Moonrise

Moonrise

I've got to be honest
I think you know
We're covered in lies and that's okay
There's somewhere beyond this I know
But I hope I can find the words to say
Never again no
No never again

A cool breeze wafted over the murky fields.

The frozen towers rose up out of the wild, marshy land. The flagstone seemed to glimmer in the night. A lone figure stood a few metres away, head bowed as if in eternal prayer. Every muscle in his body was still and taut. He looked more like a statue sculpted under Michaelangelo's touch than man.

The wind pulled at his silvery hair, shattering the illusion of stone. He lifted his grey eyes, his expression carefully impassive. Footsteps sounded through the clear stillness of the night. He turned, a quick yet impossibly graceful movement.

It seemed like he existed in a space-time isolated from the abandoned castle and the weedy, untamed land surrounding him. He existed in a time of perfection and purity. The corner of his mouth twitched to a smile.

"I knew you would come." He said softly, simply.

A weary, resigned sigh escaped the figure's lips. "I always come." Her tone indicated that this was not something done of choice.

"I never forced you."

The figure tilted her graceful head and considered for a moment. "No. You didn't."

"I do love you." The voice betrayed no passion- it was as icy and sweet as morning dew.

"You have killed me with your love." She made an expansive gesture. "Look- look at what I was. Look at what I have become. I destroyed everything most precious to me."

"I never forced you." He repeated, an undertone of desperation colouring his voice.

"You loved me."

"You made me love you." He turned away again, his eyes lingering over the ivory moon, whose light crept over them with mercurile speed. He folded his arms and turned his eyes to the castle.

A light flared in one of the rooms, clear yellowish light- unafraid or unsuspecting of detection. The silhouette of the man inside caused the woman to gasp.

"It's- him." She said, her voice catching.

"Are you afraid to say his name?" A hint of amusement tugged at his lips.

She shrugged dismissively. "Of course not. What an infantile notion." Her eyes shimmered with unshed tears.

"Did you expect him to have escaped? Surely you knew when you came."

"I did."

"And you chose to come."

She laughed bitterly. "I have no choice. Love's manacles bind me tightly. I came- I will always come."

"But you will have to kill him." There was no malice in his tone, just cold reality.

Her eyes widened. "No." She said faintly. "I can't. Have mercy- I will come with you- please don't make me- make me..." She trailed off.

"I won't. Collect yourself. There's nothing worse than seeing a woman cry." He said, shuddering.

A Freudian psychologist would have easily recognised this as a phobia created in childhood. He tried to evade memories of his mother- crying- liquid diamond tears glistering on her beautiful face. No tears.

The entered quietly, moving more stealthy than felines into the familiar rooms. They crept up the stairs. The woman led, for she knew where the light originated from. She pushed open the wooden door. The figure looked up and pushed the black tousled hair out of his startlingly green eyes.

He stood up, the chair screeching on the floor underneath him. "I- I thought you were dead! We thought you were dead..." His baritone was surprised, the hopeful gleam in his eye dulled to pure hatred when he recognised the figure behind her.

The woman swallowed. "I'm sorry."

"But- what are you doing?" His voice grew steadily more alarmed. "You've sided with- with Them. How...why?"

She didn't reply, merely turned her eyes away from him. The man behind her took a few steps closer to him. "Don't ask questions that have no answer."

"I expected a mercenary- not the the prime Betrayer himself." The tone was faintly mocking. "And certainly not my friend."

The figure stepped closer, a gleaming wooden wand between his spindly fingers. "That is what makes you weak." He leaned closer, right to the black-haired man's ear and whispered two words.

He fell to the floor, a glassy look in his deep green eyes. The woman's breath caught in her throat, she turned and ran from the room. She ran with the intensity of one running from more than a physical object. She ran from her friend, from her lover, from her life...

Finally she sank to her knees, fear and loathing clouding her face- her eyes. A cold hand pressed her shoulder. "Why do you run?"

"To escape."

"You cannot escape merely by running."

"Why?" The question was a tortured gasp, scorching her lips as she spit the word.

"Why what?"

"Why am I doing this?"

"Surely only you can answer that question." He regarded her impassively, almost coldly dissecting her excess of emotion. She shuddered.

She looked up into his grey eyes, searching- a plea wrenched from her soul. "Don't you care?"

"Up to a point."

She swallowed, pulling herself to her feet. Her gaze travelled over him, over the smooth angles of his face, the finely toned body- proportioned perfectly. She let her eyes wander his Grecianly statuesque face, bewildered at the pure glow which still hung about his features. "How can you look so- innocent- after what- after what you..."

"That is the difference. I feel no guilt. I have committed no crime to feel guilt for. I am justified. You feel guilty- you feel you have desecrated your friendship."

She turned away from him, wishing she could walk away. She wanted to simply sever the cord that bound them, cast off the shackles that bound her to him. Never again. She thought to herself, trying to make her mouth form the words.

She couldn't.

She loved him. It was obvious from the longing look in her deep brown eyes. "You are different. You say you love me, but your love destroys me."

"I know."

He took her hand in his own and pulled her towards him. She forgot everything as they kissed. There was no reality, no hate, no truth and no crime. There was nothing...nothing but the pale light of moonrise.

Cause you're a god
And I am not
And I just thought
That you would know
You're a god
And I am not
And I just thought
I'd let you go
Never again no
No never again