Withered Kingdom

[Alice Hart]

She could have picked up the fucking phone and called him.

She knew why she hadn't though.

Henry.

She didn't want to know if Robert had left her in the ash like her could-have-been-sire had.

If Robert had simply thrown her aside because she wasn't good enough, devastated wouldn't have covered it.

To know that he'd left to preempt something that Alice was also afraid of, but believed, hoped wouldn't be the insurmountable obstacle that Robert thought it was. Was sort of...sweet. It might be the fact that she wasn't human anymore, but he left so they wouldn't tear each other apart.

Preserving the soft and delicate memory of Them, so their nature and time wouldn't wear them down into vicious, bitter husks of who they once were.

Alice lets her nose lead her, she shifts closer and closer to the Burned Man. "You're an idiot." Without heat she smacks him. Or tries too. Her hand could meet air, but the motion should be understood. "We were put on our paths, each other's paths, for a reason. We both left, and we both came back. And that...that means something." It has too. "I know it's not the same. But remember Gilroy's lectures, and Katya's attendance? How they worked together, and didn't fight? There was respect. They gave the other space for their faith, and didn't fight about it. Space, respect, trust. We both had questions, and found different answers, but that doesn't meant that one of us is wrong."

Alice didn't know what else she could say in that moment, so she doesn't say anything.

The hand she used to try and smack Robert grabs at his suit jacket, she uses that to steady herself and bring herself closer.

Because, by the Gods, she's waited long enough.

Her grip like a vice, she leans in, her eyelids falling closed.

Waiting one last time.

[Robert Cross]

And like that, the barrier between them is broken.

Alice moves closer and Cross does as well , so that her playful slap lands true. For the first time in what seems like forever, the Burned Man laughs. The short, dry chuckle that only Alice is able to draw from him. "I know," he replies to her accusation.

There is wisdom in her words. Comfort. She's right: Gilroy and Katya had been able to work together, despite the differences of covenant. Though they had been colleagues, and Alice and Cross are much more than that. The fear remains, somewhere deep down. But for now, Cross could care less about the future. About what may come.

He's about to reply when she moves closer still, pulls him toward her.

Nights and nights of waiting. Waiting for this.

For a beat, he studies Alice's face. Still unsure if this is real. And then the Burned Man kisses her, fiercely and without reserve. Pulling her into an embrace he hopes will never end.

All is Death and Darkness. Despite that, two Monsters hold each other tight.

End Scene