My friend, who I actually hate so she isn't really a friend but anyway, came up with this perception of Fade Out when I loaned her the book. So here is a oneshot.

I don't own anything

Amelie/Oliver

She is struggling. I can see it in her face. I can see the way that she barely manages to make herself do anything nowadays, only just doing enough to hold me at bay from taking her precious town. Not that I would do that… but that is besides the point.

I believe that it is called 'depression' what she is struggling through – modern day humans like to classify so many more things than we did in the past. However, the label is correct – she is depressed in regards to the loss of Sam Glass, the one she 'loved'.

It may seem strange, yet this confession that Amelie was indeed the lover of Sam hurts me to the core. I have had, well, I wouldn't call it love, but certainly strong feelings for her for many a year now but she has never seen it. She thought she had killed me before she left England, as I tried to steal her power, and during the intervening time she certainly lost no time in finally falling in love with someone.

Of course, that person would have to die and leave me to pick up the pieces. If she had only confessed her love for me in the past, I would never have tried to kill her… maybe.

Yet now, she has nobody and she is suffering for this. She lost the person she loved and now it pains me to see her like this, for I need to help the woman I certainly desire. But I do not know how to do it in a more gentile or sensitive way. So I plot to take the town from her, to make it mine, just so that she has one thing less to worry about during this time. She knows I wouldn't do anything extremely different to what is already happening, but simply allow her to grieve for the person she loves.

I feel enough for her that I am willing to hide my feelings behind the 'mafia don' label I have managed to acquire in being her opposition for so many years so that she has a chance to recuperate from the loss of someone so near and dear to her heart, though I personally don't see what she saw in such a wet dishcloth of a man.

So here I am, plotting to take Morganville from her. Yet it is not for power or control – not the main reason, at least. No, it is to help her from afar though she shall not see it this way. She shall not realise that I am doing it to help her, not to hinder or steal. I am doing it because… because I may love her. She shall never know this; she will only see me as an enemy. But I am perfectly willing to allow her to hate me and never love me, so long as it gets her back to full strength soon enough. It pains me to see her in such a weak and vulnerable position.

I can only hope that she gets back soon.

For I may love her.

Yet she doesn't know.

And she never will.

For I will be the enemy once again.

Thoughts?

Review please

Vicky xx