• Aeden was 15 come December 21st, the first day of winter. I was about a year older, 16 as of November. December was slow and dreary this year. It only ever rained. She was looking out the window, a fiery glow in her eyes that would make you doubt me when I tell you she only had a few more days to live. Her voice crept into my thoughts and snapped me out of it.
    "I wish it wasn't so gray..." Her voice was soft, sweet, and sorrowful. I wanted to be able to catch it in a bottle and keep it forever, along with her. "Eric?"
    "Hmm? Yea... I'd like to see the sky again... or at least white clouds." I paused something dawning on me. "Aeden... Are you scared?"
    " Of?"
    "Death…"
    "I don't know..." She went quiet for a moment. "Are you?"
    "Not really..."
    "Then no, I'm not... For if you can be brave enough to face death, I shall be too."
    "What do you think death is?" She considered my question for a while then replied.
    "The start of a new life. A second chance..." I pondered over her words for a time.
    "Three days..."
    "Hmm?"
    "Three days until your birthday"
    "Already?" It was the 19th.
    "Yes," I looked over at her. She was staring out the window her pearl white skin glittering in the pale sunlight. "What’s your deepest wish?"
    "I want it to snow... Just once more, before I die..." She looked at me with her silver blue eyes. Her long dark hair that flowed around her shoulders making her look both beautiful and more pale. I wanted to protect her, to wrap my arms around her and keep her from death. I wanted death to take me instead. Not yet, I silently pleaded, don’t take her yet...
    "Eric..." Her voice shook me from my thoughts again. "Will you miss me?"
    "More than anything else in the world." I stared into her eyes and remembered when we were little we would run and play in the snow as if the snow would never melt and always be that perfect crispy white. I leaned back into the wooden chair and stare out the window at the gray world that used to be so beautiful.
    "Do you believe in Angels?" She asked her voice soft as snowflakes landing on the palm of your hand. I turned my head to her again.
    "I'm not sure..."
    "Then tell me when you are." The doctor walked in and sent me home; telling me Aeden needed her rest.
    I came every day and stays there for as long as I was allowed. On her birthday it snowed. I ran as fast as I could to her home and straight upstairs to her chamber. She was staring longingly at the snow outside. I walked over.
    "The doctor says I'll probably die soon..." I choked back my disbelief. I can lose her. "Will you take me outside...?"
    "Now?"
    "Yes." She looked at me, her eyes full with sorrowful longing rather than fire. "Please, I want to touch the snow, just once more..." I nodded; barely able to speak I helped her put her pale pink shawl over her silky white dress. I stared at her for a moment. She looked beautiful... She slipped her hand into mine and I took her outside, the snow crunched softly beneath our feet. She let out a soft gasp and held out her hand allowing the tiny flakes to fall into the palm of her hand. They shimmered in her dark locks and glittered around her eyes. She released my hand and took a few more steps then twirled. Her hair fluttered around her and her cheeks glowed with a pale pink. I walked over to the white oak tree and sat down watching her. After a short while she came and sat down beside me. We sat there for a long while the snow drifting slowly and sweetly, the wind humming a fantasy-like tune. Aeden closed her eyes and leaned against me.
    "Don't die..." I whispered to the wind I put my arms gently around her and felt the soft beating of her heart, like the beating of a dove's wing. It was slowly fading, drifting into the wind on the tiny little snowflakes. A tear slipped down my face sinking deeply into the snow, like the fact my only friend was dying here, in my arms, at this very moment. She placed her head on my chest. Having her there in this condition made me realize something so deep I knew never feel it again unless I was with her, and only her.
    "Aeden..." My words came forced, choked, only half willing. "Aeden, I..."
    "Eric... I love you..." For the slightest of seconds I was speechless, but all of my deepest desires took over at that same moment and I kissed her. No regrets, no care at all. She smiled and looked at me one last time with those deep loving, silver blue eyes that would remain forever in my core.
    "Yes..."
    "Yes?"
    "I believe in angels..."
    "What made you change your mind"
    "You..." She smiled and we sat there again. She looked at the wintery scene, at the house she grew up in, the house where her friend lives, The schoolhouse where he defended her, then at the oak tree they first realized they loved each other and where they first met and where she'll die. Her last words came slowly softer than the beating of a fairy's wings, softer than the snowflakes, softer than life and death.
    "Goodbye my love... I will wait for you, in the afterlife..." A tear slipped down her cheek, as well as mine. they slipped into the snow where they merged and froze, a memory frozen in the snow, a love that lasts for eternity. She is not dead, I told my self, she is sleeping; Sleeping, with the angels.
    gaia_angelleft For she is my winter angel gaia_angelright

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