== Ending 2==

Robert eventually wiped the tears away from his eyes and remembered where he was. He looked down, hoping to find some form of peace by gazing at her form. This time he saw her as she really was. Time had not been kind to her, it had ravaged her body. Her once lustrous and black hair had turned brittle and curled outward like a witch’s gnarled fingers. Her black skin had been sapped of all moisture and now looked she was wrapped in rough sandpaper. Her brown eyes had withered in her head and the empty sockets returned his gaze.

Robert expected the sight to horrify him, but he knew that there was nothing she could do that would repulse him. Even in death, she was beautiful. He drew closer to her body. The smell of the forest covered up the odor of her decomposition. He laid on the rough wood of the coffin and felt the damp earth surround him. The coffin was a tight fit for them both but he made it work. He turned Camille’s body so that she was facing him and wrapped his arms around her cold corpse. He held her to him and felt the chill of the night roll through his core.

Her skin felt coarse but that didn’t bother Robert Cady. He didn’t know if it was an effect of the glioma pressing into another part of his brain, but he felt at peace in that moment. He had wanted to do this ever since he met her and now he was doing it. In that moment, it didn’t matter if she was dead. It didn’t matter that she felt cold and callous in his arms. All that mattered was that he was with her. The touch of her skin on his felt like the caress he had longed for. He spoke with tear-filled eyes and a cracking voice:

“I love you so much Camille Hills.”

Robert didn’t know how much longer he had, but he couldn’t think of any other place he wanted to be when he left this world. He would lay here in her coffin with his arms wrapped around the rough and fragile remains of his obsession until he passed. The time-weathered face of Camille almost looked like she was screaming in revulsion. Her last moments in life perfectly reflected her current situation. She appeared as if she were shrieking in protest at being cradled in his arms. Robert waited for death to take him as he held the only love of his life he’d ever known.