Chapter the Last ∞ Ivy

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Ivy Soren died twice in her life.

The first time, the prison from which she had been trying to break free became the only safe place in the world.

(Sunlight hurts your eyes and raindrops scald your skin and the ground hurts without shoes on your delicate feet and how are you supposed to know not to speak to strangers when you have never met one before?)

More than anything, the child wanted to return to the locked sanctuary that had held her captive and curl into her mother's arms. She yearned for the mirror girl, her twin, to clutch at her hand or spin her a story.

(Instead, unstable legs carry you further and further away into the unknown and fear grips your throat and the smell of blood lingers in the air and you can't breathe at all, not here.)

While desperately aching for the home she left behind, the girl pressed on. It wouldn't do to dwell on the comforts she would never feel again - even at eleven, Ivy could count her chances on one hand. She could only describe the feeling as large; being free, seeing the sky and the stars at night while her mother and sister relied on her to save them. In that moment, for the first time in her life, Ivy Soren had a choice.

That choice was her first death.

The second death was much the same. A long way from the home she had wanted out of, a little girl waited.

(The sunlight here burns in much the same way although your skin is more used to it now, there are no raindrops but the water in the air seeps deeper and aches more, your feet are cut and bloodied, you are surrounded by strangers and how are you supposed to know who to trust when you have never trusted before?)

The child only wanted what she had once it was gone - while she possessed a world it was never enough. A simple downfall, leading easily to failure. A fragile lullaby, a haunting tune that does the opposite of lulling a baby into dreams. That was who she was.

Always.

(Your legs carry you nowhere, for they don't seem to respond to your mind any longer, the fear is the same and you taste the very same blood, your own, and you can't breathe at all, not here. Not ever.)

While the first of Ivy's deaths led to a new life, the second faltered like the words almost too hard to say.

(When tears bite your throat and tighten your chest and greif holds your hand.)

With that, both lives were swallowed up by time. The first, a perpetual darkness filled with braided hair and stories and a horrible man who came every few days to offer stale bread. The second, with wishing wells and falling stars and candles and not quite enough fairy dust for freedom.

The child found the freedom in the end, as it found her.[/size][/blockquote][/justify][/color]
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