Memento Mori
Notes: Written for the Ink challenge at fffriday on LiveJournal. Set post-Serenity.
This night, Mal dreams of River.
She's naked, a detail he'll find plenty disconcerting should he recall it when he wakes. But here and now in his spinning subconscious, he doesn't even so much as stumble over it. He's captivated by the way the light drapes itself across her angles and curves, a light which comes from above to separate her from the blackness of the room. The others, they're in her shadows. This light is meant to illuminate only her.
She's very still in the glow, standing as he remembers her from Mr. Universe's world. Head bowed, arms lifted slightly at her sides - a picture forever imprinted on his brain. Except here there are no torn bodies under her feet. No bleeding weapons in her hands. Here there is just her. Standing still in the light, surrounded by those they have not yet lost.
Simon rests on his heels in front of her, a servant at her feet. Kaylee stands behind, twining her unruly hair into tiny ribbons of braid. Jayne prowls in the darkness, more impression than image. The light never catches on the weapon he carries.
Zoe kneels to River's left, wearing the white in which she left her husband behind. Inara to the other side, wrapped in yellow satin. They each have a small bottle, a fine paintbrush. They each have a slender bare arm, upon which they're drawing the names of their dead. He sees characters for preacher, for pilot. For husband, teacher, friend, lover. All there in this luxury of ink and time.
They do not acknowledge him, and Mal wonders if he's even here.
He watches as the careful strokes begin to melt. Watches as the ink runs down her pale arms, drips from open fingers like so much remembered blood. She lifts her head. Pins him with unblinking eyes.
Eyes that gleam. Eyes he can't resist.
Time hisses around them, a stretching syllable audible in its length. She has him frozen, stuck here in this lasting moment. He's waiting for her to speak. Wants to speak himself. He wants to know what it is that she's trying to tell him. He wants more than anything to run fast away. Understanding is just out of his grasp, smudged letters too dim behind the light of those eyes...
She blinks. And sets him free.
end.