Free
It was over. Arianna stumbled from the house, gasping and out of breath. Shock numbed her to the pain of the million tiny cuts and bruises all over her body. She turned back to the house as memories her to brought tears. Her first bicycle. Her first birthday party. Her first boyfriend. The night her grandmother died. The birth of her first nephew. Saying goodbye to her best friend, as she moved cross-country. The warm salty liquid ran from her once lively blue, now soulless black eyes, down her face, mingling with the rain pouring around her from the heavens. The rain cooled her, made her exposed skin cold to the touch, more than it already was, raised goose bumps on her skin. For just a moment her shoulders bowed to the weight of the pain in her heart, but only for a moment. Arianna pushed it all aside. The past, she decided could not be undone, there would be no point in holding on to it. She straitened, filled with new resolve. She took one long, last look at this house, this house which had been her sanctuary for the past seven years, this house which held her most precious memories. Aglow with the light of the fire burning inside, the house was on the verge of collapse. With a quick efficiency she wiped away her tears. She turned, saw him waiting by her gate. Saw him without really seeing him. Looked right through him, and into the beyond. It no longer mattered. She didn't need him anymore. He couldn't hurt her again. She walked to the gate, and looked at him. Pain and heartache shone fresh in his eyes. He loved her, in the end, and maybe because of it all, he loved her. And now she would leave. And yet he tried to believe he would find her. That he might be able to rescue her, from whatever it was that threatened her, whatever had changed her so. Even if he had to save her from herself. It would be all right. They were in love. He took her hand, hanging uselessly by her side, in his. It was cold, so cold. The cold of the dead and damned. It didn't matter. It couldn't matter. He squeezed it, held it tight. "Please..." he said "I love you." He was in tears, staring at the ground, praying she would tell him it would be all right now. He raised his eyes to hers, her eyes staring emotionlessly into his own. One syllable was all it took to shatter his world, break his heart. "No" she said and he knew it for both the truth and the lie it was. She had loved him, trusted him completely, given everything she was to him. He had destroyed that love. Somehow. He didn't know exactly how he had done so, but he knew with a painful certainty that he had. Beyond repair. He dropped her hand. Arianna seemed to come back to herself. Looking deep into his eyes, she saw everything she had treasured so dearly about this person, that she now despised so thoroughly. She took his hand in hers, raised it to her face. Brushed her lips over the inside of his wrist, the way they had done so many times before. This time, though, she did not simply kiss. This time she bit, deep into the flesh, tore the skin asunder. Watched his eyes as he realized exactly what she had become, and what would happen. He fought, with all his considerable strength. Still he was no match for her. She easily pushed him to the ground, held him in place, as she alternately drank from his wrist and let the blood run into the dirt, staining it a dark coppery color. When he lay, unable to fight anymore, on the threshold of sweet death, she took a switchblade from her pocket. The only thing she had been able to save as the house burned. The knife he had given her for her birthday, when they had been so in love. She looked down into his eyes, one last time. Again he begged her. "... please... i love you... end it.... so i can see you again... when this is over.." Arianna smiled, knowing this was the end, for both of them. Effortlessly she slid the blade across the exposed skin of his neck, and watched as the light went out of his eyes. She wiped the blade clean on his t-shirt, returned it to her pocket. She stood, turned, opened the the gate and walked away without another word. And, as the sun came up on the horizon, she gave the rest of the person she was to the darkness, and let go. Of the past, present, and future. They no longer mattered. She was finally free. Even as she faded into the sunrises and sunsets of a thousand lifetimes, she never looked back. And she never saw the boy again, which suited her just fine.