the sight of stars makes me dream // cassiopeia's dp

Her knife cuts into the girls thigh, slicing through the fabric with ease and digging into her skin; it is enough to draw blood, red and crimson agains the pale touch of Eight's skin but Cassiopeia knows that it isn't enough. The blade merely nicks at her skin, no more than a graze- not deep enough to sever her limb, not deep enough to sever an artery and let her bleed to death. Not enough. Never enough.

Behind the mask her brow furrowed sadly, pressed together in confusion as to why her attempts to try her hardest were unwraveling, leading her to her own demise. It was falling apart at her own strikes, now her life was slipping through her fingers as she desperately scrambled to catch the fleeting life that she had desperately tried to keep hold of over the past week. Even the hope she had kept close to her chest, careful not to wear it on her sleeve, was slipping through the cracks.

The girl from eight throws herself from one extreme to another; her hands push Cassia away the moment her blade catches with calf, causing the career to stumble back and to her knees. Then, suddenly as if a switch had been flipped, the girl was grasping at the ascot that lay crumbling around her neck, Eight's voice full of rage, disapointment, sadness, longing, desire, hopefullness and hoplessness, fear, emotions that even Cassiopeia felt were foreign even on a human tongue.

They are barely inches from one another. Cassiopeia finds her blue eyed gaze staring into blue eyes, boring into her soul as fired words spilled from between her lips “If you really want to know, my name is Shelby Leviane.” Their intamicy shatters as the one who claims to be Shelby Leviane gently lets go of Cassiopeia's clothing; Cassia mirrors her, shivering to her feet.

The girls burnt into the front of Cassia's mind, scolding hot white in her memory forever. The name felt historic to her, something that would stand the test of time, long after both girls had met their mortality; it would be written in history books, their names beside one another, but one would eventually fade into obscurity.

“And for the record—" The girl takes the knife in her hand, glinting in the grey light that shines through rain clouds "if it matters much anymore—" Cassiopeia looks into the girls eyes, shoulders sagging in pre-emptive defeat "I am sorry.”

Cassiopeia could feel it in her, well before the girl let go of the knife. The dancing partners sway once more and Cassiopeia finds herself turning into the arms of death; except this time he would not let her go. She felt his cold grasp wrap around her middle as Shelby Leviane's knife sliced into her stomach.

Cassiopeia exhaled. The world suddenly felt void of colour, absent of warmth as an ice cold feeling began to spread through her body. Her lip quivered, a tear trickling down her cheek absentmindedly as she exhaled again; her body felt like it were about to crumble at the lightest of touches. Her whole body quivered with fear, exhaustion, as deaths embrace tightened still.

People, usually, in these last moments would heroically cry out for their loved ones, beg death not to take them as Riven Fowley had once done or cursed their killer before falling still. Cassiopeia- she wanted to cry for the parents she had lost when the man she had been forced to called Father had come to take what he saw as rightfully his. She wanted to beg death to let them see their faces one last time.

But Cassiopeia Shaw did not have the breath left in her.

The house jolted again, and this time Cassiopeia could no longer keep her footing.  Her legs stumbled at their own accord, forwards slightly, then backwards to the edge of the roof. She saw through blurred vision Shelby Leviane reach out for her, in an attempt to keep her from falling but as she felt the brush of fingers, inches from her wrist, it was too late.

Cassiopeia Shaw saw the grey, cloud filled sky.

She saw it getting further and further away as she fell, beyond the reach of the hand that still reached for that of Shelby Leviane-

Cassiopeia Shaw exhaled, slowly, finally, seconds above the flood waters.

- then the world just faded from existence.