"Are we really going to bring her back?" Sebastian muttered as he carried Ciel over the rooftops.
"When the truth comes out, it would be bad publicity for the Phantomhives to be wrong." He simply replied.
Sebastian stared at him a little deeper.
"…And the other servants are so dejected without her. It just seems more efficient."
"Before, you couldn't act because of the crime and accusation against her right?"
"Yes…"
"Liar." Sebastian sniffed. "It isn't just you who is in conflict with their feelings though, I'll give you that. With beings like that…"
"What do you mean, Sebastian?"
"Angels are the personal servants of God, the creator of humans. Without a doubt, all humans are naturally compelled, attracted, to the dogs of God, even if it conflicts with their real feelings for that person."
Ciel stayed quiet.
"It's a useless notion though; angels have never tasted the apple of Eden." He continued. "God created them not to understand love. Friendship and charity, yes, but they are not capable of understanding anything more than the love one would feel for a mere pet."
Merianna stepped in the crack of the double doors into the church. She had never been allowed inside one, but not it seemed so much bigger on the inside. There were rows of wooden benches covered with a layer of dust and a large table at the front. There was a giant cross on display that was the centrepiece of the church. Light shone inside and the stained glass windows illuminated it as it fell inside.
"Welcome." A soft voice said.
There was a woman sitting at the front pew, and turned to greet her. She too had white hair. She had beautiful eyes and a soft smile, although Merianna was startled at first.
"Why don't you come and sit with me?" She asked.
Merianna nodded, still entranced by her soft beauty. It reminded her a little of her mother's. The woman was wearing a white suit, one that looked a little familiar, but Merianna couldn't put her finger on it. She sat quietly down on the bench, which was uncomfortably hard. She couldn't imagine having to sit here for long periods of time.
"Do you know what this place is?" The woman asked.
"A…A church." She replied.
"And do you know what people do here?"
Merianna took a while to consider. She imagined that people who entered took the light that came into the building and made rainbows with the coloured windows, but she wasn't going to tell the lady that…and she could see that the building was less fanciful on the inside than she had imagined. In the end, she stayed silent.
"Merianna," she said softly. "Do you know who God is?"
She had sometimes heard of God. Mostly when adults were scolding her. She remembered asking her mother what some people meant by 'oh my god', but her mother only shook her head and sent Merianna to her room. She figured it was not a subject to talk about. Once again, she stayed silent. The woman laughed, not rudely, but a light-hearted chuckle.
"Do you believe in angels, dear child?"
Finally there was something she understood. They were in many a fairy tale she read, helping little good children on their tasks. She nodded her head. The lady smiled and suddenly stood up, back against the large cross. Suddenly, she seemed different. When she blinked, and suddenly there was no lady in front of her, but Ash Landers, and he had angel wings that burst out and stretched outwards.
They caste a shadow over Merianna, who held both hands to her mouth in awe and surprise. No doubt the Queen would associate with such divine creatures, but she had never believed what she was seeing. He smiled when he saw her face.
"So? Isn't it wonderful?" He asked. "Your mother was one…you know…"
She couldn't seem to form words, still gazing at the beautiful white wings. She looked at him with a questioning gaze. Her mother? Indeed her mother was angelic, but she had temper tantrums at times and didn't live in heaven. Her hair was indeed as white as snow, but she didn't have wings…or at least she never showed them.
"And you are one too. You are a special one." The woman continued.
"M-M-Me?" she stuttered. "I can change to be a girl and a boy? Do I get to fly too?!"
She didn't understand. She did not have wings to fly, she got hungry like every other human, and perhaps she didn't make a good angel after all. Ash folded his brilliant wings against his back, and sat down next to Merianna. He brought a hand up and brushed her cheek delicately. This time, she didn't flinch; she wanted to hear him out.
"But of course…your wings haven't been drawn out simply because you aren't aware of them…and your halo is missing."
He slid closer, running his hand on her head. He raked her hair sharply, but she didn't want to move.
"You remind me very much of your mother. Yes, you look alike to her…only…"
"W-Wait…there's something that kid don'st know 'bout Merianna." Cuffs continued. "She…she acts real strange sometimes. Just…I dons't know why…"
The servants had taken a break and introduced themselves to Cuffs formally. They all shared their love and wish for Merianna to come back to the mansion. To this, Cuffs reacted very hesitatingly, as he knew some things the other didn't.
"Before 'er mother died, she called me to her bedside whilst she sent Merianna to fetch water from the water pump outside. S'felt like she wanted to talk to me fer once…and just me. She asked me to keep this littl' box thing…she says it has Merianna's halo."
"A…halo? Finny asked. "Like an angel's halo?"
He nodded. "I though'st she wuz crazy too, 'till she suddenly grabs my hand and pulls me close, askin' me to take care of Merianna when she's gone. I tells her she's gonn' be alright, but she shakes her head n' insists that she ain't gonn' make it. And sure 'nuff, she passes away later."
By now, Cuffs was holding his mouth against a sleeve. It was causing him obvious sadness recalling the memory, but he kept his tears inside, trying to continue on with the story.
"I knews she sleep-walked, sometimes when we tries to take rest on a pile of hay and I wakes up and I sees her walkin' around mutterin' some strange words I don'st e'en recognize and it gets so scary when she don'st respond…I tries to keep 'er close under the coat at night…I thinks that's why she had that incident…"
"Meri…Meri…" Meirin mumbled. "She's told me that she was in a group of thieves before…she stopped though, did she?"
"IT'S BECAUSE SHE WANTED TO LEAVE IN THE FIRST PLACE THAT SHE ENDED UP LIKE THAT! IF SHE NEVER CHOSE TO LEAVE, THEN SHE WOULDN'T BE SO GOD DAMN HELPLESS WITHOUT ME!"
The group stayed quiet while he started to calm down. In his fury he stood up and knocked the chair over. He grabbed his head sadly and tried to stop the anger screaming in his head.
"She did stop…that's why…she just suddenly didn'st join us no more…said she'd do tarot readin' to get an honest living…'sit because our big cuzins…Spades and Shots…they was hanged at the gallows fer being caught pick-pocketing. Gave 'er a pretty big shock I s'pose. An' one day I hears a white-haired girl being condemned fer bein' a witch. A WITCH. A WITCH!"
He didn't want to hide his heat-filled face and watery eyes. The others could only stare at him with pitiful eyes. He slammed the arm of the chair trying to beat out the anger inside him.
"That was…Snowy?" Bardroy whispered.
"The hard part is that she don'st remember at all! Don'st remember anythin'! I don'st know what happened neither. Just when I gets to where the cross's s'pose t'be all I sees wuz the whole lot of adults all dead 'round the cross with their tongues lollin' out and their faces pure white!"
The grim looks on their faces was exactly the ones Cuffs expected.
"And Meri? What happened to her?" Finny asked.
"She's smilin'." He hissed in a low voice. "She wuz tied up t' the post with that barbed wire diggin' into her flesh an bruised from wherever the people's been taking it out on 'er…and she's smilin' so evilly it sended chills in my bones. There'd ain't anyone else out there…I'm sure she was the only influence inn'at place…those people…all dead."
"No…way…" Finny mumbled. "That's not Meri at all…! She's nice and kind, beautiful and forgiving…! She would never do that!"
"You callin' me a liar?" He snarled, standing up to challenge Finny.
He stood up, knocking his head against Cuffs, like two bulls locking into a fight.
"Yeah! I know Merianna and she would never do something like that! You must have just mistaken it or something! You're trying to make her look like the criminal! You just hate her and wanted her to get thrown into jail or something!" He accused.
Cuffs backed off, laughing hard-heartedly. He pulled out the two cuffs he always had with him, one more used and worn that the other pair, which still had a polish on it.
"Y'know, after the police came, they arrested me fer the homicide of those twenty-four people and attempted murder! I escapes from the prison and I got meselfs outta the damned handcuffs! There ain't no Jake Hawkins in the records no more. And 'cause of her! I went to jail 'cause of her! And even if it kills me, I'm gonna get to that church and save her…"
"Yeah?" Bardroy grumbled. "You ain't going nowhere without us, unless you wanna die."
Cuffs snickered. "I'm a dead man, anyways. Once that Phantomhive kid gets back 'nd hands me over to the bobbies, there ain't no way I'm gonn' get out alive…"
"So you're going anyways, huh?" Meirin asked. "Why? To get back at her?"
"Nah, it ain't anythin' like that. S'cuz I loves her…I dunno...she's put me through hell and back...but I just cans't give up on 'er. Sounds crazy, don't it? "
Bardroy's fist met the top of Cuff's head in a deadly punch. He felt the numbing pain starting to flow, but not before his heavy body fell against the arms of the chair.
"You didn't have to do that, Bard." Meirin fussed. "Give the boy a concussion, why don't you."
"A split knee too while you're at it…" Finny grumbled. "We're going to help Merianna aren't we? We should just leave him behind…"
"Jealous now, are we?" Bardroy said teasingly.
"Will we able to get Merianna back? If you think she is an angel, shouldn't she have the power to avoid her death?" Ciel asked.
Sebastian fortunately knew quite a lot about angels and other mystical beings.
"If she did, she could have saved herself many an injury…don't you think? Young Master, even if we do bring her back, there's no telling whether or not she will come after your soul next."
Sebastian, Ciel and Grell had almost arrived at the church. From the treetops, there was nothing special about the building and it looked run-down from being abandoned. Grell already had her chainsaw out, but Sebastian shooshed it away, claiming that the element of surprise would be on their side. He let Ciel down before pressing his ear against the crack between the doors. The rest of them stayed quiet.
Suddenly, something made a loud noise from Grell's pocket.
She panicked before drawing out a red device. She flipped it open to silence it and she was reading off it. Ciel and Sebastian groaned, but suddenly their attention was diverted to the light that streamed out the windows of the church. Grell drew out her chainsaw, revving it up.
"Soul tampering! Great, that's even worse than having to collect them!" She screamed. "Stupid William's already making preparations for that half-ass spell and he still expects a report on all this!"
She slammed the whirring blade against the wooden door, completely chopping it into pieces that went flying. The butler moved his arms at an amazing speed, preventing any from injuring his master. They burst inside the church, where various unconscious bodies lay, each with a cinematic record reeling from their torsos. There were numerous little boys sprawled on the floors, over the pews and in piles at the doors to the other rooms. The cinematic records acted as a veil, concealing whatever was before the altar.
"Can you see them, Merianna? These cinematic records from these utterly filthy human beings…Yes…with so many here at once, any angel would come to their senses and follow the instincts to purify them!"
The reels dispersed into the air, Merianna was sitting on the altar, as if she had just woken up. Her messy hair had been covering her as she turned to look at the strange new things before her.
"Beautiful…like fairy tale books in a library…these are what human memories are made of…beautiful…" she mumbled, getting off the altar.
While she made her way to them, Grell barred her chainsaw, although she was unsure of who to cut.
"Beautiful…?" Ash muttered, gritting his teeth. "You think these things are beautiful? These horrendous things are so full of lies! Deceit! Sins! How dare you insult what is pure and elegant with that-that-that….slur!"
She was too entranced to care, and she felt something rip on her back, like a heavy snow blanket had wrapped around her shoulders and she felt numerous bones in her body cracking…still…the moving scenes were so enchanting, whirring out of the small boy's body. It seemed to recount things from his point of view as she watched him eating bread at a familiar table at a familiar hideout.
She reached out to touch one. How would it feel against her finger? Perhaps, she thought, it was malleable, physical, something she could hold in her hand to stuff in her pocket to read later. Suddenly, a loud buzzing noise caused her to step back while a woman with long crimson hair wearing a large jacket whipped a large instrument at her. She didn't hit, as it was just a warning swing.
"Don't touch that, weird-little-angel-girl, or else I'd have to chop off one of your wings." She chuckled, revealing jagged shark-teeth.
Merianna looked behind her, seeing four feathered wings sprouting from her back. She was a little surprise, but it was a pleasant surprise. And it fit too, like finding the old and worn blanket one had as a child. She mumbled an 'oh'. When she came back to her senses, she took a look around. There was Ciel there, at the doorway, the usual frown perpetually drawn into his face. Sebastian was there beside him, face neutral, but she sensed something burning from his gaze.
The crimson-haired demon-thing swung the loud instrument at her again. She dodged, but suddenly she was seized from behind. Ash Landers held her arms behind her, and she could only squirm and move her wings a little. She still had not mastered them.
"Ash! Ash! What are you doing? Let me go!" She yelped.
There was a horrifying look of hatred in his eyes.
"Mutant! Atrocity!" He screamed. "I cannot believe that someone with such grotesque tastes such as you can be gifted with the wings of an angel! Perhaps it was a mistake…but we can correct this…"
"You! Death Reaper!" He called towards the red-clothed shinigami, "Why don't you come and rip out two of this girl's wings? Maybe then she will understand the pure nature of angels! Freak! Your mother was hideous and imperfect, having four wings! I cannot believe that she gave birth to youand passed this ugliness forward!"
Ash held Merianna still and cackled insanely. The 'Death Reaper' seemed puzzled at first, but she held up her instrument with a wild smile.
"Perhaps I'll just take out both of these pests at one go!" The reaper spat.
Merianna let out a shriek when the reaper attacked, and everything went away. She heard the sound of glass cracking, and she was suddenly in the abysmal darkness in which only she provided the only faint light. In the black ceiling of the unknown space, was a white crack, as if someone had hit it with a hammer. Merianna sat on her knees, crying steadily and holding her fists to her eyes.
"Come now, child. Do not weep upon thyself, hath thee lost faith?" A voice said.
When Merianna looked up, there was a clothed man looking down on her who looked familiar. He was roped in various twines and ropes which reminded Merianna of the shrouds on pirate ships. The gray hair contoured his face, old with age but young as an adult. Merianna recognized him when she saw the sad eyes shining down upon her.
"Y-You're…you're the man who visited me…when I was little." She said. "Everyone else said you didn't exist…"
Merianna didn't understand how this man came to be here, now. Was she dead? Certainly the man's face softened upon being recognized.
"That is correct, Merianna. Dost thee remember my name of which I am numbered?" she asked softly.
"I-I called you Deus, haven't I? You were…an 'imaginary friend'."
"…Perhaps that is…what the people would call us…in relation to thee…but I am here to help, Merianna."
"If that's true, then we're all imaginary." A double-voice snickered.
She looked around the black space. There was nothing except for the ragged man. Gradually, a two headed beast appeared. It looked like a sphinx, but it had two heads with a scorpion's tail. It reminded Merianna of the time she read about manticores, and had trouble sleeping. The beast in front of her she recognized as the 'two-head kitten' that told her it would eat up all the bad dreams she was having and let her sleep that night.
Deus bent down, and held up a calloused hand. Merianna touched the palm with her fingers, confirming his physical state.
"The men outside will kill you, Merianna. But I shant allow that. Trust in me."
He dropped his hand, leaving behind in Merianna's hand the card of The Hanged Man.
"We'll protect you again," the woman and man heads on the creature said. "Except this time, they're more than just dreams…Deus, the Emperor has ordered us to act over you."
One of the heads produced something in their mouths, gagging it out until it sat on their tongues, the card of The Chariot.
Of course, with Finnian at the reins (Tanaka was not up for the adventure today), he yanked the horses back so much they buckled and reared, eventually ripping the reins in half and when Finny tried to calm the horses down, the tug on the horses (I think that's what they call the rod bit that connects to the horse's girth) broke and the horses ran off into the woods after crashing the buggy into the forest.
The servants all clambered through the side door; Bardroy had to carry out Cuffs, who had his hands tied behind him. They didn't trust him, and would've left him there, but they didn't trust him to keep himself alive. He didn't protest at all, staying quiet with his head low. After Bardroy and Meirin had done chiding Finnian, they discussed their solutions.
"We can walk back to the estate and fetch another buggy?" Meirin suggested.
"Can't." Bardroy replied simply. "Even if we ran we wouldn't get back until the next week or so…and we aren't near the town neither. The church is still a distance away…but arg…to be honest, I'm not even sure where we are."
"Finny!" Meirin hissed.
He was sobbing loudly and apologizing, trying to flip the carriage back onto its triangle-shaped wheel, but only succeeded in causing more damage.
"Crap, I guess we will have to trek back to the mansion…it's around north-east from here. We better get a move on before the sun sets. We'll have to leave the buggy here. Hey kid! You all right to…" Bardroy yelled, stopping mid-sentence.
Cuffs was gone. Where he was standing earlier was an abandoned length of rope. No doubt if someone could undo locks, they would be able to handle knots. Silly Phantomhive servants!
'That Landers fellow is going to kill you if you don't protect yourself' the male-head Satu concluded.
"Risado sirscunus…Satu" Meriann commanded.
She pointed her attention to the giant wooden cross and willed it into existence, taking shape of the friend she had in her youth. It came alive before her eyes, and its beady eyes stared at her. She smiled a little, knowing that he meant a 'good job' with his regard. Its huge bottom fangs protruded out of its shaved human head. He had a wooden feature to him and rough borders that contrasted the scorpion sting on the end of his tail. Merianna looked to the large piano with pipes protruding from it, willing the other beast into creation.
By then, the male Satu was already attacking Ash Landers. It swiped at him with its paws while Ash dodged. Merianna was focusing on shaping the female Satu when she emerged from the instrument. With brass ringlets on the human face diamond-shaped eyes and a clang every time she took a step forward, she let a growl escape from her lipless mouth.
"It ffffeeels sssso gooooodddd…to be oooout agaaaaain…" she hissed, turning to the red reaper. "I mussssst…ek…ek…exercccccise these booooones…."
She roared as she attacked Grell, who held her chainsaw up defensively. She tried to clamp onto it with her mouth, finding that it was ripping into her face and jumped back, a cut smile grinning back at her. Drool escaped her bloodied mouth and dripped to mix with the blood.
Merianna couldn't understand some things. She couldn't understand why her mother died, she couldn't understand why Cuffs liked her one minute and hated her the next, she didn't understand why she was held at the cross for giving people what they wanted to hear, why Ciel Phantomhive had thrown her out after she had thought she was turning a new page or why he himself was standing at the threshold of the building, staring coolly at her with that annoying butler at his side.
All she wanted to do was to get rid of the scarlet man and Ash Landers. Ash called her mean things she did not like and wanted to cut off her wings. The man with the whirring strange machine scared her. That was simply it.
This was the first time she had gotten so much power in her hands. If she had these before, perhaps she wouldn't have had to live such a hard life, living on meager portions and having to steal to live another day. She could have just taken it instead. She could have taken her peace from every person that ever took it from her. She could have just taken a place in the Phantomhive mansion instead of having to slave away at it, and Sebastian wouldn't be able to tamper with it anymore.
There was no good for such a cruel and cold child like Ciel to continue living on and become an even more taciturn adult. Perhaps he took after Sebastian. She decided that she would kill Ciel Phantomhive and take the mansion for herself. She could return to her friends, who were bound to be there waiting for her.
Indeed, the world seemed so much simpler and flawless that way.
She recognized the boy nearest at her feet, sneering as she put her boot against Trip-Link's dead body. He was much too corrupt, too unclean to continue in life. He had treated her very badly, and now he had to pay for it. Serves you right…she thought…never thought you were dealing with an angel, did you?
The same white strip of something started flowing out of his chest; the thing that the others called the cinematic record. It seemed to have been a record for something, memories. She stared at it, watching the scene from inside his head. It pulled her in, as if she had fallen into a pond and awoke on the other side…wearing his skin.
A younger Cuffs was moving towards him, battered beyond measure and handcuffed. He explained about escaping jail and throwing his documents out into the river. The young Trip-Links was still very young, possibly freshly thrown out of the workhouse and tugged at Cuff's sleeve and asked him a million questions. Cuffs hastily brushed him away, demanding to speak to someone else.
"It's 'cuz of'ta gerl, in'nit?" Trip-Links asked. "Yous always be'en obzzessed an' worr'n, e'en dough yous says yous-self tat she left!"
"Shuts your mouth, Joshua! This dons't concerns you!" snapped Cuffs. "I'll have you know that's on'y 'cuz the next I see 'ers I'm gonna give 'her a meetin' with these god-damn-"
He struck his handcuffs against the stone wall, the loud crash shocked Trip-Links, who jumped a little.
Well, if he can, he thought, that means I cans too!
Merianna remembered the next memory, as it entwined in her own. The next time they had met, Trip-Links started lashing out and slapping her arm and legs with his little palms like a fussy baby. She did note how uncomfortable he was in his mind during this. He was such an uncontrollable child…
Why was she feeling sympathy for him now? She did recall the memory with a faint chuckle at how silly the poor child looked, spoiled into acting however he pleased. Children were incapable of producing such evil thoughts, only learning it from others. Perhaps it was just a misunderstanding between them, a combination of two feeble and childish minds not yet ready to deal with learning to coexist with one another. She felt her beating heart. It was hers that was still beating and not his…not anymore.
She crouched down to look closer onto his sleeping face. It was pure, radiating of an unknown innocence, but it was empty and would never change to a smile or laugh again. She recognized the face of the little boy who had thrown stones at her, called her names and caused her more injuries than she could remember, but she also observed the face of a child who knew nothing of the concepts of being kind for the sake of being kind, the charity that came from a wholesome heart. Living from the streets, no one ever had a wholesome anything, Merianna understood.
She wrung her hands and cried for the story of the boys who won't have a happy ending. This wasn't the angel she had hoped to be. Her whole body drooped as her laments reached the ears of everybody and they stopped to look at her, even Satu.
"How foolish…this is why humans are so disgusting… Empathy… compassion… no angel would ever feel anything like that!" Ash spat.
"Einverb siny-anchr!" the two Satus said in unison.
He suffered a bloody wound on his arm, where his elbow was. He looked unwilling to continue lifting his arm, a useless wound as it prevented him from further swinging the golden rapier. Even Sebastian seemed to have been revolted at the scene.
"Unnatural…" He muttered. "A dog of God having such human feelings, an unholy offspring of an angel and a human, resulting in such abnormality…"
"S-Stop this!" Merianna cried, voice cracking. "S-Stop fighting, Satu! I don't want…I don't want this to happen to people anymore…"
The two sphinxes hissed like deflated balloons, dropping to a sitting position hesitantly. With a soft chiming, they started piecing away, reforming back the untouched organ and wooden cross amidst the crushed stained windows, broken pews and dead bodies. Merianna was still overcome with sorrow, regretting ever feeling anger and spite for them in the first place. Humanity had deserved better.
"Can their souls be returned, Grell?" Ciel whispered, watching the four-winged angel cry.
"Yah~ That would make my job much easier. That boy's was the last to snuff out. With all the turmoil that happened here, the presence of two angels here…the Soul Reaper Society decided to call a vitirritum on this whole sector."
She stopped his chainsaw, whipping it back into oblivion. It was obvious that she was done here. Ciel asked her for clarification.
"In order to prevent the angels from tampering with the plays, they put a spell in this vicinity to make instant deaths." She explained. "Any cinematic record that is cut from a human's body is automatically cut, no matter whether it is judged or not. Unless an angel already touched it…like she has that last one. The Ministry would much rather deal with annulled judging than not being able to store books correctly in the library."
A few moments after she disappeared, Sebastian shushed Ciel and carried him up to the rooftops, perching on the rafters. Below, a black-haired boy ran into the church. Ciel recognized it as the Hawkins man. He growled, but Sebastian shook his head. He was supposed to stay quiet and not interfere.
Straight away, Cuffs had caught on to what happened, although not as well as he believed to have. He stared wide-eyed at the numerous corpses around the church. There were not only the 'cousins' from his gang, but boys that appeared in monk clothes and some even in shabby slave clothing. He clamped a hand over his mouth to suppress the cry that escaped his mouth. He noticed Merianna kneeling and crying at the front, with four feathered white wings dangling around her. They seemed to lie low, as if trying to shield her, but he could recognize the crying anywhere.
"Merianna…dons't tell me…yous did it…again…" He faltered.
She didn't answer, too stricken with sadness to even utter a sound apart from heavy sobbing.
"S'not even the townspeople anymore, Merianna! These were our friends, our family…! H-How…How could you even do this?" He stressed, voice failing him too. "Please…dons't tell me you killed them all…"
He fell to his knees, unable to withstand the reality that was crashing down on him. Merianna had wiped her eyes and held her mouth to try to form words, looking at him with the most innocent eyes in the world.
"J-J-Jake…wh-what…what k-k-k-ki-kind of a-an-an-gel am I?" she mumbled, unable to bring herself to look him in the eyes any longer. "I don't want this to happen…not anymore…I don't want…this…"
He pounded the floor with his fists, trying to be strong, but there was only so much one could handle. It must have been shameful to cry in front of a girl, but she was already a mess herself. Without even noticing, he had already run up to her and grabbed her by the collar, lifting her up to her unwilling feet. Her white hair was clinging to the tears on her face, obscuring it completely. But she knew that he was crying too. She didn't need to see to hear it in his voice.
"How many more?!" He screamed. "How many more 'till yer satisfied, Merianna?! When's you gonn' stop it? Yer killin' me too, y'know!? Every. Single. Time. WHY…WHY?!"
She didn't answer him at all, simply taking in and soaking up the words. The questions burned into her mind, but she had no answers to extinguish them. She could do nothing but dangle there. She raised her hands to hold the ones he had around the collar of her shirt.
He thought of strangling her right there, but he saw the genuine remorse in the red-eyes she kept hidden under her white hair. He was never able to, and never would be able to. Cuffs let go of her, instead, pulling her in close and wrapping his arms around her and holding her tightly. She breathed in the smell of his familiar oversized coat.
" I-I…I didn't know…at all, Jake! There were my friends…who told me to meet Mr. Landers and he would help me get back on my feet! I thought everything would be all right!" She wailed. "He told me things about my mother I didn't know myself! He told me I was special, he told me that I was an angel! He put me to sleep and he said he would show me how humanity was! When I woke up, they were…lying here! Dead!"
She hadn't gotten to the part of telling him the things she had seen coming out of their lifeless bodies, or the anger she felt for them, but there was already too much said.