I will prevail

o p a l .

You don't have to hide your love away and
I know that I'm gonna make mistakes but
Leaning on somebody isn't easy
I'll do what I can to make you see, oh

He was there, before her, a shimmering image of the man she had loved with her entire heart. Opal Earnest was a person who loved intensely, who let herself fall and be claimed by it, it was her greatest strength and her greatest weakness. It consumed her, drove her and made her so strong but it times so broken. She had been burned, had her heart torn from her chest, left clutching at the sand of a life that she had dreamed of as it fell between her fingers. Love was good, until it was stolen. Gone, taken from you in a moment, the glint of a sword and suddenly the heart that you had filled with a family, with hope and the image of a home was no more.

She felt weak, as she stared at him. She had never once stepped foot into the Museum. The tales of the holograms were everywhere, and she had heard the whispers of what it was like, a lucid image before you of what once had been. There was a lump in her throat as she moved closer, legs weak with each step. He wore the same clothes he had been killed in, the uniform of his Arena, except now they were whole, no cuts, no tears. He looked perfect, like the first day she had met him in the fields in front of his house.

She stopped in front of him. It was familiar, the way she had to tilt her head up to look at him, the same way she had to look when she peered into Katelyn’s eyes. He was so very real, the figure looked at her and smiled and Opal’s heart tore. It was a small smile, but she could see the way it made his eyes crinkle, the way the corner of his lips moved. Yet, it was wrong, it wasn’t his smile, there was no light in his eyes, there was no dimple in his right cheek.

There was a prickle behind her eyes, and she blinked rapidly, trying to clear her vision. The lump in her throat ached and she took a shaky breath, feeling it sting her lungs as she fought to control herself. Opal Earnest had never been good at this, at taming her emotions, she was an open book, a messy display of her anger, pain and suffering.

“Hi,” she spoke softly, the hologram grinned, looking at her with a level of familiarity that made her stomach churn and her eyes widen. “I been waitin’ fer you, missy,” she felt her gaze soften, her face slacken as she heard him speak. It was exactly the same, the lilt of his accent, the warmth that he carried in his voice.

Reaching a hand upwards to gently touch his face. Her finger slipped through his skin and Opal bit back an alarmed cry. Her hand fell, and his body shimmered for a moment as it swallowed her and suddenly she felt as empty as he was. Potato Earnest was dead, and this was so wrong, so incredibly wrong that they had done this, it wasn’t him. It was a fake, phony imitation of what he had been and she felt the tears fall silently down her cheeks as she stared at him.

“Don’t be sheddin’ no tears now on accoun’ ’a me, I ain’t gotta single regret,” he was always the one to make sure everyone else was okay. He had a heart that was too big for this world, it stripped him bare, ripping him open to his core. It made him into something he would never have chosen to be if Opal hadn't been waiting on the other side of the Arena. He was never meant to kill, to feel that kind of suffering.

“Your son,” she croaked, each word catching in her throat, “you’d really love him, you’d have done a better job then I did.” The holograph stared at her, the words she spoke did not fight into his script, so it remained silent, and she moved beside him, finding herself sitting in the dirt they had thrown onto the ground for the display. Dragging her knees to her chest she wrapped her arms tightly around them. The holograph remained standing, turning its head to look into the distance, face vague, empty.

“I think I’m going to get married again, Potato,” she spoke softly, each word burying itself into her pants. “My heart needs her, she makes me feel alive, I need her, I think I’ll break without her,” she wiped at her eyes, sniffling as she looked up at him.

The hologram reacted, turning to face her and taking a step forward. “Opal, I only ever wan’ yer happiness,” his tone was gentle as if it was straining against the program that held it together. For a moment his image flickered, breaking as it fought to find the right words to say to her. “You keep on livin’ missy, I only wanna be seein’ yer when yer ol’ an’ grey, got it?” She nodded stiffly, feeling her lip wobble as more and more tears welled in her eyes and fell to the floor. Old and grey, she could make it that long, right? For him, she’d drag her body through hell and back, for him she’d do it.

“Yeah, old and grey,” she promised. She’d weather whatever was before her, and she’d do it with Katelyn and Ky. It was the same feeling she’d had with Potato, the belief that she could do anything with this love.

She was so incredibly in love with Katelyn Persimmon, it was the same kind of feeling she’d had for Potato and it had left her broken and destroyed. There was no restraint for Opal, there was just a cliff and a dive headfirst, it was the only time in her life where she would give every bit of her being. Her heart was taken from her chest and handed to the person she loved for them to do as they pleased. She knew she was giving it to the right person, she knew, just like with Potato that Katelyn had the power to give her everything in life she had wanted, or take it all away.

Opal gathered herself, shuddering with each breath as she stood. She walked over to the hologram, peering up into his face, Potato greeted her with that same smile and she found her own faltering. “I’m going to give her everything and I’m so sorry we never got that,” she wanted so badly to reach for his hand, to feel his warm skin against hers, to entwine their fingers together and feel his gentle reassuring squeeze. Was this goodbye? She bit her lip, she didn’t think she would ever fully leave him, shards of her heart scattered in the blood-stained earth his body had been slain in. No, it was moving, the sands shifting beneath them, a path in the woods that split into two. A crosspoint, where Opal walked left and Potato was left behind, standing there, waiting for her to come back.

Opal took a step back, hesitating as her gaze lingered over his face. She wasn’t sure how long she stood there, staring. Her feet ached by the time she started to move again, and she found herself turning to leave.

“I’ll be seein’ you, Missus Opal Earnest,” he said, Opal paused, breath catching as her fists curled into tight balls by her side. She let the air escape her lungs and the tight pain in her chest eased a fraction. She didn’t look back as she spoke, moving forward, moving away with each step she took.

“Goodbye, my love.”