What's the Password?

I Love You

She was gone. His trophy, gone. She disappeared. But where to? She was just right there...

Only now did he snap out of his memories, worn out and faded from the years he spent scrolling, reading, watching them. He woke up at three in the afternoon with a racing heart, his chest in severe pain from the intense beating. Groping at the front of his shirt where his sore beating heart was, he rolled out from under his cold sheets and stumbled across the even icier hardwood floor. Dull blue eyes anxiously scanned the room, but no woman was to be seen. Where did she go...?

The lone prince settled his now dark eyes on a pale yellow rolled up sticky note resting on the top of his messy wardrobe. He stepped over to the note and gently brushed his thumb back and forth on the part of the paper that used to be sticky; dust had gathered and covered every little spot left on the adhesive, forcing it to lose its grip on the furniture. Unrolling it, his eyes glittered in curiosity when they laid themselves upon an email. Just below the given address was a note reading,

Catch up using this email ~ up to you to find the password.

Sincerely, Your Lady

Not a heartbeat passed before he sprinted out of his room, bursting through the door to his disheveled apartment and down the stairwell to the cafe on the first floor. A waitress working there jumped the slightest bit when she caught sight of him flying right by her. He hustled to the corner of the cafe that stored ancient computers and 2013-model tablets, snatching one of the smaller devices from the table and plopping down just booths away. The blinds to his left were shut tight, trapping out the bright afternoon sunlight.

Moments passed, and the waitress from before cautiously approached him with a cup of black coffee. She briefly explained that the manager there asked her to deliver it to his table, as the two were well acquainted. The suddenly determined man nodded curtly and proceeded to aggressively swipe his thumb down the dimmed tablet screen, tapping his foot faster and faster with each passing second as he waited for the Wi-Fi pop-up to appear.

A mere 21 seconds vanished into thin air when he shoved himself out of his seat and stomped over to the table of devices. The man seeking answers slammed his thumb into every computer's power button, glaring at each black screen. One single beep all the way in the dark corner of the cafe sounded; the impatient seeker jumped in surprise. He seated himself on an old creaky stool in front of the one computer that came to life and ensured the Wi-Fi was connected before flying onto an update-deprived Firefox search engine. He jammed in the keys spelling out Google Drive's URL and waited for the page to load. Dismissing the pop-up inquiring whether or not he wanted to switch the default browser to Chrome (which would have dragged through a long process of upgrading and waiting), he typed in the email that was magically branded into his memory.

The box meant for the password appeared, taunting the man's mind. He didn't know the password; what was he supposed to do? Everything he needed to know was right there in that account, but he lacked the information necessary to get in.

That's when he randomly typed anything describing what he was like when they really knew each other: charismatic, bright, caring, brave, courageous, cunning, cocky, loving... He stopped on the word "love." It made his mouth go dry, causing him to realize how long it's been since he's been or said that term, or any of the others. And something about him edged his face closer to the screen as though the answer was right in front of him.

The prince charming ran his fingers through his dark hair, digging through every single memory involving his prized possession. The warmth in both of their eyes and smiles made his heart flutter, and the bright and colorful hues from the falling autumn leaves behind the couple comforted him. Their hands were clasped together, linking the two with each other. Her smile wasn't quite flawless, but it was one of those perfect imperfections that made her stand out to him in the first place. And that's when it hit him - he loved her. He had loved his trophy so much, and nothing ever stopped him from expressing his feelings for her.

"I love you," he huskily whispered. His eyes widened, the bright blue hue leaping back into those same dull orbs. The man's voice got louder as he ranted, "I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you!" He eagerly typed in the password and threw a fist in the air when he saw the page loading, then opening up to the account's drive.

One single document presented itself, its title reading, Click Me; the gleeful boy did so. Skimming through, but soaking up every detail, every word, every letter, he found himself...crying. Tears were creating their own little paths on his red cheeks; he found out just how long he had been avoiding her as he busily rummaged through the memories spilling over the brim of his heart and mind.

The three final words were what he had typed in to access the email account's drive, and for some reason now they only tore his heart to shreds. The memories were so quickly ripped in half, each and every one of them losing their color. His favorite memory, where they were smiling at each other and holding each other's hands in the autumn daylight, shriveled up into a tight ball and collapsed with a light thud. All those mountains of papers came crashing down, flooding his memory with monochrome sadness.

His princess was gone, and he never realized he had pushed her so far that they'd never see each other again. He didn't mean to though, he was just...

Just what? What could have possibly supported him in this situation? He was entirely in the wrong; she tried staying there and telling him new stories that would have given him a million more smiles to share with her, if he wasn't so...gone. So gone, that it even made her vanish. And now that he had his answer, the password, he couldn't share it with her.

Turning away from the screen still presenting the opened document, he shuffled toward the brighter part of the cafe when he stopped - a slightly smaller woman, maybe three or four inches shorter, stood before him. Her brown hair spilled over her lightly clothed shoulders, the beautiful crisp white button-up shirt covering the top half of her body, only complementing her presence itself. The man with tired blue eyes gazed into her warm chocolate brown ones, a single tear sliding down her left cheek.

"You finally read it." The woman's voice was just above a whisper; her hands dangled at her sides, shaking just the slightest bit.

Everything came flooding back to him; the shredded memories pieced themselves back together and regained their color in a single heartbeat, and his favorite memory glowed brighter than the rest. This time, however, they weren't just in piles of paper in his mind; they all joined together and made him feel whole again.

His heart fluttered and raced as he rushed over to her and picked her up by her waist. His prize was now right there in his arms, and he never felt happier. They both smiled and kissed, tears streaking their cheeks. The girl pulled away just a few inches; one hand gently gripped a handful of hair on the back of her prince charming's head while the other hand caressed his tear-stained cheek.

The man felt complete once more thanks to the woman in front of him; he could especially feel his heart fluttering and racing faster than ever before. After minutes of gazing into each other's eyes and smiling endlessly he whispered, "I love you."