Keira Crowne (crownedmate) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2011-12-18 17:30:00 |
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Entry tags: | #solo, 2009-08-28, keira |
May your sorrows have a name
Who: Keira and an unlucky NPC'd woman
Where: Briarwood Mall in Ann Arbor
When: late afternoon, just before sunset
Warning: Minor blood magics!
Luckily for Keira, there was a mall that was not too far away from the campus of the University of Michigan. It was not the same as going shopping in New York, but it was at least nice to get out and if nothing else, browse and window shop to her heart's delight. If she happened to see something she liked, she would buy it, simple as that. As it was, she hadn't quite seen anything she liked yet, so she had wandered over near the questionable food court, looking around at her options. Nothing really looked like it would be good to eat, but a nice soda wouldn't hurt. She moved over to the nearest little fast food chain and ordered a Coke Zero, wondering why it was even possible for a diet soda to taste ten times better than the regular kind. At least, it was a guilt-free way to drink something tasty, one that she wouldn't have to worry about. Not that she had so much that she had to do in order to watch her weight. It was hard enough to even remember to eat, much less make it into a habit. No, keeping her figure slim wasn't the problem, it was the fact that she'd ended up losing too much weight. How in the world women could eat their feelings, Keira would never know. Sorrow just made her want to curl into a ball and die, not eat a bunch of junk.
Walking along the rows of tables at the food court to one that was empty, Keira took a seat, settling herself down on what appeared to be a clean chair and table. Heaven forbid she get anything she was wearing dirty. She took out her iPhone and slid the slider to unlock it. No new messages. None. No missed calls, no voicemails, no texts, nothing. A sigh passed her lips as she sipped her drink, wondering what she would do on a Friday night with no plans. She was not above making them, spur of the moment, but she felt as if she shouldn't need to work at that sort of thing. People should approach her. She chalked it up to the fact that she hadn't been completely devoted to mingling and getting in with the rich crowd as she had been to settling in and concentrating on her studies. For once in my life. Sure, her family had money to burn when it came to paying for her college, but she was well past the point where she happened to enjoy being the oldest person in any given class she took. Sure, she wasn't the only person there who was above an age to attend college, but it still made her stand out. And that was the sort of thing that you didn't want attention for. For being beautiful, rich, and fashionable? Yes, absolutely. Anything else was not acceptable.
Distracted from her internal monologue by the arrival of a woman talking on her phone, Keira briefly glanced up at her, taking in her appearance. The woman was older than her, poorly dressed and with the sort of makeup you might see on a teenager. Keira scoffed and wrinkled her nose at the waves of emotion coming off the woman. She stared, her open disgust apparent on her face as she sipped her drink, willing the woman to meet her gaze. But the woman never looked up from her conversation; the emotions that were drenching the area around her were happiness and love, and Keira felt as though she might gag. She hated to be around people who were so completely wrapped up in someone else--and whoever the woman had those feelings for wasn't even there! Just as she was putting her phone back into her clutch and getting ready to leave, a particular phrase caught her attention.
"I love you, too. Always."
Keira's thoughts raced back to the many times where she had said those exact words. Times when she had truly meant them. Times when she hadn't been so alone. One time in particular stuck out in her mind, despite the negative events that had gone on not hours before he had come to her door.
“I love you.”
“I love you too, Dom. Always.”
“Always?”
“Always.”
Their bodies had still been intertwined, warm and slightly sweaty. She could still taste his kiss on her lips, feel his skin against hers.
The far-off look in her eyes shattered as she stood up, her drink forgotten on the table as she strode over the few feet between her table and the woman's. Without so much as a word, Keira grabbed the woman's phone and flung it to the side, not bothering to look at where it landed. She placed her hands on the table and leaned in, her face close to the other woman's. Blue eyes pierced through the shocked look in the doe-eyed set of brown ones and the witch drank in the way the woman's emotions were all tangled up in the shock of her actions. "It won't last." She held the woman's gaze, and the poor thing just sat there, frozen. "You know it won't." Happiness and love had been there, it was true, but there had been just a thread, a mere splinter of doubt. Keira knew what that felt like, knew how quickly the feeling of doubt could spread like a cancer through the heart, twisting and corrupting the love inside. Even as she stood there, she could feel the tangle of emotions solidify with doubt at the forefront, the woman fighting herself to cling to something, anything else. "Trust me. You're much better off."
The woman finally collected herself enough to reach back and slap Keira across the face.
As quick as that, Keira was back over to her table, her clutch open so that she could grab her butterfly knife. Taking her seat again, she kept her hands under the table with a look of what she hoped was chastened embarrassment. She flicked the blade open, playing with it a bit before she dug the tip of the blade into the fingertip of her left ring finger. She figured it was the most appropriate finger to use. As the blood welled out, she turned to where the woman had walked over to retrieve her phone. The woman stood, the look on her face one of anger as Keira felt her settle over that emotion, holding onto it like a shield. She gave Keira one last glare before she moved to collect her bags, her attention focused on whether or not her phone was intact.
Smiling, Keira began to weave some words around, her voice sweet and almost sing-song as she put her knife away. Rubbing her thumb over the bleeding fingertip, she concentrated on the things that she'd felt, from her own experience and from the brief little foray into the woman's emotions. She focused on the thread of doubt that she'd felt, and felt how the anger could barely mask its taint. She focused on how she'd felt when everything that happened had only made the doubt grow, willing the doubt in the woman to spread like that, to multiply, to eat away at her certainty over time. As the woman got up and began to walk away, phone pressed to her ear again, Keira smiled to herself, sensing out with her empathy. The spell wouldn't work overnight, but it should at least do some sort of damage. Maybe even end whatever it was that was making that woman say those words, feels those things.
If Keira couldn't feel that happy again, no one would.