The End.

The night was still, save for the lone footsteps of a wandering nightwalker. The eerie silence and pitch-black darkness were all too comforting to him; it was an escape from the usual racket of city life. The dim moonlight and the hoot of the owl signifying nightfall, he gained a false sense of freedom.

Hands pocketed, he kept his eyes on his feet as he quickened his pace down the pavement. His journey's end was on the other side of town - a place he hadn't been to since half a decade ago. Questions filled his mind as he made his way there; he couldn't help but wonder why he didn't move away after the incident, like he once had.

At the sight of the cemetery, his knees dropped to the floor.

The night wind chilled him to the bone as he kneeled there, almost afraid to take a step further. He wasn't sure as to why he had come here tonight, only to stop dead in his tracks. He'd become a coward in these past few years; a gutless social phobic.

Each minute spent staring at his lover's tombstone was another flashback played in his mind. A witless teenager's mistake; a sin to haunt him for life. Of course, he needn't worry about that anymore soon enough. He'd watched the news, he'd read the papers - at the break of dawn, his days lived in regret would come to an end.

It's not like it had mattered in his five years of remorse, though. The boy was long gone and out of his life; he could've, and should've moved on. But of course, he was an idiot; he let guilt get the best of him.

As those familiar words echoed in his ears, the blood in his veins froze. Soon he was drowned in his youth's mind; their song, Blink-182's 'I Miss You' playing in the background, he saw the angel from his nightmares - and to be honest, he was scared shitless.

A sudden creak of the now open gate brought him back to reality, forcing him two steps backward out of shock. Frantic, his fingers quivered in search of something to grab onto - just anything that could support him. He found his back against the big old oak tree, and that alone was enough to send his mind flying back in time. Their names carved into the trunk with a little heart shape encircling them, the cheesiness of it all was too romantic for it not to make his heart pound a mile a minute.

Finally snapping out of his reminiscence, he cautiously walked around the graveyard, careful not as to 'wake the dead'. Immediately recognizing the tombstone he'd once visited every day for a year, he crawled over to it and sat beside it on the dirt.

He lit up a stick and nibbled on it, momentarily grinning at how he wouldn't have to suffer dying of cancer or whatnot. Fingering the engraved letters that spelt a certain someone's name, he smiled softly and leaned his head against it, imagining it as his lover's shoulder. Exhaling a last puff of smoke, he threw the cigarette to the floor and sighed - just in time for the sun to rise.

He watched as the sun slowly revealed itself, bringing the day and the world to their end. Holding out his palm, he could feel the nostalgic warmth of a gentle, but firm grip on his hand.

"Will you come home and stop this pain tonight?" he breathed.

And with the silent murmur of those words came a loud crash and an entire symphony of screams, cries and shrieks. The soil beneath him began to fissure, and suddenly the earth was split into broken pieces of land; the way down being an abyss. He held onto the tombstone, bracing himself for the worst, praying with tears streaming down his cheeks that this would all end soon.

"Shh," whispered a voice in his ear, "It'll be okay. I'm right here."

A tingle shot up his spine as he felt a finger brush against his skin, wiping the tears away. He leaned into the touch, and while the world panicked and begged God for more time and blurted the things they never dared to say, he closed his eyes with a smile adorning his face, never having felt so comforted in his life.

He knew, by heart and by soul, that this wasn't the end - it was just the beginning. The beginning, of a new, profound life; an eternity in heaven.

And with that thought drifting in his mind, the world crumbled in his sleep.