Devils Roses 05 - Death

and I watching the show about how pigs can smell the day they're going to die, is rolling through my mind like a dense fog. It eats up all the self-pity and sadness. My father and mother and sister are there with me. Inside of me.
    Aleks grabs my hand and pulls me into him, "What's going on?" He whispers.
    I shake my head. I know he'll take me away. I can't let him. "Nothing. She just is asking a lot for payment."
    "What is the payment, Aimee?" His voice is rough. I wonder if he's scared like I am, even though he doesn’t know the things I do. He doesn’t know what the payment is.
    I look back at Momma Holt. Where her eyes are pressed shut, there a white light is fighting to break through her sealed lids. She shakes and chants softly.
    She throws her arms into the air and screams and then slams them down on Ophelia's limp body. Ophelia shoots up screaming. Oliver grabs her instantly and is gone.
    "Where is he going?" I ask panicked.
    Dorian refuses to look at me. I can see it. He knows. "She's being taken to a cell she can't escape from. A place where the sisters will find her and release their magic to her." His words are dead and they break my heart. He won't look. He can't. I glance at Aleks. He kisses my head.
    "Brother, go help him. He will need the help. I'll stay here and help cover the bill."
    Aleks grabs me and looks at me intensely, "Hurry home. We need to talk."
    I swallow hard and nod. I'm fighting the tears threatening me and taking my voice.
    Aleks is gone, making the air in the cabin swirl with his warmth and her stink.
    "Momma Holt, I have a better deal for you."
    She shakes her head, "No. You no trick Momma Holt demon." She holds out her hand that shows where she spit into her old leathered brown palm. Where the burns are still.
    He offers his hand to her, "I have taken more than her. I have more to give. She is new. Few souls."
    Momma Holt grabs his hand and licks it. She tastes and spit on the floor nodding and muttering, "You go home demon."
    My eyes widen. "No. Dorian, don’t do this." I don’t know why but the idea of him dying is worse than anything I can imagine. "No." The tears win over. My heart is breaking.
    He looks back at me, "I'm glad you don’t remember the way I acted towards you. I'm glad this is the way you remember me. I just wish it could have been different. If I ever get the chance I will show you how much Aimee. How much this cost me."
    "Why were you such an ass? Everyone tells me I hated you. I feel my disgust for you. It's old. Please tell me why?" I ask through the tears and sobs.
    He shakes his head, "Because I couldn’t have you. I couldn’t do that to him. He is the only real brother I've ever had. He saw you first." His voice breaks and I heave slightly.
    He grabs my face and presses his lips against mine. The salt from the tears makes its way into my mouth.
    Our kiss tightens as I hear the stabs of the knife into his hand. I open one eye to see her put his black bloody hand up to her mouth. She sucks and pulls.
    "I love you forever." He whispers into my mouth and then he jerks away from me and looks up at the ceiling. His jaw tightens, as his eyes turn white like hers had been. He drops to the floor and slowly becomes nothing more than a pile of black feathers. There is one white feather sitting at the top of the pile.
    "His love for you. You take dat one. He leave it for you." She points at the white feather. I drop to my knees. My heart is broken. "I never knew." I whisper. With trembling hands I pick the single white feather from the pile. I hold it to my chest and rock back and forth.
    Momma Holt shuffles towards me. She places her hands on my head and slowly, images of me fill my own mind. My smile, my eyes glowing molten steel, my laugh, me running and fighting, me sitting reading a book in the sunlight. There are more than I can count and I remember almost none of them. The final image is me, lying in the forest, sleeping on a bed of moss. His hand comes into sight and brushes my hair from my face. I recognize the ring and his leather jacket. His hand lingers as he brushes his thumb across my lips.
    "How he see you." She pulls back her hands but the memories stay rolling around in my mind. I have no words.
    I want to reach in and grab every feather. I want to hold them to me tightly. "I never knew." I cry out, shaking.
    I wink and I'm in the yard at Lydia's, on my knees in a sobbing ball.
    I'm grabbed and held.
    "What happened? Where is he? WHERE IS HE