Nothing much to rant on about except the fact that I am so totally pumped that I think this is the end! Though it is a really short chapter…. Recently been told I babble too much. So I'm done for now, here's the rest:

Bobby

Pain.

White hot and searing burned itself beneath my eyelids. I tried to remember what had happened, but my mind remained blank. I tried to move, but nothing would cooperate. Slowly, I managed to force my eyes open and the sight that greeted me brought memories flooding back into my head with a painful rush.

But that didn't matter. None of it mattered.

Before me, ebony hair fanned from a deathly pale face, normally pink lips white. Her lithe and lively frame motionless, silent on the floor. And the red marks around her neck were the only color I could see, the incriminating prints that belonged to my hands.

I pulled my body upright, ignoring my screaming muscles and limbs, focusing only on the girl. My hands trembled as they fluttered helplessly over her, hesitantly sweeping a lock of hair out of her face. Her skin felt cold even to my hands.

And that's when I realized that I was in ice form. I stared at my translucent hands for who knows how long before clenching them into fists and expelling all the cold out of me. And it started snowing. Indoors.

I pulled her onto my lap, but there was no squeak of protest, no giggle, no confident smile as I had imagined so many times. My shaking fingers traced the brilliant marks on her collarbone, around her jaw – and there. The waver of a pulse, unsteady as a baby bird's wings, giving her the life that I very nearly robbed her of.

I didn't trust my hands, but they cupped her cheek and stroked her hair, siphoning off some of the cold, pulling it away from her, trying to restore some of her warmth. And after the longest time, the color returned to her lips, to her face.

Sunlight streamed through the window and touched her face, more caring and gentle than any caress I could give her. I could've cried, her beauty was so breathtaking. Skin like the snow, hair like onyx, lips like rose petals. It could have been an angel I was holding in my arms.

Her lashes fluttered, and they opened once before slipping closed again. And then her eyes opened and I felt my breath catch in my throat.

Her warm hazel eyes, so vulnerable, so expressive, so trusting. They stared at me, and I wanted to look away in shame, but they held my gaze.

Her soft lips opened slightly, and a whisper escaped them.

"I knew you'd save me."

I wanted to say something. I wanted to say, "of course", "always", "I'd save you any time", "I'm sorry", but the words escaped me. I could only bow my head, resting my brow against hers. The tears finally ran, and they dripped from my eyes to stain her cheeks. I didn't know she'd moved until her fingers, light as feathers, touched my face, tentatively brushing against my skin. She tilted her head, just slightly, for her lips to brush against mine.

And I remembered the words she'd last spoken: I love you, Bobby. I'd heard them through the haze that had shunted me to the corner of my mind, controlling me, and I'd found strength. I'd fought back, for myself, for her. Almost too late.

I echoed the words she'd told me and I realized that they weren't even the half of it. That there was so much more to be said than what four words could express. But for now, they'd be enough. And maybe one day, that'd be all we'd need.

"I love you, Jubilee."

*Sigh. (Don't you love the way I only used her name once, and it was the last word? Rather dramatic, I think) *Contented smile

A satisfactory ending? I hope so. I'm thinking that, anyway, I'm rather content. Love? Hate? Think you could totally have done a better job? Let. Me. Know!

~ J. J. Bean