Devils Roses 05 - Death

from him until she can't stand anymore and falls to the cold stone, unconscious. He blinks and looks at me.
    "Aimee?" He whispers, stunned.
    I cry harder, "Ari. Get Ari."
    He looks lost. His blue eyes are clearer than I've ever seen them. He's looks at me again and then is gone.
    "Ophelia. Please wake up O." I look up into the stone ceiling and sob, "Please. Please help us. We fight for you, please help us."
    Not that I expected anything, but when nothing happens I can’t help but feel a little disappointed. If there is a God, he cares for us the same as every other being. Even though we give everything of ourselves, he treats us no differently.
    Her body moves with shallow breaths. She twitches and trembles.
    "O. O, please don’t leave me here alone."
    She moves a pale hand that is still covered in the black veins. Her fingers grip like she's having a seizure.
    I close my eyes and lower my head but the air moves around me. I lift my eyes and jump. She stands directly in front of me. Her eyes are completely black. The veins are reaching her face. Her lip trembles.
    Her voice is a whisper that doesn’t come from her. It's as if something speaks through her cold stiff body that is pressed against mine. We are bare chest to bare chest.
    "She took it all Aimee. She took his evil and his dark. She took it all inside of her. She's dark now. Her soul is as dark as our father's."
    I look at her black lips moving faintly with the whispered words.
    "What can I do?" I ask.
    " Kill her now before he finds her. Before it's too late."
    I look around shaking my head, "I can't. Don't ask this of me."
    Her eyes start to flutter.
    "Do it before she gains consciousness."
    I try to move my trembling hand to her arm. The black veins move with the flow of her blood. The poison is filtering everywhere. Tears blind me to everything but the blackness of her fluttering eyes. If I close my eyes I can smell the ocean and see the harbor of my small town. I can hear my mother laughing and my sister criticizing me and even that makes me smile. I can see my father rocking in his chair with a book and a tea. He smiles at me over his books. I can ask the voices inside of her to untie me and wink home. I can refuse it all and let the cards fall where they may. I sniffle as her hand is lifted and pressed into mine. They know what I am. The fire is waiting for her skin. It's waiting for me to do it. It is still there from the wall in the face. Her cold bare chest pressed against mine feels weird. I keep my eyes closed, until as I release it. I pull it hard and fast and let it take the control.
    Her body slams hard against me again and again as she struggles. The real her must be there. She feels herself dying and is fighting me.
    But I've let it go. I've let it have her. It sucks and pulls. Even though my eyes are closed the tears find their way out. They soak my face and chest.
    "Aimee." She speaks softly once.
    Her body heats up just as I feel the suck stop. She's dry. I open my eyes in time to see the horrified look on her face, frozen there. Her dead body slides down mine. The tears have soaked us both. I go limp in the ropes.
    I hear voices. I'm shaking and trembling.
    "I'm not talking to you."
    "You're talking right now."
    "I hate you."
    It's two men bickering. I ignore them both and hang swinging against the ropes. Ophelia's corpse is against my feet, which barely touch the ground.
    The wind moves and he's there. He's holding me. His body forms around mine, cocoons around me. He's warm and soft and real against the cold and pain that I'm stuck in. He unties me and holds me. I feel my winking powers coming back once the weird cloth is off of my wrists.
    "Oh my god. What did you do? Who is that?" The men start shrieking.
    "Ophelia? Ophelia? Is that Ophelia? Will one of you talk? One of you bitches better start talking."
    I look past the huge arm that’s holding me in the air, to a handsome man covering his panicked face and shaking his head. The other man is also shaking his head but in tiny twitches. They look at me accusingly.
    "What have you done to her?"
    Tears are pouring from my face. I try to talk but the words aren’t there. I don’t have any. I'm empty and broken. I've killed my friend.
    The voices whisper in the wind above us, "She had to brother. She had to do it. Ophelia pulled the darkness from Oliver."
    The one I'm assuming is Tristan lifts his face and screams. He howls almost. The other man grips him and pulls at him, but he