Dance Till I Die (gxg) ✓

"Ninjas Cry Sometimes"

        "It's―your―fault." 

         With every word, Isla threw herself against Ace. Her small fists battering against her, her face streaked with the smear of her tears. 

         "How could you?" 

         "I am sorry," Ace said tightly, letting Isla shove against her without moving. "I―I am truly sorry."

         "My mom is dead." Isla's chest was heaving, her bright black eyes shiny with tears. Her little hands knocked against Ace's shoulders. "My mom is dead!" 

          Isla would grow up without a mother. Without Mavis.

          Ace had not cried since she was eighteen, but something cracked in her now. For the past two days, she had been frozen with grief. A storm, unraveling her from within. On the outside, she had been ice. Impenetrable. But now, with Isla in her arms, knowing that this beautiful, funny, intelligent girl would no longer have Mavis in her life, would never see her again . . . something in Ace broke again. 

          Into a thousand pieces.

          A tear slid down her cheek. "I'm sorry," Ace breathed. "I am so―so sorry."

         "You promised me!"  Isla screamed. "You promised me! You promised me! You promised!" 

          "I know," Ace whispered, and she would never forgive herself. She knelt onto the ground, and Isla hurtled towards her, still aiming at her with fierce punches. Instead of resisting, Ace clutched her tightly.

          "My mom," Isla sobbed. "Mommy. Mommy."

          Ace held her, throughout the whirlwind of her tiny strikes. And when Isla relaxed finally, when she became limp and trembling, Ace said, "I know. I know."

         "You promised," Isla mumbled.

         "I―I loved her, too," Ace said. "I wish she was not gone, but it is . . . it is you and me, little ninja."

         "You and me?"

         "Yes," Ace whispered.

        "How . . . how did it happen?"

        Ace thought of the trickle of blood on Mavis's forehead. The bullet embedded there. She thought of how Mavis's body had slumped to the ground, and Ace had turned around, struck with that devastating realization.

      Aleksi's mouth had been full of blood. He was laughing.

       She had stepped on his face. She heard his teeth crack. And his neck, when it broke, was the second most glorious sound she had ever heard.

       "She died in my arms," Ace whispered.

       Tell Isla I . . .

        Mavis had never finished.

        "She wanted me to tell you that she loved you," Ace said quietly. "Those were her last words. She loved you, more than anything in the world. She wanted you to know."

         Isla's body shook in her arms. Ace smoothed her soft hair, easing into the hug. She had never been comfortable with touch, but this . . . this was different. Isla needed her, and Ace―Ace needed Isla.

        "We will get through this together," Ace said.

        "You didn't keep your promise last time," said Isla in a tough, shaking voice.