Under_The_Whispering_Door_by_TJ_Klune

“You can’t blame him. He didn’t know. He was told there was nothing that
could be done when someone—”
“I don’t blame him,” Cameron said. Wallace believed him. “I made my
own choice. He warned me what would happen if I left, but I couldn’t
listen.”
“It didn’t help that the Reaper tried to force your hand,” Wallace said
bitterly.
Cameron sighed. “Yeah, but that’s not Hugo’s fault. All he wants to do is
help, and I wasn’t willing to let him. I was so angry at everything. I thought
I’d found a way to make it stop. Everything I was feeling. It was a slap to the
face when I realized it wasn’t over. It goes on and on. Do you know what
that’s like?”
“I do.” Then, “Maybe not to the extent you mean, but I get it.”
Cameron glanced up at him. “You do, don’t you?”
“I think so. It’s a lot for anyone to realize that we go on, even when our
hearts stop beating. That the pain of life still can follow us even through
death. I don’t blame you for what happened. I don’t think anyone could. And
you shouldn’t blame yourself. Learn from it. Grow from it, but don’t allow it
to consume you again. Easier said than done, I know.”
“But look at you,” Cameron said. “You’re…”
Wallace laughed against the lump in his throat. “I know. But I don’t want
you worrying about that. I think … I think you helped to teach me what I was
supposed to learn.”
“Which was what?” Cameron asked.
Wallace looked toward the sky, tilting back until he was almost horizontal
with the ground. Clouds passed by, fluffy white things with no real
destination in mind. He raised his hands, backlit by the warm sun. “That we
have to let go, no matter how scary it can be.”
“I’ve wasted so much time. Zach must be angry with me.”
“You’ll find out soon enough. Do you love him?”
“Yes.” It was said with such a tangible fierceness that Wallace could taste
it in the back of his throat, the remnants of a fire that smoldered and sparked.
“And he loves you?”
Cameron laughed wetly. “Impossibly. I wasn’t the best person to be
around, but he took the worst parts of me and dragged them out into the light.”