Disclaimer. Not mine. If they were, they would be married by now.
...
I jolt awake but my body's lunge is hampered by chains. My eyes struggle to open from dried blood glued to my eyelashes. I sigh. "Now I remember." My ankles are shackled. They've lain excess chain across my chest.
And I know.
I know I am about to die.
I try to turn my head to the side, my movements impeded by pain. I need to see her though. I need the comfort of her gaze. I can just make out the dank, filth-encrusted environment. I hate the dirt, the grease and especially the blood, the blood that is mine. Well at least it was, can I still call it mine now that it is removed from me? I guess now it belongs where it is. It clumps and sticks like the rest of this foul mess. Look at it, that blood that was mine. I close my eyes as my reality settles in again. I feel at peace. I can accept my fate. But not hers. Maura. I start to look for her again.
My eyes are drawn to trickles of light that shine through the cracks and smudges of a small window, then I hear it. Her whimper, she is to my right, she is so close. My love, witnessing my death. My eyes start to close of their own volition, the dreams and the memories. They take me again.
A bowl of candles with elegant white wings, swoops at my head. I reach for it and the wings turn a vicious black. Growing knife-like fangs, the bowl dives at full speed towards my face. I duck turning away from it, stumbling, falling. There is a splash as I land in my bathtub, coughing and spluttering. I push my head above the surface and look around wiping the strawberry froth off my face. A murder of crows shits all over my vanity. "Bastards." I growl. A far off a demonic voice screams.
I curl up in my bed and begin to get comfortable when the bed turns into a tall masked figure, dressed all in black. It wraps impenetrable limbs around my weak and failing body encapsulating my struggling mind. Blades appear out of nowhere and start slowly slicing slivers of flesh from my body. The more I fight, the harder they dig in. "HELP ME" I scream in terror. "No" the demonic voice whispers. "Why would I want to ruin what we have? You're going to stop caring, and I'm going to LOVE it."
Clink Tick. Clink Tick. Clink Tick...
The figure hisses and growls
Clink Tick. Clink Tick. Clink Tick... Clink Tick. Clink Tick. Clink Tick...
My eyes fling open at the sound of the pulley lifting my feet off the ground. I swear I'm not going to cry anymore. I am not going to beg for my life. I've only been begging for hers anyway.
My voice, hoarse from the screams that have forced their treacherous way out of my throat as they tear my flesh from bone. My blood flowing down my body... or is it up... I wonder if my hair looks dyed now... I hope she remembers me as a tough brunette detective. Not like this. I hear her crying. I need to see her.
My eyes close. Darkness consumes me. All sound and feeling leaves me. My universe has ended.
I fail.