H Y A C I N T H
- Dim Aldebaran -
:i:
"I won't do it."
Point-blank refusal—which he refused to accept.
Butler was a surprisingly good gardener—she had never expected purple hyacinths from a man of steel.
They were clad in mauve silk and born by an uncertain wind, slipping and climbing through an air meant for picnics and sailing, not for guns, not for assassination.
Those hyacinth maidens wove a veil before her, fine emerald stems and amethyst blossoms made into—no, not a veil, a shroud, a funeral shroud.
Frond, let him not see my face before it happens—when it happens—
The thought made her eyes burn with tears, but the hyacinths hid it all, her from the target, and the target from her and her gun.
"I'll quit."
"No," he replied evenly, "you won't."
The hyacinths parted, and she could see him, him—a needle of black in purple silk, threading through and stabbing her in a single, sharp place in her heart—
This isn't right, she thought, I shouldn't—but the Neutrino didn't care. It was cold and heavy in her hand, a leaden weight.
"I'll kill myself, then."
"You don't want to die yet."
"No—I don't want to die with his blood on my hands."
And—a voice, cool and smooth in her terrible world. "Holly; I wasn't expecting you."
The voice swept over her, a tsunami, washing away all thoughts until one remained, a pinnacle in the sea reaching towards the heavens as the waves of hell crashed over it.
"An exile, or an assassin? You choice"
He left her there—and she could not help but stare at Neutrino before her: it gleamed like ice, like steel, like death.
She cocked the Neutrino; those eyes, those big, damnable blue eyes like the sky met hers and clouded with acknowledgment—but still, he had to know. She could expect nothing less of Artemis Fowl. "Holly—why—?"
The Neutrino gleamed with hyacinth reflections, silver and mauve like a dream of better days. "I don't know."
:i:
Heya! This is a repost (obviously), since I had forgottenearlier that we were Not Supposed to Post until the challenge was over, which brings me to my next point:this is a remix for the Remix Redux challenge, of The Humble Mosquito's The Weeping Assassin. If you reviewed earlier before Itook itoff, could you re-review?
And the cliffie is intentional, and this is a oneshot. So...
CC would be nice; since this is a remix I can't change anything drastic, butI'd still like to improve anything you can advise me on.