Beset
A/N: I haven't forgotten about this AU, I just started another one. TW: Suicide ideation.
Sandy sighed as her leg ached. She looked down at her wooden leg as Valen sat in front of her as the carriage bumbled along the road. The carriage jerked to a halt as clouds covered the sky, gray and heavy, threatening to rain as they had been for the past few weeks. Valen was quiet as he got out of the carriage, offering a hand Sandy didn't take as they walked past the gates to his manor.
Sandy paused, looking at the place Valen called home. The fountain overflowed with water and Sandy caught her reflection in it. Her cheeks had sunken in a little, her face less vibrant. She briefly wondered as Valen took her arm, what it would be like if she sunk beneath the water.
Sandy soon learned, from where their room was, that there was a lake behind the house. Right beside a dying garden.
"Sandy," Valen started, catching her attention as she looked out the window. She turned to face him, saw the ballet tickets in his hand, and wanted to vomit. "you have to get out of the house."
It was plain cruel. She took the extra ticket with shaking hands, gripping it with enough force that it crumpled. "I, I can't go back there," she said, voice wavering for a moment.
She hadn't been to a theatre since her accident and even then. Even then, it was too painful.
Valen frowned, taking the ticket from her and smoothing it out. "As much as I want to keep you to myself," he admitted. "You can't sit around the house like you used to."
Sandy shook her head, blonde curls framing her face at the action. She'd rather sit around the house than endure being in public.
"Come," Valen said, taking her arm and leading her outside. Her leg ached at the sudden force he used to put her in the carriage. She rubbed at the joint connecting her wooden prosthetic to her knee.
Orpheus and Eurydice was an opera-ballet Sandy wasn't paying attention to. She focused on her hands, trying to get them to stop shaking. She gripped the skirt of her dress, finally looking at the stage, and nearly wept. It was beautiful despite its depiction of the Underworld. Some part of her related to Eurydice more than Orpheus. Suddenly taken from the world in a death one person mourned. Unfortunately, for Sandy, there was no Orpheus to retrieve her.
She hadn't heard from Shadow since she had been moved to Valen's estate. Perhaps he had found a different muse and would stay in Italy. For his sake more than hers, she had hoped that was the case. She jumped as Valen took her hand in his, pressing his lips against her knuckle as the opera reached its climax.
As Orpheus foolishly turned around out of sheer love for his wife. Tears trekked down Sandy's face as Eurydice was dragged back into the Underworld, entirely too close to freedom.
She found herself reminiscent. Her wounded leg protesting in a phantom pain; her working leg tapping against the wood of the floor as the trumpets swelled. She stood, ignoring Valen as his gray eyes swung to her. She needed to leave.
