Devil With The Silver Tongue

[Josh Dragovalor]

Josh would continue to back away, frantically looking around, and his pupils shrank when he seemed to realize that he was pretty much in the nude. He would fall off the bed, finding a pair of pants on the ground nearby and pulling them on. He wasn't 100% sure they were his. They may have been hers, he wasn't sure.

"Liar..." He growled as he stared up at her, his brows twitching into a scowl. "I can sense you, you're... You're one of those people!" He cried out as he would hold out a hand as if to try and summon something with the Force. It seemed even if she'd hidden her presence it'd be too late. At first he only seemed to knock some papers around with the Force, before a pencil would go flying into his hand, which he would quickly toss at her as he tried to clear some distance while he looked for a real weapon to defend himself with.

"Who are you, and what am I doing here?"

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Scherezade blinked at the pencil flew at her face. Really? Big scary Jedi and that was the best he could come up with against a naked Sith in his ship? She could see he was in a state of panic, but still...

She sighed and took another swig from the bottle, emerald green eyes staring at him.

"I'm Scherezade," she said again, "and this is your ship. We have been here for a few hours. We met at a bar. We're docked on Zeltros. You promised me I wouldn't have to face tonight alone and I think you accidentally wiped all your memory away after I asked you to remove a single memory that I accidentally showed you."

Did the truth help in such cases? She didn't know. Scherezade took another drink from the bottle and offered it to Josh. She hadn't missed him wearing her jeans, but right now it didn't seem important enough. In a worst came scenario, walking naked back to her ship wasn't impossible as far as she was concerned.

"And yes, I am a Sith, but no, I am not a liar. I haven't lied to you a single time. You're a Jedi, you know how to check such things with the Force. But so help me Force, Josh, if you throw another pencil at me I'm hitting you with the bottle."


[member="Josh DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

Josh would take a breath as she would begin to explain the situation. Processing all she had said, he would begin to slowly nod his head as he would climb back onto the bed, wearing her jeans, to sit down with her, holding his head as though he were nursing a nasty headache. Probably trying to get a hold of everything that he was trying to process in all of that. As she would offer him the bottle, he took it, and took a long swig. Another exhale, before he would place the bottle down, as he would look toward her...

And then he promptly attacked her.

With tickling.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA! I GOT YOU!" The Jedi cried out as he would tickle her sides and under her arms while trying to pin down her arms. But he couldn't keep it going as he would soon enough just fall onto her and bury his face in her shoulder, promptly losing it in hysterical laughter. He was cured! It's a miracle!

"I was kidding, I was kidding!" He would admit between bouts of laughter. "I'm sorry, hahahaha... I... I had to! Hahahaha...!"

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Her knives weren't with her. That was the only thing that saved Josh from getting stabbed when he attacked her. Her hands came up, ready to begin form the Orb of the Sutta Chwituskak, defend herself, make this horrible tickling stop, when he screamed that he had her.

Schereade's body felt limp on the bed, letting his hands do what they want as she openly glared at him. She didn't like being touched like this. She hated being tickled. But she was using her shreds of self control to not react, not do anything.

"Not. Funny." she growled at him, "and take my pants off. I don't want your smell on them."

[member="Josh DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

“Sorry. Couldn’t resist” He would admit. “When I heard you calling out, lightbulb just went on, and I had to do it. Only chance I was gonna get to do it.”

“Though on a serious note” Josh began.”Whatever it was you wanted me to forget... It’s gone. Just don’t do it again. While I knew how, the truth is that I’ve never used it on myself before. I may have learned it to use it on myself... Your “friends” who do such wonderful things to people are to blame for that, but this was the first time I used it on myself. Memory tampering is risky, one mistake and that act I put on could have been real if it didn’t just render me a vegetable.”

Though when she pointed out he was wearing her pants, he stopped and looked down on himself. “Oh” He responded. “So I am.”

It seemed it’d been a mistake after all.

As he would step out of them, though, jokes were to be had. “Well, I hadn’t imagined getting in your pants twice tonight but here we are” He sassed. Once again, one time opportunity joke. What would inevitably be her face though, led him to let out a sigh.

“You gotta lighten up a little” Josh commented as he would look around for his actual pants. “I’m starting to think there’s more than one reason you’re miserable.”

To his credit, that was not a question. That was an observation.

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Scherezade stared at Josh. She was still angry, and her anger was still visible, but now she was wondering whether the memory was really gone. Sure, he had joked about losing everything earlier, but that didn't mean that he was not joking or lying now. Everyone lied to her. Was he going to bring it up at some random point in the future? She didn't know. And she hated not knowing it.

And then it came - lighten up, miserable. Reasons.

"That's none of you business," she said with a sharp tone.

Of course there were more reasons. She had a lot of reasons. Most of them started with "Dark" and ended with "ness", and all the things she had seen and done there. The bottom floor of her ship was covered with words that covered much of it. Not everything, but more than enough.

But it was bad enough that Josh had seen her broken over Gerwald and Katrine. He didn't need to know the rest. The stuff that was hidden underneath. The voices that lurked and whispered, reminded her... Reminded her of everything. It might have only been a week in real time, but for her it had been years worth of moments that she would have to deal with sooner or later.

Preferably later.


[member="Josh DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnpF2DRmZRo​

Of course it was gone. You think he wanted to remember seeing her sexual memoirs with whatshisface? That was not something that he needed - nor wanted - to see and if he could remember what it was that he had forgotten, he would be glad it was gone. The fact he was even in a semi-good mood at the moment was probably the biggest indicator that he had erased it, snipped it carefully with scissors as though it were a tiny, unneeded string. Unfortunately, that good mood was beginning to sour more and more as she would snap at him again.

"Fine. Be grumpy" He responded as he would let out a sigh and flop onto his back on the bed once he had managed to find his pants and get them back on, relaxed with his arms behind his head. "I'm starting to think that, regardless of whether there's more reasons or not... A problem you seem to have is that... Well... Hmm, how do I say this..." He mused aloud. "You don't seem to... Try. I mean, yeah, okay. I have my moments. I get my moments alone where I drink myself over the table to forget. But at least I'm somewhat trying to build a future instead of spending every waking moment moping. I could do better at it, sure, but it's a start."

He shrugged his shoulders. "Then again... Despite losing so much, I still have a purpose, you know? I still have some direction. And that's being a good father for-"

His datapad started going off, and he would read the screens on the windows to see where it was from.

"Temple. Says it's urgent" He spoke, as he looked toward her while he scrambled around trying to find his shirt to look presentable. "Help me find my shirt, please. Brush too, if you can, should be in the drawer next to you" He asked while he would peer under the bed to see if the shirt had fallen under there.

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

She didn't seem to try? Scherezade frowned. He was doing that thing about making assumptions about her life. He didn't know how she was too broken to be worthy of her ancestral home planet. He didn't know that she had been trying to find her brother and her parents for so long that she was close to giving up. He didn't know that she took mission after stupid mission with the Confederacy in the hopes of being more than just barely tolerated. He didn't know anything. All he saw her was for one very drunk and very tearful night, and he decided that she was just wasn't trying.

He was so wrong. Again.

She'd have said something about it, about his reference to his son, about the rest of what he'd said, but a message came in.

Temple? Scherezade blinked, taking another unhealthy dose of drink. Did he really want her to open his drawer? She did it anyway, finding the brush with ease. He could find his shirt on his own. She tossed him the comb as she began to get up and get dressed as well.

"Guess I'll be heading back to my own ship now," she said. Back to the ship that was covered in word of Darkness. Back to the ship that still had a single pillowcase that still smelled of Gerwald. Back to the ship that had empty and broken glass bottles tossed all around it. Back to where she belonged.

[member="Josh DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

To be fair, she had hardly indicated at all to him that she was actually trying to make strides for herself. While he knew he didn't know all, he could only try to give suggestions based on what he knew. Nodding thanks when she passed him the brush, he would find his shirt and throw it on. "You don't need to, this shouldn't be long" He would offer. "It's probably nothing" He spoke as he would quickly fix up his hair just enough to look presentable as he would walk past her to the centerpiece of the ship and turn on the projector.

While Schezerade wouldn't be seen on his end, as she was standing far away enough, she would be able to see the large projection of inside the temple, and one of the temple nannies appearing in front of them.

"Master DragonsFlame? I'm sorry if this is sudden" The nanny would greet, though Josh shook his head. He knew who this was, and Schezerade would note the way his face seemed to pale a bit, indicating a large amount of fright and worry despite the calm exterior he gave. "It's nothing. What's going on? Is Jason safe?"

"Yes, yes he's fine!" The woman on the other end assured him. "It's just he's not going to sleep. He's been crying nonstop, and nothing we can do seems to be working. I think he misses his father. Can you try and do something, please?"

Josh took a deep breath then, smiling lightly. He was safe, that was good. But he should have known this was coming. Jason had separation anxiety, and had ever since the loss of Josh's marriage. Losing contact with his mom had made him more attached to his father, and as his father wasn't around all the time... Force, the thought of it made Josh wish he had never left the temple. He wanted to be there now, with his son. He wanted to take this ship out, right now, and blast back to the Temple full speed to be back with him as soon as possible. But he had to shepherd his Padawans back to the Temple when they were ready, and that time was not now.

It was there that Josh could hear the wailing in the background, and he recognized it immediately. If Scherezade was watching, she would be able to see the very moment his heart seemed to snap in half, and his expression changed very quickly.

"Of course. Bring me up."

What was on the other screen would move, and the screens would show a two year old child sitting on a bed and wailing inconsolably. The short blonde hair and brown eyes, and even just his features in general, made it very clear who's son he was.

"Hey Jason."

The child would stop crying then, eyes widening in surprise as his little head would dart toward the screen that had been placed in front of him. The sniffling child's eyes would light up as he would hold his hands out, making grabby fingers at the screen. "Da!" The child cried out. "Daddy!"

If there was any paleness left to Josh's features, any inch of a frown or unhappiness left it was gone in that very second. Seeing Jason lighten up like that had completely turned the Jedi Master around.

"They told me you miss your daddy."

Jason nodded his head a few times between sniffles. "Mhm. Mhm."

"Well, daddy's going to be there in a few days, okay? Then we're gonna go home. Daddy promises."

"Mhm!"

"Do you want daddy to sing you a lullaby?"

"Mhm!"

Josh smiled then and nodded his head as the child would quickly scramble to climb back under the covers. Josh wanted to be there. He wanted to be there to hug him, and reassure him it was going to be okay. He wanted to be there physically to sing to him. He wanted to be there to lie there with him until he fell asleep. He didn't want to leave his side, never, ever again. It wouldn't be long now, he thought...

Taking a deep breath, he would hum a bit before he began to softly, gently, quietly sing a little lullaby. By his voice, it was clear he'd probably done this a couple hundred times. Recently.

"~On the fields... Of Naboo... Where the animals roam... Night comes down... And the animals sleep, they go to sleep... They go to sleep... Sleep tight little Igitz... Sleep tight little Jaboons... Sleep tight little Quadducks... Sleep tight on this night... Sleep tight little Jason... On the fields of Naboooooo~"

He wasn't even sure if the child had stayed awake throughout the full thing, but either way, he could tell the child had already dozed off. Smiling warmly, Josh spoke softly. "Good night. I love you, Jason. See you soon."

The nanny would whisper "Thank you" into the communicator before the connection cut off. As the connection cut, Josh sat there for a moment, far calmer than he had been since they had met. Seeing Jason seemed to be a complete reset for him. With that, he would look back to see if she was still around. He had told her it wouldn't take long, though it'd gone a bit longer than planned...

"Apologies if that was awkward for you at all" He apologized softly.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

If it was probably nothing, why was he in a hurry to- Oh. That kind of a call. A moment before that she'd been sure he was going to have to immediately leave to somewhere. And while it was true, she could not see but she could hear, she sat herself back down on the bed, realizing she wasn't meant to be seen at all. The situation had absolutely nothing to do with her and she knew it, just as she knew she would've done exactly the same if it was the opposite way around, but something inside her nagged about always being hidden and away, like something to be ashamed of. It was a stupid thought that didn't really have any basis in reality, or at least not a strong case, but she felt it nonetheless, and she closed her eyes, cursing herself for her own stupidity.

As the conversation resumed though, Scherezade sat bolt up right. She was listening to a conversation between a father and a son. Jason. Daddy promises.

She didn't have her father. Her father was... Somewhere. Not dead, not alive. Was he in stasis along with her mother? Was he aware of what was happening to her, that she was even alive? Was he with her twin brother? Her heart yearned to have a conversation just like that, even if it was for jut a few seconds, with her own dad. Diomedes Antares. There was a complicated story behind that, behind how he became her mother's other half, how he became the Warrior King of Endelaan, how... How he became a father.

It was then that she heard the lullaby. It didn't even talk half of it before the tears renewed themselves. Scherezade grabbed one of the pillows and buried her face in it to muffle any potential sound. She didn't want to stir anything. She didn't want to even make a single breath to shift the attention. That was a moment between a parent and a child, a father and a son. She didn't even have the right to be there, to listen to it.

It wasn't until he apologized that she removed the pillow, looking at him. The longing was all too easy to see on her face, and she shook her head in answer.

"It wasn't," Scherezade whispered. What else was there she could possibly say? Her hand went for the bottle again. Her father would never sing her another lullaby. Never talk to her from a distance. Never... Just. Never.


[member="Josh DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

As he would walk over, she only whispered her response. But her face, the soaking pillow, the puffy face, that told him all that he needed to know. Josh would tilt his head a moment, curious, but seemed to understand after a few moments. Letting out a sigh, Josh would promptly climb onto the bed gently, still remaining as calm as he had been since he had finished the call with his son. And with that... He would just hug her. He said nothing. He just hugged her, wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tight. No jokes, no "preaching", no verbal reassurance that he was there. He let his actions do the talking.

He had promised her that she wouldn't be alone on this night, and he would deliver on that in what way he could. He knew that she was averse to touch, and may act out, but this seemed like a moment where it was merited. It felt like she needed it, to him. And that was reason enough for him to at least try to help, in some measure. He didn't know what good it would do, but she was worth it either way.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Normally, she would have pushed him away, snapped at him, maybe throw a punch. Now was not normally. Now, her pain over Gerwald and Katrine had been entirely forgotten. But whereas she had fantasized about herself feeling light and free when that happened, the only thing she got was an even heavier and harsher pain that came from missing her own father.

She had thought she'd found him, once. She'd been on Coruscant, walking through one of the districts, when a man who looked like him suddenly sat on a bench. She had not thought to check with the Force that day; she'd been out of the pebble for only two weeks, still completely innocent in every possible way. She had screamed and rushed to him, her hands hugging him tightly. It had broken her heart when the man told her he was not her father. The physical resemblance was still uncanny though.

Another wave of pain and longing erupted form her and she pressed her face into Josh's face, the sounds of a wounded animal coming out of her throat.

It was impossible. It was impossible to live with so much pain. To have her heart not stop beating. And she didn't know how much longer of it she would be able to handle. The Darkness had said time and time again. She was the weak one.

[member="Josh DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

He got it, he saw that face of longing, he could sense her emotions and the puffy face all gave it away. He missed his father too. The One Sith had taken him away when Josh had finally found him again, he'd been cut down during the scuffle on Coruscant when the One Sith had taken it over. Josh hated that planet. It had given him nothing but bad memories. It had been where all of his efforts had turned out to be wasted... Where the Order had betrayed him... And where he had lost his parents the first time, found his father and then lost him again before he could finally get to know him... To have a father there.

He still didn't think he knew how to be one himself. Why did he have to die?

But right now, he tried to push that aside. His own pain radiated in that moment, but he didn't care. He just hugged her and held her tight.

"It's okay" He whispered into her ear softly as she pressed her face to his. "It's okay to cry if you need to, I promise."

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

"I'm so tired of crying," she said, still crying into his chest, "I'm so tired of it..."

The wounded sound came out of her again and she trembled, unable to keep it from happening. She was scattered, her emotions and brains all over the place. She just wanted it all to stop. She wanted to rewind time, to go back to before that stupid bonfire, before everything went to shit. Sure, things weren't perfect, but they didn't ache this badly then, they were building up towards the point in which she'd shattered.

She had promised Gerwald she would never regret that bonfire. That she never would have changed it, even if she could. But that was before. She didn't have all the information at the time. She didn't know he'd already chosen Katrine because "it was always her". She didn't know, she didn't know...

And she hated. She hated that it reflected on pretty much everything else in her life. She just wanted it all to stop, just stop, no more pain, no more beating heart, no more tears, no more anything. Just silence, just bliss. Just... That was what the Darkness had been, hadn't it? NO! The Darkness had been a place of nightmares and terrors. But the why had the Darkness been the only thing that had been right all along?

"I just want it to stop. All of it," she whispered.

[member="Josh DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

His expression softened as she spoke. He wanted to help, but he wasn't sure how. What could he say that didn't just come off as preaching? For a little while, he just hugged her, held her close and tight. He had said she wouldn't be alone and he was going to do what he could to keep that promise. Even if just being some kind of support in some fashion. Granted, support was what he was offering to begin with, right? Though originally he'd offered it for the whole boyfriend and sister problem... Well, this worked.

"All of it?" He finally asked after a long while of silence.

He took a deep breath as he would just continue to hold her tight and cradle her.

"I'm not... Great, at this whole inspirational... Stuff, I don't think. But what I do know is that we don't know what we'll be like a few years down the road" Josh would begin. "I've hit rock bottom twice now, and I'll be honest when I say I am pretty sure I'm fairly close to a third. When I hit rock bottom the first time when the old Order betrayed me, and the second time after what happened to my brother, I at the time had dreams of a home, a wife and child, a family... You know? A couple of years down the road, and... Well, I had it. Sure, I lost my wife eventually, but... That also doesn't mean I'll be like this forever. I don't know what I'll be like next year, not to mention a couple of years down the road" Josh would explain.

"Main thing is... We don't know. Why stop it all now when you don't know what's to come yet?" He asked. "You never know. Maybe you'll be a mother yourself in a couple of years" He joked lightly, a small smile starting to cross his face, chuckling a bit as he imagined it. "Fatherhood's the best thing to happen to me. You know, once you get past the crying... And the stinky diapers...

But yeah. You just don't know. Chit sucks now, but it might not always suck."

He had become a bit more... Casual, with her. The formality in his tone and the way he worded things had disappeared. It was an indication of comfort.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

She didn't immediately answer him. Instead she remained silent, letting him speak. He was talking about years, about down the road... What did she know about years? She'd only been alive for six months, six months since coming out of that pebble, since leaving the Darkness for the first time. She didn't know anything about what was to come; she only knew that everything hurt, and that the days were not making the pain any less painful or any more tolerable. She didn't have children to look out for, to toss herself into caring for them. The mere thought was horrifying. She wanted children, yes, but in the future, when she could actually protect them, first and foremost from their own family members who would do them harm.

And it all came back down again.

"It will always suck," she whispered, "I'm broken. I don't know how to repair anything." she sighed, "When... When we were on Coruscant, just a little before the Darkness, just a little bit before he abandoned me... I told him... I promised him that I would never regret the bonfire. We didn't meet for the first time at the bonfire, but it was the first time... The first time we really got to know each other."

Scherezade sighed, hiding her face in Josh's chest again. "We exchanged so many promises about the future during that trip to Coruscant. So many of them. And I'm scared that I'm about to break a promise like that for the first time. And I know I shouldn't feel guilty about it but I am, and I don't want to break that promise, but sometimes I feel like I'm already breaking it anyway."


[member="Josh DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

"I'm starting to get the feeling that this was your first boyfriend" Josh would joke lightly as he would listen to her lament about the fact that it would never get better and he'd made so many wonderful promises. Having had a few relationships and a failed marriage, he knew a thing or two about making all the promises in the world and the partner never following through on them. How many mornings had he woken up to "Babe!", and ended his nights with "I love you!" How many days had he heard promises that they were made for each other, that they would never be apart?

He knew she'd have another boyfriend, but if she needed to just lament for a little while? That was cool. Fair enough. She'd figure out on her own there were more fish in the sea. So beyond that joke, for a bit he would just let her cry into his chest, while he cradled her and even just a little played with her hair absentmindedly. He didn't even seem to realize he was doing it, the whole thing just seemed to come natural and he kind of let autopilot take over for a little while.

"He broke his promises, right? Sometimes you can afford to be a little selfish if he was a shcut anyway" He spoke softly with a light smile. "Far as I can tell, your promise is null and void, and has been soon as he ruined what was binding it. But that's just a suggestion. You gotta work the issue out, but it's not like you're low on time to do that".

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

He hadn't been her boyfriend. They'd never agreed on being exclusive. If there were rules about exclusivity that happened without mutual agreement, Scherezade didn't know about it. But Gerwald hadn't needed to be her boyfriend for the rest of the stuff to happen. She'd dreamed, she'd hoped, Force, she'd prayed, that he'd love her the way she still loved him. But she was too tired now to point it out, too tired to correct Josh. She wanted to sleep, but she was too afraid of sleeping. She hadn't had a proper sleep since she'd left the Darkness, always afraid of being dragged back into it. Yet with each day that passed, the Darkness seemed like less and less of a horrible place. The worst things that had happened to her had happened outside of it. Then why was she so afraid to just return? She knew how to. Some basic instinct inside of her knew that if she stabbed herself with the Sword of Darkness, she'd be right back in there. Then what was stopping her?

Scherezade shook her head at Josh's suggestion. "I'm still selfish," she said, her voice quiet, "I'm still hoping he decides to leave Katrine and tell me he made the wrong choice. And I'm still hoping she feels what I'm currently feeling, to know this feeling of betrayal by a sister even though we're not sisters anymore. And I can't break my promises to him. Even if that never happens. I just can't."

[member="Josh DragonsFlame"]

 

[Josh Dragovalor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz3kA9wVt70&list=PLcirGkCPmbmEATmjAEFE_BCmA6JOPfl6D&index=4​

Well, he didn't know that. He was hearing the lamentations of a woman losing her first boyfriend to her half-sister that had decided to go behind her back before and during her time in some pit of darkness or whatever, and they'd decided to tell her immediately after she got back. He wondered, was she a Sith before this or after? Because this was a hell of a supervillain backstory. Regardless, he would just nod his head and keep playing with her hair with one hand, both arms wrapped around her as he would listen. The feeling was familiar, all of this. But he pushed it aside. He'd had his time to talk about his own issues and vent, and he'd done that enough as it was. Though he would likely keep providing examples when applicable. He felt it helped a bit if she knew that he at least somewhat understood her feelings, experienced them too. He knew by how he had been with her today that it definitely made him more comfortable talking about his when she could understand.

"That's okay" He spoke softly. "That's normal feelings. Nothing wrong with them. I think if my ex came back now and said she made a mistake, I'd want to go back too" Josh would admit. "We get used to having a certain way of life, whether that's tied to a person, an organization, a thing... And it's very hard to let it go when they're gone. They cause selfish thoughts and desires, and that's just... Life. You're not doing anything out of the ordinary, you're not doing anything wrong. This is how you're supposed to feel. I want more than anything to go back to my old life, like I said. Wife, son, house with a picket fence. It's all I ever dreamed of. I got used to it when I had it, and now I want it back.

Might still have it one day. Just maybe not in the way I thought I would."

He shrugged his shoulders. "But... I do know you have a good heart. And I think someday, someone's going to make you happy, and you'll make them happy. And you'll make all these promises again, and this time... They'll follow through. It might take a few tries... Force knows I've had my share. But I think you'll get it."

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Normal feelings. Not doing anything out of the ordinary. Scherezade shut her eyes. She couldn't understand, couldn't comprehend, what was so normal or ordinary about what she was going through. She felt like she was dying, like she wanted to die, like the pain of the near death at the hands of a Jedi was a child's play compared to the things that followed. How could this be normal? How could any of it?

And the Josh spoke about her heart. She sighed, breaking the physical connection between them. She wiped her face on the back of her hands and stood up, realizing the world wasn't really spinning anymore. That was bad. Her body was becoming better and better at handling the liquor she was tossing it in order to get some of the pain's edge off. She needed more.

Almost instantly, she found the deserted bottle and took a long drink from it.

"No," she answered him, "I don't think I will. This is not worth the happiness that came before it. I would have been better off never knowing about the bits that came before he abandoned me."


[member="Josh DragonsFlame"]