Author's Notes: The artwork for this chapter is by my friend A-Rae-Of-Sunshine on Tumblr.
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"From the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I..." - Psalm 61:2
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"This is all your FAULT!!!"
That's what Alice Angel screamed as Sammy was knocked back by a punch dead into the side of his face. A yelp, a skid, and a splatter, and then Sammy was left with his legs outstretched, one arm dangling limp in front of a leaning torso and the other pointlessly coming up to feel where her knuckles hit- as if whether or not his body shed ink would even matter. As much as Sammy loathed himself- certainly more than any purely human body would allow- Alice's response left him utterly perplexed...-
...And considering how strained and stressed their limited time was now, totally outraged.
"How could I have stopped the ink demon from ripping her out of my arms?!" Sammy demanded, balling his own fists not to hit back but to prepare himself for retaliation.
And it came. Just as he shouted back, this very same upset would bounce right back at him, her voice echoing not only down the hall but straight into his heart and head.
"That's not what I meant, and you KNOW it, you damn bastard!"
With Sammy having stumbled backwards with her blow before, its deliverer had plenty of space to step down from the stage, literally stooping down to his level. Her approach- her still clutched fists by her sides- forced the man to take a step back, and then... then came something she had kept inside for a long, long time, even as many two voices in one still straining to accept what they carried off her tongue.
"YOU...lulled her into trusting the demon- into trusting this...hell!" the angel began to seethe, blame twisting her expression into a scowl. "When I first saw her- saw her coming to me on her own after knowing you decided she's somehow yours...I was so scared. Back then, I was scared she was like Henry- that she would simply...take from me, too, and that since you even encouraged her to know the ink demon, that maybe she would in some foolish hope take from me for his sake. But now I realize...there's SO much more to be afraid of than that, and I still managed to pick the wrong reason to fear."
As one voice strayed into the other back and forth- like rocking from one train of thought into another- one eye and one socket pinched together into something that resembled Susie more than Alice had allowed herself to show before...no less in front of the man that took not only a superficial shred of joy so many decades ago the angel could have used before crossing into their limbo...but also, she believed, he who permitted another woman to be taken from the little she had left, too.
"She had a safe place. She could have stayed. God, she could have STAYED in your PATHETIC hidey hole and never look back upon the rest of this wretched world that wished her DEAD! But she wanted to leave...of course, she wanted to leave. We all do. And you trusted the demon so much that you felt her safe to fly into the spider's web all on her own..."
Of course, this web referred to Alice- the black widow of the studio's dusty cobwebs- but finally as Sammy studied her face, watching her justified rant, something clawed inside him that this could be other dangers too. The searchers, the butchers, the...-
And with satisfaction, she set forth one final sentence to finish fabricating that worry into reality just for him to bask in, surrounding him with not only the truth but with the worst of it...that he deserved to hear:
YOU ARE READING
A Rock in the River
FanfictionI've always asked what there was to live for after I died. My answer was to exist, to try to reach the unfathomable glory of the god whose dark, dripping smile loomed over us. Every waking moment in a life with no rest was filled with prayer- a pray...
