You left me in the dark Who: Halne Where: her townhouse in Camelot Place When: just after sunset
Halne never got through the Lord's Prayer anymore. Either she got all the way to the end and blacked out before she said "Amen," or she couldn't bring herself to get past the first line. She found it was easier for her to get most of the way through the words if she'd recently drank angelic blood, so she had taken the opportunity to raid the refrigerator. Most people kept food and beverages in them, but hers was stocked with little bags of blood like the ones you might see in an operating room. One container was marked with a "V" for Vivianna and the other with an "H" for herself. Gabriel House had strict rules forbidding the Fallen from buying from a blood bank, unless of course you wanted to be confined for a week. However, the use of hunters was not forbidden and it seemed as though the hunters in the area were quite fastidious, and she found that she appreciated that. She liked to stay clean and organized, after all. She would need blood both before and after she finished, whenever it was that she came to. Most others of her house would see it as a waste of blood, but Halne would not be moved on the subject of her faith. It wasn't as if it were her choice to be condemned to this life, where even the things she was born with would harm her. No, she would not let go of her belief after she had lost everything else.
Kneeling down onto the clean sheet that covered the carpet in her bedroom, Halne quieted her mind, her disquiet. Today, she would finish praying, no matter what it took. She had to prove to herself, to everyone, that she was just as capable as she had been in life at worshiping and practicing her religion. Eyes closed and hands clasped, Halne took a breath of air that she did not need. "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." She spoke slowly, carefully. Even that first line was enough for a headache to spring up and stab at her above her left eyebrow. Taking a deep, calming breath, she continued. "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." She clenched her teeth a bit as the pain intensified, coloring and distorting her vision with little specs of light. "Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses--" Halne's senses flooded with the metallic scent as a thin line of blood dripped down from her nose and her vision blurred further, obscuring the edges completely in a black cloud of nothingness. "--as we forgive those who trespass against us." At this, she had to take a moment, the pain in her head becoming as fierce as if someone were driving a white-hot shovel through her skull. Squeezing her eyes shut, she continued on. "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil--" She gasped aloud, feeling the blood starting to flow freely from her nose as her vision darkened steadily, the pain in her head, in her entire body something akin to being burned from the inside.
Halne held on, though, her grasp on consciousness as firm as she could make it. "For thine is the kingdom," a stab of pain accompanied the feeling that she might retch as she coughed up blood, her body beginning to convulse. "...the power..." The blood was beginning to soak the sheet she'd laid out. "...and the glory," she sputtered out as another coughing fit wracked her body and more blood came up. "For ever and ever..." Halne felt the ground rush up to her as she collapsed, fighting feebly to stay awake, to stay conscious, to finish what it was that she had been about, even as it felt as though she might kill herself doing it. It was only one word, two syllables, and even as she screamed the word internally, her throat closed up on it, betraying her. Her vision was completely obscured and the only thing that let her know that she had not slipped off into the welcoming oblivion was the feel of the sheet underneath her cheek. It was becoming sticky with the blood that pooled down from her nose, and from the tears that were streaming from her eyes. It was only one word, and yet she felt as though she were sliding sideways into nothingness, her will breaking as she began to succumb to the blackout.
She willed her hands to clasp together again, but it was as if the pain had completely shut off her capacity to move, to speak. She coughed again, quietly, trying to clear her throat, to will it to work as it should. She lay there, crying, feeling the sobs despite her inability to control them. She fought to cling to her remaining senses as a person treads water frantically to prevent drowning. She parted her lips, the word right there on her tongue like a promise, a guarantee of a soundless sleep once she finally passed out. Steeling herself, Halne drew up every ounce of conviction left in her body as a smile flickered on her lips triumphantly.
"Amen." The darkness rose up and smashed her in the face.