A/N: Hello, everybody. Look at that, I am alive. This turned out a lot darker than I originally intended..wow. Anyway, I like it. It's based off the song Blood, Ice, and Ashes by The Burns Unit. It's set before my Zombie Apocalypse story but can certainly be read alone. It's funny, for a story that was so difficult for me to finish I have just kept adding. I'll stop babbling now. And if you happen to be reading The Two Lives She Led, my Smallville/OUaT crossover take a look at the second note otherwise you can just skip it over, if you even bothered to make it this far.
A/N 2: For anyone reading my Smallville/OUaT crossover, I'm really sorry but there has literally been no show of interest. And unless I get something it will probably remain discontinued. If you'd like to see it continued, go and review, it'd make my day and probably finish the story. Blood, Ice, and Ashes
She stumbled out of the hospital, wishing her legs would carry her just a little bit faster. Pain tore through her stomach but she fought it, trading it and turning it into razor sharp focus. She scanned the screaming crowd. No sign.
She moved, pushing through the crowd. She need a sign, anything, that he was alright. Her feet crunched on the bloodied snow, mixing the ashes and the snow so it was left to only one grey color, the first symbol of the end of the world.
Fires erupted across the city, sending small burning embers to land on the skin of an unsuspecting victim who would get distracted just long enough to be devoured. Just long enough to be forgotten by the rest of the world. Dark had fallen hours ago, making those embers stand out even more, adding to near stereotypical apocalyptic feel of the city, and most likely the world.
Screams echoed through her ears, bouncing off the small flakes of snow that would soon be trampled by hurried footsteps. Hurried footsteps that she could not imitate for fear of blood loss.
She had learned long ago that pacing yourself is key. She would be able to go all night. The rest would need to stop to rest. They probably wouldn't wake up from that rest.
She could only hope that he was not one of them, that they all avoided this foolish idea.
She moved, slowly, but steadily. Less than a mile out everyone else would run out of energy and she would be ahead. The things moved north so she moved south. She already met the bulk of them. She could make it.
One, single white rose fell in her path. Her head snapped up and her eyes locked on the balcony above.
The rose fell to the snow that chilled her to the bone. The silent message spoke volumes. She whispered her translation. "I'll be right behind you in the shards of the mirror. I'll be there, I'll be there. I'll follow, I'll find you and you won't see me coming. I'll be there, I'll be there." They were the words of the lullaby his mother sang to him that echoed in his ears so loudly that eventually even she knew them.
She waited, looking. Nothing. So she moved down alleys, clinging to the hope that he was waiting. Her ears remained sharp for the sound of his voice. She searched through every nook and cranny that a grown man could possibly hide in. Nothing.
She still heard his voice sound through her mind, remembered the feel of his lips on hers, never giving up on his silent message that held the hope for her life. The hope that could be sent from anyone if only to crush it, crush her.
Her blood started to drip from the hole in her stomach and crashed to the ground with horrible realization. She moved slowly and steady to pick the lock of anything that fix the wound that dripped with the blood spilt by a sibling betrayer. She hopped over the fence that stood over the bracken. She dropped to the ground, dropping false illusions of hope that could save her.
Embers fell burning her skin, cracked open by weather. A rose stood in front of her, no longer white nor pure, instead painted black by the cruel heart of nature. Ash fell with the embers seeping right through her skin. And with scorn she whispered, "I'll be right behind you, in the shards of the mirror. I'll be there, I'll be there. I'll follow, I'll find you. You won't see me coming. I'll be there, I'll be there." Her heart ached in her chest at her failed attempts to find him. She couldn't believe he looked, one way or another, the idea too sad, and life too fragile.
Later she slept in the forest and he appeared right before her. Her closed eyelids gave the dream of his appearance. He slept right before her. Her consciousness giving the false grand idea that he was in reach and not far away. Hope flickered in her eyes before replaced by true rage.
His lovely peace to be oh so envied, when the hope of his presence bore on her shoulders before realizing he could idly come as he pleases. Red clouded her eyes and her limbs become tense.
The promise he made through a simple white rose lay broken before her. Hope for a future flared in her chest, a future without him the only one clear. That hope grew right along with rage that flew through her fists and the stone closed within them she couldn't ignore.
A little red rose fell down from the tree to match with the blood that spilt from her fingers. And she yelled the promise he broke her heart with.
"I'll be right behind you in the shards of the mirror. I'll be there, I'll be there. I'll follow, I'll find you and you won't see me coming. I'll be there, I'll be there."
She woke with a start, screaming her lungs out before swallowing the words, scared of discovery. She got got up and ran out of fear and adrenaline and that dream that she just had to live with. She would live with that fear till the day that she found him.