[fic] where angels dare (fic for girl_ofsecrets)
NOTE: done for this fic meme, takes place the night of Bee's wedding, long after the reception
She can still hear the scream dying in the night.
“You need help.”
“I just…need to lay here a sec. That’s all.”
The stars are brilliant, this far from the bright lights of Paris. Darkness fills the cemetery, the earth is hard under her back. She’s forgotten these things, the little pieces of a bigger picture that lifted her beyond the places where pain and desperation made her hollow. This fills her up, makes her whole.
“You were amazing with those vampires.”
“Thanks.”
“…why’d you do it? I thought you were retired.”
“I am…but vampires kill, and Bee got married today.”
“I don’t understand.”
She’s not surprised. Claire understands violence and blood, she’s seen it and can endure it. She understands being a hero, being what she is. She even understands protecting the ones you love, she’s been there for some of the worst that Baileigh’s faced.
“When I was a little girl, Mom used to tell me that the stars were angels looking down on us from Heaven.” Hank explained quietly. “That’s why they twinkled, ‘cause angel wings flap and shit. She said everyone in our family ever born before me was there, lookin’, and all proud of me and shit.”
“Yeah? You believe that?”
“I believe that someone sees. I believe that what we do matters.”
She believes it with a simple purity that makes her wonder if this is what her dad feels when he prays. Maybe this is her religion, her faith in every movement having meaning. It’s the reason she went into the streets of an unfamiliar city, heading straight for its darkest corner.
Two vampires, one for her and one for Bee, with a close friend who would remember and keep her secret. She’s bloody and broken and will be sore in the morning…but she’s left a beautiful scar on Paris for both of them. In the shadows, she’s cut out a pound of black flesh and filled it with light.
“I believe Mom can see me.” She whispers, lifting a hand to the sky as if to touch it. As she says it, she knows it’s true.
She believes her mother can see her bless her closest friend’s union by striking a blow in her name…one time, one night. She believes that she’s made a difference by lightening another Chosen One’s load by two that night.
If she closes her eyes, she can hear them…the humans those vampires won’t touch, the pleas for mercy that won’t be heard.
And the scream from each one that would pierce the night. If she closes her eyes, she can hear them fade into nothing, truly for the last time. She can hear life moving on.
She can still hear each scream dying in the night, a soul saved.
She listens, because she will never hear this song again.
She can still hear the scream dying in the night.
“You need help.”
“I just…need to lay here a sec. That’s all.”
The stars are brilliant, this far from the bright lights of Paris. Darkness fills the cemetery, the earth is hard under her back. She’s forgotten these things, the little pieces of a bigger picture that lifted her beyond the places where pain and desperation made her hollow. This fills her up, makes her whole.
“You were amazing with those vampires.”
“Thanks.”
“…why’d you do it? I thought you were retired.”
“I am…but vampires kill, and Bee got married today.”
“I don’t understand.”
She’s not surprised. Claire understands violence and blood, she’s seen it and can endure it. She understands being a hero, being what she is. She even understands protecting the ones you love, she’s been there for some of the worst that Baileigh’s faced.
“When I was a little girl, Mom used to tell me that the stars were angels looking down on us from Heaven.” Hank explained quietly. “That’s why they twinkled, ‘cause angel wings flap and shit. She said everyone in our family ever born before me was there, lookin’, and all proud of me and shit.”
“Yeah? You believe that?”
“I believe that someone sees. I believe that what we do matters.”
She believes it with a simple purity that makes her wonder if this is what her dad feels when he prays. Maybe this is her religion, her faith in every movement having meaning. It’s the reason she went into the streets of an unfamiliar city, heading straight for its darkest corner.
Two vampires, one for her and one for Bee, with a close friend who would remember and keep her secret. She’s bloody and broken and will be sore in the morning…but she’s left a beautiful scar on Paris for both of them. In the shadows, she’s cut out a pound of black flesh and filled it with light.
“I believe Mom can see me.” She whispers, lifting a hand to the sky as if to touch it. As she says it, she knows it’s true.
She believes her mother can see her bless her closest friend’s union by striking a blow in her name…one time, one night. She believes that she’s made a difference by lightening another Chosen One’s load by two that night.
If she closes her eyes, she can hear them…the humans those vampires won’t touch, the pleas for mercy that won’t be heard.
And the scream from each one that would pierce the night. If she closes her eyes, she can hear them fade into nothing, truly for the last time. She can hear life moving on.
She can still hear each scream dying in the night, a soul saved.
She listens, because she will never hear this song again.