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A crisp autumn breeze swept through Mumbo's hair, flushing his cheeks red and biting at his nose. Flurries of cherry blossoms drifted in the air around him, settling on the dying grass and adding striking accents to the honey-colored wood of the bench upon which Mumbo sat. It was built of beautifully stained wood and bronze accents that shone like gold in the sunlight, with space enough for two to comfortably sit.
Which only made the empty spot next to Mumbo a thousand times more painful.
He shuddered with a gasp of pain as memories of his best friend, Grian, began to play in his head. He saw ghostly recollections of a smile so bright it could rival the sun, freckles dotting his face like the stars in a night sky. Grian was the person who fit the other half of the bench, vibrant red sweater bunched up where Grian would clench it in his fists, golden-honey locks of hair cascading onto Mumbo's signature vest as he rested his head on his friend's shoulder.
"Please never leave me," Grian had whispered.
Mumbo remembered turning to his friend, normally clandestine emotions spilling from his mouth in the words he was about to say. "Grian, as long as I am alive, I swear to whatever god is out there that I will never abandon you."
If there's one thing to be said about Mumbo Jumbo, it's that he's a man of his word, and no conundrum that the world could throw at him was going to stop him from keeping it.
Not even death.
Mumbo sighed, reaching over to rest his hand on the awkwardly placed tombstone that was set under the cherry blossom tree. I haven't left you yet, Gri.
He looked up, gazing at the endless amounts of blue sky, dotted with the wispy clouds of a chilly October morning. In a tree across the street, a murder of crows lifted into the air, broken corvidae calls ringing out in the cool air. A nearby magpie attempted to conceal itself in the leaves of a maple sapling, but the yellow of the leaves left the bird rather conspicuous.
It was sad to see, really, everything still moving around Mumbo while his world broke and fell apart. He laughed, a broken chord interrupting the natural sounds of the surrounding world. Chuckles dissolved into sobs, tearing at the inside of his throat as tears streamed down Mumbo's face, dripping down his cheeks and mixing with fragments of pink petals on the cold granite his hand was resting on.
"I'm so sorry, Grian... So, so sorry."