Disclaimer: All characters belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. No copyright infringement intended.

Tearjerker Warning!

By: Jessica

Willow sat staring at the wall. She didn't know how she was going to go on. Things had been so hard since he died. The loneliness. And the memories. They were slowly killing her. They popped up every time she thought she might be able to go on. The first time she saw him, so dark and beautiful. The first time they touched, danced, kissed. And the onlys were so painful to remember. The proposal. Their marriage. Willow sighed. Angel had made her promise not to commit suicide if he ever died, but she wasn't sure if she could fulfill that promise. At the time, she thought that they would be together forever. She snorted. How young she had been. But she didn't want to break her word...

Willow looked at the beautiful portrait of the two of them gracing the mantle. It had been painted decades ago by a good friend of Angel's. Tears welled up in her eyes. So many memories, everywhere she looked...

She glanced at the ornate grandfather clock that she had given Angel a few years ago. She had jokingly said it would outlive him. How true she had been. The hour indicated that it was about half an hour until sunrise. <Plenty of time...> She rose and left the apartment, carefully locking the door behind her.

She walked until she reached a park that she and Angel used to frequent. They had been young lovers here, necking on the park benches like teenagers. And next to the park was the cemetery where they hunted for rising vampires. She and Angel often fed on them, replenishing their strength that was depleted from fighting other vampires. They had always called it a just trade. Of course, she had to lose Angel to a set of angry vampires.

 She sat down in one of the uncomfortable space-age benches they had recently installed in replacement of the old wooden ones. She found the new ones even more uncomfortable than the old. She guessed they were trying to pull the few remaining people away from the free public parks to the expensive entertainment parks. Willow snorted. <Everything is about commercialism now.> She sighed as she remembered Angel talking about the 'old days'. Once she'd managed to get him to talk about his past, he just couldn't seem to shut up about it. Although the gleam she often saw in his eyes told her just why he kept on the subject. The fact that they usually ended up in bed probably also had something to do with it.

The sky was starting to turn the pink of the coming dawn. Willow tilted her head, and looked at the colors. Colors she hadn't seen in person for so long...

A memory flashed though her mind. Angel was painting, as she worked on her computer. He often joked with her as he worked. He'd become a rather successful artist towards the end of his life. A blood tear gently slid down Willow's face. And he'd released most of the guilt that had plagued him, making him a much happier person. She hoped that he was happy now, wherever he was. And that she was going to join him in that happiness.

The sun slowly slid its way up from the horizon, bathing the sky with light. Willow saw her first sunrise in over three centuries. And her last thoughts were of Angel, and the true eternity that they would share together as those brilliant rays of light turned her body to ash, and released her soul from its vampiric prison.