Day 64: Chapel

[she_is_ruin]

Exchanging life stories with a being she had no personal attachments to? Yomi could do better. Once her nurse came to check up on her at the end of shift, she excused herself, leaving Skulduggery to his own devices. He had gotten some answers out of her, which was more than she owed him. Let him count that as a success.

As for herself, she didn’t feel any more inclined toward company than she had before Skulduggery had found her. If there was no amusement or payoff in spending time with others, there was no point. And in truth, there was some company in particular she would be happier avoiding.

With stronger strides than she’d managed last night, Yomi veered away from the common activity areas, letting her feet carry her out into the hall and up the stairs to the second floor. She felt closer to her old self--which old self, she wasn’t sure--when she was moving with purpose, even if it was only an illusion.

But often illusions had proved themselves more comforting than reality in Landel’s domain, she had to admit. Reality had been nothing but a burden the last few days.

At the end of her walk, she found herself in the Chapel, which was appropriate, since it was the last place she remembered before blacking out the night prior. The fountain, though, that was gone. She stood looking down at the spot where the inscription had been and wondered if she should make the Chapel her destination again in a few hours, when the sun had gone down. Now that Skulduggery was off her case and all.

Comments

[purgatio]

A discussion with one's sibling on the topic of death and words to say to ones yet again living was well and good, but by the end of the shift, the fact remained. Both that girl's words and the note on the board pointed to the fact of Yomi being alive, and it only left Albedo's own experience to see.

One could wonder why he was surprised about her apparent revival, but it came down to the methods. Her wounds that opened on her body during the course of that night hadn't closed but only worsened, as if she had no healing whatsoever. And yet, she did, didn't she? Have some kind of regeneration. So the only factor that could be considered was that it had been turned off. Therefore, when he killed her....

She should have remained dead.

His feelings on the subject weren't as clear as that statement, but he believed what he had thought the day before. If her words in the coliseum were true, then Yomi--

She mourned the loss of the chance of death. He understood a sentiment like that, placed within such a familiar method. Perhaps it wasn't a surprise, then, when he saw long dark hair moving up stairs, that he used what was allotted him to follow behind. By the time he reached the top, the sound of the chapel's doors came, and belatedly, he followed.

Was there an irony to be found? He remembered Meche suddenly, Saint Magdalene, and was thrown off by the corresponding memories. Brothers, death, and defining regeneration. Defining wounds.

The boy swallowed, head cocking as he stared at the back of Yomi, her hair pooling down her back. Like someone pulled, not a moth to a flame, but a creature to something like, he took a step inward, then another. Albedo paused, waited.

Watched.