Well. I honestly have no idea where this came from. I was up at some ungodly hour and this just sort of…wrote itself. Beware; what lies beyond is the product of two hours of sleepy, confused writing. Reviews are awesome, if anyone wants to leave one. Enjoy the show!
Blue Ruin
"Death is the king of this world. 'Tis his park where he breeds life to feed him. Cries of pain are music for his banquet." –George Elliot
The Man in the Moon sits in the heavens, and watches the play unfold before him. The boy with death engraved on his soul and the girl with life cradled in her hands act out a scene from Hell's own drama, with ebony and malachite puppets.
He follows broken paths, dripping black tears as he draws as close to the severance of ties as he will ever get. And somewhere along the way, she appears, dusty and cobwebbed from the passage of forgotten years.
Skeletons of the past lie silent in the fields as they meet.
Sasuke stands on the bridge where everything first began, where everything found an end, where the two now come crashing together. Pale as ghost, with eyes that are dead and terribly hollow, the avenger has come home. Sakura simply waits under the harsh silver light of their observer with shadows on her face and in her heart.
A thousand seconds later, and he's laughing, harsh and bitter, tinged with reality and flavored with the wine of madness. The wind begins to blow, a siren song in the desert that she once called her heart, its music ragged and aching.
It frees the cobwebs and they scatter, like truth and understanding did so long ago, and she draws a shuddering breath. His eyes reach for her soul, and all she can do is give.
Seven steps later, and he's following, footfalls silent as only he can make them. The Jack of Hearts lets the Queen of Fools lead him to a glass castle, the home he once knew, decrepit and abandoned. Its walls are still stained dark with blood that once ran crimson, but it will serve its purpose.
In the desert, the first drops of rain begin to fall. Like the snakes he summons, he slithers through sand that is just now tasting water, waiting for the deluge.
As they kiss, the walls of the manor being to fade away, and scenery changes as the play moves on. The sky is red and the clouds are black, Heaven in a brother's nightmare. His cold fingers trail over her heated skin until all she can do is shiver in his embrace, and as the angels turn to ashes, slowly, slowly, they tumble back down to the house of ghosts once more.
A million caresses later, and Sakura is screaming, the mansion echoing with her cries as the yew trees outside whisper warnings to the heavy night air. Stumbling and lurching, she follows him now; down dark twisting hallways into a place he keeps guarded, hidden away from the world, except for tonight.
Her tears are like drops of light, but they are mere candles in an ocean of shadows, and they die in the gloom. As one by one their brightness fades, she moans and curls against him, wishing she could tell him something other than sadness. Her words rasp from a voice hoarse from sobs and screams, striving desperately to find a different ending.
"Once," she says, "upon a time…"
The faerie tale stops as his mouth once more covers hers in a kiss that chills her mind even as it warms her flesh. The kiss that should have been sweet is full of decay, of rotting life and terrible, raw truth.
"You know how this ends, don't you?"
His words put and end to any fantasies, any dreams of something better than what will come. His voice is husky, and she lies trembling in his arms, her own words buried under his assault. She turns away, her eyes tracing the bloody patterns on the wall. A sigh tells him that she doesn't need a seer to find the future. With a snarl, he pulls her under, deep beneath the waves, for one final, agonizing dive.
When they surface, the desert has been quenched, but the candles still won't hold a flame.
The final act begins, with the moon still observing. Ebony leaves malachite and the glass castle begins to crack. She runs from its crumbling shelter with her hair streaming in tangled ribbons behind her.
She runs, because the story can't have only one ending.
He knows it does.
The wind is dead once more, and the cobwebs return as the snake chains the door to the hallway forever.
Skeletons reach out with their bony arms and try to stop him, but he brushes them away with cold, vicious movements. The village is spread out before him, in all of its helpless glory, as the mountain looks on with accusing eyes.
She reaches him as the fire leaps into the air, bright strong, just like she prayed the candles would be. He turns and looks at her with those dead, hollow eyes, and she meets his gaze with a heart full of sand.
She offers no resistance, as the last chapter writes itself in the slash of his katana and the rush of her blood. Her vision begins to fade, and all she sees is his silhouette against the flames as the Leaf burns.
The Man in the Moon looks down from the sky as the play comes to a close with all the anguish one would expect from their playbook. He smiles his eternal smile as one last kunai flies and strikes the snake. In the last moments, they lie together on the cold ground, each watching as the other's life ends. He wonders if he sees her desert finally become a heart, and she wishes that she would see his soul dispel the shadows. With two silent breaths, witnessed only by skeletons, yew trees and the moon, they are gone. Blood glistens as it pools on the ground, in the final scene of the final act.
The curtain falls, and the Man in the Moon applauds.