A/N: A while back, I posted a oneshot about Bree's final moments before dying the ultimate death. After that, I got ambushed by Diego, who wanted to tell his story of dying, and who was I to ignore a perfectly good story? At first, I planned on posting this within the same fic as the Bree death-ficlet, but after some consideration, I decided to post this as a separate story. Thank you loads to Poisoned Princess for doing some betawork! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight and its characters. I'm just fascinated by them.
Ashes, Ashes
What I'm feeling now, no one, alive or dead, should have to suffer through. She is vicious, malice seething from her like a slow working poison, and the glint in her crimson eyes is pure evil. She has no problems showing her face now, because she knows I will tell no one. I'm heading down a one way lane, and I'm not coming back.
After I left Bree in the dark, the memory of our hasty kiss still lingering on my lips, I tracked down Riley and told him about the sun-thing. I still don't know if he was in on the matter. His responses seemed honest enough, but the fact that he took me to see Her, and assisted in my death casts some serious doubts on him.
He led me back to the cabin we had spied him entering earlier, and told me to wait. Why, why didn't I run? Shortly afterwards, a shrill feminine voice, her voice, called me in. She was a spectacular being, pale as death, with the fiery red hair in bright contrast. The eyes were bright red, she must've fed recently, and there was something uneasy about those eyes. I felt as if some cunning predator was luring behind the red irises.
She greeted me, introduced herself as Victoria, and asked if I knew why Riley had brought me.
"Is it because of the sun?" I asked cautiously, deciding it was best to sort of ease into my question.
She smiled, and looked like a purring cat, ready to pounce.
"Yes," she crooned, and tilted her head. "It's about the sun."
She was really giving me the creeps with that voice, now that I saw her for what she was; a true predator. I was a predator, damn it, and being demoted to feeling like prey irked me. I could understand respecting the vamp who turned you, but fearing him or her? No. Whatever hesitation I had about asking my question were whisked away. Every nerve in my body was telling me to get the hell out of there. I wanted to get back to Bree.
"Is it really that dangerous?" I asked frankly.
Victoria gave the briefest of nods to Riley, I almost missed it, and then she was on her feet, a fire now smoldering in her eyes.
"You tell me," she hissed, and on cue, Riley took hold of my arms, forcing them behind my back.
My fighting-instincts kicked in, and I tried to fight my way out of Riley's grip. Victoria whipped out her hand, delivering a stinging backhand slap, which stunned me enough for Riley to secure his grip on me.
"Hold him," Victoria ordered him sternly, as she took hold of my legs and started pulling.
She was strong, not like a newly created vampire, but strong as in years and years of accumulating experience and techinques. She pulled mercilessly, I felt my limbs stretching and slowly tearing, and I wished she would just rip them off instead of slowly tearing me to pieces.
I begged Riley to help me. He was my friend, my liege if I had to associate myself with a certain vamp. He trusted me, as I had trusted him. He didn't say a word.
Victoria, on the other hand, was enjoying herself. She finally ripped off my right leg, quickly followed by my left.
"What do you think, Diego?" she cackled maliciously. "Is the sun dangerous?"
I yelled 'yes' at the top of my lungs, unable to ignore the blunt, thudding pain from the stubs that used to be my legs.
What she did next should've made me fight for my life even more than I had, but with my current knowledge, I couldn't even bring myself to fake it. She lit a fire. Riley had taught us to be wary of fires. Fires equalled death, and the sooner you got away from them, the lesser the chance that you'd end up burning. I was actually a bit relieved when she lit the fire. It meant death, the end. I was going to die, for sure, simple as that.
Not as simple as that.
She was a sadist. She didn't set me on fire to kill me quickly. She set fire to parts of me, just to watch me scream and wriggle. I remembered the pain of transformation, how it felt as if my entire body was on fire. The real thing was even worse. Victoria asked if someone else knew about the sun. I saw Bree's face before my mind's eye, and I whimpered 'no'. It took me all ten fingers, most of my hair and my nose before she was convinced that I was telling the truth. I must've looked like hell. At least I felt like it. Protect Bree, that was all that mattered. She would survive for a while, hopefully forever.
"What am I going to tell the others?" Riley asked anxiously, and let go of me.
Considering my lack of appendages, I was hardly a flight risk.
"You'll figure something out, Riley."
Victoria's voice wasn't harsh or full of malice anymore. It was sickly sweet, cooing at our leader, alluring and full of some secret promise.
"Please," I begged exasperated, though I knew it was pointless. "I won't tell… Haven't… come up with a secret handshake yet…"
The last part just jumped out of my mouth, and I regretted it instantly.
"What secret handshake?"
Victoria's hands are around my neck in nanoseconds, and I realised what it must feel like for humans when we snap their necks like they were twigs. Behind Victoria, Riley let out a low snarl.
"A… ninja-thing…" I huffed with great effort.
"Ninjas?" she hissed, and turned back to Riley. "Do you know about this?"
"No," Riley replied quickly. "He's been taking care of the little one, they have some sort of bond, I think. I'll ask her."
He's so eager to please this beast, so entranced by her being, and she knows it. At least he saved Bree for the time being.
The fire crackled behind Victoria and Riley, and she let go of my neck to go put some more wood on the dying flames. She glances over at me with eyes that make me sick, but I try to look away, filter them out of my mind by thinking about Bree. Her silly beliefs and superstitions and her panicked voice after she stepped into the sunlight. She will never have the secret handshake I promised her.
When the fire is so hot I can almost feel it on my face, Victoria commands Riley to wait outside. She says it in that crooning voice, pretending to care about his feelings. I was (she uses past tense, as if I was already ashes) after all, one of Riley's 'best and brightest'. She doesn't care. She just wants to finish this alone, like a cat playing with its prey before devouring it. Riley still leaves us, not even looking back. So much for that friendship.
"I'm going to tell you something, Diego," she tells me when Riley's gone, and the cold malicious tone returns to her voice. "And I need you to keep quiet about it."
It's more of a comment than an actual request. She drags me to the fire and burns away any chance I have of telling, even screaming. She then crouches down beside me, the flames reflected in her eyes like the fires of hell. I don't understand how she can even look at me now. She smiles, her teeth glittering dangerously in the light of the fire.
"Do you know why you were made? All of you?"
She continues before I can even shake my head. She tells me that we were all made to die, she actually refers to us as collateral damage. I don't understand it. I remember what collateral damage is, but hearing it from Victoria is confusing.
"You are all going to die, and I'm gonna make sure your little friend dies, if not first, then at least among the first ones."
I knew we were supposed to be an army, but this seemed suicidal. Bree was going to die. I didn't particularly care if scum like Raoul or Kevin died, but Bree? Sweet little innocent ninja-Bree with lips I'd want to kiss forever? I wanted to ask why, but I couldn't.
"It's been a longterm project," Victoria continued, as if she'd read my mind. "There was a sudden change in… schedule."
That one I understand, she means the Dark Cloaks. Bree and I heard them give her a deadline. She taunts me even more, how she's gonna put Bree at the frontline and kill her first, and how it's all on me. A little something to take with me to the flames, she says. She would toss me on the fiery altar with that weight on my shoulders; that my friendship with Bree was going to kill her. Bree and… and… Fred.
Fred!
Bree had Fred. She would keep close to Fred. Fred could, no, would, keep her safe. The despair that just seconds ago boiled in me dies out. I won't be the reason Bree dies, if and when she dies.
Victoria decides playtime is over. She's had her fun, and I've had my time. She picks me up, and unceremoniously throws me on the fire, leaving me to the flames. She walks out, no doubt to find Riley. Though the licking flames are causing me indescribable, searing pain, I try my best to overhear (while I still can) any conversation between Victoria and Riley.
"Talk… little one… The special… need him."
"Bree… she… with him… the special."
The conversation is fragmented, but I can deduce that Fred is important, and Bree is their key to him. Bree will be with Fred. She will be protected. She will be okay.
A final, scalding hot breath, and my burning, smoldering stake becomes the darkest, most serene night. I wish I could remember my human life more clearly. I wish I could picture my little brother, but everything before my new life is fuzzy. So I take what I have; caressing Bree, her sparkling face, in the cave in the sunlight, and I immerse myself in that image as I float away into death, with Bree's melodious voice sounding in the nothingness:
Ashes, ashes, we all fall down…
A/N: So..? Good, bad? Tell me what you thought!
P.S. If anyone's interested, I've also got a James death-ficlet in store, just need to do some minor tweaking and editing, but it's basically ready for posting.