“NO—“ Byron hopelessly thrusts his body towards me against the grip of the guards. And now his face is wet, and his eyes are blurry.

And the arms of the guards are solid. Too solid next to the broken facade of Byron. Byron who never sheds a tear. Byron who stayed stone-faced until the end. It wrenches my gut, tears my heart into rough-edged shreds.

I sob his name as the guards wrestle him backwards and tear away my lifeline, my reason. My one reason. The reason that now is swallowing me in tears as I fight the chains digging into my skin.

The door slams with a dull thud and in that moment I am alone and afraid and for the first time after meeting Byron, I am flooded with an emptiness that digs the last shreds of my heart out of my chest. My body doesn’t belong to me. But my throat chokes out a last desperate sound.

“Be careful out there.”