…when served coldly

It is cold outside and the snow covers the earth making everything change into a single white chilling horizon. The sun, as warm as it isn't here, glows and makes the ice sparkle like many small precious gems. Naked trees stretch forth their arthritic limbs to the sky praying for spring's swift arrival. It is beautiful and I wonder if she thought so too, before I started to kill her.

I lift her head out of the thick cold snow using her long raven hair; her face is turning red almost as if the skin is secreting blood. Perhaps the skin itself is beginning to crack and I wonder if I've really been killing her for that long now. It's strange how time passes when you're pre-occupied with other things.

She begins screaming for her knight and I can see the blank bloody spaces where the lot of her teeth should be but are now property to the wilderness. She keeps calling his name even as the blood runs over her already bruised and torn up face. Tears seem to be streaming down her cheeks making some of the blood turn pink and fall from her chin. I wonder if they will freeze before she dies. Tired of her voice I shove her face back into the snow and sit on her neck with my right knee.

The last time that we saw each other was when I had thrown her in front of Adel. Even then she didn't fight as much as she's doing so now. This is amusing because she should have known that something was up upon seeing me. I mean really, not only does she have women's intuition but she's a sorceress too. No, she didn't seem to get a frightening wind from me and just walked towards me as if she wanted to make amends, as if she wanted to forgive me. Her eyes were big and black and had the empty look of a cow ambling its way to slaughter. That's when I hit her and the first few teeth fell from her mouth like heavy crimson hail.

She's trying to kick me off of her but no matter the heavy weight of her boots they do not affect me and I only continue to dig my knee deeper into her neck. I hope she knows that I don't want to hurt her that it's merely a thing that I have to do. An event that has been planned for too long and it's ultimate key being her death. I wonder what will happen to her soul.

I know that she's trying to use magic but the Odin bangle is keeping her talents at bay. With my left had I am clutching her small wrists as tightly as I can. I remember holding her hand in the darkness in one of Timber's dark alleys, her hands were clammy and when I kissed her she gasped for air.

Her fingers twitch and writhe but I will only take such gestures that it wont be much longer. Soon I will have my vengeance; soon I will have my peace.

I hear her try to gasp and I am reminded of stealing a kiss from her back then. I hope she knows how good it is to touch her again.

The kicking begins to slow until finally her feet fall into the snow and just twitch like her fingers. I hear her make a noise that sounds like vomiting but I am not sure. Her body twitches and begins to shake so hard that I am barely able to stay on top of her then she begins to moan hoarsely. I am reminded of a night some years ago and how she shook from being so nervous and how I held her never wanting to hurt her.

I never wanted to hurt her, but it feels so good to just touch her again.

Finally her convulsing stops and the scent of death begins to seep from her body and I think that maybe she did vomit after all. This doesn't bother me and I roll her over too look at her blood and filth stained face. Just to be sure, I snap her neck and allow her body to fall limply into the tainted snow.

Now she has done her part, the most important part. It was the part that was years in the making, long before we had even met. Long before she even left her father for Timber and I stole that kiss from her in that dark alley. The ultimate revenge tasting exactly like champagne. Cold, crisp and completely without sweetness.xxx

I am waiting for him to come up the hills looking for her. Did he hear her screams? I do not know, but I think that she has been gone long enough for him to worry.

I see him now but only as a vague black blur in the distance. I know that it is him though. I know this and I grow giddy. This moment has been coming for years; this moment is what I've forced myself into living just to see.

As he gets closer I am able to see his features, the brown hair dancing in the chill breeze the leather clothing that he never seemed to tire of, but most of all was the long jagged scar that I had given him. The scar that he returned to me but it was I who had given it first.

I gave it and he returned it then he took my dream and I turned around and took his. Her corpse is now cooling just some feet away from me and it smells like hell approaching. He hasn't seen us yet but when he does I want to watch his eyes as he scans the horror that befell his woman.

I hope she knows that I didn't want to hurt her; I've never wanted to hurt her. He made me do it, that's him always making me do things that I don't want to do. I wanted to steal a kiss, but I never wanted to steal her life. She felt so good though, her soft skin and lilac smell. She felt so good but I never wanted to hurt her.

Closer he comes and so now I reach and take my blade. I see that he has his too hanging on his hip like a cowboy's gun. He's now beginning to really see his woman, to really see the stains and the gore. Then he follows my footprints and sees me. I am sitting in the snow and I am smiling. He looks confused and he keeps shaking his head, perhaps he thought that I was dead or perhaps he thinks that he is dreaming. Looking at him makes me want to laugh, how red his face is becoming how black the eyes.

He grabs at his weapon that hangs on his hip like the guns of the old cowboys. I stand up from my previous position and take out my blade.

This is the moment that I've been waiting years for and I hope that she isn't mad at me because I never wanted to hurt her. This is the moment and she felt so good.

It was in a dark alley when I turned her towards me and kissed her. She gasped and blushed though I could see it only partially from the bar's neon lights. She felt so good, warm and soft her voice like sweet wind chimes. Before she kissed me back I heard her say something but now the meaning of it escapes me.

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xxx: this lovely quote is borrowed from a wonderful little book (movie not recommended) called White Oleander by Janet Fitch. If you haven't read it yet I highly recommend doing so.