What would happen if the person who always stayed by your side was forever gone?

 What would happen if the person who always stayed by your side was forever gone?

Ananya Maram, 27/01/26

It would take months, even years to rightfully acknowledge that the person who helped you through the highs and the lows was taken from you to a better place, but is it really a better place if your one and only was there and not with you?

Everything would slow down in time. Aging, movies, favorite television shows you used to watch together. To you, a rainbow would be black and white. A butterfly would mean nothing, but a caterpillar meant something. You started to look at tunnels and caves and canals, hoping for something different, but never wishing. Without a backbone, nothing was physically possible. 

If you tried something new one day, it would flop in seconds. Hobbies were never pursued because you had no one to talk to about it. Foods were bland because there was no one to share it with. Games were boring as your Player 2 wasn’t present, and a CGP never filled in the gap like they did. There was nothing to ever look up to because your person was that something you always looked upon every day.

Travels never happened and movies were never watched. You couldn’t bear to watch your favorite shows ever again because of the memories they had left behind. Their room was your go-to spot for a nice cup of coffee and a chat, but now it’s a place to cry and wonder if they’d ever come back. Wonder if they’d ever come back to the person they had left behind. You couldn’t bring yourself to listen to your favorite artists because their voice faintly played in the background, bringing tears instead of a smile. Music became a memorial, while slowly, you did too.

You started to notice how often you trailed around their apartment building. Climbing up and down the stairs ‘till you collapsed, and even then you still kept going. Entering their room and stopping before you yell out their name, realizing they’d never respond. Yet, you still call it out anyway, because it gives you comfort. Just to find out that the footsteps you were hearing were not actually theirs but the next door neighbor’s. Their smell lingered around their clothes that you wanted to take all of them for yourself, but you couldn’t bring yourself to untidy their work. Your thoughts were only about them, and everything seemed like it was over, because what else is there except joining the only friend who saw you when no one else did?

That was the person who found you at your lowest, promised they would never leave your side, held your hand and comforted you when you were almost ready to leave the world, only to have left the world themself, leaving you behind to fend for yourself. You started to become a walking memorial, but the last sliver of hope that they were still rooted deep into your soul never left, and that was what powered you to keep going.

-Keep going. They are still watching you and supporting you in whatever path you chose-