Aidan suspected that the stranger didn’t smile like that normally, might even be surprised if he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror.\u00a0 The man looked oddly… happy.\u00a0 Not lost or harried, but happy.\u00a0 Aidan almost wished he hadn’t said anything, found himself thinking that things would have been better if they had never come here at all.\u00a0 He felt somehow that it was his fault – their fault, his and Eve’s.\u00a0 Why couldn’t they leave the man the way he was?\u00a0 It would be kinder, wouldn’t it?\u00a0 He might stay like this forever, or he might gradually fade away, but maybe that’s what heaven was.\u00a0 Maybe the man was dead, and this was his ghost, or his soul, or spirit, or something like that, and this is where he belonged.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hate to be the one to tell you this…\u201d Eve began.<\/p>\n
The man looked away, the smile slipping, the contentment hardening into something that happiness had no part in.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou’re going to say you’re sorry again, aren’t you.\u201d<\/p>\n
[Final total at the end of the day: 50,280 words for November]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Aidan suspected that the stranger didn’t smile like that normally, might even be surprised if he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror.\u00a0 The man looked oddly… happy.\u00a0 Not lost or harried, but happy.\u00a0 Aidan almost wished he hadn’t … Continue reading