Curse you, William Mercer.

Those were the words Rose had spoken upon their parting.

Oddly enough, or perhaps not so oddly at all, those had been the last words Clementine had uttered before she was stolen from his life.

Another loss. Another good woman gone. But unlike Katya, and unlike Clementine, Rose would live. Rose would endure.

Liam stood watch on the platform, his hands in the pockets of his trousers, until long after Rose's train had disappeared into the distance. There was business to attend to. Urgent business. But it could wait a few seconds more. A proper farewell was required, and therefore would be given.

The world was an ugly, marred, diseased place. Beauty and kindness were snuffed out while corruption and greed thrived. Liam's problems with Gallagher were not over, and once they were, a new adversary would simply take his place. That was the trouble with monsters: cut off the head of one and another grew from the severed stump. A never-ending cycle.

No one knew that better than William Mercer.

Yet as the train vanished into the smog, Liam felt the warmth of hope deep within his heart. All was not lost. There was solace to be found among the ash and ruin.

If one knew where to look.

And Liam knew.

In a world deprived of Clemency, there was a Rose that would continue to bloom. Even among the poppies in Flanders Fields.

【♜】【 ▪ 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓔𝓷𝓭 ▪ 】【♞】

~ ▪︎ ~ ▪︎ ~

ᴛʜᴀɴᴋ ʏᴏᴜ ꜰᴏʀ ʀᴇᴀᴅɪɴɢ!

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