Debut (Lily and Eduardo)

[itwas_perfect]

I had the craziest dream last night...

On the sidewalk, she sat among a heavy plume of fabric. A streak of bright, sapphire blue and mournful black. For a long time, she sat there in the shadows, a distant street lamp shining off rivulets of red slipping down her pale wrist. She watched transfixed as drop travel down the back of her hand, staining the lace at her wrists. A bright crimson dot, bleeding out in a spiderweb of fainter pink.

The meat of her palms was torn, bloody and caked with grit. Nina stared down at them, feeling as though they belonged to someone else.

On that empty street corner, she heard a flutter, felt the soft brush of something against her cheek, a tear sliding from the corner of her eye and dripping off the point of her chin.

"I had the craziest dream last night," she whispered to herself, the fragile crack of her voice seeming to echo through the darkness.

It was nearly ten minutes -- ten minutes of staring at her bleeding palms -- before she realized she had no memory of how she'd gotten there. No memory of this street corner. One fractured life overlapping another in her mind.

On the sidewalk, a swan... a girl... Nina drew in a sob of breath, cowering there in the shadows as she watched the shape of a person draw near her.

"Who's there?"

Comments

[itwas_perfect]

At first, he was no more recognizable than any stranger on the street and she found herself shuffling away from him, regardless of how gentle his voice sounded.

But slowly... slowly, it came to her that he knew her name. Nina...

"I..." her voice cracked, a tear slipping down her cheek. Then, in the dim light of a streetlamp, she finally caught a glimpse of his face. "Eduardo?"

[pointzerothree]

"Yeah," Eduardo says with a slight nod, smiling just a little, though he's wary still. She's obviously shaken — if he had to guess, between the way she sounds and the way she's dressed, he'd say she couldn't have been here very long — and that's every reason to not want to make it worse, but at least she knows who he is. Trying to explain this as a stranger would be even more difficult. "Are you alright?"

[itwas_perfect]

"I don't--" she shook her head, staring down at her bloodied hands and choking on a sob.

"I don't know. I think so." Wiping the back of one hand across her cheek, she unknowingly smeared a streak of blood across her face. "What's happened?"

[pointzerothree]

Eduardo curbs the urge to try to wipe the blood off her face, unsettled by the sight of it there but certain that it wouldn't make any difference. There's enough else to be focused on, anyway, though how he's supposed to explain this, he hasn't really got a clue. It's complicated enough as it is without adding in how distressed she clearly is.

"It's okay," he tells her, because that seems most important. "You're... somewhere you weren't a few minutes ago, is what's happened, but it's alright here."

[itwas_perfect]

"Oh," she whispered, and perhaps she should've felt comforted, if only because he was someone she knew and should trust, but she couldn't shake the coil of fear slinking through her veins. Making her doubt him. Making her doubt herself.

"Where's here?"

[pointzerothree]

"Here," Eduardo says, drawing in a deep breath and letting it out slowly, "is a city called Darrow." That doesn't really say anything, he knows, but it also seems like the only place to start. He wasn't any damn good at this back on the island and he doesn't think he is here, either, but for Nina's sake, he'll give it the best try he's got. She seems like she probably needs it, his voice still soft as he continues. "It's a lot like the island, except it's not there."