Song Drabble Meme
persephone33 had done a meme where you put your music player on random and write ten drabbles based on ten songs. You could only write for the length of time that the song was playing, too.
I actually had ten different pairings, and set those down before the songs.
Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me. The Harry Potter characters belong to JKR. Avatar belongs to Nickelodeon. Tin Man and Alice belong to SciFi and their writing team. Firefly belongs to Joss. Mirrormask belongs to Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. Push belongs to David Bourla. Supernatural belongs to Kripke.
1. HP - D/G - Joe - "Stutter" (3:52)
Harry looked at Ginny with a stony face, not sure if he could believe what he was hearing. "You weren't home last night and you expect me to believe it was nothing."
Ginny shrugged and didn't quite meet his eyes. It was done and none of his business. He had ignored her for long enough, and apparently being everything he had wanted meant nothing anymore. "Were you even home?" she asked, finally looking up. She and Draco had actually had dinner in her home, and she wanted Harry to catch her with the silver haired divorced man. She wanted him to feel something other than indifference, wanted him to notice her.
Only, it didn't really matter to her anymore if he did. She and Draco had been seeing each other for the past few months and Harry hadn't noticed a damn thing. And last night, Ginny had too much red wine with dinner and allowed herself to cross that final line she hadn't allowed herself to cross before.
And it had been glorious.
Draco had been a careful and patient lover, worshiping her body with lips and tongue and hands. And it had been a different kind of magic, something she hadn't felt in ages.
Ginny stood and laughed at Harry's sputter. "It doesn't matter, Harry. I'm leaving. My lawyer will send you papers in the morning."
2. HP - K/M - Pussycat Dolls - "I Hate This Part" (3:43)
Katie sat heavily as she thought her heart was breaking. There was nothing left to say, was there? Her world had ended and no one seemed to care. It felt as if everything should have ground to a halt, but everything kept spinning past her faster than she could keep up. The stone bench beneath her was cold, coated in front and ice. The cold seeped through her black mourning robes, and she didn't know how she was ever going to get back up again. The routines that had sustained her through the illness were gone now. There was nothing left to do.
Marcus sat down beside her. "Babe, you can't sit here forever."
"Make a space next to her for me," Katie replied.
He sighed and pulled her into a rough embrace. "She wouldn't want that, if she knew this was how it would end. She was brave until the last, like you." Katie began to cry softly, her face pressed against his chest. Marcus folded his arms around her and bent his head down. "I'm sorry, honey," he told his wife with a soft voice. He didn't know what else he could say as she mourned their daughter. She had been ill for such a long time he had thought she would last out the winter this year as well. It had taken them all by surprise, and he didn't know what to do for Katie. "I hate this part," he admitted, voice rough. "I can't stand the sight of you crying."
Katie gave him a mournful laugh. "I want to cry until there's nothing left of me. You'd better get used to it."
3. Tin Man - DG/Cain - Ine Kamoze - "Here Comes the Hotstepper" (4:13)
"This is not music."
"Of course it is."
"This is not music in the OZ," Cain told DG with a serious tone. She couldn't stop laughing at him, couldn't help but try to pull him into a scandalous kind of dance that would no doubt get him tossed into the dungeons of the castle if anyone caught them. But DG had promised that she had locked and barred her suite, and that no one needed her for hours yet.
"Maybe it isn't music in the OZ, but it's still music where I come from." DG pulled herself flush against his form, and grinned at him. "Don't you want to see how it goes?" She gave her hips an experimental wiggle toward his, and she could feel his body start to react to his. "I kind of like how that feels," she purred.
Cain sighed. There was no way to remain serious next to her, he was finding out. "This isn't going to be a dance in a moment," he told her, his arms snaking down around her waist. "I'm fairly sure there won't even be clothes soon."
"Oh, I'm hoping," DG replied with a laugh. "Why do you think the doors are locked?"
DG couldn't help but laugh at the disgruntled expression on his face. Cain didn't like it when she outmaneuvered him.
4. Firefly - River/Jayne - Orange Range - "Asterisk" (4:59)
She moved quickly, faster and faster, running through the halls and wondering if the corridors made a proper labyrinth. If they did, if the angles and turns and sharp edges went somewhere, then there was a purpose to the running. Then there would be something in the center of the labyrinth to gain, something to win, something that would make the running worth something.
River moved quickly, vaulting over the obstacles and swinging off of the lights when she had to. There was a purpose, she was certain. There was always a purpose to the labyrinth, always a reason why there were so many faceless guards to outrun and dodge. She promised not to hold a gun ever again, but that didn't mean she couldn't wield a blade if she had to. There was a simplicity in it, a power in the fluidity of the movement that she knew had been appreciated. Jayne appreciated even if he couldn't understand; he knew weapons and skills inside and out, and could value that in her. He knew how best to wield that to their advantage, and he knew how to make things move inside her that she hadn't even known were there. Oh, she knew logically she had a heart and insides that roiled with the motions to keep the biological mechanisms at play. She understood that in a logical, medical sense. Simon would always keep her functional.
Jayne made her move, made her feel, and she made things calm inside the storm of her mind. He was the eye of her storm, the simple calm before she exploded in a flurry of knives and steel-toed boots.
She fell into the center of the labyrinth and tucked into a roll. She saw the dais, the weight of the stone would be too difficult to move. But she knew inside of it was Jayne, trapped. She had to save him. She had to move.
And then she woke up.
5. Mirrormask - Helena/Valentine - Tori Amos - "Siren" (4:01)
Helena moved through the juggling routine out of boredom and the need for practice. Her nerves were all unsettled. The man that wasn't Valentine was there, trying to learn to juggle, trying to learn a place in the circus. She had her place; she'd always had her place even when she tried to break through it and rebel. She knew that there was somewhere to return to if she had to come back, even if she had never wanted to come back to this unreality that was her reality.
But he unsettled her, set her nerves on edge. She wanted to call him Valentine, wanted to run her fingers along his sleeve even if it wasn't the same coarse fabric. She wanted to lean into him, to see if he smelled the same, to see if he responded to her the same way. She hadn't kissed her Valentine, she hadn't let him know how much she had needed him when she had become something twisted and dark. She hadn't said a lot of things, lying to herself that she didn't need him.
But she did, she did, and she knew that there was no way she could have survived her trip through the lands without him. It was a chilling knowledge, how much she needed him still. How could she move through this world without him?
Not-Valentine smiled at her almost hesitantly, almost bravely. He caught her staring, caught her frazzled gaze. He thought her a coquette, thought her flirting with him. But how could you flirt with someone you knew and didn't know at once? He was different, this Valentine, and she almost wanted to reach out and touch him to see how different he could be.
She was almost half in love with him, just for his face, just for how he sounded. A ball fell out of her hands and tumbled toward him.
6. Avatar: The Last Airbender - Katara/Zuko - Bad Company - "Bad Company" (4:50)
She wasn't supposed to like him, wasn't supposed to like who he represented. He was wealth and power and underneath all of those glares had undoubtedly been the enemy. He was someone that embodied all of the things that had destroyed her culture, all of the things she had grown up hating and promising herself that she would fight until the end of her days.
Only, when he looked at her, that gaze was intense in a different kind of way. When he reached for another bowl of soup and her fingers brushed his, there was static and fire and a rush that shot through her. He mumbled under his breath around her, something that made Toph laugh uproariously every time she was near enough to hear it. Katara could feel her cheeks grow hot around him, and there was only so long she could fool herself into thinking it was his hotter blood temperature.
Katara kept her distance. It was a bad idea. Until she could be sure of herself around him, she had to stay away. She had to be strong, had to take care of everyone. They needed her, depended on her. If she faltered even the littlest bit, and oh, how she wanted to falter, then the balance of things could be broken.
But he stared at her, lips parted as if he was imagining how she would taste on his tongue. And she wanted him to know, wanted him to feel her own blood boil under his touch. She wanted to feel him under her fingertips, wanted to know what his promises tasted like. She wanted to know what his words were when he mumbled at her, when he looked like he wanted to say something profound.
She wanted to tumble off of the pedestal she set for herself, wanted to know what it was like with everyone else.
7. Firefly - Simon/Kaylee - Dhaka - "Underworld (Eternity and A Day Mix)" (5:42)
Simon heard the rumble of the engines as he approached the engine room. She was trying to fix something, and he could hear the clang of something deep in the room. It was a rhythm he tended to associate with her, as she cheerfully whistled while banging on something to try and kick start the rest of the engine coils to working in time with the central motor.
Kaylee looked up with a bright grin as Simon walked in, and he couldn't remember what he had wanted to say. It was always like that. Her smile was like sunrise, rolling through him, and whatever intelligent thing he had wanted to say evaporated. He wanted to impress her, wanted to show her that he could be good for her. Even if all he had was his skill left, not a credit to his name, he could still be worthy of her. He could still protect her somehow, could still provide enough for her. It was how things worked in the Core, and he really had no idea how the Rim worlds deemed relationships like this. In the Core, he had to have wealth and status and respect, had to prove that an alliance between their family houses would be mutually beneficial. Feelings only factored in afterward, if there were more suitable choices than normally available.
But Kaylee never seemed to want that. She stood and looped her arms around his waist, still covered in grease, and laughed easily. "We'll have to get the cleaners out so that won't stain the vest you're wearin'," she said. She leaned up and kissed his slack lips. "And some for your face, Simon. And wherever else I happen to take a shine to."
That broke his frozen spell. "Well, I was actually going to ask you about that."
"The cleaners I use?"
"The wherever else you like," he said, smiling. He disentangled himself from her embrace long enough to shut the engine room door and cover up the panel. "I happen to like you in those overalls."
"You do?" she asked, eyes wide and mouth smiling.
"I also happen to like you not wearing them."
Kaylee grinned. "Shiny."
8. Push - Nick/Cassie - Ashley Tisdale - "Kiss the Girl" (3:22)
She was eighteen now, and it had taken almost forever to track him down after he had run off to find Kira. She had promised to stay safe, to keep low with her mother. Only, her mother had plans within plans and she had run off herself. Cassie was eighteen now, though, and technically she could take care of herself. She'd been doing it since she was eleven, after all.
She laughed at Nick's slackjawed expression once he realized who it was sitting next to him in the dingy Melbourne bar. "Cassie?" he asked, as if anyone else would streak a dozen different colors in her hair and carry gel pens and a black notebook to draw in.
There was no need to say anything. She had missed him, had missed what it had been like to trade comments back and forth. She merely smiled and let him tug on a lock of bright pink hair.
She leaned forward and kissed him softly on the mouth. It would take him another set of forever to figure it out. When it came down to feelings, he was all about protection and not always about sense. Cassie had known that about him, but it was something else endearing about him. "Finally," she said, when she broke the kiss.
He only smiled at her before leaning in for another one.
9. Alice - Alice/Hatter - Seether - "Remedy" (2:46)
This was what the emotion tea was like. This was what feeling was like. Hatter had never tried his own wares; it never made sense to get too accustomed to your own product. Otherwise, all that money rolling in would get caught up in trying all the different bottles he had in the tea shop, and there he would be.
But Alice was different. Something about her was special, and he could see that right away. She was a walking tea shop, everything intense and bright about her. He didn't need a friendship with her to realize this, didn't need to see that there was something about her that just pinged his senses all different ways.
He thought he could step back when Jack claimed her, thought he could leave her behind and forget about the brightness she seemed to bring to his world.
But then there was that feeling, despair and hopelessness and longing and a thousand different shades of regret. If only she could look at him the same way, if only she could want him the same way.
10. Supernatural - Sam/Jess - Gabriel and Dresden featuring Molly - "Tracking Treasure Down" (6:40)
Jess was an artist. She had an interest in painting and sculpture and history of different artistic movements, looking for the next thing to inspire her. She just seemed to find all of it boring somehow, as if she couldn't quite get a read on what would drive her to develop a style of her own.
And then she met Sam. Everything about him seemed too good to be true. He was perfect, and she had to wonder if there was something else there that she just didn't know about him. He said all the right things, kissed like a dream and made her weak in the knees just by touching her. She noticed a more sensual list to her artwork, not that she could put her finger on exactly what was different. It was as if she was seeing herself for the first time, open to the world at large now. It was as if she was finally understanding who she was and what her place in the world was. Maybe she was looking for shadows where they didn't exist, looking for things to disappear just when things were going well because her father had left her mother out of nowhere.
But Sam was not her father, and Sam would never leave her. He was this jewel of a man, that rarity she had never thought existed. He made her feel special, as if he had given up an entire world just to be with her, even when he hadn't.
He sometimes told her impossible stories about ghosts and ghouls, even when it wasn't near Halloween. He liked to tell stories, and she joked that he should be a writer. He should keep track of those stories he told, write them all down in a book and ship it off to a publisher. They were too good, with a feeling as though it was real somehow, even when it wasn't entirely possible. But he always laughed it off, saying that he wasn't a very good writer. He could talk, he could make up stories, but he couldn't seem to translate the ideas to paper the way Jess could bring her artistic ideas to paper or clay.
Jess took it as modesty, and didn't understand why he couldn't see how special he was. There was something about him, something that she couldn't quite pin down, but definitely existed. He was special, and she was sure that the whole world would see it someday.
She still believed it even when pinned to the ceiling and bleeding on him. Sam was special, and Sam was wonderful. She was just sorry she would never live to see it for herself.
Don't be sad, she wanted to tell him as he was screaming. I'm glad I got to see even a fraction of it for myself. I'm glad I had these years with you.
And then the world ended in flames.
I actually had ten different pairings, and set those down before the songs.
Disclaimer: None of these characters belong to me. The Harry Potter characters belong to JKR. Avatar belongs to Nickelodeon. Tin Man and Alice belong to SciFi and their writing team. Firefly belongs to Joss. Mirrormask belongs to Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. Push belongs to David Bourla. Supernatural belongs to Kripke.
1. HP - D/G - Joe - "Stutter" (3:52)
Harry looked at Ginny with a stony face, not sure if he could believe what he was hearing. "You weren't home last night and you expect me to believe it was nothing."
Ginny shrugged and didn't quite meet his eyes. It was done and none of his business. He had ignored her for long enough, and apparently being everything he had wanted meant nothing anymore. "Were you even home?" she asked, finally looking up. She and Draco had actually had dinner in her home, and she wanted Harry to catch her with the silver haired divorced man. She wanted him to feel something other than indifference, wanted him to notice her.
Only, it didn't really matter to her anymore if he did. She and Draco had been seeing each other for the past few months and Harry hadn't noticed a damn thing. And last night, Ginny had too much red wine with dinner and allowed herself to cross that final line she hadn't allowed herself to cross before.
And it had been glorious.
Draco had been a careful and patient lover, worshiping her body with lips and tongue and hands. And it had been a different kind of magic, something she hadn't felt in ages.
Ginny stood and laughed at Harry's sputter. "It doesn't matter, Harry. I'm leaving. My lawyer will send you papers in the morning."
2. HP - K/M - Pussycat Dolls - "I Hate This Part" (3:43)
Katie sat heavily as she thought her heart was breaking. There was nothing left to say, was there? Her world had ended and no one seemed to care. It felt as if everything should have ground to a halt, but everything kept spinning past her faster than she could keep up. The stone bench beneath her was cold, coated in front and ice. The cold seeped through her black mourning robes, and she didn't know how she was ever going to get back up again. The routines that had sustained her through the illness were gone now. There was nothing left to do.
Marcus sat down beside her. "Babe, you can't sit here forever."
"Make a space next to her for me," Katie replied.
He sighed and pulled her into a rough embrace. "She wouldn't want that, if she knew this was how it would end. She was brave until the last, like you." Katie began to cry softly, her face pressed against his chest. Marcus folded his arms around her and bent his head down. "I'm sorry, honey," he told his wife with a soft voice. He didn't know what else he could say as she mourned their daughter. She had been ill for such a long time he had thought she would last out the winter this year as well. It had taken them all by surprise, and he didn't know what to do for Katie. "I hate this part," he admitted, voice rough. "I can't stand the sight of you crying."
Katie gave him a mournful laugh. "I want to cry until there's nothing left of me. You'd better get used to it."
3. Tin Man - DG/Cain - Ine Kamoze - "Here Comes the Hotstepper" (4:13)
"This is not music."
"Of course it is."
"This is not music in the OZ," Cain told DG with a serious tone. She couldn't stop laughing at him, couldn't help but try to pull him into a scandalous kind of dance that would no doubt get him tossed into the dungeons of the castle if anyone caught them. But DG had promised that she had locked and barred her suite, and that no one needed her for hours yet.
"Maybe it isn't music in the OZ, but it's still music where I come from." DG pulled herself flush against his form, and grinned at him. "Don't you want to see how it goes?" She gave her hips an experimental wiggle toward his, and she could feel his body start to react to his. "I kind of like how that feels," she purred.
Cain sighed. There was no way to remain serious next to her, he was finding out. "This isn't going to be a dance in a moment," he told her, his arms snaking down around her waist. "I'm fairly sure there won't even be clothes soon."
"Oh, I'm hoping," DG replied with a laugh. "Why do you think the doors are locked?"
DG couldn't help but laugh at the disgruntled expression on his face. Cain didn't like it when she outmaneuvered him.
4. Firefly - River/Jayne - Orange Range - "Asterisk" (4:59)
She moved quickly, faster and faster, running through the halls and wondering if the corridors made a proper labyrinth. If they did, if the angles and turns and sharp edges went somewhere, then there was a purpose to the running. Then there would be something in the center of the labyrinth to gain, something to win, something that would make the running worth something.
River moved quickly, vaulting over the obstacles and swinging off of the lights when she had to. There was a purpose, she was certain. There was always a purpose to the labyrinth, always a reason why there were so many faceless guards to outrun and dodge. She promised not to hold a gun ever again, but that didn't mean she couldn't wield a blade if she had to. There was a simplicity in it, a power in the fluidity of the movement that she knew had been appreciated. Jayne appreciated even if he couldn't understand; he knew weapons and skills inside and out, and could value that in her. He knew how best to wield that to their advantage, and he knew how to make things move inside her that she hadn't even known were there. Oh, she knew logically she had a heart and insides that roiled with the motions to keep the biological mechanisms at play. She understood that in a logical, medical sense. Simon would always keep her functional.
Jayne made her move, made her feel, and she made things calm inside the storm of her mind. He was the eye of her storm, the simple calm before she exploded in a flurry of knives and steel-toed boots.
She fell into the center of the labyrinth and tucked into a roll. She saw the dais, the weight of the stone would be too difficult to move. But she knew inside of it was Jayne, trapped. She had to save him. She had to move.
And then she woke up.
5. Mirrormask - Helena/Valentine - Tori Amos - "Siren" (4:01)
Helena moved through the juggling routine out of boredom and the need for practice. Her nerves were all unsettled. The man that wasn't Valentine was there, trying to learn to juggle, trying to learn a place in the circus. She had her place; she'd always had her place even when she tried to break through it and rebel. She knew that there was somewhere to return to if she had to come back, even if she had never wanted to come back to this unreality that was her reality.
But he unsettled her, set her nerves on edge. She wanted to call him Valentine, wanted to run her fingers along his sleeve even if it wasn't the same coarse fabric. She wanted to lean into him, to see if he smelled the same, to see if he responded to her the same way. She hadn't kissed her Valentine, she hadn't let him know how much she had needed him when she had become something twisted and dark. She hadn't said a lot of things, lying to herself that she didn't need him.
But she did, she did, and she knew that there was no way she could have survived her trip through the lands without him. It was a chilling knowledge, how much she needed him still. How could she move through this world without him?
Not-Valentine smiled at her almost hesitantly, almost bravely. He caught her staring, caught her frazzled gaze. He thought her a coquette, thought her flirting with him. But how could you flirt with someone you knew and didn't know at once? He was different, this Valentine, and she almost wanted to reach out and touch him to see how different he could be.
She was almost half in love with him, just for his face, just for how he sounded. A ball fell out of her hands and tumbled toward him.
6. Avatar: The Last Airbender - Katara/Zuko - Bad Company - "Bad Company" (4:50)
She wasn't supposed to like him, wasn't supposed to like who he represented. He was wealth and power and underneath all of those glares had undoubtedly been the enemy. He was someone that embodied all of the things that had destroyed her culture, all of the things she had grown up hating and promising herself that she would fight until the end of her days.
Only, when he looked at her, that gaze was intense in a different kind of way. When he reached for another bowl of soup and her fingers brushed his, there was static and fire and a rush that shot through her. He mumbled under his breath around her, something that made Toph laugh uproariously every time she was near enough to hear it. Katara could feel her cheeks grow hot around him, and there was only so long she could fool herself into thinking it was his hotter blood temperature.
Katara kept her distance. It was a bad idea. Until she could be sure of herself around him, she had to stay away. She had to be strong, had to take care of everyone. They needed her, depended on her. If she faltered even the littlest bit, and oh, how she wanted to falter, then the balance of things could be broken.
But he stared at her, lips parted as if he was imagining how she would taste on his tongue. And she wanted him to know, wanted him to feel her own blood boil under his touch. She wanted to feel him under her fingertips, wanted to know what his promises tasted like. She wanted to know what his words were when he mumbled at her, when he looked like he wanted to say something profound.
She wanted to tumble off of the pedestal she set for herself, wanted to know what it was like with everyone else.
7. Firefly - Simon/Kaylee - Dhaka - "Underworld (Eternity and A Day Mix)" (5:42)
Simon heard the rumble of the engines as he approached the engine room. She was trying to fix something, and he could hear the clang of something deep in the room. It was a rhythm he tended to associate with her, as she cheerfully whistled while banging on something to try and kick start the rest of the engine coils to working in time with the central motor.
Kaylee looked up with a bright grin as Simon walked in, and he couldn't remember what he had wanted to say. It was always like that. Her smile was like sunrise, rolling through him, and whatever intelligent thing he had wanted to say evaporated. He wanted to impress her, wanted to show her that he could be good for her. Even if all he had was his skill left, not a credit to his name, he could still be worthy of her. He could still protect her somehow, could still provide enough for her. It was how things worked in the Core, and he really had no idea how the Rim worlds deemed relationships like this. In the Core, he had to have wealth and status and respect, had to prove that an alliance between their family houses would be mutually beneficial. Feelings only factored in afterward, if there were more suitable choices than normally available.
But Kaylee never seemed to want that. She stood and looped her arms around his waist, still covered in grease, and laughed easily. "We'll have to get the cleaners out so that won't stain the vest you're wearin'," she said. She leaned up and kissed his slack lips. "And some for your face, Simon. And wherever else I happen to take a shine to."
That broke his frozen spell. "Well, I was actually going to ask you about that."
"The cleaners I use?"
"The wherever else you like," he said, smiling. He disentangled himself from her embrace long enough to shut the engine room door and cover up the panel. "I happen to like you in those overalls."
"You do?" she asked, eyes wide and mouth smiling.
"I also happen to like you not wearing them."
Kaylee grinned. "Shiny."
8. Push - Nick/Cassie - Ashley Tisdale - "Kiss the Girl" (3:22)
She was eighteen now, and it had taken almost forever to track him down after he had run off to find Kira. She had promised to stay safe, to keep low with her mother. Only, her mother had plans within plans and she had run off herself. Cassie was eighteen now, though, and technically she could take care of herself. She'd been doing it since she was eleven, after all.
She laughed at Nick's slackjawed expression once he realized who it was sitting next to him in the dingy Melbourne bar. "Cassie?" he asked, as if anyone else would streak a dozen different colors in her hair and carry gel pens and a black notebook to draw in.
There was no need to say anything. She had missed him, had missed what it had been like to trade comments back and forth. She merely smiled and let him tug on a lock of bright pink hair.
She leaned forward and kissed him softly on the mouth. It would take him another set of forever to figure it out. When it came down to feelings, he was all about protection and not always about sense. Cassie had known that about him, but it was something else endearing about him. "Finally," she said, when she broke the kiss.
He only smiled at her before leaning in for another one.
9. Alice - Alice/Hatter - Seether - "Remedy" (2:46)
This was what the emotion tea was like. This was what feeling was like. Hatter had never tried his own wares; it never made sense to get too accustomed to your own product. Otherwise, all that money rolling in would get caught up in trying all the different bottles he had in the tea shop, and there he would be.
But Alice was different. Something about her was special, and he could see that right away. She was a walking tea shop, everything intense and bright about her. He didn't need a friendship with her to realize this, didn't need to see that there was something about her that just pinged his senses all different ways.
He thought he could step back when Jack claimed her, thought he could leave her behind and forget about the brightness she seemed to bring to his world.
But then there was that feeling, despair and hopelessness and longing and a thousand different shades of regret. If only she could look at him the same way, if only she could want him the same way.
10. Supernatural - Sam/Jess - Gabriel and Dresden featuring Molly - "Tracking Treasure Down" (6:40)
Jess was an artist. She had an interest in painting and sculpture and history of different artistic movements, looking for the next thing to inspire her. She just seemed to find all of it boring somehow, as if she couldn't quite get a read on what would drive her to develop a style of her own.
And then she met Sam. Everything about him seemed too good to be true. He was perfect, and she had to wonder if there was something else there that she just didn't know about him. He said all the right things, kissed like a dream and made her weak in the knees just by touching her. She noticed a more sensual list to her artwork, not that she could put her finger on exactly what was different. It was as if she was seeing herself for the first time, open to the world at large now. It was as if she was finally understanding who she was and what her place in the world was. Maybe she was looking for shadows where they didn't exist, looking for things to disappear just when things were going well because her father had left her mother out of nowhere.
But Sam was not her father, and Sam would never leave her. He was this jewel of a man, that rarity she had never thought existed. He made her feel special, as if he had given up an entire world just to be with her, even when he hadn't.
He sometimes told her impossible stories about ghosts and ghouls, even when it wasn't near Halloween. He liked to tell stories, and she joked that he should be a writer. He should keep track of those stories he told, write them all down in a book and ship it off to a publisher. They were too good, with a feeling as though it was real somehow, even when it wasn't entirely possible. But he always laughed it off, saying that he wasn't a very good writer. He could talk, he could make up stories, but he couldn't seem to translate the ideas to paper the way Jess could bring her artistic ideas to paper or clay.
Jess took it as modesty, and didn't understand why he couldn't see how special he was. There was something about him, something that she couldn't quite pin down, but definitely existed. He was special, and she was sure that the whole world would see it someday.
She still believed it even when pinned to the ceiling and bleeding on him. Sam was special, and Sam was wonderful. She was just sorry she would never live to see it for herself.
Don't be sad, she wanted to tell him as he was screaming. I'm glad I got to see even a fraction of it for myself. I'm glad I had these years with you.
And then the world ended in flames.