[P] it's you, it's always been you

[Salome]

salome de la rosa

enough with the lies tell me one
more time my blood your line is this you inside

H

e comes closer, after spouting his rage. His anger. Salome refuses to leave. She refuses to show her own anger. It bubbles to the surface once before being pushed back down. Gareth is right. He was right. She was a coward. She didn't have the capacity to make him trust her. Maybe she wasn't asking him to trust her. Maybe this whole thing had been a mistake.

"Yes" the woman says quietly, having dropped her gaze when he was before her. She reared back now, looking at him. Not defiantly, but defeated "I was a coward. I still am a coward, you're right" a pause "I am not asking you to trust me, Gareth. I don't know what I'm asking of you. I don't even know why I am standing here" because it was clear to her that he held nothing but contempt for her now "if... you don't want anything to do with me, I will leave."

It was perhaps the only thing she could promise him, as selfish as that was.

"I thought I could ignore what happened. I thought... I thought I could continue on, believing nothing had. When I saw you again" she trails off, frowning. It woke up hunger. "it doesn't matter" she soldiers on best she could "the point was, I didn't... want anything to change. I wanted to go back to standing in the sun. With you. Only you. But things have changed. I promised you answers. I didn't give them to you."

She was ashamed she ran. She thought that nothing in this world would scare her now. But that wasn't true. There was only one thing that scared her; facing what had happened. Accepting it and moving on. But without Gareth... she did not want to move on. She could feel his blood flowing, hot. She swallows, glancing away again. She doesn't want to see the veins beneath his coat. "I wanted to release you" she murmurs to the man "so you can stand in the sun."

Without her.

"Because I can't" it wasn't right to ask him to give up anything for her "I was ashamed. You did nothing wrong, Gareth. This... this isn't your fault. It's mine. I am ashamed" I'll just end up hurting you "I should have done things differently. It isn't right to place that on you, to make assumptions of what you'd do. If you want to know the truth now, I will give it to you." But be prepared for it to never leave one's mind.

"Gareth, I was scared you'd reject me" Salome's eyes turned to him again, an underlying fear welling up "I didn't want to face you. The thought of you turning away from me hurt. But it was only a thought - I shouldn't have become so consumed by it. But... the truth is, I care for you. Deeply. As... As" pink tints her cheeks "more than friends."