Rules and Other Things worth Breaking....(Liam)

Rules & Other Things worth Breaking

           

            She sleeps, for the moment that is enough.  At least that is what I tell myself.  I live in the rise and fall of her chest, each measured breath.  The pause between each is enough to drive me madder than a Victorian hatter.  The fragility of her slender frame is only emphasized by the gauze bandages and tubes running this way and that, ensuring she gets the fluids-the medicine she needs to heal.  Eternity is just a bat of lashes in the time I have waited to see her.  And I almost lost her again.  And I would be forced to remain behind, banished to this in-between.  I had spent too many years, wasted so many opportunities, following rules that were set against me.  Legislation created to facilitate my failure.  It seems even those who’d set the rules had grown tired of playing by them as well.  Too many things had changed.  There was no longer balance between the forces at work within this world and those who pulled their strings.

            Everything had just become infinitely more complicated.  Chaos would come.  War would follow.  And she slumbers.  Unaware that she will be the fulcrum.  It is a responsibility too large for any mortal mind to fully understand without splintering apart.  Too many lives crisscrossing-intersecting-knitting together-coming undone and all came with one decision.  And the weight of it sits squarely on those slender shoulders. 

            When the nurse enters, I watch as she checks the plastic bags and tubes.  Watch as she scribbles out the vitals.  In minutes she is gone but I am no longer alone.  My time with her has come to an end. 

            “You shouldn't be here.”  The guardian says.  He wears the same shadows I do, a camouflaged so that we may move through this world, mostly unobserved.  The guardian’s words register like the buzzing of an unwanted gnat.

            “I should not have to be here.”  The guardian nods.  I do not tell him that he should have been there.  That he is just as responsible for her condition as the vile creature that pulled the trigger.  He lives because he remains to be of use to me.  She twitches, her eyes fluttering behind closed lids.  The dreams have begun.  It is only a matter of time.  When I move to the edge of the bed the guardian grabs me by the arm, it was a very unwise thing to do.

            “That you are the reason she still remains in this world is the only reason I have not destroyed you.  Do not test the limits of my benevolence.”  My voice is cruel.  He doesn't release me, I admire courage-but this borders stupidity.

            “Your presence will draw too much attention.  The longer you remain the greater the risk.  I can only keep her hidden for so long.”  I look at her, my eyes absorbing everything.  She was different, but somehow, the same.  “If she dies, I will take spend the rest of my eternity re-inventing your concept of pain.  Do not think my leaving is a victory for you.  I do this for her.”  As I always have.  In this world and beyond, everything endured-for her.  I do not risk looking at her again, afraid that the courage to leave will fail me.

With a thought I am outside the hospital, walking beneath stars that, for the first time, do not feel stacked against me.  I smile for what feels like the first time in an eon.

There was much to prepare.

NOTE THAT THIS WAS CUT FROM THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT.  IT IS UNEDITED AND NOT IN THE FINAL STORY.  Okay with that being said, I hope you enjoyed a preview from Liam's POV.