Pain

'My dear, why do you cry like you do?" a man's voice echoed in her ears, a voice she knew all too well.

She didn't dare turn back, for fear of what she might see. Instead, she clutched the body closer to her, ignoring the blood staining her white nightgown.

"How could I not cry?" she whispered.

"How could you not cry?" the man repeated, bewildered. "I could give you more than one reason for that, my darling."

She tried to block him out, even though she knew he was right. She cried louder but his voice still infiltrated her thoughts. "He was terrible to you."

"He wasn't that bad", she argued. No matter what, she had loved her father with everything she was.

"Oh, but I beg to differ. Those scars on you back and stomach, do they hurt you, young Esme?"

This time, she turned to face him.

His appearance doesn't surprise her. She had expected it from the moment she heard the sound of his voice. The only difference between the man lying dead on the floor and the one standing before her was the absence of the bullet hole in his ribcage.

"How do you know about those?"

"Because, Esme, I am that burning sensation you feel when you go to sleep and the sheets rub against the scars. I am the unbearable feeling when he unleashes his rage onto you."

"Who are you?" Esme cried.

"I am to be a great friend of yours. Call me Pain."

"I don't need you", she says, turning away.

"No, you don't, but you'll have to live with me." His voice carried a hint of sadness, which made Esme turn back around. His eyes held the same expression his voice did and the young girl knew she carried the same look. Maybe she would just need to accept his friendship. It didn't look like she had much of a choice.

It had been a few years since Pain last visited her and her heart twisted when he showed up again.

"What now?" she said.

"Go home. I'll be waiting for you there."

Her hands shaking and her heart thumping, Esme ran towards her home. She yelled in agony when she saw it going up in flames, and fell to her knees when she saw her mother being carried out by a fireman. She wasn't moving, nor was she breathing. Esme got up slowly but strong arms pushed her back to the ground. Pain.

"Let me go.  Let me go see her."

He just pushed her down harder. Her heart felt as if it might shatter. Her lungs felt as small as her hope. Air refused to enter her broken body. Why did this have to happen? She cried until the sun had set, Pain keeping her glued to the floor.

She had no one. Her fiancé had left for another. Her friends had left for she was ungrateful and miserable every waking moment. The only companion she had was Pain, but he wasn't much. He followed her everywhere now. He was constant. She felt hollow in his presence. The air didn't move, her heart refused to beat normally. The few moments she had without him where liberating, but they were scarce and never lasted very long. Her lover had been able to scare him away but now that he was gone, Pain was surrounding her every movement. He sat next to her now, beside the stolen cop gun. He inched it closer to her.

"Come one, Esme. Why hurt like this? Why suffer when you're reprieve is at the tip of your fingertips?"

She looked up at him, her eyes glistening with tears. Her shaky hand reached for the gun. Her fingers fluttered against the cool metal. She grabbed it, but her fingers shook too much and she dropped it.

Pain smiled kindly at her, making her heart ache with sorrow. He took her hand and wrapped it around the gun.

"Aim and fire", he said softly. "You know what to do."

She looked into his dark eyes, looking for any kind of compassion or love. She found nothing. A small smile played on his lips, almost invisible, but her sharp eyes caught it. Every terrible moment in her life had been caused by this monster wearing her dead father's face. As Pain wrapped its tentacle around her, she realised she did, in fact, know what to do. Encased in his embrace of misery, she aimed the gun. Not at herself, but at Pain, her longest friend. No, she told herself. Not a friend. An enemy. And it was long overdue for her to cut her ties with this toxic enemy.

"Good-bye, Pain."

"Good-Bye, Esme", he says, blissfully blind.

She fired the gun and Pain finally faded away.