HOTARU
She's in a long black coat tonight
Waiting for me in the downpour outside
Waiting for me in the downpour outside
“Of course it matters,” she insists, voice low and dark. “If I had lost you? If you or Evie had died, because she ran? I would burn her.” Clawlike hands cling tighter, reminding herself that he hadn’t. He is still here and breathing, she hasn’t lost him yet. And that is the only reason Cordelia’s cowardice will not seal her own fate. Pale hands - no longer claws, now - loosen slowly, and she tucks her head into his neck a little further to feel his pulse against her cheek. “I can’t lose you, Tal.” The rest of the world could burn, but the few precious people she’d pulled to the dark caverns of her heart needed to survive. Her own survival depended on it.
Enzo’s name in Tal’s mouth is a knife to her ribs, and though the two young men had never met - and now never would - it’s a cold comfort to know that Talyson at least remembered his name. Her hands fall limp away from Tal’s back (had it gotten broader, lately?) and her empty eyes burn but produce nothing. Only ash that still reeks of smoke and embers, clouding her vision with blackness. “I have lost four children now. Four.” A wounded, animal low escapes her, a moaning thing that echoes with so many years of loss. “I’ve killed nearly all of them, Tal. What is wrong with me?” She should have known that even fleeing Helovia was not enough to break the curse. It wasn’t the land that was cursed, it was Hotaru. Her womb a delayed death sentence for any soul that dared to grow within it. The true crime was her own selfishness in continuing to try. And finally the tears come, though they burn impotently in her waterline, refusing to fall when they can burn her longer by lingering.
Enzo’s name in Tal’s mouth is a knife to her ribs, and though the two young men had never met - and now never would - it’s a cold comfort to know that Talyson at least remembered his name. Her hands fall limp away from Tal’s back (had it gotten broader, lately?) and her empty eyes burn but produce nothing. Only ash that still reeks of smoke and embers, clouding her vision with blackness. “I have lost four children now. Four.” A wounded, animal low escapes her, a moaning thing that echoes with so many years of loss. “I’ve killed nearly all of them, Tal. What is wrong with me?” She should have known that even fleeing Helovia was not enough to break the curse. It wasn’t the land that was cursed, it was Hotaru. Her womb a delayed death sentence for any soul that dared to grow within it. The true crime was her own selfishness in continuing to try. And finally the tears come, though they burn impotently in her waterline, refusing to fall when they can burn her longer by lingering.
singing "Baby come home" in a melody of tears
While the rhythm of the rain keeps time
While the rhythm of the rain keeps time
