Peppa felt tears forming at the corners of her eyes.
“Sayo,” she whispered, “you don’t have to do this…”
”There’s no other way,” Beato- no, Sayo- whispered. “I don’t exist outside of this island. We can never be free, Peppa.”
”Please,” Peppa said. “At least hold me. If you have to kill me… please at least hold me.”
Sayo tried to resist, but she couldn’t help it. Her arms were around Peppa’s small piglike torso, and she burst into tears.
”Sayo?”
”Yes, Peppa?”
”Are there muddy puddles in the Golden Land?”
”Yes, Peppa,” Sayo sobbed. “So many lovely things. Muddy puddles, and alfalfa, and rabbits…”
”Tell me about the rabbits, Sayo.”
And just then, tears streaming down her face, an oink of pain rippled across the island.
Sayo wept.
She wept, for she had just shot the love of her life.