Topic: Death of a Dream

Gemethyst

Date: 2013-07-01 23:04 EST
The end had come almost before she realized it loomed over them like the black cloud that it was. Things had been said and done that finalized the issues. Finalized the ending.

The lines were drawn and accepted. Sacrifices were made, like fresh spilled blood, staining the landscape of her heart.

It was the death of a dream.

Finalized. It was such a versatile word. It could mean so many things. Gem let it roll around in her head, and then on her tongue, the word finally leaving her mouth in a near silent whisper. It echoed, a heavy thing, as empty and lonely as a back street alley.

Poised as she was on a rooftop, overlooking the great, rambling, living beast that was Rhydin, the thief let that whispered word drop into the stretch of darkness that yawned before her crouched figure. The street down below her did not notice the weight of that awful word. The word simply faded into the blackness like a forlorn hope.

Then she moved. A lithe leap across that gaping street landed her on the adjacent rooftop, and then she was up and running on her personal "highway", into the night, into the city.

With the personal side of her life, the best of her life, in upheaval and ruin, she sought surcease in her work, as she always did when she was hurting beyond bearing. The more dangerous the risk, the more she threw herself into it, until finally, she could no longer think as much, hurt as much, or yearn as much.

Fade to black.

Gemethyst

Date: 2013-08-17 15:27 EST
It was getting easier. A little easier. Okay, maybe it soon would be easier. Gem told herself that as she went through the motions of her everyday life. Those days each held a visit to her little Jewel come rain or shine, when she tried to cram a whole 24 hours of life and enjoyment into the hour or two she was able to snatch with her now 7 month old baby in the household of Ezekiel Pearrce.

The arrangement was stringently kept between both parents, and she got her daily time in, -but oh!- the pain of each leaving, knowing she could not put her little girl to bed or be there when she woke up. There was also the pain of knowing she'd had to quit nursing her due to the divorce and settlement of the child with Eze, and that now someone else fed her.

It was as if a small slice was carved from her heart each time she left that baby girl, and yet, though it was an agony, she would never give it up. Seeing her daughter, spending time with her, it was an immutable part of her day.

Between those times, those precious minutes of being with her bairn, the thief's days were purposely filled with whatever would send her mind into a tailspin or keep her busy just staying alive, all the better to forget the pain of that day's bit of lost heart.

Gem drove herself to distraction, and it showed on her body. Due to missed or inadequate meals, any vestige of remaining maternal fat drained away, leaving her whipcord lean and with a rather gaunt look to her face. The delicate cheekbones were more prominent in her face, and her eyes seemed huge and full of emotion that wasn't allowed to pass beyond those amethyst portals to the world outside her.

After all, who wanted or needed to hear about her personal Hell of loss and the jagged knife pain of missing her daughter? She'd not dump that burden on anyone if she could help it. It was enough that it fired in her own brain and heart with the regularity of a damned clock that chimed the minutes, every minute, no matter how busy she kept, no matter how much danger and risk she took.

Unlike other things lost in that break up, the loss of her child didn't fade to black.