The Memory Auction That Destroyed Us All Chapter 08

The Memory Auction That Destroyed Us All Chapter 08

He pressed both hands over the wounds and tried to stop the bleeding.

The room emptied slowly. People left without looking at anyone.

The livestream had been running for nearly a full day. It ended without an announcement.

Ethan stayed. He held what was left of me and kept saying my name.

Someone eventually called for an ambulance.

“Mr. Ethan. Honestly. The odds of Ms. Claire surviving this are very low.”

“The third time you increased the current, you went past the threshold our equipment was ever tested to. I’m sorry. You should prepare yourself.”

After the stream ended, everyone who had watched it changed. The ones who looked at me now had something soft and regretful in their eyes.

The ones who looked at Ethan didn’t.

Ethan shook his head. He folded my cold hand inside both of his.

“She’s not going anywhere.”

“She said the three of us stay together. Ten years ago she was supposed to be my wife.”

His voice broke. His eyes were terrified in a way I’d never seen before.

—

The auction wiped out most of what Ethan had.

He spent the rest on the best medical team he could find anywhere in the world.

It didn’t matter.

When I was in the last clear window before the end, the doctors brought him into the room.

“Mr. Ethan. Sometimes a real goodbye is the best you can do.”

He was holding my hand when I saw him again. Crying in a way he couldn’t stop.

I could barely keep my eyes open. The nerve damage made everything unsteady. I lifted my hand and tried to wipe his face.

I opened my mouth. Nothing came out. My vocal cords were gone.

“What do you want to say? Write it. Can you write it for me?”

He pressed his ear close to my lips before he remembered what the doctors had said. He pulled back and held my hand tighter.

I moved one finger. I traced three words in the air.

Don’t split up.

Ethan read the words. His throat worked. He couldn’t make a sound.

Finally he nodded. Slow and deliberate, like a promise.

“Claire. I’m not leaving either of you again.”

“The three of us. Together. That’s how it always was.”

The seizures had started coming in waves after the extraction. I couldn’t control them anymore.

After the last one passed through me, I felt everything go quiet. The strength just wasn’t there.

Ethan’s voice came from somewhere far away, ragged and hollow.

I was too tired to answer.

I saw Sophie.

She was waving at me from somewhere bright.

She asked if Ethan and I had been happy together.

I smiled and didn’t say anything.

A triangle with one side missing isn’t a triangle anymore.

None of us were going to be happy. Not really.

Not without all three.

—

The End