so close to him, her milky skin all but glowing in the pale night air. She was a siren, oh, yes, a siren, but her heart belonged not to him.

He could reach out and touch her, if he wanted. That's what she was saying. That's what her lips were shaping. Her lips that were suddenly crashing onto his, without either of their volition. Suddenly, just like always, there was Tessa, and only Tessa. Tessa's scent, her hair, her warmth. Tessa. The longing emptiness stopped just long enough for Will to realize that he was happy for the first time in so long. Only this time, just like all the rest, she left as soon as he gathered her in his arms.

With the absence of the girl he loved within his grasp, he sank to his knees. Grains of rock met his trousers, latching themselves miserably to them. Tears mixed with rain danced down his colorless skin, a faithless man on his knees. A hopeless man at his deathbed. A man who's only friend was insanity, waiting for his demise, as it was the only thing he had left to wait for.