In the perspective of Eris Vendana, as she travels to the other side of the mountains to meet up with her partner Desmona Cellophane. Why she cannot hold her hand and come back to the village of Agnar, well, that is for you to find out.
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Where I wander is not for anyone in the village of Agnar to know, so I take the backroads up the steep cliffs. Squeezing through a crevis in the big rock wall about 1400 feet up, I'm now on the path on the otherside.

Desmona is waiting only a couple steps away, the same dress as when I left her billowing in the wind.

"How are you, Deszie?" I ask, lips roughly creating the syllables.

She tucks a hair behind her ear before answering. "Cold."

I bite my lip not wanting to make a snarky remark like last time, and have her disappear again. Though what I really want to say still dances on my lip.

Why the hell are still up here and not going down the path we came from?

I manage to create a more approachable offer to her stuck up soul.

"Would you like my cape?"

"You know that won't help, especially since you're still freezing in all those layers."

I take a second to examine my shaking body. "I'm just scared."

"Of what?"

And that's when I break and explain how I've been feeling this whole time.

"You and this whole situation, I can't take it. I love you and I can't."

"Then just go home, Elly. There is nothing here for you anymore. Find warmth in another. You don't want to end up like me." She rasps, turning her head away so I can't see her pained face.

"Maybe I do!" I yell still emotionally vulnerable, feeling tears slipping down my frostbitten skin. "Even if it means I'll be dead, at least I'll finally be able to be here with you!"

I breath in once before continuing. "You don't get it, I love you. It's so hard right now for me to take it as I said, but I'm not forgetting you, I'm not giving up. I love you, listen to that."

I walk up and try to take her hand, but what made it up disperses as particles around mine as I clutch the air.

"It still kills me even after three months that you died up here and I did not." I say, clearly seeing her face all teared up.

"It is life, Ellis, stop feeling guilty." Her hands hover on each side of my face, and I feel a bit more cold in those places.

"You know that's not possible with me." I stutter, wiping my running nose.

Desmona sighs and suddenly turns around and off to the cliff side.

"That's not where we walked before." I tell her, senses coming back at full force.

"Well then Ellis, if you love me, you will not follow me."

"You'll get in trouble with the higher ups for not spirit walking the way you died and lived, they'll banish you completely."

"Well that is the plan, if I ever see you up here again."

"You can't do this to me."

"You have ten seconds, Ellis Vendana."

"Deszie-"

"Nine...'

"Deszie!"

"Eight."

"DESZIE PLEASE!"

"Seven... Six... Five. Get back into the sun."

"No."

"Four."

"I love you."

Desmona stops for a second, looking at me heartbroken once again. "I love you too, so much. But I don't want to be the reason why you don't go off and live the rest of your life. You're strong, Ellis. I know that, you know that deep down. You can live through this."

"Deszie..." I say one last time, defeated. Desmona nods her head at the crevis where sunlight tries to seep in onto this side.

"Three."

I turn and take steps back to the once entryway and now exit as I hear Desmona sing-song "Two."

I turn back one more time. "I'll see you again though, right? When my time comes."

Desmona nods, hair bobbing.

"Only when it truly does, so don't go about killing yourself until then."

I nod, and as heartbroken as we both are, I take all my strength to step through. Without Desmona, who finishes the countdown on "One". Her presence is still strong in my heart, so I head back to the village of Agnar- Where I will try to start a new life not with her, but for her.

© Exer