Love Is A Battle(Sequel to A Fallen Rose Behind a Hidden Mask)

Chapter 11: Why does She Love me?/Devil Take the Hindmost

Raoul~

I sat alone on a bar stool, still in my rumpled clothes from the night before, several empty glasses in from of him. I have evidently been there all night after my talk with Angelique still not believing what she told me about kristoff and luke

"One more." i said to the barman

"Aw, buddy, don'tcha think you had enough? It's practically morning all ready." The Barman said to me

"One more, I said!" I snapped at him

"All right, all right." The barman said pouring a drink. "My shift is over anyway, so let's settle the bill, ok?"

I dumped a handful of change on the bar.

"Jeez, you're in a bad way, ain'tcha. Worse than most that end up here." The barman said as a door behind the bar opens. "Here's the morning shift. Maybe he'll know what to do with you.

He grabs his coat and exits as another bartender enters; the new bartender immediately turns his back on me.

"Yes, what to do with me. That's the question, isn't it? That's always been the question, ever since the beginning... She looks for sympathy,I give her sorrow.She asks for honesty,I've none to borrow.She needs my tender kiss,she begs it of me!I give her ugliness,why does she love me?" I sang sighed.

Third person~

"She yearns for higher things,things I can't give her.The rush that music brings,I can't deliver.And even when she sings,and soared above me,I try to clip her wings - -Why does she love me?" Raoul sang taking another swig of his drink.

I turned to the figure behind the bar. "One more drink, sir...That's what I need, don't you think, sir?" I sang. "Leave the hurt behind..." The bartender lifts his head, and for the first time we see his face, reflected in the mirror. It's Victor.

"Didn't you hear me? Another drink!" I said roughly to the man

Without a word, he pours a glass and shoves it in front of Raoul. Raoul,oblivious, reaches for the glass, and drinks.

Raoul-

"She wants the man I was,husband and father.At least, she thinks she does.She needn't bother.Beneath this mask I wear,there's nothing of me.Just horror, shame, despair.Why does she love me?How 'bout you, sir?Tell me, what am I to do, sir..?Leave the hurt behind..." I sang

Suddenly the door flies open. Meg enters in a bathing costume. Her hair is wet, and she is wrapped in a towel.)

" Morning, Bernie!Coffee, please!Hurry up, before I freeze!I'll just take it black - -" Meg stops dead in her tracks. Startled, I turned. "Mother said I'd find you here."

"Miss Giry." I said

"Do you know where you are?" Meg asked me

"Hell, I imagine?: I said

"Around here, they call it "Suicide Hall". It's where people end up when they don't know where else to go. The hopeless... The desperate. A good place to step off the side of the pier and quietly vanish." Meg told me

"You seem to be a regular." I said dryly

"Me? I come here to swim."

"This town is coarse, and cold, and mean.It's hard to keep your conscience clean.Faceless in the crowd,anything's allowed.And so I come at dawn each day,come to was hit all away...Sink into the sea,blue and cool and kind,let it set me free...Let the past unwind...Leave the hurt behind." Meg sang to me.