"No I hate you, daddy! I hate you! You can't! You promised."

"Yeah? Well I'm a liar. It's what I do." Meir said dully.

Lily continued her temper tantrum, falling out. "I don't want to forget her. I won't! I just won't! You can't make me! I—"

Meir waved his hand. She fell limply into his arms, taking her original form. Meir swaddled her carefully, before putting her pink beads into her hair.

He set her in a small basket. This was it. The final...loose end.

"You're doing the right thing," Michael said from behind him, as he sat Lily down at the doorstep of a couple he'd been researching.

"I know," Meir said, his voice empty. "Because I'm suffering. It's only right if I'm suffering, isn't it? If I'm in pain. If I'm alone. Then it's right."

He chuckled to himself ruefully. "I wanted...to be happy."

Michael stared at his back. "...And you remember why you don't deserve that, don't you?"

Meir laughed, staring at the sky. "Yeah...I'm starting to."

Michael pursed his lips.

"Was this your plan," he shuddered. "Did you do this? Let me...love them like this to take them from me?"

His face crumpled as the door opened.

"No...but you understand that you would deserve that, too."

Lily looked up. Her eyes...they didn't look like his anymore. The couple took her in, leaving her bassinet alone in cold.

Meir exclaimed in pain, touching his chest. "It was an accident. You know that right? Do I really deserve this?" His tears finally fell free, as he crumpled onto the ground, his nails digging into the dirt.

It didn't even even leave a mark.

"I know it was. But nevertheless. God is dead and that is something...we never take back."

Meier shot a look over his shoulder. "Take me back, Michael. You can do it, can't you? Make me forget. Lock me back up. I...I'm supposed to end the world but...this is the end of my world I can't...I can't go on."

"And yet you must. This is your penance, Apocalypse. I cannot end it. I cannot help you. I cannot make you forget. You must suffer until it's time to end."

Meir swallowed. "I was a child. I have suffered for eons for a foolish mistake I made as a child. Surely I have. Suffered enough. This is enough now, it must be!"

Micheal backed away. "In the place of god, your suffering keeps us afloat, A...Meir. Not just your pain. It is the price you must pay, for the error you made."

Michael looked away. "You know this."

Meir felt himself liquify and empty of something so very vital. He smiled.

"I know this. And it's not time yet. It's not the end of the world, yet. Just mine."

Michael swallowed roughly.

Meir stared at the empty bassinet. One pink bead remained.

"She told me she hated me," Meir said softly, his voice trembling. "I know she didn't mean it. But it hurt. And she will never say anything to me again."

Michael turned his back, beginning to walk away.

"Aren't you going to lock me away? Make it dark again? So I can never see the sun?" Meir asked, his head on the ground, his fist clenched.

Micheal paused. "If I thought you would ever feel it's warmth...or ever lift your head again, I would."

Meir was alone, his body shaking as a scream of pure agony erupted from him, shaking him to his core, tearing at his insides.

The sun shone a little brighter as he did.