(You have to read from the bottom of the page to the top in order to read them in the right order. I probably should fix it, but meh.)
To his surprise, the waters were calm and still. It appeared that his vessel was the only one daring to be out at such an hour. Still, his blue eyes carefully scanned the area until they nearly memorized the location of every wave in the sea. With a gentle sigh, he leaned forward and rested his elbows on the railing of the ship. From a distance, he looked completely collected and calm... but he had become such a good actor in the last year or so.
He reached into the collar of his shirt and pulled a chain out from under it. On the chain was a sapphire blue band that shimmered in the moonlight. He held it gently between his thumb and index fingers, reading the inscription. Amore Eterne, our love is eternal. Oh, how it lied.
A fellow crewmate had suggested to him to throw the ring into the ocean. And he refused vehemently, insisting that he didn't care about the memories it held. Refusing to admit he was still holding onto those memories. He no longer wore it on his finger because to claim he was taken would be incorrect; still, he couldn't let it go. Perhaps one day it would reconnect him with the only person he ever felt truly attached to.
The only person he truly was attached to.
In his pocket, half a piece of a purple, skull-shaped medallion. Before the final battle with Barnabas, they had split the stone in half.
"Here," she had told him. "This way, we both can share the power it holds. And this way, we'll always be connected."
He had never had to use the stone's power since the final battle, even though it would've been nice. No, he had retired from all of that... fighting undead hordes and whatnot. His opponents were now living and breathing, and he loved the challenge.
He just never expected that his two loves would conflict, and make him lose one.
It was nights like this that reminded him the most. Nights like this hurt the most. Her voice would run through his head in a haunting melody of words and sentences that wouldn't bother him had they not be spoken in her pitch. He could still remember the words from songs she used to sing to pass the time. If he dared to close his eyes, he saw her standing on the water, dressed in her tattered corset and ripped flared pants, her messy ponytail fluttering in the wind. But if he dared to reach for her, her figure would turn into fog on the water and disappear with the wind. And every night when he would retire to the bed in the cabin of his ship, the lack of warmth next to him would remind him as well.
Secretly, he was tearing himself apart. He intended on a short, two-week hiatus to give her time to settle down. He never intended for it to turn into a yearlong separation that had become permanent. But time had just escaped him.
Oh, so much had escaped him.
She had temporarily handed off the monarchy of her flag to a trusted friend and set off on a two-month mission to find herself again. That two months had turned into eight. When she walked out of the palace for the last time, she had no intentions of returning. There were far too many memories locked away in the walls of that beautiful structure, and there was no way she was going to try and cope with them. She had too many bitter memories in her mind, spanning way too many years. She didn't want it any more.
She returned to her hidden little townhouse, where the company of her many pets kept her from going completely insane. She had changed her appearance -- she decided to forgo the ponytail and had cut her waist-length hair to rest just beyond her shoulderblades. But the blood red of her hair still gave her away. She had tried to dye it back to its natural blonde, but the curse that was placed upon her always returned her hair to its blood color. She was forever marked, like it or not.
People were afraid of her. She had become extremely cold and distant, greeting very few with a smile and spitting venom at the rest. Ever since her separation a year ago, she had closed herself off to everybody. She had been wounded once again and was sick of having to heal. No more, she had decided. She wasn't going to put herself out there for the sake of anybody. She should've known when that boy walked in her life, she should have left him alone. She had drug him through a lot, and had gotten close to him, only for it to wind up becoming nothing.
And while she maintained such bitter thoughts, she kept his gift to her -- a sapphire and onyx ring -- in her pocket. When she felt depressed, she'd unconsciously hold it in the palm of her hand. Whether she knew it or not, she still held onto the silly belief that one day he'd actually come back. But it had been a year -- he made it very clear he was no longer interested.
She used her half of the amethyst stone quite a bit, manipulating people into fearing her. She had become a bit of a demon to people, hated by many and feared by most. It was just her defense mechanism -- if you can't love them, hurt them. And while she knew it was wrong, it made her feel safe.
But it never repaired the hole in her heart.
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