#195-White Knights
White knight after white knight had come to save her. Bernard, Gavin, even Bobby in his way wanted to save her from her demons and help her find peace. Of course not one of them could tell her what that peace was supposed to look like.
No, that wasn't it. They knew exactly what it looked like. For Bernard peace was her curled against his side, looking up at him adoringly and doing exactly as he wished. Pleasing him sexually was tertiary to obeying without question and looking beautiful so he could bask in her reflected youth. It was his proof that she was doing those two things. In the end she was not a mindless murderer. Killing solely for profit and the status that brought did not move her for long. Knowing that she would only ever be a tool for him burned and she had to get free of the fire.
For Gavin peace was the security of his wealth and the trappings of normalcy. Despite her travails, he could shelter her just by loving her and keeping her in his castle. Of them all, he was the most storybook and had the purest heart. His frustration with her was that she couldn't accept his castle, that he could not understand why it frightened her so. It wasn't his fault. He couldn't see the demons at the gate and if he couldn't see them, he couldn't fight them for her.
And Bobby, her darling Bobby. In the beginning she thought he might want to save her for himself. That he would make a castle she could stay in. He was capable, with some time, of seeing the demons and understanding them. With time she realized his own demons were too overwhelming for him and saving her was only a method he used to slay them. He couldn't see hers at all. She felt for him and would have slain them for him, but there was no way.
Heroes, all of them, but each one pushed her further into the role of villain until she wasn't at all sure anymore that she could get free of it.
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