You say you want to know her like a lover
And undo her damage, she'll be new again
Soon you'll find that if you try to save her
It will lose her anger
You will never win
-The Pierces- 'Three Wishes-

"He's dying you know. Chela you have to prepare for the worst. It's going to happen."

She turned rapid with blue eyes flashing as fingers scratched and clawed through the thick mess of black hair.

"He can't. He can't just go. He won't give up. He's a fighter!"
"Chela you can't stop Death."
"Don't tell me this is nature's course or so help me Sasha."
"I love him too, you know."
"Shut up Sasha, just shut up."

Chela moved in ways of a beast caged. The desire to scream or break things seemed the easy option but there was no escaping this.

"He's my brother, Chela. The loss wouldn't be any easier for us. I know it's hard."
"He's all I have."

All she had.

"Would you rather it end with constant pain, or for him to go when he is comfortable. Chela, think on it."
"I...fine."

Chela wasn't one for prayers. Was not one for pleas. Sacrifices of self for an over zealous sort. It was better to let him rest. A few purchases made in her time away.

The hospital bathroom became a canvas of her new portrait. The redesign of self.

The scissors sent waist length hair of black to destruction. Shorn and ragged. The dye smoothed streak lines of blue through black.

Black and Blue.

Even now she could hear their voices in her head, the shock and dismay she would likely know. Chela becoming a freak again. Certainly not good enough for Shaw.

No matter what Sasha said. Chela knew the lie that lived on in Sasha's eyes. Shaw wasn't hers. Shaw belonged to them. Let him go. That was what they were telling her. Let him go. But she couldn't. She had sworn to him Forever.

Always

A crimson pool so warm & deep.
Lulls me to an endless sleep.
Your hand in mine - I will be brave.
Take me from this earth.
And end this night - this, the end of life.
From the dark I feel your lips.
And I taste your bloody kiss
-Type O Negative- 'Bloody Kisses'

"You are a bastard."
"Man Chela you always have the best words for me."

A flinch as he drew closer and the whiskey was on his tongue. Permeating from his skin as a deadly sin. Gluttony and Pride. How fast had it come to this?

The wicked blue of Chela's eyes were helpless in the light as her hand reached out. Expectations for the keys. Shaw was drunk and the night felt thick around her. Suffocating on its warnings. Something was off, something wasn't right.

"Give them to me."
"Oh what will you do for them, Chela?"
"What I have to. I'm not about to get us both killed tonight."
"Why not? You suck my soul dry with all your lies and your apathy."

Apathy. Even now Chela wore it close to skin, closer to heart. Undeniable the love but the emotion was becoming corrupt. It could easily breach the invisible lines of the other side.

Still the words tore. Not so much of what was said but what was not said. Chela was far from a fool. It didn't take a genius to figure out the game Shaw played.

The other woman. The deceit. The disappearing and avoidance. Shaw however never held such talent in smoke in mirrors. Chela saw right through Shaw and still Chela remained.

A waiting moment before it came and the keys were snatched from Shaw. Chela hardly recognized the one once seen as lover, beloved. The eternal cherished. One that any other time Chela would swear forever and always for.

The growl on tongue was alien and foreign to ears. Chela had no reaction time when the first blow came. Then the next, and the next.

Yet there was one thing Shaw forgot. Chela never gave up. Never gave in. It was so hard to break her. Survival was not a skill it was a gift. Survivors they said hated themselves and Chela had no worst enemy then the nagging voice inside.

Eventually Shaw would win. Throwing the painter in the passenger seat with only a breath of a moment to spare to snap on the seatbelt before they both were speeding off into the Darkness.

The lights from the sleek black beast of steel were ghosts to haunt and slice the fog into tatters. Chela sank back from them, feeling nothing more then this becoming the road to Hell for tonight. The ride to end it all.

Last night I had a dream.
You came into my room,
you took me into your arms.
Whispering and kissing me,
and telling me to still belive.
But then the emptiness of a burning sea against which we see
our darkest of sadness.

Until I felt safe and warm.
I fell asleep in your arms.
When I awoke I cried again for you were gone.
Oh, can you hear me?
-Jane Siberry- 'It Can't Rain All the Time'

When next Chela ran into the Hourglass Girl the girl was curled up in a corner with her hands at her face and the silvery pale strands of her hair in a tangled ruin around her face.

The hemline of her old victorian shirt was soaked with the fresh fall of tears. The sound of those silent stifled sobs was nothing more then heart breaking. Why would it not sound so when even then Chela could recognize the sound that could only be defined as the cries of the heartbroken.

Chela breathed out a sigh and pushed her own concerns about Shaw to the back of her mind as she knelt down before the pale haired girl and set her hands on the other girl's knees.

"Hey. You okay?"

She winced at the obvious stupidity of the inquiry. Of course she wasn't alright. The words at least would draw the Hourglass Girl from her own misery. Wet, crystal bright eyes and the messy torrent of silvery pale strands made Chela think of nothing more then seeing the girl before her as something so ethereal and innocent, so young...and yet...old.

"He's gone."

Her voice was so faint and not the same to what Chela was used to hearing that she had to lean forward to hear the girl speak.

"He's gone and he left me behind and I'm alone now. I thought it was for forever. He promised me it would be and now he's gone and I miss him."

Chela could only numbly register the words as it seemed so odd to see the Hourglass girl in such a fretting state. The painter could only realize that this perhaps was the face and nature of the girl never shown to the world but only revealed in private, lonely hours.

"I am sorry for his passing, his loss."

A faint shake of head as the Hourglass Girl hugged her knees, resting her head there as she stared solemnly up at Chela and mustered up a sad little smile. A whisper was a dandelion blow across the wind, fissures carrying those torn seeds to oblivion.

"It would have been so much easier if that was the case, but it's not. Death I can deal with. This...lonesome moment though, that I cannot endure. No matter though, I have to. It's what I have left. All I have left."

For a moment Chela felt the sting of the words sink as poison in her veins. Numb and fevered with the reality of it and the Hourglass Girl seemed to understand the influence of words could and always had double meanings.

"You will find out dear, sweet, painter of the dark that sometimes words are just words and emotions are everything. They leave you behind all the time, leaving a mess of your heart and yet you still love. Even now I still love him. He left me, he left me behind and still I love him. I cannot stop, it's never so easy. You'll see."

A shake of head as she rose slowly to leave the Hourglass girl to her strange ramblings and the misery that the paler girl had seemed to exchange for bitter acceptance.

"What will I see?"
"That nothing is as it seems, no matter what you think. Just Smoke and Mirrors that's all we have. Always grasping at the mist hoping we can hold something true and real in our hands, only to find that we have nothing at all."

The words pierced her again like an omen. If only Chela could have known her future and read her fortune maybe the tarot cards would drop to the symbolism of death and time.

They said that time healed all wounds but maybe, sometimes, time could wound all that healed.

Chela could only stare vacantly down the hallway to where Shaw's room was as the realization sank in just how unwelcome she was. Maybe it was Chela that should be weeping on the floor instead of the Hourglass girl.

Her hand would cast a shadow out in offering to the Hourglass Girl. Her voice sounded strange and different even now to herself.

"C'mon we should get you cleaned up."

Hope seemed to glitter in those crystal bright eyes as the Hourglass Girl took her hand. It was soothing and a small comfort to Chela at that time to think that this must be what the velvet dark of night felt like when touched by the stars.