The things they took from us

The funeral had already happened.

Noah learned that from the woman at the corner store, the one who used to sell them candy as kids. She recognized him instantly — not with warmth, but with a hesitation that stung. Like his presence reopened something she thought was long buried.

“Elijah was laid to rest last winter,” she said, handing him a bottle of water without making eye contact. “Snow on the ground. Quiet. Not many people came.”

“Why not?” Noah asked, already knowing.

She shrugged. “People here remember.”

He left without another word.

Back in town, whispers followed him. The boy who ran. The boy who loved another boy. The boy who broke Elijah Reed’s heart. No one said it out loud, but the silence screamed it.

That night, Noah walked to the cemetery just outside the edge of town. Moonlight spilled over the field like cold water. The wind was soft, carrying the scent of pine and something older—something lost.

He found the grave easily.

*Elijah Reed*

*2001–2025*

*"He loved without apology."*

Noah knelt beside it, fingers tracing the carved letters. That line — it was too honest, too brave for this town. Mrs. Reed must’ve fought for it.He sat there for hours, talking softly to the stone like it could hear him.

“I wanted to come back sooner. I told myself I would. But I got scared, Lij. Scared of what they did to us, what they might do again. And when the fear faded… I thought maybe you moved on. Maybe forgetting was easier for you than it was for me.”

He wiped his eyes, then laughed bitterly. “Turns out you remembered every damn day.”

The wind stirred, almost in response.

He reached into his jacket and pulled out the last letter Elijah wrote. He laid it gently against the stone.

“I came back. I just wish I hadn’t waited for your silence to call me home.”

He pressed his forehead to the earth and whispered the words they never got to say aloud:

“I loved you, too.”

And this time, not even the silence tried to deny it.

Noah cried out his heart at the cemetery,his world seems to crambled down,the man he loved laid there not sleeping but dead .

Thinking about not seeing Elijah tore him apart that he couldn't bring himself to stand upright on the ground.

He had always thought that when the right time comes he would definitely come back for the person he loved the most in the world,the love of his life.

But when the time came,the person his heart ached for ,the person he wanted to stay with for the rest of his life ,the person he wanted to hold and cuddle with every night with was dead he could bring himself to hide his sorrow.

He stayed up in the cemetery crying and sobbing so much , his heart was heartbroken so much that everything around him seemed so dark .

The love of his life was lying there lifelessly.

He couldn't believe it.

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