KIRKLEES ABBEY
It seemed to all happen in slow motion.
The gang raced through the abbey, their limbs not moving fast enough for any of their liking.
All clutched their weapons, for nothing was going to stand in their way.
Everyone one of their eyes were wide with intense emotion.
It burned within them.
If Robin could live… If he was not poisoned…
But Marian believed him dead.
They all ran harder.
KIRKLESS ABBEY
As Robin grew still beside her, Marian clutched his face in her hands, staring down at his closed and sunken eyes.
He looked so peaceful, so still…
"Robin." She sobbed and ran her thumbs over his cheeks, her own tears making them wet.
Her head was spinning, like when her father died…
She was full of grief, her organs feeling too heavy for her frame; her hands shook as she stared down at him, wanting to shake him awake.
"Please… Robin…"
She shook him, her hands on his cheeks.
She was gritting her sobs out through her teeth.
"Please…"
Her whole body shook as she rested her head on his chest, sobbing loudly, clutching at him with tight hands.
Her face screwed up, her sobbing and opening her eyes as she cried, turning her face to the side towards the window, her ear scraping against the material of his church.
She was shuddering, clutching at his still body.
Through her tears Marians eyes managed to focus on his glinting dagger on the table by the window.
KIRKLEES ABBEY
The gang skidded to a stop in one corridor, all looking around them.
"They can't have come this far." Much cried.
"Yeh! Robin reckoned to be dying…" Alan muttered.
Down one corridor that seemed strangely familiar there was the muffled sound of a voice and crying.
"That way." John said surely and they all took off again.
With great purpose and emotion, the gang ran.
KIRKLEES ABBEY
With a body that seemed to be made of stone, Marian tore herself slowly away from Robins form and pushed herself off of the bed, wrapping one arm around herself, dressed in the thin linen peasants dress, as she padded across the room towards the table.
Her tears and sobs were making her shake and shiver, her face streaming with tears, eyes swollen, and lips pressed firmly together in a line.
You are never to lay your life down over mine Marian.
His haunting voice, so distant in her brain, as though it were slipping from her memory, filled her head as Marian ran one hand over the handle of his dagger in its sheath beside his bow and other weapons.
She couldn't live without him.
She didn't want to.
Forever in heaven…
It was far better than a lifetime on earth alone.
If Marian had been someone else, watching the scene before them, she would have rushed to stop the poor foolish woman from what she was doing.
But because Marian was she, and because she was so blinded by the grief and hurt in her chest, she pulled Robins dagger into her hand.
Sunlight mirrored off of its surface shone through the whole room.
IN its white light, Marian was blinded and consumed by memories, of her and Robin, happy and together in the forest, smiling for only each other.
She smiled slightly, tears in her eyes, as she sated down at the blade.
In its cool metal she saw herself and her husband, as they were, as all they could be.
Together they were stronger.
Today was a good day.
Marian turned the blade over in the sun rays and glimmers of it danced across the bed behind her.
Her back was to it, a silhouetted against the sunlight.
Robin's fingers dragged closely across the covers.
But Marian did not see, her eyes were on the dagger, held now across both her hands.
In its blade she saw him.
She clung to it.
On the bed Robin stirred.
His eye lids fluttered.
Marians hand tightened around the hilt of the dagger and she turned her left hand over, her wrist facing upwards.
Stop, stop this…
She could hear his voice.
It consumed her.
Overtook her, his smell, his voice, his presence…
It was as though he were stood beside her.
Her eyes fluttered closed and she felt the cool metal press against the base of her wrist.
Robins mind was still foggy from his place on the bed.
But he was not dead yet.
Or perhaps he was…
He seemed unable to move, and there was a figure stood some away in from of him, a silhouette, an angel….
Marian.
His Marian.
His face turned to smile tiredly, his eyes lingering on her.
If he was dead, at least she was still with him.
Forever in heaven.
Her image, sent to guard him until she came to join him…
But the image… it made his head lift slightly as it seemed to raise a dagger at its own wrist.
His eyes slide closed, exhausted from the effort.
Emotion seared through Marian in a torrent that blinded her.
She hurled the dagger against the wall.
This was not who she was.
To think that he was worth dying over…
He wouldn't want that.
Her scraped her fingers back over her scalp, sobbing into her hands as she sunk to her knees in the open window.
The gang crashed into the room.
Marian head snapped up, tears on her face.
But it was Robin who had all their attention.
He took in a massive breath, one that filled his lungs painfully against his chest.
It was as though he had been underwater a very long time.
His back arched slightly due to the inflation of his lungs.
His eyes flew open.