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Go Not Gently
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Prologue
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He recalled a mausoleum.
Or rather, the shimmer of sensation that a vast expanse extended beyond his senses. At the back of his eyelids light had glimmered and faded, but when he opened them Break was encompassed within a world of nothing. He had pondered this and swallowed the thick, congealing memory of bloody iron, then realized the heaving coughs echoing in that solitary space were his own.
God, why did he feel so tired?
Oh, yes. That's right.
The caress of death breathed so intimately, like an almost lover's whisper in his ear, left him mystified. And was he not a dead man? Should dead men even feel the sun on their face? Smell the acrid perfume of cut flowers? Or hear the tinkling trill of a still-girlish laugh, bouncing within the hollowed caverns of his would-be heart? Was this madness? A curse? Some concocted purgatory willed by the Abyss?
If so, he did not want it. Death, although strewn with finality, was far nobler than living in a dream.
"You silly man! What are you doing here?"
Oh, but a sweet dream this was.
Her voice, the one he'd stolen away in memory, sounded like a prayer answered. He turned towards it, searching with deft ears, then opened one cautious eyelid, expecting to see the muddled array of color and light that claimed his vision. Instead he found her bounding across the lawn, skirts in a disarray as she lifted them to her ankles. His mouth went dry at the sight. How long ago was it since he'd last actually seen her this way—happy and radiant? Those times seemed worlds away...yet now here she was, offering one small, encouraging hand.
He took hold of it like it were a lifeline, and the warmth of that palm had never felt more corporeal.
"Come on. Reim is visiting, and Mother prepared us some tea." She tugged at him gently, a smile playing on her lips. It matched the nice shade of pink on her cheeks. Despite himself, Xerxes Break felt the corner of his mouth tug upwards, the abrupt puff of a chuckle breaching his throat.
He was alive. This much he was certain.
"Alright."
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Hello! I've had this floating around in my head for some time now, and after reading the final chapter of 'Pandora Hearts' I just had to start it. If you haven't read the last chapter, please do. It was amazing! Thank you, Jun Mochizuki, for such a wonderful story! It was a roller-coaster ride, for sure. Although, I'm still salty because of Break. Sniff.