Shrike's Heart (#4)

[idolpro]

The woman before you is beautiful—fair of features, with lovely golden skin and luxurious long black hair, petite. You have the immediate and distinct impression that she's just let go of your hand, and she steps back, and smiles.

It's not quite a happy smile.

"I'm sorry," she says. "There's just nothing I can do, as things are. But the way is there; it just needs to be lit."

You open your mouth—maybe to say something, or to express confusion—but you have to cough, and taste something metallic, spattering black blood onto the ground in front of you. Then you realize—blood seeps from opening wounds in your arms, your chest, your stomach, your face. It rims your eyes and trails from your nose and you feel like you're dissolving—

—and you fall through the ground like it's the surface of a lake, and go down, down, down.

> Wake Up

Comments

Re: HOME

[handpuppets]

I can put the kettle on!

[ and Cobalt in fact helps her do just that; her cooking also seems to be done. noodles, but glass noodles, rather than spaghetti, and some sort of stir-fry thing.

she pulls down a tin of tea from one of the upper cabinets; it's rice green tea. ]

...it's the least I can do.

Re: HOME

[forgottenmercy]

Ah, thank you.

...is there, ah, anything I may help you with?

Re: HOME

[handpuppets]

You've already helped so much...

...in a lot of ways. And I'm not really good at asking for things.

[ she scoops some tea into a modern strainer, and puts it in one of the avante faux-flagon mugs that don't go with the rest of this house at all. ]

Re: HOME

[forgottenmercy]

...May I, ah, sing for you, then? A, ah, little, anyway...

Re: HOME

[handpuppets]

[ she pours in some of the hot water from the kettle, and closes her eyes. ]

...that'd be really nice.

Re: HOME

[forgottenmercy]

[and so he does. clear and soft and sweet, with all the skill and mastery at his command.]

Re: HOME

[handpuppets]

[ she listens, enraptured; holds the mug between her hands, and... gives a little bit of a tiny, soft, relaxed smile. ]

Re: HOME

[forgottenmercy]

[quietly keeps singing, then.]

Re: HOME

[handpuppets]

[ eventually she shuffles, a little nervously— ]

You should drink your tea before it gets cold, though.

Re: HOME

[forgottenmercy]

I, ah, will. Thank you. [will lift the cup delicately to his lips]

Re: HOME

[handpuppets]

Do you really like singing...?

Re: HOME

[forgottenmercy]

I, ah, do, yes.

Re: HOME

[handpuppets]

That’s good. You sound really beautiful... that you get to do something you love.

Re: HOME

[forgottenmercy]

I, ah, know that I am lucky, in that.

Re: HOME

[handpuppets]

How do you know, when you find something like that...?

Re: HOME

[forgottenmercy]

...for, ah, me? It, ah, simply...fit. I am not, ah, certain how to describe it...

Re: HOME

[handpuppets]

...maybe someday I'll find something to do that makes me feel like I fit right.

I think... I might be close?

Re: HOME

[forgottenmercy]

Keep, ah, looking, and I'm certain that you will.