"Stop me if you hate me so much."
((Sorry this took me so long!))
Hundreds of years and the growing question—-the phenomenon that plagues the very existence of the living—-is: ‘will I get through today? Will I make it?’
Hundreds of years worried about the hatred of others, the fear that you may lose your life, it’s exhausting.
Lea knew the fatigue all too well, it was something of an old friend.
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Murder Row never housed the most agreeable of patrons, you know, the ones that never truly kept their vows to obey the laws of the city, the ones who never kept their vows to themselves. Many a broken man hid here, and entering the alley was almost a death sentence to one’s moral standings. It housed the thieves, ladies of the evening, assassins —— most of the criminals.
Finding no other place that suited her, Lea stuck around the row. She watched, listened, and waited. Waited for rumors, for insults, anything to keep her mind from wandering, to keep her eyes from wandering around the streets. Anything to keep the paranoia at bay.
One evening, standing beside a lamp post, Lea noticed a figure, cloaked in shadow, blades hanging at it’s hips. The young rogue watched for awhile, her curiosity peaking. Shadows moved. They drifted across buildings, they fell upon the faces of others, they even diluted light. This particular shadow, never moved, never made a sound, it never so much as rose with the sun, and of course it never fell.
It takes awhile to lose consciousness while awake, but the rogue often found herself lost within her thoughts, staring at the same spot, yet not. All of her surroundings seemed to fade and there is a void, an emptiness that is indescribable. An awakening from that void is a start in itself, noticing that the thing you were supposed to keep an eye on, the one thing you were watching because it could be a threat is gone? That’s terrifying.
The shadow jumped from behind Lea, disappearing once. It reappeared on her left, then her right. It jumped from place to place. It tugged at the woman’s hair and poked at her daggers. Something straight from the woman’s nightmares all packed into something she herself found shelter within. Shadows.
"Do you really think this is funny?! Do you think this is going to scare me? It’s doing nothing but make me hate you. I do, I hate you. I don’t even know who you are and I hate you. Happy?”
Laughter echoed down the row, bouncing off of walls, and filling the ears of many. Genuine laughter.
"Stop me if you hate me so much."