GODDESS

It was all up to Faye Valentine, the voluptuous vixen with violet hair, a gambling addiction and a fifteen a day chain of cigarettes. Shrewish and selfish were words a man could associate with her after only five seconds, but today was different. Today she had been given the biggest choice, and chance, she could have ever asked for.

Faye felt it, she'd never admit it but even her heart, like rose petals in a fortress of thorns, held desire and love just as much as any other heart. Today was her last chance to let those rose petals out of that thorny fortress, to lay it all out there and take a chance bigger than any hand of cards she'd ever played, or race track she'd ever visited.

Today was the day that someone had made Faye Valentine god -or goddess might be a more appropriate word- she very much enjoyed the sound of that word on her ears, especially from rich good looking men. But today the man she was goddess over, the man she had the chance to turn it all around for, the man she could either let go, let him disappear forever or stay forever, was neither rich nor particularly good looking. But to hear the word Goddess come from his lips, that would be the sweetest -and most secret- joy for Faye. For love to truly find its way to her and have the happily ever after she had secretly dreamt of. Just the thought filled her with divine warmth.

She listened to the sound of her white boot heels clicking on the floor as she approached a man named Spike Spiegel from the flank, like a bodyguard ready to take him out of the firing line and keep him alive. Again, there was that feeling of being a goddess, of having a man's life and death in her hand. On any other day it would have been a rapturous sensation, but today she felt empty, she felt hollow. Jet Black, Spike's oldest friend and a good man -despite a bonsai tree fixation and an insanely loyal sense of honour- could never make this choice for Spike, it wasn't his place. But it was Fyae's place, she had been given this place by the powers that be.

And now she didn't want it, she didn't want to have the choice to keep Spike, her secret love, or to force him away onto the cold bosom of death. Her heart felt like a chunk of cold lead, sagging deeper through her body until eventually it might just fall out of her feet. Today was a day fate had laughed at her, like when the genie grants your greatest wish but somehow twists it into your worst nightmare. She had to make the choice, but what did Spike want? What the hell gave her the right to assume she knew what he wanted?

She looked down at him now, that mossy green hair that she'd hoped might one day grow around their pillow as they held each other close in bed. His off coloured eyes -hidden beneath closed lids- one brown and the other burgundy that she could stare into for hours and that lank neck of his she longed to taste on her lips. Perhaps he longed for the same from her, but he wouldn't say it. Even if he wanted to Spike wouldn't, he loved being closed off like that. A goddess was standing over him with his life in the balance, but it didn't feel like Faye Valentine.

Faye leaned in, parting her lips and tasting Spike Spiegel's neck as he slept. Letting his fragrance and taste tingle her lips. Then, after enjoying the moment for as long as she could bear, she pulled away from him and cupped his cheeks in her delicate hands.

"Goodbye Spike,"

Three perfectly jewelled tears dripped off Faye's pointed chin onto Spikes lips and began to run across their creased flesh. She sniffled, wiping the tears from her eyes and smiling for a reason she didn't quite understand. Then, wiping the moisture from his lips and touching two fingers over them, as though hushing a child she whispered, "Dream sweetly. Spike Spiegel,"

She kissed him again, on the lips this time, they were merely lukewarm but she enjoyed them non the less. And then the goddess made the choice only the divine should be allowed to make, the choice to let Spike dream forever, or let him go on living in the distorted nightmares of his mind, never awake and never quite asleep.

And with that, she pulled the thick red plug from the socket above his bed and squeezed his hand tightly as the warmth in his skin ebbed away.

This time, in this place, they had not been meant for each other. But there would be a time when she would dream with him, when they would make new dreams, together. But not yet.

Not yet…