Another for her collection... and one step closer to creating her dreams...

- - -

...and he found himself screaming, her name, for the first time, on his lips. No more curses, no more threats, no more silence, no more wordless sobs. Her name. Only her name. Even as the word left his mouth he felt himself trembling, relief as the pain stopped, shame as he realized what he'd done.

Pen and paper were waiting when he was brought to kneel at her feet. His stammered apology earned him nothing.

His finished sketch, however, earned him the one thing, the only thing, he prayed for these days.

A quick death...

- - -

...turned to look over his shoulder as the figure followed him down the alley, unconsciously moving to avoid the puddles, the piles of garbage, that kept this spot looking much the same as any other filthy backwall gutter. He was used to the mess, to the smell, but from a faint noise behind him he was quite sure that his oddly generous trick was not...

- - -

...the gateway was gleaming, transport entrance waiting, and as she stepped through she once again fought back the laughter, pleasure running through her at the sensation of transfer. Only for her and hers was it pleasant; anyone not marked as hers would find it not only painful but fatal, going the wrong direction. The door TO her world was always open.

The door FROM? She kept that locked.

One runaway, one voice heard in the wrong place, and she might have to close herself off from that world...

- - -

...his last thought was an overwhelming wave of gratitude, that his sins and his attempt to harm her were being, in some small way, forgiven. If she had chosen to remain angry, he knew, he would still be feeling pain... still be suffering... he would live only to serve, and each moment of that servitude would be agony.

She'd proved that he deserved nothing less, that she could give him such a fate. She'd broken him.

And now she was letting him die.

Gratitude...

- - -

Sorry, my mind is wandering a bit. Flickerscenes, little bits and tastes of... gods, of so MANY things.

I'm going to have fun.