What do you wish to speak into the flames?” Aberto said, pulling me from the memories parading through my mind.Tears streamed down my cheeks as I walked toward the fire, getting as close as the flames would allow me. I whispered into the flames to Kennan.“Kennan, I don’t know how to breathe without you. Your laughter will never again be heard, your smile never again seen. I won’t get to feel the brush of your skin against mine. Though I miss you more than my words can possibly speak, I am blessed. I would live a thousand lives for the chance to live those moments again with you. To see your face as I walked into the bar for the first time, to rediscover what you were to me all along, to know you loved me—I would do it all again to have one more moment. Aberto says you sacrificed yourself so I could live. I would have stayed with you in the void forever. Never to hear you again, to know that my future will never be yours—the pain is unbearable. I don’t know if I can go on, I don’t know if I want to go on.” Sobs wracked my body, causing my words to come out in choked cries. “Kennan O’Malley, you are the bravest man I will ever know.
