Forever After All

by Catharina Maura

Eight years. My mother has been in a coma for eight years now, and I’m the only one who still believes she’ll wake up one day.

Alexander—but know that even if you own my body, you’ll never own me.”

you will belong to me. It’s not just your body that will be mine, Elena. It’s your every thought, your every dream. Your entire future is mine.”

don’t fucking share, Elena. I don’t like people touching what’s mine.”

“Resist all you want, fight me, deny it… but in the end, it’ll be my name on your lips when I make you come—again.”

“Oh, and Elena?” he says, turning back to look at me. “I’m taking you bare. The first time I fuck you, I want to feel all of you.”

Even now, when it’s me that bears his last name, it’s her he thinks of. It will always be her.

I saved my mother’s life, but I gave up my own in return.

“Elena, my son’s heart is broken, and it has been for a very long time. Maybe it’s damaged beyond repair, but maybe, just maybe, it just takes the right touch.”

“No one touches what’s mine, Elena. No one will even dare think of you, dream of you. You belong to me now, and I don’t share.”

And that’s where the danger lies… Elena makes me want to give her the world.

It gives me hope, and hope is the most cruel emotion of all.

that’s just life. Both our mothers chose love, and they paid the price. That’s the risk of giving someone your heart—you have to trust that they won’t break it, that they won’t break you. And this world that we live in… it’s shallow, it’s opportunistic, and it’s vain.”

There’s no shame in loving someone with all your heart, Elena, but that love must be mutual. If you end up giving more of yourself than you get back, you’ll end up a shell of yourself, depleted, like I was. Had I walked out sooner, I might have had a different life. Who knows? I might have actually found true love.” I stare at her, my thoughts whirling. “Even after everything that happened, you still seem to believe in love.” Mom nods. “It’s not love that did this to me, honey. It’s the absence of love.”

“Honey, a life without love isn’t a life worth living. Besides, you don’t get to choose whether or not you love someone. If only. How much easier would life be if we could just make that choice? Love… it doesn’t listen to reason.”

“I’ve spent my entire life loving people that didn’t love me back. I won’t do it again. I won’t. Not even for you.”