I love her. She was the first person who showed me such genuine kindness although I was mean to her. But it was just my defence mechanism. Be mean to whoever gets too close to you because they're going to hurt you and leave you anyway. Just like your dad. I loved my dad. I never knew he could leave his family so easily. It made no sense to me. How could we mean so little to him? It is something I guess I'll never truly understand. Anyway, I loved Delphine with all my heart. I just wanted us to be able to be together. For the first time in forever, I found happiness and I couldn't let go of it. So I suggested that we run. I didn't think. Maybe it was wrong to let her in. Maybe this all wouldn't have happened if I didn't talk to her. Maybe this all wouldn't have happened if I didn't fall in love with her. Maybe then I wouldn't lie in my own blood, struggling to keep a hold on life. Maybe if I didn't talk to her then she wouldn't be lying here next to me. Maybe then our blood wouldn't mingle with the dirty rain. Maybe we shouldn't have run away. Maybe then I wouldn't be teetering between life and death.

"What?" Delphine cannot believe what she has just heard. Run away? Where to? Before Delphine has the chance to voice out her questions, the hollow sound of the doorbell resound almost lazily to which Delphine stiffens abruptly. "My parents."

Cosima turns to look into Delphine's distant eyes. "What?"

"Lock the door, Cosima, lock the door," she says hysterically, getting up and locking the door herself.

"What? Hey, what's going on?"

"My parents are here. They are here to get me. Cosima, I've been confined all this time. My... My parents can't... They can't take me back home. They will... They will murder me." Delphine pivots again and again, not knowing which direction to face, what to do next. Her hands find shelter in her messy curls, her eyes are toing and froing.

"We have to go. Now."

The stairs squeak under the weight of three adults ascending the old spine leading to Cosima's bedroom. The heated conversation between Natasha and the Cormiers is getting louder, almost loud enough for the two girls to catch.

"We have to go," Delphine repeats.

"We can climb out of the window," Cosima gestures towards the it. "We're on the second floor but it's ok, I've climbed out of it before and it's pretty much safe. I have a rope here, we can fasten it to my desk."

Seeing the sceptical expression on her girlfriend's face, she chuckles briefly. "Don't worry, I've really done this before and as you can see I'm fine. Didn't break anything. I promise," she assures her, a hand on her arm, squeezing lightly.
There is a knock on the door.

"Cosima? Honey, Delphine's parents are here." The handle is pushed down but the door will not budge.

"Delphine, come out here immediately otherwise you will be met with a punishment so severe you wish you had never disobeyed me even once!"

"Please, Mr. Cormier, it's my fault she's here, please don't punish her," Natasha pleads guiltily.

"You, Miss, have done enough. Now, please kindly tell your daughter to open the damned door!"

Delphine can feel the bile pushing against her constricted throat. She has had enough of her father, she is sick of him. She tightens her jaw and mutters: "Let's go," and walks towards the window. Cosima binds the rope to one of her desk's legs and throws the rest of the rope out of her window. She pulls at the hawser forcefully to make sure that it can hold the two of them.

"Delphine, come out!" Her father's angry howl could not catch up with her, since Delphine is already climbing down the rope.

"Ok." Cosima jumps down the last bit. "Let's go."

Cosima and Delphine have no idea where to go to, but nevertheless, they keep running. They ignore the stitch they have, they ignore the drizzle blinding them, they ignore the fact that they will not last out there. They simply run.
Clouds guard the upset sky. People start taking out their umbrellas as the drizzle turns into rain. Cosima and Delphine keep running, not minding their damp clothes. There has to be a way to escape reality and for a moment they both believe that if they run fast enough, they actually will. So they keep running.

"I think we're in the clear," Cosima pants.

"Let's take a break."

"Chérie?"

"Yeah?" Out of breath, Cosima looks at the French whose curls are sticking to her forehead. There are so many horrible possible outcomes swirling in Delphine's head and every one is a bit more terrible than the former one. Faith has left her side and she is scared to her bones. It never should have come thus far. She was simply in love with another human being, how did it come thus far? How did all this even happen? And what was going to happen from this point?

"What now?" Delphine's voice breaks. Cosima cannot tell whether the drops on her girlfriend's face are tears or rain. The brunette wants to comfort her lover, however, she lacks all the words. Frankly, Cosima does not know what to do herself.

"C'mere." She pulls the slightly shaking French girl into her arms and Delphine indulges in the safety Cosima's lean arms provide. Cosima can always manage to chase away her fright.

"You know, one day we will live in the heart of New York City and we'll have our own apartment and we'll have a bunch of puppies and we're gonna be so happy. Every morning, we'll wake up next to each other and we'll make breakfast together and when we return from school or work or whatevs, we're going to snuggle on our couch, watch our favourite movies, have dinner on the couch and," Cosima chuckles caught up in her own perfect fantasies, "we're going to be so happy."

"I love you, ma chérie," Delphine answers tearily as she buries her face in her lover's shoulder. The rain has grown to a storm, icy raindrops lashing against the girls' soaked clothes and skin. Cosima's body is the only thing keeping Delphine warm in this storm.

"I love you, too," Cosima says in hushed tones.

"I... I love you so much and I just don't understand why my father doesn't see that you're my happiness. I just... To keep me away from you he locked me in my own home. I haven't seen anybody except of my parents for days and I just wanted to see your beautiful smile."

"God, Delphine, I am so sorry for what you had to go through." To hear what her girlfriend underwent stung her heart and both of the girls tense all of their muscles to refrain themselves from sobbing and from falling apart.

"We're going to get through this, I promise."

"Merci, mon amour."

Just as everything seems to be a little brighter, a satanic shadow smiles down on them.

"Delphine!" Delphine's father gets out of his slate grey car at the other side of the street, his face scrunched in crude anger. Immediately, Delphine lets go of Cosima in horror and freezes while her father takes a step towards the vulnerable girls. It is a dead end.

"What are you doing, you silly girl! Come here this instant!" he shouts.

"Non!" Something similar to courage or audacity flushes through Delphine's veins, pushing her to stand up. She will not let her father look down on her and take control—from now on she will always fight back.

"Why won't you let me be happy?"

"Oh, I am preserving your happiness! This," he spreads out his arms as a gesture, "what is this supposed to be? Running away with the homosexual bastard? You are ruining your life!"

"Shut up! You have no idea how your actions make me feel. You always say you want the best for me but don't you see?" Fury is throbbing at her temples, her soaked curls alleviating the heat like a cool pack. "You think you know so much but you're wrong!
"You are wrong," Delphine emphasises, yelling at the top of her lungs to drown out the splashing rain. "I have never been happy under your pathetic control. I have never wanted the things you wanted me to have, I never wanted to be the person you wanted me to be! And all those years you never noticed how empty I was. I never knew what true happiness was! And that's all because of you!
"And then I met Cosima," her voice is suddenly a soft tune, a gentle melody played in G minor. She glances to Cosima who took her hand and squeezed it lovingly. A sign to show Delphine that she has her back. "And I have never been so happy in my entire life." Tears collide with the unfeigned smile on Delphine's face. It is a heartbreaking kind of happiness that surrounds them.

"You are out of your mind." His face is like stone—his expression hard, his features distinctive—and rage is burning in his hazel eyes which are so different from Delphine's. "I did not raise you to be a dyke. I did not raise you to be a dishonour! See what she has done to you, my sweet, innocent child? Don't you see the devil's hand in this game? Don't you see what the devil's done to you!"

Suddenly, Delphine lets go of Cosima's hand and strides towards her father in defiance, halting in the middle of the street, only a few steps away from her father.

"If Cosima's the devil," she spits at him, "I will gladly follow her to hell."

"How dare you," he splutters. As his rage flashes through his limbs, he forcefully grabs his daughter by her arm and just as he is about to tear into her, a light flickers through the waterfall of rain. It all happens so fast, neither father nor daughter has the time to comprehend what is happening, both being way too engrossed in their passionate feelings and emotions. A flicker of light, a steady yet sudden honk, and the caterwauling of wheels. Everything slows down. However, it cannot be slow enough.

"DELPHINE, WATCH OUT!"

Cosima leaps forward and tackles Delphine with all the strength she could muster. It was an instinct, a reflex, but she would not have done any differently if she had the time to think.
Cosima's petite body thuds into the braking car which is sliding on the wet streets as if there was a thick layer of ice, leaving limp flesh and bones on the cold, hard ground.
And the storm did not lessen. The sharp raindrops wash away the brilliant red like nothing ever happened.

Maybe we shouldn't have run away. Maybe then I wouldn't be teetering between life and death.