It was a jolt of pain through Clyde’s body, and he nearly passed out. His car swerved hard to the right, bouncing along the emergency lane. Clyde managed to hit the brake. The last thing he wanted was to hurt someone else. He killed the engine of his faded blue Chevy Cavalier and stayed in the seat. His left arm, which had been burning, was now going numb. Clyde knew what was happening, and the feeling was eerie. The Princess had practically predicted it the day before with his sweating.
Tears streamed down his face—not just from the crushing pressure on his chest, but for his Princess. She had always been smart and empathetic, since childhood, but now, in her sixties, daily routines and survival skills had abandoned her entirely. Clyde knew he was partly to blame. He should have had a contingency plan, but never in his wildest dreams did he imagine it could happen to him first.
His cell phone lay on the floor in front of the passenger seat. It might as well have been on Saturn—there was no way he could reach it. Every breath sent sharp pain through his chest, but he fought to hang on, hoping—impossibly—that an EMT might be nearby. How likely was that? Not very. How likely had his life ever been?
He had found the most beautiful woman in the world, almost magically perfect. The best part was that no one else ever saw in her what he did. It was as if she had been summoned from his own mind and made real—except tragically, the opposite was not true. Even after all these years, she was still waiting for her Prince, her Knight, someone who certainly wasn’t a Clyde.
He could never leave her, not for long. She depended on him, but he depended on her too. Despite the headaches of doing everything for her, she always made him feel like a kid again, and she still surprised him with moments of joy when he needed them most.
Last night had been perfect. She was gray, wrinkled, and old—but she was still a kid in spirit. They had played games like tag all night and fallen asleep together on his couch downstairs.
Clyde’s heart churned again. Each breath now felt like a mountain of pain he didn’t want to take.
It was a long, final moment, but he was grateful for every second. Every breath meant another instant in the same world as his Princess. How she would survive without him, he didn’t know. She had no one else who truly understood her.
He had promised…