She looks up to the mirrored glass
She sees a handsome horse and rider pass
She say, 'That man's gonna be my death
'Cause he's all I ever wanted in my life
-Shalott
She's dying. Her legs ache and she's cold.
Oh so very cold.
She can't feel the heat of the starched linen sheets that press against her; nor the soft flickering gas light that illuminates her pasty freckled skin and the warmth of her blood; crimson and fresh, soaked into the bedding.
She can barely register the faint crying of her infant son, the fuzzy and unfocused noise doesn't reach her; it does nothing to stop her from sprawling helplessly in the bed; barely conscious and praying silently for death to take her away from the misery and icy despair that is her life.
She's aware that the baby looks like him. It has the warm skin she would press against when she soothed herself to sleep in the velvet darkness; away from the vivid and horrid memories. It has the soft hair she would caress adoringly when he whispered honey into her ears; promises of his love and loyalty. And his eyes. The cold onyx orbs that glared into her; writhing with hatred and spite and the gleam of icy anger she knew full well he possessed.
When she names it Tom; in her soft croaking voice, throat burning and head pounding; she thinks only of him; his dashing face and arrogant smile and the way he would effortlessly charm the pretty girl- when she vowed that it would be her one day in the girl's place.
She thinks herself foolish that she could have ever believed it would work.
But when the hazy darkness begins to creepy in her vision, when her breaths become shallow and rapid and every her eyes become glazed and unseeing, she is at peace.
When the faint murmuring of her broken heart finally ceases to beat; Merope Gaunt has no regrets.
The song above is Emilie Autumn's Shalott. Obviously I own neither EA's works nor the Harry Potter franchise. Don't forget to review.