After regaining conciousness he broke into a cold sweat as he sat there shaking feverishly.  He couldn't move his body from the spot he was sitting in.  He looked at the glistening snow around him... glistening red snow in the moon-light.  He looked to his left... at her lifeless body...

   He managed to turn himself around to look at her...  He didn't want to look at her and realize the cold truth... but he had to.  He reached out and touched her face, gently pushing her hair behind her ears.  Now with a trickle of glowing red blood on her forehead revealed he started to cry.  Tears welled in his eyes until he was sobbing violently.

"...W-w-why?  Why didn't I do something?  Why her?!?" he yelled between sobs.  The tears felt like ice sliding down his face.  

   He shifted himself to his knees and leant down to her.  He wrapped her coat tightly around her and picked up her limp body into his arms.  His ankle was in extreme pain, his head throbbing, and his heart and mind twisted in knots of sadness, pain, revenge, anger, and fear.  He held her tight and hugged her, letting her blood stain his own clothes.  He staggered away from the red snow bed they had been sitting in... he didn't know what to do or where to go... but he needed to go somewhere, do something...

   The tears of sadness slowly faded and his eyes were now filled with rage.  Still traveling through the forest with no way out he held his beloved friend tight.  He shouldn't have brought her with him... should have let her stay home... did he really think he could save her from the misery of her foster parents?  He had done nothing but get her killed.  He had the mind-set to just stop where he was and slit his own throat. He couldn't now...  she would be angry at him if he did.  He let her die... he couldn't disappoint her even more.  He never even told her that he loved her...

   He looked down at her beautiful pale face, now lifeless... He held her closer and let his tears of anger slide down his face, the tears of sadness, the tears of failure,...

"How could I let this happen!  Why didn't I protect her!  Why was I so weak!"  he bellowed at the top of his lungs and the sound echoed through the night.  

    The moon that night seemed menacing... the dark was not as beautiful as it had been when he met her that night and hugged her for the first time...