(Spoilers for my WIP)

"I'm sorry.. I'm so sorry.." I mumble over and over, as if that can change what happened; as if it could erase the past day from existence. What did this poor boy do to deserve this? It's not his fault at all. But if it’s not Casper’s fault, that begs the question:

Who _is_ to blame?

I want to blame myself, just so I'd have something tangible to destroy, to hurt. I want to blame myself so maybe I won’t have to face the fact that I wouldn't have been able to save him in any other reality. This cursed multiverse of agony was doomed the second we made eye contact in that bar.

Maybe, just maybe, if I had never approached him then he'd have never been dragged into this mess; the nightmares, Avila's death...

My lips part to let out a scream, loud and broken, and I'm left listening to the way it echoes back in the cold emptiness of the woods. I'm completely, _hopelessly _alone.

Cradling the limp corpse of what could've been a bright future in my arms, my own body gives out and joins his in the blood-soaked dirt.