Note: And then Bridget said, let there be inspiration. My God, there's actually a piece of Der Krieger + Die Kaiserin fic on this site. A humble fic-let can't hurt... I got the quotes from my English subtitles. *blush* I don't speak Tykwer. I'm ashamed.

"What are you doing? What's wrong with you?"

Everything is wrong.

"Walter?"

No. It's a memory. It's a person who has haunted me since I last visited a gas station. When there were flames, anger, hurt, and death... It should have been the end of her life, but she's stronger than ever, now. She's always with me.

"Where's Walter?"

Where's my sanity? My brother. The only person who has faith that the tears will stop coming. She only shakes her head.

I see her at night. She ended her life because of me, but somehow she's still there. I can see her. She's silent and covered by the shadows. I can't see her eyes and sometimes I'm glad that they're hidden.

The last time I saw her face, her mascara had created black pools below them. Now they're just darkness.

I can't tell if she is still angry with me. I can't see if she still is giving up on life, love, and any hope for happiness. She doesn't yell or cry, but she is alive as ever. I see it with my own eyes.

I don't remember getting on my knees or wrapping my hands around her.

I know that my head is in her lap. I know that she's comforting me and this is the only time I can truly cry. I can sob. I can let everything I've held in flow out of me freely.

I need this moment.

But inevitably, Walter, my sanity, my rock... He wakes me from my dream and pries me away from the radiator I've been resting against.

It's not her. I can never have my redemption.

She'll always be the silent tears on my cheek.