I shiver.

I am certain that it is not from the winter chill that seems more bitter every year, nor the harsh winds that blow through the empty hollowness of my home. No, it is something worse. Something has torn me apart, and I am cold. So I shiver.

Oh, but for a time, I was warm. For a brief moment I knew what happiness was, just for a season. I found comfort in her chrysalline eyes. Surely I loved her.

It is possible that love is not meant for monsters, and if that is true, then I am damned to a hell of the most miserable kind. I knew paradise, I held it within my hand, within my poor, dreadful hands, and I gave it up, turned her away. She left me alone with the cold despair of loneliness.
I shiver. Alone, in the dark, I shiver.

My angel, my life, my only love was carried away by a mere mortal. But, of course, it is to be expected that an angel would prefer to spend her days with a man, a whole man even, instead of a demon. Such creatures are not deserving of angels. Ah, but Fate has lent me a second chance, perhaps as recourse for this cursed face of mine. I have found her, my angel. My warmth. God, how I needed her. How I need her still. She will know me again, soon, and I shall bask in the sunshine of her smile. I will keep her locked inside my heart, and she will be my light.

The cold wind howls through this dismal cavern, but I cannot feel its chill when I permit my mind to wander to her. I can still see her fair curls, her ivory skin. I can hear her voice, her angel's voice. I can taste her tears. I would love to hear no other sound but to hear her say my name one last time.

I have already planned how I will take her hands, her dear, sweet hands, and I will hold them within my own as I beg her to once again allow me to love her, and maybe, just maybe she will love me in return. If that does not work, I will fall to my knees, and I will beg and plead before her like a dog. But she will love me, oh how she will love me...She must.

I have grown weary of this frozen place, the ghosts that are really more of spirit than I am. I will put my cape around my shameful body, and I will cover my Death's face one more time. I will go to my angel, without her poor boy there to save her, without my dear Daroga to remind me that I am a monster, and she, an angel; and she will love me. She will. I will make her. We will be warm and we will wallow in the flame of our love forever more.

But for now, I shiver.