And a year shall pass...

Her eyes hid behind a wall of tears when he said what he did, and he saw her heart beat with every shimmer of that film. And with each quiver of the watery veil, he felt a harpoon cleave his heart over and over... but each smidgen of his palpitating heart was either coloured red with his love for her or white with his earnest will to know the depth of their love; and the slivers of white were speckled with human sanguineness and the reds with divine brushes of pure white.
"Does it have to be this way?"
He looked away and spoke to the setting sun, for no human face could help him hold what his being wished to outpour.
"This is how it is meant to be."
"One year? One whole year?"
"If our love is true, it can bear any temporal shudder."
"But what will come of this?"
"I do not know."
"Will you miss me? Will you think of me?"
"I can't do otherwise."
She drew in a deep breath with the hope of taking all of his scent, all of him into her palpitating being and holding it within; a breath that should hold her up for a year.
"Then a year shall pass, dearest."
And she walked away, and it seemed that he followed her too, while standing on the cliff watching the sun set. Neither sun nor she turned back to look at him...