A/N: Wow, it's been a long time! I never expected this story to become so popular! Honestly, I hadn't made any plans for even returning to FanFiction, but with summer here, I find it hard not to continue writing. I really missed this story and have a lot of revamped ideas, but I'll hold off on that until later. I really want to finish this like I should have ages ago, so now's as good a time for that as ever!

So here we are with the return of The Black Velveteen!

-Twinkies.

PS: Thanks for the love, guys! I know this chapter is short, but I'm definitely going to be returning to this site to finish what I started. I can't promise that they'll progress quickly (I'm still somewhat preoccupied with work and extracurricular activities, all that good stuff), but I do promise to wrap these up. I'm even considering publishing some new stories and other works from a sister account I created some time ago. I'll probably upload those later in the week, if not tomorrow.

Anyway, enjoy!

Horror of Her Obsession

Umber's nails dug into the splintering armrests, her venomous gaze locked on the man seated silently at the other end of the dining table. The goblet of wine beside her plate had been devoured ravenously just moments before in hopes of subduing her shaking. She was enraged. Her expression was grotesquely contorted into a vicious fury that bore holes into his head.

"What did you say?" She hated the way her voice shook. "I don't believe I heard you correctly."

He raised his head, finally looking her right in the eyes. His lips were taut with determination and his shoulders were squared and stalwart. A deep gash was sluiced across his cheek and his clothes were tattered, but he would not bow beneath her staggering intimidation. Not anymore.

"I wish to return to the village," he repeated very slowly. "It will never be anything more, Umber. You know as well as I do that it will never be more."

The dining hall rumbled as Umber rocketed from her chair and slashed the ornate plates and silverware and candelabra to the floor. A jutting knife caught on her arm and she pulled it from her flesh before hurling it into the avalanche of shattered glass beside her seat. Her eyes had dilated, blazing with an unfathomable evil that was so powerful in its aura the wall sconces blew out with a hiss. She remained standing there, poised with one arm outstretched as ribbons of blood puddled on the wood tabletop.

He watched her with unwavering resolve. There was only one way he'd ever be able to leave and that was by fighting back.

"No," she seethed, the word seeping from her lips like venom. "You can never leave." Slowly, she rounded the corner of the table, ghosting towards him. He remained seated and watched her warily as she approached, her blood dripping onto the parquet tiles. "We belong together. You said so yourself; sometimes we meet someone who revolutionizes us forever."

She towered above him now, still transfixed with him. He dared not swallow down the lump in his throat. The tension was thick and palpable and she was mentally unstable. If he tried to escape, she'd make him regret it.

"That was you, my love," she whispered, voice raw with emotion. "What you said changed me. I realize now how beautiful love can be. How powerful an aura it carries. I wish you could feel how my heart pounds when you're with me—"

"You believe I meant those words for you," he murmured hoarsely. A shudder of dread clung to his spine as she nodded.

"Yes," she answered softly. "You must have. You said those words to me. They were meant for me."

He inhaled a deep breath and shook his head. Umber's eyes glistened dubiously and she nearly lowered her gaze. With a quick exhale, she'd recomposed herself and refocused on him.

"You didn't?" Her voice quaked uncontrollably. Her knees nearly buckled when he nodded. "Who did you mean then?" Realization dawned upon her like a blood moon. She shook her head in denial. "Not her. You didn't mean her."

He studied her for a moment, judging her reaction, before finally nodding. "I love her, Umber. I've said it a thousand times before and I'll say it another thousand times before I die. It was never you." A pall of silence filled the room as his declaration sunk in. "I can never forgive you now, Umber. I could forgive you for hurting me in every way imaginable, but I can never forgive you for the destruction you've caused. You've hurt my friends and family, murdered and harvested innocent souls for your own ill intentions." His composure crumbled and his eyes glazed over as he whispered, "And you've parted me from my one true love forever. I know you will never let me go. Even if I die, I will be imprisoned here with you. You have obliterated any hope of ever being reunited with her. And for her suffering, I will never forgive you—"

"She hurt you!" Umber caterwauled with a frightening desperation clouding her expression. "I was there for you! I loved you even when she denounced your love—"

"She never denounced me," he interrupted vehemently. "Her studies were arduous and she feared a relationship between the two of us might distract us both."

"She shattered your heart!"

"I understood her reasoning!" He was at his breaking point, the long fuse of his temper nearly dwindled down to nothing. The flame hovered so closely to the dynamite he gripped the armrests for fear he might make a grab for the knife beside his plate. "She was concerned that she might never contribute to the relationship as adamantly as I would while still juggling her studies and I agreed. It was wise to wait for a more opportune—"

A bead of sweat rolled down Umber's temple as she griped the backrest of his seat, head ducked to address him at eye level. "Fine then, she was the epitome of perfection and no other woman could ever rival her!"

"She is just as perfect as the next woman," he countered, teetering on the edge of red-hot fury. "In case you were not aware, I fell in love with her because of her terrible cooking and proclivity to laugh at everything humanly possible just because she can't help herself. The scar etched into her left cheek is a testament to her bravery—she carries it from last month's flood when the schoolhouse was swept away. That was your doing, by the way, and I nearly lost her then because of it. She rescued three children that day. I have never been prouder in my life!"

"Oh, please!" Umber snorted, "Her only decent quality is her altruism and nothing more. She doesn't have the cognition to decipher mathematics from literature. She can't even read!"

"Neither can most others," he snapped. The need to defend his woman was overwhelming in its intensity. The news of her death was still achingly fresh in his mind and the confliction of agonizing grief and fury seared together into a white hot spear lodged deep in his heart. "But she's brave. Braver than anyone I've ever known. Braver than you could ever fathom."

"She feared me," Umber hissed.

"She pitied you," he admitted, much to Umber's dismay. "Living alone on a mountainside for all your life. She wondered if you knew how beautiful the sunset is. Or how bright the stars shine at night. She said there wasn't a soul out there that she'd condemn to eternal solitude."

"I prefer it." Umber withdrew from him them and he noticed that her arm was no longer bleeding. There was no evidence indicating it had ever happened. She pulled at her hair as she wept before him and a looming shadow materialized from thin air, wrapping him in a thick veil of abhorrence. A slight drizzle poured from the ceiling and drenched him in her tears. "Why can you not let her go? In what way has she revolutionized you? I have offered you all the power in the world and all she had to offer was a cheap laugh and a scar upon her left cheek!"

"You're wrong."

Umber whirled around, fiery eyes blazing incredulously. He felt braver now with his reminiscence of her courage filling him. He staggered onto his feet and curled his hands into fists. He would not be defeated. Not with her love guiding him.

"Her love was endless. Her passion and sympathy were unmatched. Her courage was infallible. She possessed her own magic. Magic you could never hope to recreate. No one could. She offered me her heart and soul and revolutionized me for eternity. I was once so cynical, so hateful and bereft of compassion. And then she came along, with her heart worn upon her sleeve, and introduced me to a world I had never known existed. She showed me just how beautiful it is to be selfless, to love others as you would love yourself. She taught me how important it is to live for others rather than yourself. She exhibited a passion for love and nurturing that bewildered me and opened my heart to her teachings."

He paused again, savoring his next words with brimming reverence. "Even if you break me, kill me, imprison me within this hell forever, I will still be hers. I will always be hers. In this life, the next life, and every life after. Your torment means nothing to me. Not when her love fulfills me even now."

A flash of lightning erupted forth from the ceiling. Scorching magma frothed at Umber's lips as a blast of light knocked the table onto its side, launching silverware and untouched fruit through the air. A colossal wind swept through the room and spiraled around them, wafting like a thick cloud of pollution until all he could make out was the glaring orange of Umber's eyes.

"You are mine!" Her voice roared above the turbulence. "She will never take you from me, Hiroshi! Not in this life, the next, or any life after!"