He couldn’t believe it. She was the only person he had loved in his whole life, and now, she was silently dying on his lap. Not even tears came out of his eyes, there was no reaction at all, he just looked at her, while she kept wispering that he had to keep on living, that he should have a happy life for both, that she would always love him. Silence. She couldn’t talk anymore. At that moment it was clear for both that she had just a second left, and that’s when he reacted... He started to call her name, to ask her to not leave him, to make himself guilty for her death. Over half of what he said, she did not hear them anymore, she was already far away, but he kept calling for her, taking her in his arms and crying for her, as if his running tears would bring her life back. They didn’t. After a desperate moment of solitude and incomprehension, he calmed down again, still having her body in his arms. There’s where the memories started...

He would never forget her. She had always been there, ever since the beginning, though he did not always notice it. He looked back and back at the time. The first time they met. She was just a child. She had a long, white dress on with black ribbons decorating it. She had long, brown hair, and over her head, a hat matching her dress. She was white as snow, but her pink cheeks gave colour to her whole existence. She was shy and quiet, but with a smile that cautivated anyone’s heart. She was just a child. For anyone’s perspective, he was just a child too. For anyone but him. He saw her just like a little girl who came every year to spend the summer in his castle. Some far relatives, he had heard. He thought he was too old to be playing childish games with her, and he rather stayed in his room reading a book. He was only four years older, that may not seem very big, but for children, it is a big difference indeed. He was tall, pale, his long, black hair in a simple pony tail. His face was sad and expressed loneliness, but he never searched for company anyways. Still, she was always behind him. He may have been walking through the forest, and there she would appear, with a flower for him. He may have been in his room, looking through the window, and there she was, playing under the summer sun, running to no specific direction, while her beautiful dress danced with the wind. At first, he didn’t payed much attention to it, but slowly, after a couple of years of having her coming in summer, he realized that he did enjoy her presence.