Black Winged Solace [Delilah]

[Kyrie Blaze]

A fair amount of tension flooded from Kyrie's body with Delilah's response. She had been so concerned she had crossed over a boundary that the relief was almost staggering. Guilt, or even the perception of it, didn't sit well with her. Most often, she tried to remedy it as soon as possible.

With Delilah's more-audible conclusion the blonde nodded slowly, thoughtfully, and did the only thing she could think of doing at this point. She curled her arms around the black-haired woman and simply hugged her. It was one of those universal gestures of understanding and empathy. She tucked her head down and released a slow, quavering breath.

Because actions spoke louder than words.

And here there were too many words, and no words at all, that could explain everything. So she held on, and let the tension slowly leak the rest of the way from her body, curling in on Delilah's lap.

[Delilah A. Black]

The hug came as a surprise...and at the same time, it didn't. She could feel the young woman's gratitude, but she wasn't entirely sure where it stemmed from.

But, that wasn't the point. Smiling gently, Delilah wrapped her own arms more securely around Kyrie and just held her, adjusting to allow her to curl up a little better in her lap. It was just good to see the harried blonde finally relax.

[Kyrie Blaze]

Silence would reign as Delilah's arms banded a little more snugly around her. As she shifted, so too, did Kyrie. The petite woman quickly relaxed once again. Clearly, she was simply soaking up the warmth of the hug.

Something she needed, after so long without.

Her eyes drifted partway closed, but despite her exhaustion and trust in Delilah, she couldn't fall asleep just yet. Kyrie was slowly gathering herself, because she needed...she needed to talk.

[Delilah A. Black]

Delilah let her mind wander a little bit as silence enveloped them, thinking on the past. How long had it taken her to speak about what she had gone through in prison? Putting her feelings on her first kill to words had been even more difficult; Delilah was not good with descriptions of things that were otherwise intangible.

Then there was her mother and the fury that sparked in her chest whenever she thought about the woman who gave birth to her. How long had it taken her to get over these things and put them behind her?

Was she even over them now?

For the time being, the blue eyes of the raven haired woman remained open and all seeing. She would remain vigilant for Kyrie, even if the blonde was finished speaking. Though, Delilah doubted that, somehow.

[Kyrie Blaze]

It was a little while after, with a residual hiccup that should be one of the last, that Kyrie shifted, taking a slow breath. Comfort. That was what she found beneath Delilah's wing. Listening to the steady cadence of the First Crow's heart, she drew upon her waning reserves in preparation. While she had a horrible headache from all the crying she had already done, and certainly did not want to shed more tears...she would only prepare herself for more--not brace herself against it.

"Bennett," Kyrie began with a murmured breath, "Bennett was not in the place he should have been. I was so angry at him for not staying with Aless, but he screamed my name, a-and...and it was all I could do to try and get to him. When I got there...he was being held by one of Barker's men, another pressing two blades to either side of his throat."

She struggled with the image, as evidenced by the tremour that was beginning to shake her body. Bennett's death, the most violent she had been right there to witness out of all her family's, had impacted her the most even though every last one of their deaths left her with a gaping hole in her own chest. Within her mind and projected to where she was looking, she saw him again, and all the emotions upon his face, plain as day.

"He did not say an-nything. In the few seconds that seemed like an eternity, I saw undying love and apology--I ne-ever got to know why he left Aless--b-but such terror--he...he was so afraid, D-Delilah, and yet so hopeful. I was there, and it was like I could make everything right again. His trust..." Tears spilled from her eyes anew, and her voice cracked. "And I could d-do n-n-nothin-n-ng as the blades ripped open both sides of his neck. I-I lost it, and ran forwards instead of away. There was nothing I could do f-for my bro-other, but...the morphine in my hand--I jammed the needle and pushed the entire contents into the man that had those knives to Bennett's neck--he would have OD'd. The last thing I remember s-s-seeing...was the blood on the ground in splatters and small pools, and Bennett...and he retaliated. He struck me so hard that I nearly flew, but...hi-it the top of a wall, and then was flipped into a couch. I passed out beneath it..."

It had been the only thing that had saved her life, that day. They would have found her, otherwise, and she would be dead, best case scenario. Or more disturbingly, working with Barker.

Overcome by that, she simply curled her arms a little more against the woman she was safe with. The tears came again, with the sounds of her sorrow more muffled. She had never gotten - nor had she given herself - the chance to grieve. Somehow, something always seemed to interrupt. But not here.

[Delilah A. Black]

"Bennett,"

Through the silence cut the small voice of the girl. Delilah opened her eyes and looked down in the darkness at the head of blonde hair pressed against her chest. That was one of the names she had mentioned earlier.

"Bennett was not in the place he should have been. I was so angry at him for not staying with Aless, but he screamed my name, a-and...and it was all I could do to try and get to him. When I got there...he was being held by one of Barker's men, another pressing two blades to either side of his throat."

Delilah's heart clenched and she held Kyrie a little tighter as the young woman began to shake again. Through her open eyes, she could clearly see the scene playing out before her.

Another memory flashed behind her own eyes, a sense of deja vu. A shiver travelled down the mechanic's spine. She forced the memory back and she listened.

And listened.

The memory came back as Kyrie tearfully described how she could do nothing to save her brother--("I SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE," the mechanic shouted at the top of her voice. "HE'S MY ZERO, M-MY REASON FOR WHY I'M HERE! AND I...I couldn't help him. Or Kiyoshi. I FAILED, AGAIN. I could do nothing and,...AND NOW YOU TELL ME THE LAST ZERO IS GONE?!" Delilah glowered a moment longer, rage contorting her features...before her expression crumpled into one of despair. Her head dropped and she sank back into her chair. She lifted her hands to cover her face as tears began to leak unwillingly out of her eyes. Not for Kiyoshi and his noble death...but for him.

Her voice was weak and choked when an audible noise finally left it, "...not again..."--)

 she inhaled, quick and sharp. She shoved the memory away more firmly this time.

But now, she was shaking with Kyrie. She knew all to well the desperation, the terror of losing the people she loved most in her life. Only Kyrie had lost more. She had lost an entire family who loved her dearly. And she knew 'Unfettered' was alive, whether or not she knew where.

Kyrie had lost everything...including the last of her innocence. If Delilah was correct, that was also the blonde's first kill.

You never forget your first.

The mechanic clucked her tongue soothingly as she stroked the golden mane of curls, rocking both of their bodies back and forth.

She understood now, at least. She knew why Kyrie had brought this up, these unaddressed parts of her life that had left long gouges in her soul. The...most recent one was the catalyst of these things, as it had taken the last shred of solace and innocence Kyrie had retained through all of this trauma and torment.

She wondered if the blonde had ever come to terms with their deaths.

Delilah was silent for a time, allowing Kyrie to collect herself. In the same soft voice, Delilah murmured quietly, "...The others...?"

[Kyrie Blaze]

"...The others...?"

A hiccup was Kyrie's initial response. Then as her breathing evened out, she continued., voice low, and still holding on to Delilah in return. She had noted the shaking, and could only think that it was for similar circumstances. Empathy was strong--very strong within the tiny blonde, but she was thankful that Delilah was not staying her voice from uttering the things she needed to say. Because she needed to say them. Having someone share the entirely vivid memories was one thing: it was reliving it. Actually speaking of it was facing it.

If she could face it...

...she could begin to heal.

"Aless...Bennett was supposed to stay with her as I rushed to try to find morphine and antibiotics and equipment...she passed away minutes before I got back." A shuddered exhale was released into Delilah's shirt. Her tears were silent, now, but equally as staining as those that fell before. "...I--I still think she died from meningococcal meningitis, from all the signs she was wracked by. All the odds were stacked against her, against us, because that is deadly enough before the bombs, but I...had to try. And I lost both her and Bennett in a matter of a few minutes. Her body was contorted...I think Bennett may have tried to shift her before he left..."

Beneath her eyelids, her sister's body lay, deep strawberry-blonde curls a vibrant splash against the ground of their shelter. Still. Cooling. Only she couldn't stay because Bennett wasn't there. And she had to find him.

A shiver rocketed down and back up her spine.

"My brother, my sister, and myself were the only survivors among my immediate family that day--the day Barker dropped his bombs. This was...a couple months before Bennett and Aless passed on. I was away from home...and raced back. I remember jumping from a wall around the neighbourhood, and falling to the ground stretched forever. Bennett was there, already on top of the wreckage, trying to reach them all. He shouted for me, we could hear Aless. She was unhurt, so we tried to keep her calm while we dug for our parents and elder siblings. Both Armand and Arianna d-died before we could rea-each them."

She needed a moment. Her heart was thudding in her chest. Too fast. Too hard. She couldn't impassively speak of this. Kyrie's breaths were shallow as she tried to deal with it. With the remembered and renewed pain. With her family's suffering.

"K-K--nnh." Breathe. Breathe in. Breathe out. Slow it down. Just breathe. Fisting one hand into Delilah's shirt, she managed to catch enough of a reprieve by focusing on the living woman she was clinging to. By focusing on the steady, thrumming heartbeat in the Crow's chest, and the rhythmic whoosh, ahh of her breathing, Kyrie began to match her own breaths to Delilah's. Safe. She was safe and Delilah was her rock. When she continued, her voice was low and somewhat rough. "We found out mom was killed instantly--she was with my dad. I managed to reach him, to grasp his hand to reassure him we would get him out. He sighed my na-ame as he died--j-just before he died."

The blue-eyed woman continued hiding those blue orbs from the world, though there was only one person that could see them right now. Her voice cracked upon the last word. And yet...she continued on, speaking quickly for the first sentence lest she break down again, otherwise.

"We got them out and our pets and wrapped them up in sheets." Her breath whooshed out. Shook going back in. "...we made piers. I was not going to leave their bodies to rot and waste away. The three of us watched until the fires went out. A-and then I...I had to do the same for Bennett and Aless. A-Alo-one..."

Reflexively, her fingers clutched at Delilah as she peered over her shoulder, gaze distant. Not so hollow as almost haunted. Staring. Her lips were pressed against the fabric of the raven-haired woman's shirt, just around her collar bone.

[Delilah A. Black]

The quiet shaking, the hiccup of a choking, pained sob. Delilah remained silent, staring at the wall across from where they sat without really looking at it. Images flickered across the backs of her eyes as she visualized what the blonde illustrated with her words in painful, vague detail. Just enough so you knew what was going on, and enough to infer and project the worst possible things your mind could come up with.

"Aless...Bennett was supposed to stay with her as I rushed to try to find morphine and antibiotics and equipment...she passed away minutes before I got back."

...Delilah remained silent as her eyes glazed over. She pictured Kyrie running, panting from sprinting through the ruins to find the supplies she now clutches in her hands. Panic and desperation well up in her chest, but she fights it down, presses on. She has to save her sister before it's too late--

"...I--I still think she died from meningococcal meningitis, from all the signs she was wracked by. All the odds were stacked against her, against us, because that is deadly enough before the bombs, but I...had to try. And I lost both her and Bennett in a matter of a few minutes. Her body was contorted...I think Bennett may have tried to shift her before he left..."

--she lay on her side. From behind, it might look like she was sleeping, if not for the slightly akimbo way her arms and legs are strewn, such a manner which seems unnatural. A seizure, perhaps? Or an attempt to wake the girl by shaking her?

She touched her...still warm, but cooling--Spongey, lifeless flesh. Stuttering cry, a plea perhaps, as she turns her sister over--to see the paling lifeless face that so resembles her own. Perhaps a pool of vomit where she lay that sticks stubbornly to the cheek she was laying on and trickles from her mouth.

The cries turn into hysteria--

"My brother, my sister, and myself were the only survivors among my immediate family that day--the day Barker dropped his bombs. This was...a couple months before Bennett and Aless passed on. I was away from home...and raced back. I remember jumping from a wall around the neighbourhood, and falling to the ground stretched forever. Bennett was there, already on top of the wreckage, trying to reach them all. He shouted for me, we could hear Aless. She was unhurt, so we tried to keep her calm while we dug for our parents and elder siblings. Both Armand and Arianna d-died before we could rea-each them."

Mere running did not suffice to describe the speed at which Kyrie was traveling. She was not sprinting--no, she was flying. She jumps on the wheel well of an over turned car near the partition to the residential area and leaps up, onto part of the broken wall to jump down.

There is no need to scour for her family--she is staring at what's left of it. The house has collapsed, a complete structural failure. A small fire burns in what used to be the kitchen. Not a concern. She can hear the muffled cries of her family trapped under the rubble.

Bennett looks up as she hits the ground, covered in dust and soot. He calls her name and waves to her urgently. Aless is sobbing somewhere on his left. She can see part of a limb that once belonged to her mother and is beginning to go into shock. She may be bleeding.--

Delilah patiently waited, nodding along, rocking the girl slowly as she smoothed a hand soothingly over her hair. The pain was palpable. It drove needles into her very soul.

"We found out mom was killed instantly--she was with my dad. I managed to reach him, to grasp his hand to reassure him we would get him out. He sighed my na-ame as he died--j-just before he died."

--Her father, nearby, tells Kyrie and her brother to find her other siblings first and to come back for him. They find them, but not alive; one under a beam of the roof, the other crushed in the middle by a cement block. Sobs and choking mar the spreading crackling of flames. Kyrie is now similarly covered in the ash and bits of insulation as Bennett. They dig out a catatonic but alive Aless. They move quickly to dig out their father, whose voice has been growing fainter with each passing moment. Perhaps he has been telling his children how much he loves them and how proud he is of them as they dig. Perhaps he tells them important things, such as where to seek shelter and where they might be able to find food.

When they find him, Kyrie looks upon a silver of her father's face one last time as they clasp hands. She calls to her brother for help as she goes to pull on his one free arm, assuring they'll save him; as she pulls his hand goes slack.

He sighs her name with his last breath.

"We got them out and our pets and wrapped them up in sheets."


Whoooosh. Hsssshhh.

The task is went about with wretched determination. Broken bodies are hauled out of the wreckage of what was once a beautiful home and laid side by side along the churned asphalt. The pieces were easier to pick up then those who had gotten wedged--

"...we made piers. I was not going to leave their bodies to rot and waste away. The three of us watched until the fires went out. A-and then I...I had to do the same for Bennett and Aless. A-Alo-one..."

Bennett and Kyrie take shifts attending to Aless, who is bleeding. They take turns building a pyre out of the wood of their house, lovingly laying their loved ones on a bed of wood and encasing them safely within a blanket of the same.

Night encompasses them as the work is finally finished. They light the fire and stand before the blaze of the life that was no more.

...Delilah released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. Gently laying the side of her head against Kyrie's, she smiled somewhat thinly to herself.

She knew the feeling. Helpless. Nothing she could do except watch and pick up the pieces.

God, how they were similar...

"They loved you, Kyrie," she spoke softly after a few long moments of silence, "That will never change. Love is what keeps them alive in you.

"They are not here and nothing can change that. But you are here. You are the keeper of their memories and their love for you. You keep them alive, Kyrie...so live for them.

"If they could see you now, they would be very, very proud."

[Kyrie Blaze]

Kyrie's fingers pressed against Delilah's shoulders with her words. She fought the desire to release a sob, to start to cry again. Her chest contracted, and she swore she felt her heart quake and 'curl up' in her chest. Her throat closed up, and it was difficult to externalize the cry of thoughts that rang inside her head.

"W-W-Why? Because I couldn't even save Bennett from those Barker soldiers? Because I took a life in revenge? Because after scrounging for food I turned to st-tealing from fff-families, no matter if it was only what I needed to get through a meal or two? For doing it countless times and losing track of who and how, yet never really forgetting at all? I had to survive to get to this point--and then proud for more killing?" There was quiet anguish in her voice, and the pitch rose and hitched. Clearly, this was just the blonde voicing all of her hurt--not that she meant what she was saying. She was safe here, with Delilah, so naturally it all came bubbling to the surface. But that - perhaps aside from the killing--would they really understand and be proud of that? - was who she had been, not who she was in this moment. Who she was now, yes, but how she got to be how she was at this moment? That was her worry. Those were her fears, her self-doubt, all laid out for Delilah.

The blonde shook her head full of curls and sniffled. The petite woman actually knew a few reasons why they could be proud of her, now. So she continued, quietly, the tears trailing down her cheeks once again. "Because I am who they raised me to be. Because I trust...because I love, once again..."

Kyrie tucked her face back against Delilah's shirt, not trying to stop the tears, now, or the occasional sound of her crying. She missed them, and cried for them...and cried for herself, as well. It was stupid, so stupid and selfish, but it needed to be done. Her hands didn't move from the Raven's shoulders, but kept her anchored.

[Delilah A. Black]

"W-W-Why? Because I couldn't even save Bennett from those Barker soldiers? Because I took a life in revenge? Because after scrounging for food I turned to st-tealing from fff-families, no matter if it was only what I needed to get through a meal or two? For doing it countless times and losing track of who and how, yet never really forgetting at all? I had to survive to get to this point--and then proud for more killing?"

Delilah just held the girl as she raged at herself, a kind of self-hate that was similar to the kind Delilah harboured for herself, the kind that she imagined many of them retained. She was all too aware how much blood was on her hands. Her own family was among them. People she didn't know. People she did. People who she hadn't killed but had died all the same because she wasn't there.

Should they be so mad at themselves for surviving and wanting to live? It was a basic instinct, after all, from the time of youth. When life went against life, there were no winners, only survivors. Was surviving worth the cost to her soul?

"Because I am who they raised me to be. Because I trust...because I love, once again..."

Delilah nodded, rocking the girl slowly as she sobbed again. "Because you've made something of yourself. You're righting those wrongs. You're preventing otherwise innocent people from the same horrors you've experienced. Because you take the high road, the hardest, longest path.

"Because their loss wasn't in vain."

[Kyrie Blaze]

The tears continued to fall, making their silent pitter-patters against Delilah's shirt until she closed her eyes. The blonde woman didn't have anything to say--she just managed a solemn nod and sniffled. Of course, tears still leaked from her closed eyes, but she was trying to get some semblance of a grip on her emotional state.

Not much, just enough to keep from continually sobbing and crying. Just enough to prevent her headache from becoming worse than the monster it was already shaping up to be: it pounded hammering blows against her temples, made her feel thick and sluggish. But she was gathering herself, more than anything. Her oldest hurt, definitely one of (if not the most) the deeper wounds she'd sustained had been unearthed by her own violation...

Maybe she could speak of what happened most recently.

Maybe.

For the moment, however, she tried to concentrate on Delilah's breathing...and match her own in and exhales to hers.

[Delilah A. Black]

Delilah let her mind slip a bit as silence engulfed them both, losing herself to words that could not be conveyed by speaking. Meditating within herself to regain control of her emotions. She was feeling what Kyrie was feeling a bit too strongly. While by no means an empath, her own experiences with losing family, to...being assaulted were altogether too similar.

So, Delilah would hold the blonde girl, rocking her until she was ready to speak again.

[Kyrie Blaze]

It would be some time before the blonde dared to speak again. Plenty of that time had been deciding on where she was to start. But, like all of the best tales - her family's death a special case - she supposed she should start with the beginning. With one last dying tremour, she pulled in a slow breath and parted her lips.

"...ten days and...seven hours ago..." If she had a watch, she would have been able to tell Delilah the exact time. But as she was more...approximating, now, it was still fairly accurate. "I was returning...home after searching for more seeds in the neutral territories. I cam across an old man - Frederick Donald Amberhash - that said he would end my life as he listened to an old-style record player. An Assassin--an inserted spy, likely. He knew too much to be otherwise..."

Another inhale, slow and mostly steady.

"I was cautious--there was nobody to help, but nobody that he could attack. I remained on the defensive for the most part...though he tried taunting me and instilling fear by boasting he chose young females for his targets...for their expressions and horror when they died by his hands, among others. But he did not get much of a reaction--and then he began to make real threats. Like Evelyn and Aryanna...and even Kazuya's young girl." She shivered, briefly, eyes narrowing before easing. "That is the one thing you do not do. You never threaten those I love--those that are family. I did not react rashly, I incorporated more offence. Between a knife shooting from his shadow, and him...scooping me up in a shadow-bag when I tried to hamstring him using the record his thrown knife splintered in two, it was easy to see his qi was similar - if not identical - to my own. I was lucky that when he swung and released me that I had just enough time to fling my qi up between myself and the boulder...and disappear into it before being spit back out. I recovered and attacked--he was jumping shadow-rope, and so snagged my arm. I decided it would be worth him breaking my arm if I could get a clean cut in. And so...so I used the record half to slice through his jugular vein as he snapped my arm.

"He did not die, however--he used his qi to temporarily seal the artery. I managed to stay on my feet, to cast a description and his name to the wind in hopes that David would hear. I had no intentions of dying, but, in the off-chance I did, I hoped he would hear, and know... When I cut him open...his qi exploded, flaying my skin and a little muscle, ripping most of my shirt in the process. I fell, then. He stabbed the dagger into my shoulder--the shoulder of the arm he just broke. He kept talking as he came for the kill...at first I could not budge the dagger, and yet...he said he would go after them, after...and I managed to draw strength enough to yank it free...and then plunge it into his jaw, up into his brain, before he could kill me with a spike of qi.

"I do not know how I managed to get up, to stagger to the wall...but Levi and David arrived. Levi was immediately by my side - startled me, actually...I remember pulling a dagger out on him - offering me his qi to lean on in a construct, asking how many fingers I was seeing, tending to me...and David eased down. He asked me one thing amidst so many questions all around me: 'you said his name was Fred?'."

Even now, her relief in her voice and the slow, steady, furthered relaxation of her body against Delilah - having stiffened a little again as she went through the memories - was tangible.

David had heard.

They had came.

"...I do not remember much else about what we discussed...but David was suddenly there, telling me to close my eyes as I leaned against the wall." Aggravating her injuries, but more importantly...dangerously close to passing out. "He told me to close my eyes. In a moment of clarity, I said we were too vulnerable--he healed me, anyway."

Delilah herself knew what that experience was like. From the initial, excruciating pain, to the warmth, the feel of movement of his qi within her body, the pain and heat of her bones knit back into place. The exhaustion after--both for her, and him.

"...Levi took us back to his place...and as soon as David made it upstairs, he collapsed and passed out..."

There was more to this, obviously. And it would come, but, the blonde needed a little more time to brace herself.

[Delilah A. Black]

Kyrie eventually resumed speaking and the left corner of Delilah's brow twitched as her mind was brought back to the fore. She was no less silent, however, as the blonde woman regaled her tale.

Again, there were similarities. Feelings of weakness and self-loathing. Why couldn't I be better? She had killed him, though, barely escaping with her life. Even in the personal memories it brought up for Delilah that had long since come to pass, she felt her old terror and rage emanating from the depths of her own mind.

God Kyrie...

And she already knew that it only got worse.

She was glad David and Levi had been there when they were. If not, this could have turned out very differently. What Delilah didn't yet understand was how they were BOTH already there, and in spite of that, it did get worse?

The ink black hair of the pale, scarred mechanic brushed up and down against the side of Kyrie's head in a slow, encouraging nod. "It's alright, Kyrie. I'm here. You can tell me, if you want to."

Though she knew it wasn't so much a want as it was a need, from what Delilah had discerned.

[Kyrie Blaze]

The blonde uttered a soft hiccup. While Delilah was certainly right that it was a need to tell, there was also the want that was acting as the driving force, for the moment. She wanted and needed to be understood and comforted, thus she came to Delilah. She wanted and needed to be told everything would be okay, by someone that went through the exact same thing. David could understand, to an extent--so part of her felt bad for not going to him. As completely safe as she felt with him, Delilah could offer her something David couldn't.

Blue eyes closed.

She took a half-breath in...and spoke.

"I just...finished cleaning up, sitting with my back to a wall in Levi's living room, so I could see into the room David was in while keeping an eye on Levi, as well...he came and sat with me, we discussed things, and he checked on everyone else with his extrasensory ability he gained from the gamble fruit. He said there were two unfamiliar qi...one near his level, the other...at an Elder's level. There was a knock--I stood, he stood...and..." She closed her eyes, both wondering and knowing why it hurt to say this part. "He kissed my cheek, said 'You never know' and went down to answer the door. I-In that time--"

She had to exhale, here, and encourage the tension to leave her limbs that were suddenly beginning to tremble. This...this was hard. Harder than she thought. Kyrie's fingers twitched into Delilah's shirt.

"...a m-man teleported in. I threw myself back, but--crashed into him. The p-pai-in...like being flayed open with thousands of shards of glass with your skin being ripped away, then salt being rubbed in...but--worse. Much worse. I could not move, could not speak, blink, breathe, wi-ithout the pain exploding and escalating. It was excruciating...I could not even cry out. He took me outside...to see Todd and Levi, who led us down the street." She drew in a breath, remembering the pain in great, vivid detail--pretty much reliving it if not for the feel of Delilah's warm and softer body against hers. Drawing comfort though she continued the small tremours, she wet her lips and spoke again. "Todd told Levi to kneel so he could be killed with a knife through his eye, into his skull, or Mason would kill me with the knife he held to my throat in the same manner... So Levi knelt. I could not stop him, but knew if he did...then I..."

Breathe. Breathe. She had had faith in him then. But it was so much harder, now. Everything seemed to make what Levi had done, more and more and more, like--she couldn't think on that right now. It would come later.

"Todd did not kill Levi--challenged him to a fight as Mason...as Mason began groping. He said...he s-s-said...I could not pass out because we had a fun n-ight...because if Todd did not kill Levi, he would, and...a-and I would--" She ducked her head, shaking it, her face almost squished against Delilah's neck. If even words and the start of his torture were this hard...how could she stand to say the rest? "Be his ff-fuck toy. He groaned as he squeezed."

Her entire body shuddered in remembrance and fear. And a fear for what could have been, what could still be. Looking back, what she noted but couldn't note then, not until after...it was something that haunted her, but quietly in comparison to the assault on her body.

"I can recall a few things...while...he had his hands wander...a-along my body. Levi shouting to Todd 'let's see what you can do with my power!'...I...I wa-anted to call for David, but could not catch my breath, could not scream. And...he only...only had an hour or two of rest. I thought...if--if I held out and endured long enough, through the p-pain and shame and...and everything else, Levi could do something. He tried to free me--once." Kyrie's voice fell flat. "The-then...he focused on Todd ad let...let M-Mason... Let him do whatever he pleased. He was fo-ocused on Todd...a-and I swear he was trying to one-up him. He did not...even look. I was watching. Not even anything as Mason used his teeth on my ear. I managed to fffight. To pull an arm up and sink my nails in and tell him to stop touching me...and then...he managed to amp the pain. For a moment, I was blind and pain was the only thing I could feel and s-sense. ...when I...came to--I could see Levi. He was smiling--'Okay, you want to turn it up...fine.' and---"

She paused, pulling in a couple deep and gasping breaths. She didn't notice how badly she was shaking - like a leaf didn't cover even half of it - and couldn't know that her eyes were glazed in her remembering. The dull thud of Delilah's heart reminded her where she was.

Safe.

But that didn't make this part any easier.

"...the pain...the pain eased. And I could catch my breath...but... His hand...i-it slid down...under my clo-o-thes and-- and he--his fingers, and I--he molested me. I screamed for David--the pain was so bad I blacked out for a few seconds, I do not even know what Levi d-did--if he saw. A-And then...nothing. No pain. No fingers. inside. me. Just...arms. Warmth." She choked, was nearly sick, and then clung even more tightly, if such a thing were possible. Her voice was a whisper. "David heard. David always hears..."

He came.

Kyrie's eyes closed, tears of agony and relief spilling against Delilah's skin. She couldn't stop shaking, even with that relief. That David heard and came. That meant the world to her, just like Delilah did, right now. She sobbed quietly, her words audible, just only just.

"L-Levi came over and apologized, like it could matter when--when--when he was playing 'anything you can do I can do better' with Todd, not even trying to help me after that one shot. H-How? How would he think that would make an apology for not stopping him from violating me possibly make anything even remotely be-better. A-And then he thanked David, b-because he dreaded fighting Mason when he got done with Todd. Would he have been able to? And then to talk inside...l-like talking would make everything go aw-w-way. L-Like I was okay, like n-n-nothing happened..!" She didn't even register she wasn't being 'fair' to Levi. There was no logic or reason. No room to be 'fair'. She was hurt. He didn't stop it. She wasn't strong enough to have stopped it. Couldn't and didn't call out earlier. Misplaced her trust in Levi. Her sobs continued. "H-How can I even trust him ev-v-ver again? I th-thought maybe I l-loved him. But n-now? N-N-Ne-Never. N-Never aga-ain. I can--ca-an barely stand to be near him. He--I am not s-safe with him. H-How can I b-be? C-C-Can't trust him..."

Kyrie trailed off with a cough and groan. When she stayed with him after he got back from dealing with...with whomever he went off to vent his frustrations on while David stayed with her, it was simply out of duty to ensure he wasn't attacked when he was healing out in the sun. But the truth was, she wanted nothing more than to be safe in David's shadow, not feeling so vulnerable in Levi's. She fled soon after he was done and didn't stop. And then one other time she had remained within shadow along the border, when Levi granted entry to someone...and moved away from him as quickly as she was able to. The blonde's teeth chattered as she shook, face pressed where she left it with her hands desperately holding onto Delilah, her rock, as she was immersed in the memory of it again, forced to relive it so soon after doing so in telling Delilah.