(PRP) Scars....Tear My Heart Open. (Karloff and Ailbhe) FIN!

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Karloff had meet Terra Stryker, and he had fled when he could. The wind whipped against his scarred face. Still vivid and bright against his dark skin, he had hid them all this time...but now they were hidden anymore. No one could see him like this. No one, no one should see what was left of his past.

Scars were all that was left, the only sad reminder of a once happy life. He had been blessed then...he had been whole. And all that had been gone in a moment.

So he ran as if the devil was behind him, hoping not to see anyone---- let alone, someone he knew.  

[elfstar89]

Ailbhe had never been the same since Karloff had left her behind that sunlit day, in fear that a curse on him would cause him to lose her. While she had still been the cheerful and playful biter on the surface, she wasn't the same.

Ail had discovered loneliness. She'd discovered fear. Karloff had left her behind, even though he liked her. He hadn't intended to ever see her again. Where was he? Was he OK? Had he lost someone else? Was he...dead?

Ail had learned to cry. She went to lonely groves to cry when the loneliness ate her. There, she wept, fear and loneliness and worry devouring her, mind, body, and soul. She always came with deep blue eyes downcast as the wind blew her short golden hair, and walked away with hair rumpled and eyes red.

Today was different, as she walked to the grove. Karloff. Karloff was back. He looked as though he'd gone through some horrible battle, but he was here. He was alive. He was safe. Tears streamed down her snowy cheeks already streaked with her father's blue tiger stripes. She stood transfixed a moment.

Ailbhe couldn't hold herself still any longer. She burst forward into a gallop toward him, a graceless, desperate gallop filled with longing, hope, and a kind of mad fear that this was all some kind of dream. She knocked headlong into him, tumbling.

It was real. She could feel his warmth there in front of her. The tears still fell, and a sad smile began to play across her feline features.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Karloff had not been expecting what happened, he hadn't thought about really running into anyone he knew. While his mind reeled with fear and a driving need to run until his heart burst or until he reached a point where he was forced to stop running.

He wanted to run to the only one who had ever accepted him exactly how he was. The only friend he'd ever truly had. Ailbhe would have accepted him no matter what happened, but he could never see her again. Never be friends with her. It was one day, and only one day and now an eternity of damnation.

But fate would not have it so.

As his mind continued to reel, he found his body following suit. A rolling, plunging disturbing motion that found his head reeling and his body crashing to the ground heavily. His claws flailed out, afraid of what was attacking him.

Vivid, horrifying remembrances of what had once happened coming to him. The nameless, horror killing his mother...destroying all that was left of his past and any dreams of a future. With fury, he struck out--afraid that the monster had returned to finish the job.  

[elfstar89]

Ail flinched back as Karloff clawed at her as she knocked them both over. "It's me, Karloff--it's me! Ailbhe!" she cried very softly through her tears. Her own angelic eyes searched his monstrous eyes. They looked tormented since she'd seen him last. But he was here. He was back. She could feel him. He was all a dream. That was all that was really going through her head.

Her mind was a mess of relief, and all the while, pure tears streaked down her face. "You're back--you're back!" was all she could say as she sobbed, trying to nuzzle him, the sad smile on her face. She didn't care that he had run from her and might have more emotional baggage now. All that mattered to her was that he'd come back and he was back, safe and sound, laying more or less beneath him in the early winter snows. Scarred, but alive, panicked by her greeting, but so very warm.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

As he flailed out, the flashbacks were over-taking him. The black cave, the frigid cold...blood, blood everywhere. The face of his mother, the last words she spoke to him...The torment of seeing what happened next.

Then crushed, unbreathing...blood pooling in a warm pool beneath his face. The torment of his father's face...And then---

It was gone, and a voice he thought he would never hear again was there. It was Ailbhe. He backed away from her, looking at her as if mesmerized. He had promised not to see her again, not to curse her.

He had never wanted anyone to see him like this, and especially not her. She was the kindest....well the only friend he'd had. She'd never been far from his mind.

He looked at her, and for a moment a smile smile twitched across his face. But then the sharp smell of blood hit him hard. He looked down, blood on him...blood so much blood.

Droplets going over to her, and etched on her side was his claw marks. "I'm sorry." He shook his head and backed away in horror, "I--" He was speechless, he had tried so hard not to hurt her and now he had found her again only to hurt her--to mark her like he had been marked.  

[elfstar89]

Ail got to her feet, wincing, and launched herself at his warmth. She buried her face in his shorter moon-hued mane. Her hot tears were dried in the soft hair and she nuzzled him ferociously, desperate to reassure herself that this was no dream. "You're back. You're really back," she whispered to him.

Ail ignored the pain across her flanks and the base of her tail as she snuggled closer. "I was scared. I was so scared you'd died. I was so scared I'd never see you again. Don't leave me again," she whispered to him, trying to keep the tears from falling again. She was failing as she looked up into his masked face, but she smiled even so.

No. He couldn't leave her again. He'd left her a mess as a filly. But he'd come back against all odds that could possibly come between them. If he left again...if he left her again...no. She couldn't bear to think about that. She'd shatter beyond repair if he left her again. The very idea of him leaving her set her into fits of spasms from increased sobbing from worry and fear. He couldn't leave her again!  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Karloff felt the soft tenderness of her face in his hair, and for a moment it was so easy to forget that they had only been friends a short time...that he had vowed never to see her again. It all melted away, and for a moment he found himself not resisting warmth or affection, the first of any kind he'd ever had since...the event.

But then, it was back like a sharp jolt. He had hurt her, that was why he had left. The irony smell of her blood sifted up into his nostrils and he remembered what he had done to her. The livid streak across her flank was a bright testament to it. He turned his head away, not wanting to hurt her more or else he would have run. "Don't...please...I hurt you. Don't look at me."

He shut his eyes, turning his head away from her as if it would hide the scars she'd already seen. He'd wanted to spare her his past, his torment. She had been a sweet, untortured soul...and he could see it in her eyes. He had hurt her, hurt her deeply.  

[elfstar89]

Ailbhe trembled as he asked her not to look at him. "What's pain to me compared to seeing you again when I was scared that I'd never see you again?" she whispered. Reaching up, she planted a feather-light horse kiss on his midnight cheek. "I was scared you'd never come back. I was scared you'd died. I was scared I'd never see you again. You hurt me, but it was an accident." As she spoke, her voice slowly began to tremble from an urge to cry.

"Please...please don't leave me again. I was so scared. I cried so much without you. I just wanted you to come back to me." Tears started dripping down her face. All of a sudden, they gushed out from the growing assault of flashbacks to the fears, worries, and the dreadful loneliness.

She cried and buried her face in his mane again. "Please! Please don't leave me ever again! I couldn't bear it if you left me behind again! I don't care if I get hurt from being with you, just so long as I can be with you always. I don't want to lose you ever again!"  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Karloff wanted to run. He felt the small kiss burn on his cheek and he knew it could not be allowed. He would hurt her again, she would become just as scarred as he. He couldn't allow it.

He felt the tears in his hair, and run down the scars on his neck. They still tingled, as if they too were being touched by this sweet emotion. But he could not allow it. He could not give in to her tears. It was best to keep her safe, to deny anything...friendship or...otherwise.

"Ailbhe," his voice was choked. "I...I can't risk hurting you. I never wanted you to see me like this. I have to leave, I can't stay. I will hurt you again, it's only a matter of time..." But he couldn't make himself move away. He couldn't.

His hooves were glued to the spot, it would be the hardest thing he'd ever had to do...to leave her.  

[elfstar89]

"No...no..." she whimpered. "No...you can't...YOU CAN'T!" she cried, tears streaming down her face. "I-it doesn't matter that you scratched me. I-it was an accident. My fangs draw blood, too. B-but, if you l-leave me again, I'll...I'll..." The sobs drowned out her words as her sapphire eyes turned to grief.

Great sobs wracked her body and she sank into the snow at his feet, completely uncontrollable as she cried long and hard at the very thought of losing him again.

She'd broken inside as a filly before. The next time, she might shatter and disappear from this world entirely. Ailbhe cried harder than she'd ever cried before. Not again. Not again. She wouldn't survive losing him a second time. A scream broke free from her sobbing lips and lungs.

"Don't leave me! Don't leave me, Karl! Please! I don't know what I'll do without you!"  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Karloff couldn't stand it. He couldn't face her like this, he wanted to leave...but that would only make her deal with it alone. And whatever happened to her because of that...Well, it would be as if he had done it.

He wouldn't let that be. "Please Ailbhe..."His voice broke, "Wait for me?" He pleaded with her. "I've got to get better. If I promise to return?" He begged it of her. He spoke the lie so easily, she would be fine without him in time...and waiting for him. It would keep her safe. "I'll come back, I promise."

What was the breaking of a promise, if it saved her. When he could control himself more. He would return maybe, check up on her...see that she was happy.  

[elfstar89]

Ail couldn't speak for crying. Nothing would come out. He really was leaving her behind again, and none of her pleas were having any effect, and nor were her tears. Unable to do anything, she lay in the snow and cried, hot tears dripping down her cheeks as sobs racked her body.

This was it. She might never see him again. He was really going to leave and never come back if he left this time, as he seemed so eager to do. He'd die somewhere far away, alone and unwilling to stand next to her for fear that his curse would destroy her. And she couldn't make him see that she'd pine away from grief and loneliness without him.

"P-please...Karl...d-don't leave me...p-please..." was all she could whisper, unable to make him stay this time. Something inside her rooted her to this spot and she could feel the energy leaving her body. Ail couldn't move from that spot, and all that she could see was the image of Karl leaving her behind again in her mind's eye. She was in no state of mind to notice anything for some time.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Karloff had left. He felt like every last once of humanity he thought he had, was being left behind him with Ailbhe.

***

He could feel his pulse accelerating. Karloff was close to where he had met Ailbhe so long ago...And his heart beat wildly. If felt as if it would pulse out of his chest. It had been so long...did she still pine for him? Did she still cry for him?

He hoped it, because he had discovered how much she meant to him. But...he hoped she'd moved on, because he had never wanted to hurt her. That scar of hers would be a vivid reminder of an accident that he had caused. He hated the pain he had inflicted on her then, and then again by leaving. He wished that he could have made it all go away.

But she...she was like coming home. She was the only home he ever had, the only good that was left in him revolved around her.

He looked across their spot, and he saw her. His breathe caught. "Ailbhe..." It was barely a whisper. "I promised, I'd come back."  

[elfstar89]

Ailbhe hadn't really left the vicinity of where she'd last seen Karl. She couldn't bear to. She was just too broken up inside to leave. Most of the time since he'd left, she'd been crying. It was different this time. The tears were silent, since she'd lost almost all of her energy to cry, but she hadn't lost the grief.

Ail snuggled against the roots of the trees, half wrapping her deep violet cloak around her. She didn't entirely care anymore, but she knew others might.

Ail had been lying there for a while, the snow landing on her and half covering her. Suddenly, something inside her caused her to look up. Looking up, she thought she saw Karl striding across to their spot and whispering her name.

No. Please. Please, don't let this be a dream. The lost energy was flooding her, as these waking dreams always did. The tears flooded her and she felt alive enough to choke back a sob. "Karl?" she whimpered. "Is this another dream?"  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Karloff walked up to her, his heart beating wildly. It felt like home when he saw her, something he had only experienced very briefly. Yet, he knew that this was it. He couldn't bear to leave her again.

So long ago, he had promised to come back, lied to help her. But now he was better, against all odds. He loved her, and he was whole.

He nuzzled her gently, feeling the tears on his skin. He had caused those tears, "I won't let you cry again. I'm back, I won't leave." He planted a small, bashful kiss on her cheek. "I kept the kiss you gave me, until I could return it to you."