'tis the damn season - Taylor Swift
1:03 âââ¬ââââ 3:49
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The White House â A Hollow Victory
Kamala stares out the window of the Oval Office, the city lights sprawling before her. She should feel relief. The worst of the media frenzy has begun to die down. The crisis, while still simmering, is being contained. Her approval ratings have stabilized.
But she feels nothing.
Doug enters, closing the door softly behind him. He doesnât speak right away, just watches her with the quiet patience heâs always had.
"Itâs handled," he finally says. "Reedâs office is backpedaling. Theyâre trying to distance themselves from the leaks. The public narrative is shifting in your favor."
Kamala nods, but itâs automatic.
"And her?" she asks, without turning around.
Doug doesnât have to ask who she means.
"Sheâs gone, Kamala."
Her fingers tighten against the windowsill. Gone.
She should be grateful. Should be relieved.
Instead, the emptiness yawns wider.
"Did I win, Doug?" she asks, her voice barely above a whisper.
Doug exhales. "I donât think either of you did."
Your Apartment
Your suitcases are packed.
The apartment that once felt like a home is now just a shellâstripped of warmth, of meaning, of her.
Your phone has been off for days. The news cycle has moved on, but the damage is irreversible. You canât walk down the street without whispers following you. Youâve lost friends. Contacts. Your career is a question mark, your future uncertain.
Diana is nowhere to be found. Of course she isnât. You were never meant to be anything more than a pawn to her.
And Kamalaâ
You squeeze your eyes shut, willing away the sting behind them.
You did this. You could try to say that Kamala did have a partial fault in it all. But everyone had their own part. Everything burned to the ground. Not literally of course - but truly thereâs nothing left.
The knock at your door comes just as you reach for your bags.
You hesitate. Then, with a shaky breath, you open it.
And there she is.
Kamala Harris.
The woman you loved. The woman that destroyed you.
The woman you ruined in return.
A War with No Winner
For a long moment, neither of you speak.
Kamala looks different. Exhausted. Hollowed out. Like the weight of this has finally settled deep into her bones.
"Youâre leaving," she says. Not a question. Just fact.
You nod. "Thereâs nothing left for me here."
She swallows, eyes flicking over your packed bags. "And if I asked you to stay?"
The words land like a punch. You wanted to let yourself hope she would actually ask you to stay- to fight. But deep down you knew she wouldn't.
Your breath catches. "Would you?" you ask, voice shaking. "Would you actually ask me to?"
Kamala doesnât answer.
Of course she doesnât.
Because the truth is, she canât.
She still has a country to run. A reputation to protect. And youâyou are a affair. A reminder of her greatest mistake.
And yet, sheâs here.
And yet, neither of you can walk away.
"We destroyed each other," you whisper almost laughing at the stupidity of the situation you got yourself into.
Kamala lets out a quiet, bitter laugh. "We really did."
The air between you is suffocating. Too much history. Too much pain. Too much love. Too many things unsaid.
You step closer. Close enough that you can see the way her breath stutters, the way her hands curl into fists like sheâs trying to keep herself from touching you.
"Tell me to stay," you plead. "And I will."
Kamalaâs lips part. For a split second, you see itâthe longing, the desperation, the want.
But then she blinks, and itâs gone.
"I canât," she says.
And thatâs it.
Thatâs the final nail in the coffin.
You nod, blinking back tears. "Goodbye, Kamala."
You turn away before she can see you break. Before she can hear the way your breath shatters in your chest. You walk away into another room of the apartment and let Kamala find her way out.
And this time, she lets you go. And you realize she never stopped you. Not once. And it hurts, so if Kamala taught you one thing, its the fact that letting go hurts.
And althought you let go, and said your goodbye - you knew this wasn't the end. Kamala wouldn't let it end like this. She never let the ends be peaceful.