(A/N): (I've decided to bail on this whole waiting game, so you should now see that this story is complete! Yay! Anyway, back to the depressing A/N that I wrote up earlier!)

Death comes eventually. That doesn't mean we can't put it off for as long as we can. That doesn't mean that we won't be able to live forever, eventually.

Maybe death will fade away, become no more than a distant concept in the distant future...

But it probably won't. Because there are people who would love to live forever, and there are people that would be forever against it.

And death can't fade if there's someone to take.

CHAPTER TEN: BLOODY TEARS

The passageway was no longer a connection - it was a barrier. Already the room felt divided - me and the Beldam, and them. The child. Will. James.

Charles.

I watched them go – James and Will, the unknown girl. Charles went last, giving me one last glance, his blond hair flattened and dead, his green eyes saddened. I watched them lock the door. I listened to them leave.

There was no probability, no chance for any more survivors. I committed myself to the facts.

It was a trade.

This was what I'd hidden from myself.

A single tear rolled down my cheek. A crimson knife cut me a half an inch below it. No pain. I felt the tear mix with my blood and fall.

In that tear, I hid my love. She would not have it. She would not take what belonged to someone else.

I turned away from the door.

"There are two things in my life I'm not satisfied with," I began.

"What's that?" the Beldam asked.

"The first," I continued, "was that I broke a promise.

"I broke a promise to myself I made many years ago. I promised I would never return, never see you again.

"The second," I said, "was that I told a lie."

"To who?" she asked. It was just her and me.

"To Charles. I never told him I loved him."

She was smiling. Happy wasn't a strong enough word to describe the emotion coming off of her.

I forced myself to look her in her - my thoughts stumbled over the awful word - button eyes.

Keeping my voice straight, I asked the Other Mother one question.

"Are you happy, Mother?"

She flashed me a grin, an evil grin, one that I hoped I would have never seen again.

Memories...

"Satisfied is a better word for it."

And then there was darkness. Then...

Pain.

Endless pain.

Screaming.

Laughter.

Light.

Darkness.

Past.

Present.

Future.

Confusion.

Understanding.

Life.

Death.

Names.

Blood.

Sweat.

Tears.

It.

Was.

All.

Gone.

...

(A/N): Death takes you, death takes me

Death takes us all, one by one, you see

But if you ever know of me

I ask you to please show of me

For once I'm struck, for once I'm out

I will have not a time to pout

As I'll be away from all without

Ever knowing how or about

We'll all die once, we'll all die twice

We'll all make our lives very nice

But no matter what we might, the mice

Will take all the exits, leave ice

But now I fade, but now I flee

But now I'm gone, but now I see

But now I cry, but now I be

But now I love, but now I'm me

i'll

fade

away

from

life

...