(Her) Divine Punishment

Ending C - Closure

          "Tatum..." The voice of Trinity echoed beyond the unknown darkness that she had drifted into, falling into a pit of nothingness, "Tell me... What is it that I should do?"
          Trinity fell, and continued to fall for almost an eternity. Memories of her past came flowing into her mind as her eyes closed, almost too much for her to withstand. She remembered the time Tatum and her first met, and when they first built some kind of relationship. Trinity was confused, she never had someone show interest in her, though at this time in her life, she was able to hide her true self and reflect that of an innocent bystander. Her face glowed with purity, but her heart was the complete opposite. It took a lot for her to open herself up to Tatum, but after doing so, she felt like it was easier to open herself to others.
          But the fear was still there. She often felt like she couldn't trust anyone, even the man who she would fall in love with.
          Her eyes finally opened, with a strike of lightning rupturing the outside world. Her apartment was dark and her window sill was wide open, allowing the sight of the violent thunder storm to watch her from the window. Trinity quickly stood off her bed, quickly putting on a white silk nightgown as she had awakened from her strange slumber nude. She opened the door that led to the living room, but it strangely led to an outside world, somewhere she was familiar with.
          The fog was rather thin, thinner than the last she had been here. She slowly walked along the stone flooring that was surrounded by a pure green grass with a fancy black railing fence on the edge of the stone flooring. Everywhere she looked, there was a gravesite with random names being placed on them.
          "T-The graveyard!?" She shouted as her slow pace quickly gathered haste.
          She hurried down the stone path, passing bystanders in her haste, whom strangely did not even acknowledge her presence. She turn a left, and then a sharp turn as the paths divided. The graveyard was rather large, she remembered how much she disliked the walk to the certain gravesite she would always visit.
          "Tatum! ... Tatum..." She panted as she rushed, stopping in front of Tatum's gravesite as she knelt down, breathing heavily from her rushing.
          "You know-..." The voice of a man spoke behind Trinity, making her turn her head toward them. Her eyes widened as she took a step back, spotting Doctor Stein walking and talking, "Once someone dies and leaves their body, their soul creates an illusion that gives forth a feeling of closure, but they are only blinded by their murderer's curse. A curse that causes them to trend in the path of sorrow and self-hatred forever more until they are cleansed."
          "Until they're cleansed, huh?" Tatum asked as he rested his hands in his jacket pockets, taking a deep breath as the two stopped in front of the gravesite, "How do we cleanse her then?"
          "I'm-... I'm not sure if Trinity can be cleansed, Tatum." Doctor Stein sighed and took off his hat, showing his respect to the dead, "We can only hope she isn't having too bad of a time now."
          "Why, doc? Why did she have to do it?"
          "What... What happened?" Trinity asked as her head looked down at Tatum, then her eyes read the gravesite, "Here rests Trinity Harper... Am I dead?" She whispered, looking down at her hands as they were translucent to the images of the surface she was standing on.
          "One way to cleanse her soul is to help her find out that she is in fact dead." Doctor Stein spoke as he lit himself a cigarette, taking a small puff, "Trinity, from what I've seen, is hard to crack. I would suppose that she is in denial of her death."
          "Even if she killed herself?" Tatum asked, taking a deep breath as his eyes shut.
          "Aye. At one of our sessions, she was freaking out because she said that you were dead, and that she killed you herself. Well, she said that she was indeed possessed by her demented self, someone she called Demento."
          "... Demento?" Tatum questioned, looking back at her grave, "I only wanted to help her..."
          Doctor Stein placed his hand comfortably on Tatum's shoulder, "You promised yourself that you would move on. There is nothing you can do for her now. She'd want you to move on, for both her sake and yours."
          Tatum nodded his head, "You're... You're right, doc. I have to move on. It's been five years already. I can't let this keep eating me up anymore." He responded to Doctor Stein, proceeding to kneel down in front of the grave to place some flowers down, "I'm sorry I couldn't help you, Trinity, even though I knew how messed up you were. Even today, I love you lots and lots. I hope someday you can forgive me and rest peacefully... These flowers are yours. Black roses, your favorite." He smiled as he stood up again, taking one last look at the grave before turning back to the doctor, "Alright... I'm ready."
          "I'm proud of you boy. And I'm sure Trinity is proud of you too. It'll be hard for anyone to not forgive you after that." Doctor Stein laughed as he began to turn and walk back down the stone flooring to the exit.
          Tatum chuckled as he followed, "Aw, cut it out, doc." He answered. His head turned back to gaze upon Trinity's gravesite one last time before leaving, keeping her memory in his heart as he moved on.
          "T-... Tatum..." Trinity whimpered as she stepped forward.
          Her hand reached down to the black rose, but her hand went through the flower that was given to her. Her eyes filled with tears as she fell to her knees, finally realizing what had happened to her.
          "No-... I'm sorry, Tatum... I wish I could still be there with you. It's all my fault. I know the truth now..." She spoke through her crying. Though as she cried, she felt the material of the black rose along her skin.
          Her pure, shining, tearful eyes stared down at the black rose as her fingers slid along the stem of the flower. Her fingertips gently grabbing the rose petal. She was able to take the flower in her hands and smell it, making her smile widely.
          A bright light appeared from behind her, making Trinity look back. It was Demento, the distorted part of Trinity's personality as she awaited her. Trinity slowly stood up and approached Demento, taking her hand and placing the flower in her hand carefully.
          "You... Deserve to have this." Trinity whispered as she closed Demento's hands against the stem of the flower, a tear running down her cheek as she did so, "I've tried my hardest to forget about you, to ignore you. I tried to change myself, and to cover my flaws after I met him. You're as much of me as I am. We make up Trinity, us two equally. I... I finally accept that I was, or am broken. You deserve to rest in peace more than I."
          Demento tilted her head, her neck cracking as she did so. Her lips parted slightly as gurgling sounds came from within. Though, a bright light had materialized from Demento's twisted image, blinding Trinity from her image. As the light vanished, Demento had turned into a youthful Trinity, with the book she had wrote in her hands.
          Trinity smiled as the childish version of herself, taking the book from her hand. It was as if they traded the book for the black flower. Demento, in the form of the child, smiled up at Trinity. The smile was pure, more purer than any smile that Trinity had seen in so long. Demento then turned around to walk through the white fog that had surrounded them. The fog then formed into an orb of light that quickly shot up into the blue skies, leaving a fading white swirling line in it's trail, fading within seconds.
          Trinity sighed and looked down at the disturbing book, feeling the eternal flames of hellfire form all around her. Dropping her grasp of the book, Trinity sat down on the ground, letting her head drop as the flames surrounding her more so. The flames increased in size, and the familiar fog was soon replaced by a thick black smoke. She wasn't blinded by the truth no longer. The flames had symbolized something anew, a new hell that was beginning for her. Her divine punishment was just starting.