i cannot seem to forget that sentence. it burned into my brain like a cigarette, left a wound inside me that does not seem to heal. eyes opened as the blistering syllables seeped out through broken sobs reducing me to nothing but ash. when she spoke those seething words, it must have been like acid scaling up the sides of her throat and diving off the tip of her tongue. it must have seared her skin, scarred the sanctity of her sanity. tears swelled in her eyes, spilled over, filled mine. i held her as she sobbed the way a newborn would; the realization hit, festered, and boiled inside me. her other half is gone. there's no retrieving the fragments of his soul, no joining his with hers. no amount of love can fix her. no amount of love can make her whole. no matter what i do, i cannot fill the void she's condemned to live with.