Chapter 3: A Long Night
By- DreamHeart
AN - 'A Fallen Rose' has under gone some revisons. I added some stuff and got rid of others to make it juicier. Tell me what you think.
DISCLAIMER - I do not own Sailor Moon or any of its characters BUT I do own the story! Remember plagerism is bad!
There was a quiet knock at the door.
"Raye! I told you to leave me alone!" Serenity called.
The door opened. It was Luna and she was holding a tray of food.
"I thought you might be hungry, Sere." She put the tray down on Rini's play desk and then opened her arms to Serenity.
She hesitated. As if unsure of what to do she glanced at Rini's body and then at the floor. And then she noticed that the white marble floor was stained with her blood. Then taking a deep breath she pulled the sheet back over Rini and looked down once more. Just then she realized that the bottom of her dress was soaked . . . soaked in blood, Rini's blood, her only child's blood.
No! No! NO! This can't be real! This can't be happening, her mind screamed. Serenity curled herself up into a ball and hugged her knees to her chest, trying desperately to get a grip on her sanity. She took a deep breath and told herself, "This is just a bad dream. I'll wake up. That's right; I'll wake up in a minute. This is just a bad dream." As if saying the words aloud would make it so.
Luna rushed to her side and scooped the queen up in her arms and gently rocked her. "Shh. It's okay to cry. Just let it all out, Sere."
Endymion followed Artemis and the guards obediently walking a familiar path. He had been down to the dungeons many a time to hear the appeals of the prisoners and to just check, occasionally, that everything was going smoothly.
He stared at a spot on Artemis' back and tried to think of nothing – fully determined to run on autopilot alone. This would prove to be easier said than done. Everything seemed to be swirling about him. Images of the day flashed before his eyes. One moment Serenity was chasing Rini around the gardens desperately trying to get her shoes back while he rolled around on the grass and laughed at the sight. The next he was pushing Rini on a swing and telling her stories of Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask . . . . Her face begging him to read her one more story before mama came to say goodnight . . . .
"We're here Endymion," Artemis interrupted with a cool tone.
"Of course." The words seemed to catch in Endymion's throat, but maybe that was because as he stepped into the darkness of the cell he just wanted to scream. To rip out his hair in utter confusion, despair, anger and all the million other emotions that were coursing through his being.
The door of ice that had Serenity's magical seal on it swished closed behind him. Endymion turned just in time to see Artemis snap his fingers and magically his bonds disappeared.
He ran towards the door and slammed is fists into it and cried, "Let me go! God, it wasn't me, Artemis! Please."
But it did no good. Artemis just gave his king a sympathetic glance and then turned on his heel to report to Queen Raye.
She had begged Luna to leave her and after much protest she got her way but only after she had promised to eat something. Finally after Luna had left, Serenity snuggled up to her daughter, pulled a warm blue comforter over herself, and after a long while had found sleep.
Serenity was in her bedroom. She was snuggled up to Endymion telling him all about her day. She played with the buttons on his flannel shirt and gazed blissfully things in the room as she talked. Her eyes trailed over the silk canopy above her head, and then over to the pictures of her and Rini on Endymion's nightstand. Then all of a sudden she was awoken from this bliss by a loud crash.
MAMA! Rini wailed from her room and started to run down the hall towards her parents' room. The bunny feet of her pajamas clapped loudly against the marble floor. When she finally reached their doorway she just stood there with her eyes huge with fear and a death grip on her teddy bear, Shadow.
She sat up in the king-sized feather bed and opened her arms to the crying child. "Come here, sweetie. Everything's going to be o.k."
Rini ran towards the bed with her pink-silver hair trailing behind her still clutching her toy as close to her as possible. But as she launched herself into her mother's arms, she vanished. Serenity could still hear Rini's bunny feet hitting the marble floor and smell the scent of lavender in the air.
She shot straight up in bed practically hyperventilating. Once she had calmed herself down enough to breathe normally, she pulled the sheet back from Rini just to make sure that she was really . . . really dead. Her hand flew to her mouth at the sight and she ran to the bathroom that was connected to the room.
Serenity stood in the bathroom at the basin filling a glass bowl with water. Once it was full, she carefully picked it up and returned to the room, but something caught her eye. It was a picture of the three of them on a family picnic and Endymion had an arm around each of them as they smiled for the camera.
Her heart ached and she dropped the bowl. It shattered the instant it hit the floor but she didn't care. Serenity sunk to the floor and covered her face with her hands as she began to cry into the floor. She hugged her sides and rocked back and forth uncontrollably as she began to wail into the night. The shards of the bowl cut her hands and arms . . . and left a deep gash in her leg, but she never noticed. The pain in her heart and soul were too much. This couldn't be real, she told her self, It can't be real. That can't be Rini. I couldn't handle this pain. It would kill me. That can't be Rini. That just CAN"T be RINI. She let out a soul shattering wail and cried until there were no more tears to physically shed.
She had a headache now. Her temples were throbbing, but she ignored it and simply wiped her tear stained face with the bottom of her already stained dress. She looked down at the floor once more. This is unacceptable. Rini will be home soon. Drat! I don't have anything that I can clean this up with. My dress, of course, I'll use my dress. That's right Serena, Rini's fine and she'll be home in a few hours. Just you wait and see. And with that she began to scrub the white marble floor clean with her dress.