#tormented soul

[ratinfelix]

And also this gentleman..

[misplaced-aquarius]

Torment for Two ~ Happy Valentine's Day

[lifextime]

Day 17 : Tormented Soul

[thethcministry]

[eccia-dawnstalker]

I Am the Storm

((Theme music as you read if you so please))

Scrubbing, scrubbing, scrubbing…. The sounds of bristle against wood washing away the trail of dark blood that stained the floor of the shop she’d come to temporarily call home. The only home she had left now officially after tonight.

"You aren't the type to pine," The Kaldorei’s voice echoed in her mind. Words spoke just hours ago. Or was it minutes? How long had she been scrubbing this floor. Was the blood stain even still on the floor or had she just been scrubbing it all on her hands and knees lost within the recesses of her mind. "Oh? Then what type am I, do tell." "The type to compartmentalize your feelings, I get the impression you'd agonize over your feelings before letting them be known. I imagine you deliberate about it all for a while."

Again the conversation echoed in her mind her ears pressing firmly against her head as she continued fervently scrubbing. She could still see it, the pandaren home with Sin’dorei motifs engulfed in flames. Flames she’d set in motion as she watched it burned down within her mind. The fire like a wildfire as it grew and grew consuming all within its heat. All the memories she’d built, all the life she’d known prior and till this night had been unable to let go of. Of her life among the Quel’dorei, among the Sin’dorei as a ranger. A life, that no longer had room for a void being to dwell within and the consequences of her choices since then.

"As you know, I've been gravely mistaken before. And easily mislead later. So I think it wiser to keep them to myself till and if an opportunity clearly presents itself. If even then."

"Patience is a good trait to have," he replied as his eyelids fluttered slightly. His voice grew more tired as he continued. "But sometimes it can be a weakness instead of a strength in situations to do with feelings. Or so, I've tended to notice.." She blinked, she hadn’t noticed the passage of time again well into the heart of the night going on into the morning. A glass within her hand, the smell of his familiar preferred drink on her breath. She raised the glass to look to it, how many had she drank now? For that matter when did she think to start and break into his stash? Knowing him he wouldn’t care but even as she had consumed the contents it failed to numb her mind… failed to comfort her any as it merely trapped her further within the recesses of her thoughts. The floor was fully scrubbed as was the counter, no more blood remained in fact it looked like she’d scrubbed every square inch of the floor as it practically sparkled now. The only dark spot on it left was that of her own figure drunkenly brooding now lost within her thoughts. She brought the contents of the glass up to her lips as she threw her head back to consume, feeling the burn down her throat as she went for the stairs and climbed slowly to the top. One hand out helping guide her along the wall while her eyes closed. She could still feel the rage coursing through her veins, still hear his cries echoing through her every being and worse yet… she could feel his final harsh caress as he seeped through her body following the shattering of his home. The sound of shattering crystals, of a foundation that was once her home within Quel’thelas… his home. The home that cast its shade over her all these years and still now lie in rubble as the magic that animated it had been forever destroyed and with it, her freedom of the entity that haunted her every waking thought. But instead of comfort now at last she felt… empty.

Her shoulder found the doorway leading into her room. The spare room he’d lent her within his home during her troubled times. The dark tresses of the Kaldorei sprawled elegantly along her pillow even as he slept. Her eyes not focused on his face however, but on the wound that lay wrapped around his bare chest. Her empty glass at her side still held in hand as her glassy eyes caught sight in the corners of them the armor she’d tediously cleaned free of his blood however many hours before and now drying on the table. The sounds of her work that put him to sleep mid conversation, so tired was he that he didn’t even register her final words before the exhaustion of the last few days they’d survived through took him.

"If, it was ever meant to be... then perhaps I'm naive enough to believe they'll see through my hesitation instead of choosing another. Either way, I won't be the one to make it known first... ever again."

If ever again… a very, very big if. She slowly and quietly walked over to the end of the bed, before lowering herself to the floor and resting her back against the bed as she rolled her head back. Her hands limply settled at her sides as she stared into that dimming darkness of her dying candle that lit the room. The sounds of his breathing the only thing to be heard past the flicker of flame. She stared into the darkness waiting, waiting for that familiar voice to come and attack her. To prod at her heart and very soul as he knew her every thought. Her every desire, her every secret. But there was nothing but silence…

She could still see the Gilnean’s face, see how he glanced through the door and stopped in his tracks only to advert his eyes from her. How he turned without a word and walked away without a look back nor a reply to her despite her attempt to genuinely thank him for being there for her. For being her rock as he held her tight despite how she deliberately attempted to violently break free of his hold. Stopping her from murdering the elf behind her now in her bed and that highborn mage in cold blood as she remained consumed by the last bouts of madness in Run’ahl’s wake. His words still echoing in her ears as he pleaded with her to fight the madness and return to him, to them. The solid feel of his arms around her as he held her up when she had nothing left in her to fight with as the darkness faded at last broken with that shattering sound. The smell of his lotus cologne that was almost a perfect mirror to the same that she smelled now of the elf slumbering behind her. A slumbering figure that she didn’t dare watch sleep in his current state as she knew how she felt for him, for them. Or did she? Did she even truly know anymore? For that matter, after what they’d just endured and the humiliation each of them bore on her behalf would they even look at her the same? Or would she be surrounded by fake faces, masks they hid behind protecting themselves from her as both had their faces covered even now. Her thoughts finally her own no longer misguided nor tainted. So much fuel to torment her with, but all she had now was her own thoughts and… silence.

Her eyes snapped to her hand then as she just realized it was shaking. Shaking as if cold, that kind of cold that no blanket could warm. She raised her hand up before her face as she watched it shake, felt it traverse down her arm along her shoulders before she pressed her hand firmly to her face and it stopped. Eyes shut tight in her momentary lapse of reason.

Stripped bare, Silence, Darkness. A single decision. A decision that ended the tremors and gave her but a moment to breath in deeply, then back out. She hadn’t lost everything tonight. She still had one blanket left. That one area left in her mind that had always been there to protect her. And with that complete numbness that filled her she became that metaphorical stone she had be to protect herself from everything. Even from herself. Only then did sleep finally take her as she slowly slumped over to the floor to bare witness to the storm within her mind that’d plague her nightmares. Within that storm the hunter rose from the ashes of all she’d buried this night… yet to be seen. ((Mentions go out to @illdraes and @ivanvukoja - thank you both for being a part of a huge arc in her character development. I have been blessed to share some wonderful rp stories with you both and I hope you enjoy the fruits of your labors ))

[charlesreeza]

This photo doesn’t do it justice, but I saw this spooky painting at the Albertina Museum in Vienna along with a few other Franz Sedlacek paintings.  

I would hang this in my living room.  

[quetzalotl]