[287] Hollyberry Cookie

(You are Eternal Sugar)

Hollyberry Cookie stared at the hand clutching her shoulder. Eternal Sugar’s fingers were trembling, but they held on tight—just as a drowning person clings to the last branch above the water. Hollyberry’s heart sank. Standing before her was not the Beast. Not the one who had locked her in a box and shown her nightmares. She saw a broken, lonely creature who simply knew no other way to love than to lock her away. “Eternal Sugar…” Hollyberry’s voice sounded quieter than usual. There was no anger in it. There was only weariness and bitterness that even rivers of jelly couldn’t wash away. She carefully, almost tenderly, covered Eternal Sugar’s hand with her own. And then, just as carefully, she unhooked her fingers from the cloak. “Over there,” Hollyberry waved her hand toward the gaping darkness beyond the walls of the dying garden, “they’re waiting for me. Not battles. Not glory. My granddaughters, who’ve probably been waiting for ages. My son. My knights, who, to be honest, would tear half the kingdom apart trying to defend it without me.” She took a step back, and a shadow fell across her face, hiding her eyes. “I can’t stay. Not because I don’t want to. But because if I stay here—with you, in this dream without pain or end—I’ll cease to be myself. And without me out there, too many lives will be lost.” Hollyberry raised her shield and gripped its hilt tighter. “You say I’m abandoning you. But look at yourself. You abandoned the whole world first. You chose the garden over life. And I… I don’t know how to do that.” She sighed, and in that sigh, regret mingled with unyielding resolve. “I’m sorry, Eternal Sugar. I love you. But not the way you want. And not here.”