Unforgiven by the Skies

I'd already been missing for half a month, yet Gideon hadn't noticed. It was clear he didn't care about me. I clutched my chest, feeling like I'd been stabbed by a thousand needles.

"Aren't you heading home yet, Gideon?" his colleague asked, patting his shoulder.

He stiffened. "I will in a while."

The colleague smiled. "Are you and Madeline still fighting? Come on. Be a real man and give in when the time is right."

With that, he left. Gideon sat alone in the spacious hall, his phone screen glowing dimly. The loneliness swallowed him, yet he refused to head home.

"Go home. I'm not there," I said. I gave him a complicated look, but he couldn't see or hear me.

…

I was an Emperian who'd traveled to the Titanus region. One night, I'd returned to my hotel a little too late and had run into some hooligans. Gideon, who had been passing by, had helped me chase them away, and I'd fallen for him at first sight.

His chiseled features and tanned skin made him look particularly handsome. After exchanging numbers, I would frequently invite him out. We soon started dating and later got married.

We got along swimmingly after marriage, but at some point, we'd started arguing incessantly. Then, Gideon had stopped coming home.

In hindsight, it had started after Nancy's divorce. She would ask for his help with things every now and then, which hadn't been much of an issue initially. Then, she'd started asking him to head to her place in the middle of the night because she was scared.

Gideon didn't think it was an issue. Nancy was his childhood friend—there was nothing else between them. I was just being paranoid and irrational.

Gideon's phone rang. He answered it to hear Nancy's coquettish voice on the other end of the line. "Come over to my place for dinner, Gideon."

"No, thanks," he said hoarsely.

"Come on, I know you better than that. It's fine—she didn't mean to push me. She was probably just too angry then," Nancy said gently.

If not for me being the person she was talking about, I would've found her kind and understanding. After all, she had come to me and said smugly, "Gideon's just too anxious over me. He came over immediately when I told him my belly felt a little uncomfortable. He's just so worried about me and the baby."

I had curled my lip mockingly. "Anyone who wasn't in the know would think you were pregnant with his child."

"Now, now. You can't put it like that—Gideon is just caring for me because we're childhood friends."

I'd frowned and looked away upon seeing how pretentious she was. She even rubbed her belly, which was still flat.

Without warning, she'd tugged on my hand. I'd shaken her off, and she'd fallen down the stairs. Because of that, she'd miscarried.

Nancy had wailed in the hospital about wanting me to pay for her baby's life. I'd stared dazedly at Gideon when he'd arrived at the hospital. "I didn't—"

He'd looked at me coldly without saying a word. Then, he'd brushed past me and entered the ward.

A wave of bitterness had surged in me seeing him so anxious. My explanation became lodged in my throat; bitterness was all I could taste.

Gideon and I had gotten into a cold war after that. To be accurate, he ignored me. I'd explained everything to him over text, but he didn't read them or reply. I had no choice but to give up.

Gideon didn't seem to want to talk about me. His expression was gentle as he said, "Let's not talk about her. Have your dinner and get some rest. Don't overthink things, okay? I'll visit you tomorrow."

I watched him dazedly. He wasn't even willing to talk about me anymore. Did he hate me so?

…

The following day, Connor said, "We can't reach the body's family."

"Is there a phone number or address?" Gideon asked.

"There's no address. We only have a number."

Gideon seemed to think of something. He frowned and asked, "Do we know the corpse's identity?"

Everyone exchanged looks, their expressions turning worried. Generally, for sky burials, the dead's family would wait to watch the burial.

Yet yesterday, no one had been around. That itself had already been odd, and the fact that the vultures refused to eat the body made things weirder. Today, no one could reach the dead's next of kin.