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Jan. 18th, 2009 04:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dagas_isaTitle: In the End
Word Count: 371
Rating: PG
Summary: Zomi doesn't have to be alone.
Stripped of everything, the tower, the Shadows, her power, Zomi had to turn her head up and realize what remained.
After this year, so short an eternity, Zomi expected to hear the triumphant crowing of her Other as she faded away, yet even that remained silent.
Arms. She felt arms. Someone held her. Her head rested in someone's lap, all rough fabric. Her hand lay within another's. Not alone. Silent, yes, but not alone for the first time in her life. Odd now, that with the noise drowned out, she could finally find a companion.
"Who?" Zomi stretched her arm up, felt it tremble with the effort required to lift it from the dirt. Lips felt dry, her throat clogged from crying. Eyelids opened. Water clogged her view, but she knew the face that stared down at her.
"It's your sister." The voice, that cold authoritative tone that strung through Zomi's life, a child, an adolescent, in the rows, in the tower, Zomi knew. The trembling words, she did not. "I am here, Zomi. I am here."
Her sister's hands, once perfect and manicured, now bitten and ragged as they were in the rows, wiped the tears from Zomi's eyes. That face looked no less sharp, no kinder than the face that she had known all her life, but it was there, in front of her. Real.
"Nori...I hate you." The words felt no better than she imagined they would.
Those hands brushed through her hair, grooming away the accumulated dirt and smoke. "Hate me. Hate me as much as you wish...but forgive him." Were those tears in her eyes? Slowly--it took effort to do so much as grasp a finger--Zomi lifted her hand and touched Inori's face. Wet. It rained.
Zomi wished for the vigor of anger. A year ago, that wonderful red rage colored every bit of her body and exploded from her. Now, only hollowness. Who betrayed who? She repeated the question, over and over again, cracked lips pursed.
Inori bent over, one ear over Zomi's mouth. She kept repeating the words, again and again, with as much breath as she could muster from her decaying lungs. And finally, Inori heard.
"We all did."
Word Count: 371
Rating: PG
Summary: Zomi doesn't have to be alone.
Stripped of everything, the tower, the Shadows, her power, Zomi had to turn her head up and realize what remained.
After this year, so short an eternity, Zomi expected to hear the triumphant crowing of her Other as she faded away, yet even that remained silent.
Arms. She felt arms. Someone held her. Her head rested in someone's lap, all rough fabric. Her hand lay within another's. Not alone. Silent, yes, but not alone for the first time in her life. Odd now, that with the noise drowned out, she could finally find a companion.
"Who?" Zomi stretched her arm up, felt it tremble with the effort required to lift it from the dirt. Lips felt dry, her throat clogged from crying. Eyelids opened. Water clogged her view, but she knew the face that stared down at her.
"It's your sister." The voice, that cold authoritative tone that strung through Zomi's life, a child, an adolescent, in the rows, in the tower, Zomi knew. The trembling words, she did not. "I am here, Zomi. I am here."
Her sister's hands, once perfect and manicured, now bitten and ragged as they were in the rows, wiped the tears from Zomi's eyes. That face looked no less sharp, no kinder than the face that she had known all her life, but it was there, in front of her. Real.
"Nori...I hate you." The words felt no better than she imagined they would.
Those hands brushed through her hair, grooming away the accumulated dirt and smoke. "Hate me. Hate me as much as you wish...but forgive him." Were those tears in her eyes? Slowly--it took effort to do so much as grasp a finger--Zomi lifted her hand and touched Inori's face. Wet. It rained.
Zomi wished for the vigor of anger. A year ago, that wonderful red rage colored every bit of her body and exploded from her. Now, only hollowness. Who betrayed who? She repeated the question, over and over again, cracked lips pursed.
Inori bent over, one ear over Zomi's mouth. She kept repeating the words, again and again, with as much breath as she could muster from her decaying lungs. And finally, Inori heard.
"We all did."
