“It’s been a while.”

“Has it? I don’t think it’s been that long."

“It’s been a while for me. It’s tiring, almost.”

“It has certainly been an ordeal.”

“Are we alright?”

“Physically? Yes.”

“Spiritually?”

“You’re here, are you not?”

“But it took me so long to get to where I am.”

“What matters is what's happening now, not what happened in the past.”

“I don’t even know what’s happening now, I’m lost and I’m alone. I’m alone, how can I bear the weight of the world like this?”

“Whoever said you had to bear the weight of the world on your own?”

“I have no other choice. I’m always alone at the end, there’s no one who can bear it but me.”

“You are never truly alone. You have me.”

“And what about the end?”

“What about it?”

“There’s always an end to things. Nothing good ever lasts.”

“That isn’t true.”

“Isn’t it? Everything I’ve ever seen has risen and fallen and risen out of its own ashes, every person is waiting for their eventual death. There can’t be a beginning without an end, things exist in dualities.”

“Nothing ever ends. Things grow and they change and they evolve, but nothing ever ends. You change, and I will be with you despite your changes.”

“Will we ever be the same?”

“That is like asking if the air you breathe is ever the same- it can be similar to the way it was before, but everything in the world is ever-changing. You are never the same, I am never the same. We cannot return to what does not exist.”

“Will we ever be alright?”

“You and I both know that neither of us can ever know the future.”

“Do you have hope?”

“Of course I do. And I know you do as well.”

“It hurts to be hopeful.”

“It must, after everything.”

“I’m scared.”

“For the world?”

“For myself. I’m afraid of what I’ll be now that I’ve lost.”

“You haven’t lost anything.”

“I’ve lost everything.”

“You haven’t lost yourself.”

“Will you still love me after it all?”

“I will love you, and have loved you, for as long as we are together.”