Welcome to Gaia! ::

Acrucis stood outside the safe house, scratchy wool blanket wrapped tightly around her like a second skin. With it she covered up the blood stains the clung to her hair, and clothes. Multiple street lamps lit the road ahead as a light night time fog rolled it's way in creating a near surreal atmosphere. The only sound to be heard was the hum of electricity powering the lights above and the random vehicle that drove past.

To say she was scared to be outside after everything that just happened was a vast understatement. "Lord please protect me." She had no desire to run into the one responsible for the death of the student or Thraen's injuries. Fear paralyzed her for many moments knowing that the person was still out there and that somewhere between here and home was the body of the boy, the boy she was too late to save, the boy they had left for someone else to find. Knowledge she could never forget, a mental image she could never erase.

The Senshi of Prayer looked longingly over her shoulder at the building behind her, suddenly feeling completely alone when she no longer sensed his power signature.

With her mind and body exhausted from expending so much energy and the emotional roller coaster she'd been though, Acrucis was left teetering where she stood. The need to rest tugged at the edge of her consciousness threatening to claim here right then and there. Acrucis closed her eyes for a moment to gather what courage she had left and began walking in the general direction of home.

Her body was numb, moving now of it's own accord as she withdrew into the recesses of her own mind. No longer in the company of another, the need to be someone else's support all but gone Acrucis felt herself crumbling inside. Silent tears fell from red rimmed eyes down pale cheeks only to be absorbed by the blanket she held so close. The more she dwelled on the student the more her heart clenched painfully in her chest.

Having reached the building where she once sat just earlier that evening, her imagination began to replay the events that occurred that night again... and again... and again, to the point that she could see ghost images of his bloodied body in her peripherals, slumped against every street lamp she approached. "I-I shouldn't ha-have taken my time..." A lump grew in her throat making it hard to breath as she tried desperately hard to keep from crying. "W-we shouldn't have left him like that." All she wanted to do... all she ever wanted to do was help people and she had already failed. "I-I should have at least tried-tried something... anything."

"I'm sorry... I-I'm so sorry..."

Acrucis fell to her knees, hand pressed firmly against her chest. Curled into a ball, her side resting against the brick siding of the old building she allowed herself to succumb to the emotions she tried so hard to keep at bay. The pain of failure, of loss, hurt so badly. Nearly two years she spent time in and out of the hospital, death was something happened all around her, there had been a time she had all but pleaded for it herself ready to give up, for the sickness to end.

"L-lord.. why give me this a-ability i-if I can't save anyone? Wh-why give me the h-hope that I c-can make a difference, just t-to take it away? I-I don't know what to do."

I don't know what to do...