Here is an alternate ending to The Heart of Darkness...
"You were with him to the last? I think of his loneliness. Nobody near to understand him as I would have understood. Perhaps no one to hear..." she said.
"To the very end," I said shakily. " I heard his very last words..." I stopped in a fright.
"Repeat them," she murmured in a heart broken tone. "I want-I want-something-something-to-to live with. "
What should I say to her? Who am I to tell her those luminous last words. He horror, the horror.... Who am I to know his intentions and to share it with someone who he regarded so slightly. The darkness of the truth she won't understand... Would she even believe the truth? In Herr eyes he was a hero who could do no wrong. She never saw the dark side of Kurtz and he was not great enough of a man to have people thinking kindly of him in his end.
Her eyes bore into me, but I found no answer in the darkness of my soul. I left admitively rudely without so much as a goodbye.
As I blended in with others who weren't effected by any of the tragedies that had just occurred in that house, or down the river. I found I couldn't forget the horror...
The End
I think your last line really brings the whole book together. That's why he's telling the story!
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