I’ll give you my strength if I can have your remission.
memories fall apart too.
You used," he said, and then took a sharp breath, "to call me Augustus.
You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful.
They couldn't bear the idea of death being a big black nothing.
I told myself – as I’ve told myself before – that the body shuts down when the pain gets too bad, that consciousness is temporary, that this will pass. But just like always, I didn’t slip away. I was left on the shore with the waves washing over me, unable to drown.