Never Again With You

She packed her bag and changed her clothes. Straightening the pink-red cap over her short minty hair, Frankie made her heart into a stone, ready to go to any lengths to find her sister before the end of the world could find them first.

When she stepped out of her childhood bedroom to find her shoes, she hadn’t even thought about the person who was now standing in her way, just as she had her sister’s, unbeknownst to her.

“Don’t go.”

Frankie didn’t understand something. Why was she crying already?

Cheryl fell into her arms. No, it was clear. There was something she wasn’t telling her.

“Don’t go!”

“Cheryl- what- what is it? I’m not going to take long, I have to find her before-“

“It’s my fault…”

The regret had hit her instantly after it had happened, but only now was it able to all spill out.

“I stopped her, but- she talked to me, and I- I let her go!”

“C-Cheryl… it’s okay. S-Snap out of it.”

The sharpshooter rubbed her leaking nose into her partner’s shoulder.

“I should have stopped her… should’ve woken you up… then none of this would be- be happening, and- and it would be okay, we’d all be okay-“

“It doesn’t matter that you messed up.” Frankie whispered in her ear. It seemed like an intentional gesture, but in truth it was all she could manage over the flooding current of emotions pulling at her heart in every which direction. Ignoring the evil and the anger suddenly burgeoning within her, she convinced herself of one thing. “Because I’m going to go fix it.”

One impossible thing.

Cheryl gripped her tight.

“But what if… you don't have time to come back?”

As much as it hurt, Frankie knew she absolutely could not allow herself to think about that right now.

“I will.”

Lest she be strayed away from the path any more, or waste a single further second of her limited time, Frankie made the most difficult and foolish call she ever had, grabbing her flip-flops and running right out the door, not looking back.

Cheryl felt a thousand needles penetrate her body, watching her leave.

She prayed she would return… prayed it would be okay… but as her body refused to move, she couldn’t be so sure.