InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "I ATE MY MONKEY BARS"

Boyd Ainslie | Red Riding Hood (ex_sanguine300) wrote in bellumletale,
@ 2010-06-06 03:38:00

Entry tags:

beast, big bad wolf, cinderella, peter pan, red riding hood, sleeping beauty

Vlad
Honey, this is me doing like I promised. Everyone’s getting a letter just like this, so you ain’t got to break the news to anyone. I’ll be staying at [hotel name in Savannah] come morning, but I’d rather you not tell anyone that. Money’s in the envelope, and I’ll be waiting on word about what you got me to rent. Thanks again for helping me. I’d be lyin if I didn’t say you’re the person I trust most to help me in Bellum, and that counts for a lot. Whenever you think there ain’t any good to you, remember that you helped out a girl who wasn’t good for nothing in return. That’s selfless, sugar, and it takes a good person to be selfless, no matter what you think of yourself.

Rosalie
Rose, me and you ain’t seen eye-to-eye lately, and I’m real sorry we grew apart how we did. I’m leaving, and I’m not gonna pretend we been great friends recent, but I know you care about Daniel more than just about anyone in the building. Him and Vlad, they need someone soft to listen to them sometimes. They pretend like they don’t need it, but they do. You gotta take that over for me when I go. And Rose? Listen more, honey. You gotta learn to listen to people, before you start comin to conclusions.

Nicky
I’m moving, Nicky. Remember, you gotta buy a girl flowers and wear something that brings out the blue in your eyes, baby. And you’re plenty strong and plenty brave, and you don’t let nobody convince you otherwise. You keep an eye on Hannah for me - she needs you. And you draw things. You draw so many things, and you show them to so many people, that someone’ll surely take notice and make you famous. You got talent, Nicky. Don’t let it go to waste.

Hannah
Beautiful baby girl. Ya know, I was watching you sleep one night at the hotel, and I thought you were about the prettiest thing I ever did see. Time to fly now, honey, and I want you to do one thing for me once I’m gone - SOAR. You got it in you, and ain’t no one has anything on you, baby. You remember that.

Shane
You’re gonna get angry when you find out I’m gone, and even angrier still when you read what I’ve got to say. Me and you, we’re stuck in this gravitational pull of hurt, sugar. I hurt you, you hurt me, and then we do it all over again. We need to pull free of it, and the only way’s for me to go - before anyone else gets hurt. We’re starting to spill all over onto everyone else, Shane, and someone’s gonna end up dead. I can’t control me, and I can’t control you, and Lord knows I’ve tried. I can’t stay here and let you go on and be with someone else neither-I’ll just wanna pull you back to me. It means I’m selfish when it comes to you, sugar, even if I don’t wanna be. In my head and in my heart you’re mine, no matter what’s happened. I can’t be in the same building as you and not think that.

I want you to read the next part real careful: I forgive you for my parents, for my grandmother, for all of it. I forgive you. Now, baby, you gotta forgive yourself.

Daniel
Handsome.

I left you for last, cause you’re the hardest to say goodbye to, and now I'm staring at blank paper wishing I could say goodbye with my hands instead. I ain’t good at words, no matter how much of your Shakespeare I read, so I’ll do like I always do, and steal what someone else said better. [The postcard is tucked into the envelope].

Ti penso sempre, bello.

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nobleblood
2010-06-06 08:22 am UTC (link)

Vlad awoke early the next morning, slipping out of bed quietly without disturbing Helena. It was a usual ritual, since she hadn't gotten up earlier than him in the entire time that she'd been living with him, and he headed to the kitchen to make coffee with Cain and Abel at his heels.

He saw the letter from the corner of his eye, staring at it for a few moments before actually stooping to pick it up. He didn't have to open it to know who it was from, but he took it to the kitchen table regardless and opened it. The silence in his apartment seemed almost deafening as he read the letter three times, although if someone was watching it might have looked as though he were simply staring at the paper.

A part of him honestly hadn't thought she was serious. He half-expected to wake up and find that Boyd had changed her mind, but not this time. Now she was truly gone, and he found himself not thinking of things like how angry Shane would be or what this would do to Daniel - no, what he thought as he sat there with the letter in his hands was that he was actually going to miss her. God help him, as annoying and naive as she could be, he truly had grown rather fond of her over the past few months. Vlad knew that he wouldn't tell anyone where she was staying, and he counted the money in the envelope before tucking it back inside. He'd do his best to find her a nice place, he vowed, and the letter was something he planned on keeping in his study. It would be a reminder of the only person who knew that he was a murderer and still believed there was good within him; a reminder that he wasn't the monster Esme and Aiden believed he was.

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wolfishane
2010-06-06 03:14 pm UTC (link)

Shane didn't see the letter. He wouldn't, either, at least not for a few weeks.

Perhaps that was for the best. Better still that he would never see the letter or the postcard she'd left for Daniel - that black misery was the sort of thing that might finish him utterly. Better to be elsewhere, trying out being forgetful and wishing to be forgotten. When he would think about Boyd, something would come along to distract him, and he would be grateful.

He woke on Sunday morning with a cold feeling at the base of his spine that he thought was just a symptom of a cool night, and shook himself to rid himself of the sensation before moving on. He was far from Bellum, much too far to see her leave. For a while longer, that piece of him could remain wounded, but intact.

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noglass_slipper
2010-06-07 04:29 am UTC (link)

Hannah slept in later than usual on Sunday, and it wasn't until after noon that she finally managed to roll herself out of bed. Despite the fact that she was still mulling over the events of Wednesday night - she'd never felt the way she did the next morning - things didn't seem to be going too badly, considering the building she lived in belonged in a science-fiction novel.

She never would have noticed the letter until much later if it wasn't for Gabriel, who spotted the envelope and nosed it along the floor, thinking it was some sort of new toy. She frowned at it, wondering if it was some sort of survey to do with that tribunal thing, and she opened it without the faintest suspicion of what it might hold. The meaning of the words didn't sink in the first time she read it, but once she went back to the start and read it again, something within her mind clicked.

Oh. It was a quiet realization, like a soft sigh, and she leaned against the counter without noticing it. Boyd hadn't given any indication that she planned on leaving, yet the shock wasn't as great as it should have been. A small part of her understood why she might have wanted to leave, and her mention of things going badly with Shane last week was just one clue of many. No amount of understanding, however, could change the fact that she was going to miss her friend terribly; nor could it keep back her tears.

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never_old
2010-06-08 04:44 am UTC (link)

Nick had slept in late for the first time in years. When he opened his eyes that Sunday morning, though, he just knew something had happened. Finding the letter on the floor was a surprise, even if it didn't seem to register across his face. Nor did any other emotion as he read through Boyd's words.

He wasn't sad, no not really. So many people had come through his life and left just as quickly that the pang of loneliness didn't seem to bother him much. Boyd always reminded him of the sweet girls that were only in the facility for the short time, ones that were able to go out in to the real world and be all right.

Nick pinned the letter to his wall, staring at it for a long time. He'd miss her. Selfishly, he wished she would stay, but Nick never seemed to get what he wanted. He drew in thick, black sharpie a cartoon of Little Red leaving the forest without a glance backwards.

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