She was about to go out of her mind. Her mother was so close to saying goodbye, leaving her for good, and Roman had broken his word to her. The staircase wasn't there the next day or the day after. She felt like a lost kid, lost from her mother, lost from the man she now knew she loved, alone in the world, burning down faster than ever before.
On the third day her mother died. She sat by the bed, holding her hand, watching her take her last breath and then nothing. Silence. Cold, cruel, hard, unforgiving silence. She saw the doctors move around, saw how their lips moved as they looked at her, but all she heard was silence.
"Roman," she whispered.
She let go off her mother's hand. There was nothing more she could do for her now. She was gone. Her mother had left her. She walked out of the hospital in a daze, making her way through town, finally walking into the woods 35 minutes later. She kept walking until she was at the spot. Still the staircase wasn't there.
"Where are you?" She asked lowly.
She looked around, waiting to see him or hear him. She just wanted to feel his comforting hands. Still she got nothing but silence in return. Not even the birds would make a sound.
"Where are you?" She screamed as loud as she could. "Where the fuck are you? You said you'd always be here for me!"
She whirled around, screaming, watching, hoping to find something to cling on to. She fell to her knees, sobbing and shaking, holding her arms around herself since no one was there to hold her. A few seconds passed like that and then she felt it. She felt him. She turned her head to look over her shoulder, seeing the staircase finally was there. Still crying she crawled to it, forcefully pulling herself up to stand with her hands on the railing, slowly taking the steps one at the time until she reached the top.
"Ready to rise from the ashes?" He asked.
She turned around and found herself being wrapped tightly in his embrace. He held her close, not saying another word, just letting her cry into his chest until her tears finally ran dry.
"Who are you?" She asked, a question she had asked several times before.
"How many times must I answer that?" He asked.
She looked up at him, her wet eyes begging him to release her from the pain.
"What are you?" She asked.
The smile that crept up in his face indicated that she had finally asked the right question. Instead of getting an answer, he wrapped his hand around her neck and bowed his head. His lips ghosted over her skin, so close to connecting without actually doing it, over her collarbone, over her shoulder, over her neck. She whimpered as she felt the outlines of his lips without him actually pressing them into her.
"Please," she whispered.
"I can't stay here with you," he said.
She knew she was crossing a line she shouldn't but she couldn't stop herself. Wherever he was going, she wanted to go too. He was a sweetheart, her guardian angel. Surely he would never hurt her.
"Take me with you," she said.
He let out a little hum of satisfaction and she knew she had said the right words to seal her fate. His lips ghosted up her jaw and then finally they landed on hers. His hand tightened on her neck as he devoured her.
She wrapped her arms around him and got lost in the kiss. She felt everything move around her and she knew everything was changing. The first thing she noticed was how everything got warmer, hot like fire, then the sounds of flames roaring and people screaming. Screams of pain, screams of torment. And then the feeling of utter fear flushed through her.
She tore herself away from him and looked into his now black eyes, a devilish smirk on his face, and finally she looked around to see the fires and the people being tortured by foul creatures. She looked back at him scared. He had tricked her. He wasn't her angel. He was the opposite.
"What is this place? What are you?" She asked fearfully.
"I think you know," he answered.