Darksiders – Death and Nereza – "Strength and Shadows"
Location: Corinthian Apartments, Seattle, Washington
February 3rd
2:52am
"The fucking BASTARD!"
Following that curse, Death heard the sound of glass shattering into a million shards. And then another. Whatever she was up to, it caused Melaena to be oblivious to Death's not-so-silent footsteps. Peering his head from the doorway of the room he would use to enter, his mind drew a blank as to how to describe the scene in front of him.
Melaena was on the ground, her back against the wall, with a large bottle in her hand. She was chugging on it like there was no tomorrow while tears streamed down her pale face. It also looked like she could not decide whether to drink or cry first. Taking a quick glance around, he found that her coffee table as well as a mirror in the living room had both been smashed in.
"I'm not Nereza? I'm just a shadow?! Who the FUCK gave HIM the right to put a label on me?!" Yelling in a broken voice, she drank down the wine once more. "I am a goddamned Master of the Shadows! I'm Lady Specter! I am Leila Nereza, whether he wants to believe it or not!" He witnessed her struggle to her feet. "So FUCK YOU, DEATH, YOU BIG BLUE BITCH!"
This needed to stop. "Melaena."
She turned herself to the sound of that voice almost immediately. A faked smile played upon her lips. "Well, well. Look WHO'S here! The Pale Rider! Death! Come to take my soul, grim reaper? Might as well not wait around for the cancer to do its work…"
Death knew what he had to face. It was his fault anyway. "Melaena. I have come to apologize to you."
"OH, you have now?"
"-and hopefully have a place in your life once again."
She narrowed her eyes at him, still unstable from all that wine. "I don't think you understand what 'I never want to see you again' means, Death. It means you NEVER SEE THAT PERSON AGAIN."
"I made a mistake, Laena," He took a few cautious steps to her. "And I want to apologize for it. I did not take your feelings into consideration. It was wrong of me."
"OH. So now my feelings suddenly matter to you?!" Now, she was turning hostile towards him and her grip on that wine bottle getting tighter. She appeared as if she was ready to fling it at him (which of course, he could dodge flawlessly). "You can never understand what I'm going through, Death, because you have no idea what it's like! To know that the life you're living is a fake! To know that you were meant to be something, someone else, but were robbed of it! You will never understand how I feel."
"But I want to now," He said, extending a hand to her.
"You want to know how I feel, Death? FINE. I'll tell you!" With that, she smashed the bottle onto the ground before declaring, "I'm in love with you!"
She only saw orange eyes blink at her.
"This is not something that's recent, okay?" Her tone had calmed, and instead she appeared as if she was going to bawl. "My heart's been like that for years. It's like I'm meant to have these feelings towards you. I can't turn away no matter how hard I try. Not only that, you have to understand: I've been dreaming about you ever since I could remember," He saw the tears glisten in her once-bright green eyes. "Though I hadn't met you in real life, I met you a thousand times in my dreams… There was no way I could get love like that in real life. And though it was only in my dreams, you still managed to make me feel that love in real life. Or maybe Reza made sure I felt it, I don't know… I just feel like I have no choice but to love you, like it's meant to be and I can't change it!"
One by one, her tears fell and she did not even have to blink. This was her pouring her heart out. "But what I know is… I'm nothing without you. So you really hurt me when you said you didn't want to see me again," She finally closed the gap between them. "I don't know how to, Death, but I'm sure there's a way to get Nereza back. Don't give up hope just yet. Don't let me go just yet…"
No. I won't. He flicked a tear away on her cheek using his thumb. "I've… come to except the circumstances we are in, Melaena. Maybe we cannot bring Reza back… but aren't you here?" His hands found hers in a soft grip. "You are in every way Nereza," He said, running a hand over her cheek. "Just in a different life, is all. What matters is what you remember and you know your true place." With that, he now that both of his hands on her cheeks, almost cupping her whole head. "What I know, dearest Laena, is that I have been lost without Nereza for so long. With you around, the pain can be eased. And I simply want to be happy again."
Melaena's hands grabbed onto his wrists in response, closing her eyes but smiling at him. "Well... make sure you don't let me go this time, then."
A/N: More flashbacks in the next few chapters! :)