paradisa | 79;

[Things have changed from the days when getting into bloody shootouts and being thrown out of windows were all part of a routine procedure for Spike. When they had the technology to treat severe injuries, and he could bounce back from broken bones in a matter of weeks or even days. Now he has to experience the whole damn thing. It's out of sheer stubbornness that he doesn't get impatient and put out an open call for a "magic" doctor to speed up the process of regaining use in his hand. (Whatever they're really called. As many times as he's had to use them before, he should probably know that.) Too bad the only ones he could trust aren't around anymore.

For a while he had daydreamed about jumping off of the castle; which isn't the most original idea, and yet never seems to happen. Something always holds him back. The spectacle of it all, maybe. Spike is generally a private person, and the last thing he wants is to have his name blasted over the journal after he made a mess on the castle steps. Still, in two weeks he could be as good as new. If he were less experienced with the whole process, it would have been an easy sell.

Instead, here he is, slumped in a chair in the clinic lobby. Bored out of his mind.]

Hey. [He hasn't opened the journal once in weeks, and he doesn't bother to look back at what he missed when he dictates to a blank page. The only reason he has it open now is to put off walking up to that counter and have them berate him for leaving in the first place. Small steps.] What's the next holiday? I need to start marking this shit down.

[LATER --]

( Queen Anne )

[After his prognosis he has the journal on him again. He thinks about doing this in person, but he does a better job at faking good health this way. He has a feeling he'll be doing a lot of that in the foreseeable future.

She doesn't deserve to wait.]

I haven't forgotten.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ So it goes back to that again. Joshua the demon. Joshua the mass murderer. Joshua, the one deserves only to be alone and perhaps not even that. But it was never pity that made her accept his invitation. ]

I cannot remember how it felt to have nothing to fear. To go to sleep at nights without fearing knives in the dark. But they say-- it is safest in the eye of the storm.

[ And, she has always known he meant her well. What a waste. ]

I wanted to feel safe.

[He doesn't see the point in taking it back further than Paradisa, even if that's what she'd rather hear. Some issues are his alone.]

Then it's for the best that I got of there.

[ That has her hardening her voice, sounding so very cold. Her words are meant out of spite. ]

You may believe that, if you wish.

[It makes it sound like his choice. As if he never meant to risk his life every time he went to the mansion.]

It's karma. You'll have more luck without me.

[ Why is it so hard to say the simplest things? Like I'm sorry and come back. Pride is what it is. ]

You did not believe so, when you taught me how to kill him.

[ They're long past beating around the bush, surely. ]

[She never turned him away, either.]

I guess I should have made that less obvious.

[ Possibly why she outed him as the traitor in advance. ]

What would you have gained had I done so?

[Can you be a traitor when it's expected all along?]

Probably the same thing in two weeks.

So all this-- it was all for naught?

It was always a long shot, anyway.

I said to you once, how he told me where I can hide from him. Where I would be safe.

[He exhales sharply, but holds his temper.]

Then why are we still talking?

That is a question you must ask yourself, Spike.

[Don't spin this back around. Didn't anyone ever tell her that's his thing?]

It's different for me. I don't have a lot of options for entertainment.

We are not here for your amusement.

[ Who cares that he's probably joking... ]

[If that isn't an ironic statement.]

And yet here we are.

Do I amuse you so, Spiegel? Why?

[This is one of those moments, when it would be so easy to say something cruel just to be a badass over the whole thing. The comeback is on the tip of his tongue, but he bites it back.

He already let her get to him once.]

I said I'd leave you alone.

[ He's more clever than others to keep from falling to her old tricks. ]

And if that is not my wish?

[He's silent again, long enough that it's hard to tell what he's thinking or if that weighs in on him at all. If anything, she's bad for his health.]

You should have asked him to kill me.

[ Maybe that's the real reason he stuck around, his penchant for things that are bad for his health. But even now, she can't understand his self-destructive ways. ]

Why? What have you done to deserve death?

[He hadn't meant it that way, exactly, although the fact that he imagined her fawning over his dead body in the mansion even occurred to him... Well, there's proof that he's too medicated to be handling this well.]

I'm already dead, don't you know?

Dead men do not speak.

[ As for her, well, she has a penchant for fawning boys who think her more whole and innocent than she is. He doesn't fall under those anymore, which puts them both in an awkward position, hm? ]

[That was a choice she made as much as him. Which begs the question, of the two of them, who would be called the better liar?]

That's what makes this place so special.

If it is the coffin you miss, I could have it sent to your doorstep.

Lucrezia

gottaknockhard - 2014-03-09 14:52 (UTC) - Expand

Spiegel

lucre - 2014-03-09 15:08 (UTC) - Expand

gottaknockhard - 2014-03-09 15:17 (UTC) - Expand

lucre - 2014-03-09 15:22 (UTC) - Expand