Chapter 19

 

Evey waited for what felt like an eternity.  Standing in front of the mirror she let her dressing gown slip from her shoulders.  God I’m thin.  There was almost no meat on her bones anymore.  In the dim light of the candle, her clothes hung on her like sacks, every rib could be seen poking through the skin of her chest, her cheeks appeared hollow, and her arms looked skeletal.  I’ve wasted away.

 

Any hope of confidence was crushed leaving her feeling nauseated at her appearance and uncomfortable in her own skin.  Her arms closed around her waist, hiding her concave stomach and protruding hipbones. 

 

“You look beautiful.  I meant to tell you earlier.”

 

“I look like I just escaped a concentration camp.”  Evey replied to the shadow lurking in the doorway of the bathroom.  As soon as the words escaped her lips she wanted to take them back.

 

The shadow said, “I enjoy cooking for you.”

 

Evey took a split second to figure out whether or not to be offended by what he said.  Deciding there were worse things than being too thin, she forced her arms down to her sides and turned to face V.  Tonight was not about her body image, it was about his.  “You don’t have to do this.”

 

“A moment’s courage and it is done,” [21] V said as he stepped into the mild candlelight.

 

Evey kept her eyes down, waiting for him to stop where he would.  When V stopped just slightly out of reach in front of her Evey let her gaze move up from his feet.  The first thing to strike her as she examined his feet and ankles was that it wasn’t as bad as she remembered nor as bad as she feared.  The scarring and discoloration on his hands and forearms was far more severe than everywhere else.  He had scarring over more surface area than anyone she had seen in her research, but the texture was different.  Finally an experiment working in his favor, she thought. 

 

Evey’s eyes meandered their way up to his thighs where the scarring was less, over his groin, to his stomach, and up to his chest where the first amputations greeted her.  He had no nipples.  She had not noticed before.  So much had gone unnoticed.  She had looked, but not really seen.

 

Evey let her eyes continue north to his neck where the black line of a mask beneath Guy Fawkes stopped her perusal.  His scars were not that bad and the muscles under them were fantastic.  In a most unique way, he really was beautiful. 

 

Her hand extended to toward him, but V stepped back out of her reach.  Evey looked up at him drilling her love into the eyeholes of the mask.  “Let me touch you.”

 

The mask inclined and V sighed, whether in resignation or relief, she could not be sure.  He stepped into her extended fingers allowing them to rest on his midsection.  The muscles under her hand were taut and he was holding his breath. 

 

“I’m not being very fair am I?” Evey asked, deciding it was wrong for him to be so exposed while she was not. 

 

Hoping he would see her nudity as an act of solidarity and perhaps also as an invitation Evey let go of his hand.  As she began to pull her shirt up V reached out and stopped her. 

 

“There is no need, Evey, no quid pro quo.”

 

It was the first time V touched her bare handed.  He jerked his fingers back as if she had burned him.  You can touch me V, she silently admonished him knowing if she said it out loud she would make things worse.  Instead she continued pulling off her top and as she reached down to push off her pajama bottoms she said, “I didn’t think there was.” 

 

Standing back up Evey let her eyes drift up his body again taking in the terrain like a mountain climber looking for the best path to the summit.  She noticed his iron control slipping and took only the briefest second to admire his growing erection before deciding she had had enough time spent at a distance.  Looking directly into the eyes of Guy Fawkes she moved in close enough to feel the radiant heat of his skin.  Slowly and with great deliberation she put her arms around him. 

 

V’s breath caught and his arms started an epileptic dance of indecision before they finally circled her.  He let out a huge sigh as his chin settled atop her head.  Squeezing him tighter and feeling an internal glow of confidence, Evey whispered, “I love you.”

 

“Still?”  It sounded like it popped out before he could stop it.

 

“You are as dense as a stone sometimes.” Evey scolded, planting a kiss on his bare chest.

 

“We are yet to be finished, love.”

 

Evey’s kisses moved higher, to his throat.  “Is it at least getting easier?”

 

Brushing the mask against the side of her face as if kissing her back V whispered, “Sadly, no.”

 

Evey stopped kissing him, looking instead for the eyes she could not see behind the mask.  The only thing left to discard was Guy Fawkes.  As much for herself as for him she said, “Then the quicker the better, don’t you think?”

 

“Some explanation first.”  V breathed into her hair.  “I see you searching for my eyes and I know what you hope to see in them.”

 

Evey’s hand ran down the canyon his spine carved through his muscular back.  “The eyes are the windows to the soul.”

 

V pulled back, staring down at her making sure she knew to take him seriously.  “So it is said, but not in this case, dear Evey.  Mine are almost colorless.”

 

What else did that bitch do to you?  I hate her.  I would kill her if I could.  Forget her, this is not about her.  It’s about him.  It made no difference what his eyes looked like.  None whatsoever.  V was V.  “It can’t be that bad.”

 

His hands moved a little down her back resting just below her shoulder blades.  “I assure you, it is.”

 

Evey could feel his gaze on her, so intent but unsure.  They probably were pretty weird but she didn’t care.  She wanted him to take the mask off, show her his face and finally, finally let her love him.  “V, do you want to kiss me?”

 

“Very much.”  He closed the gap he had created, pulling her tighter against himself. 

 

Gripping Guy Fawkes with both hands she looked V dead in the eye holes. “Take off the mask, V.  You don’t need it anymore.”

 

V broke away from her, moving toward his dressing table.  He hesitated a moment and then pulled off the wig, carefully placing it on its stand.  Pausing again, he shook his head as if ridiculing himself and then reached up to untie the straps of the mask.  It came away and he set it down face up on the table.  He did not take off the black one under Guy Fawkes.

 

Slowly, like a man gathering the courage to face a firing squad, he turned.  There was so little and yet so much to see.  The black mask covered all but his lips.  Evey could make out the shape of his face and found it pleasing.  His mouth had been reconstructed.  There was some scaring, but they looked like kissable lips to Evey. 

 

His head fell and she realized she had been staring.  The energy in the room changed and she sensed he was about to lose it.  Without a thought she flung herself at him.  Catching him by surprise, she took his head in her hands and pressed her lips to his.  V froze but did not leap away. 

 

It was a start.  A good start as far as Evey was concerned.  “Just as I thought.”

 

His head cocked sideways and his breath held.

 

“Very, very kissable.” She smiled and tilted her head up hoping he would indulge her desire for another kiss.  He would have to bend down to reach her.  Evey’s heart did back flips when his lips touched hers, tentative and careful but still kissing her. 

 

She deepened the kiss and he allowed it and toward the end seemed to be toying with the idea of becoming the aggressor.  When he broke away, Evey breathed, “God, I love those lips.”

 

The kiss seemed to have steadied him a little.  His bare hand rose to her cheek and brushed against her skin.  The texture was strange but the gesture was one she had longed for.

 

V watched her a long time and she wondered if he could actually see her thoughts as they passed through her mind.  Sometimes she thought he could. Curious she asked, “What is going through that beautiful mind of yours?”

 

“We are not quite done.” V said and for the very first time, Evey watched his mouth move and saw him form the words he used to enchant her.

 

VEV

 

V did not know how he knew or who had taught him, but like so many other things his body remembered that his mind did not, V knew how to kiss.  It was strange to be experiencing something for the first time while being somewhat practiced at it.  It was an experience he had repeated over and over again throughout his life, but one he had never gotten used to.  He tried to shrug it off and focus his attention on Evey, the incredible little creature who had not yet been phased by his deformity. 

 

The way she looked at him was heart breaking and V could not help dwelling of the fragility of love.  He felt like the proverbial bull in a china shop, doomed by clumsiness and an inability to see the value in what he destroyed.  He would hurt her.  He would not mean to, never mean to, but he would.  Stop it.  Accept the gift in front of you. 

 

Her hand came up to his lips, her fingers tracing over scar tissue as if it were beautiful, dragging him out of the china shop and back to reality.  Her eyes were twinkling at him.  “I think I could kiss you forever.”

 

Perhaps he had gone far enough.  She seemed so happy with him.  Removing the last mask wasn’t really necessary in a practical sense, V reasoned.  Everything she wanted to do with him was possible with the one he was wearing.  He could kiss her, dine with her and smile with her from behind it.  It was a happy medium between the mystery of Guy Fawkes and the reality of a melted face.  He did not have to remove it.

 

The trouble was the mask, any mask, was a neon sign declaring his lack of faith in her love.  It also declared his cowardliness.  It had to come off, even if he only managed it once.  With a shaking hand V reached behind his head, grabbed the small zipper pull at the base of his skull and tugged it upward, relieving the mild pressure on his face. 

 

When he stole a glance at Evey her eyes were looking on him with such love and acceptance V nearly came apart.  God, please let that look remain after she sees.

 

V removed the mask with his eyes closed, the cool air on his bare skin utterly terrifying.  He could feel her hand rising to his cheek and part of him was absolutely convinced she would slap him.  His mind’s eyes conjured memories of the last hands to touch his face.  He vividly remembered being beaten, nurses pealing off layers of dead tissue, being held down for injections, he could not make the memories stop, but when her fingertips brushed his cheek they swept away the past. Suddenly all he could feel was her palm on his face and the gentleness with which she caressed him.  It seemed so unreal he had to look.  She had that kind of power. 

 

When V met her eyes, he saw what he had expected.  There was confusion, concern, and fear. 

 

It must be like meeting the gaze of Lucifer himself, he thought.  It would not have surprised him if she screamed and run away.  His head dropped and his heart, already so abused, seemed to stutter in his chest.  Evey’s hand had not retreated instead moving from his cheek to his chin, tilting his head up forcing him to meet her gaze again.

 

“Blue, right?  Very, very light blue.  Ice blue.”  The kind glow of candlelight had turned everything in the room a warm sepia tone and he knew she was only guessing.  He nodded.

 

For a long moment she made careful study his ruined features and V knew she was trying to see who he had once been.  He had spent hours staring into mirrors trying to find the man from Before, but whoever he was, he had been destroyed and rebuilt in the image of the plastic surgeon’s muse.  “For the longest time the staff at hospital thought I was blind.”

 

“I can see how they made the mistake.”  Evey’s hand raised to his left eye, her thumb brushing over where a brow should be.  “How in the world did…where they always…what could cause…you have no idea do you?”

 

“Maybe I was born like this. Perhaps it was St. Mary’s or possibly a side effect of the treatments Delia tried.  Maybe an experiment I was not aware of.  I don’t know.” V bowed his head again, hating himself for wishing it could be different. 

 

Her hands took over as the primary mechanism for her explorations of his face, her fingers tracing every inch.  He closed his eyes and submitted to the scrutiny.  Her hands settled on his cheeks and she brought his head down.  Her lips brushed his and she whispered, “I think you’re beautiful.”

 

“Evey…” He pulled back.  It had been pity which moved the Beauty to love the Beast.  Kisses will not make me a handsome prince.  They will not give back what has been taken.  There are no happy endings for monsters. 

 

Evey again positioned their faces so he had no choice but look at her.  “Look at me, V.  I hate what has happened to you and I admit it’s hard to see the evidence of so much pain, but this is love, not pity.  I am the luckiest girl in the world to have won the heart of a man like you.”

 

V wanted to believe, needed to believe, but he felt exposed and judged.  He argued with himself, there was fear in her gaze, yes, but there was also love and he was focusing on the negative. Stop doing this.  “Evey…”

 

She smiled.  “I understand why it’s hard to believe, trust me, I do.  Sometimes I can’t see in myself what you seem to see either.  You think I don’t ever wonder what on earth was going through your mind when you fell in love with me?”

 

“I don’t deserve you.”  V replied, feeling like a man with his finger in a cracked dam trying to hold back a storm surge. 

 

Evey’s smile broadened as she patted his cheek.  “No, you probably don’t, but even you had to get lucky sometime.”

 

She stretched up and kissed him again, her hands traveling the rough terrain of his lower back.  The moment her lips touched his he ceased caring about what her hands felt as they moved over him and it didn’t matter that it could never work out.  His blood ignited in the sweetest fire, the caress of her hands delicate flames licking at his skin. It was the most delightful torture he could imagine.

 

Evey’s hands became bolder, moving past the small of his back to the curve of his ass.  She pulled him sharply against her and kissing suddenly did not seem like enough.  The strength of her grip eased and one of her hands moved around over his hip slipping between them.  Not quite breaking the kiss she whispered, “Want to get lucky, V?”

 

VEV

 

He did not immediately answer, but V did not resist the descent of her touch.  Emboldened, Evey allowed her hand to drift closer.  There was no protective rough of hair to mark her location and her fingers made contact faster than she intended.

 

V immediately broke the kiss and jumped back, one hand protectively covering what she had just touched.  He would not look at her.

 

Evey’s hands dropped to her sides and her head slumped along with her shoulders.  A sigh escaped her before she could stop it.  He would take it as disappointment when it was really self disgust.  She had meant to go slower to allow him time to process what was happening.  It was important he not feel molested. 

 

“I’m sorry, love.”  V’s voice sounded like a heart breaking.

 

Pull it together, Evey.  You’re the strong one here, God help us.  Be bold, explain yourself and see what he does. 

 

“V, I love you and…I want you.  I didn’t mean…I should have asked.  I’m being too pushy and I’m sorry.” Tonight is not the night for this.  Give the man a break, she admonished herself as she tried to shelve the dirty thoughts in her head.  They refused to leave. 

 

Evey knew from body language and the sound of his voice he was barely holding on.  He was hurt, afraid and vacillating between belief and despair.  It was so strange to know this about him, but see only murder in his icy gaze.  When he looked at her she felt a like a fish on a slab with a fillet knife descending toward it. 

 

He must have been able to see her thoughts because V turned away and almost dove for the mask sitting on the dressing table leaving Evey feeling guilty to be grateful.  As soon as the black mask was back on and his eyes once again hidden from view, her calm returned. 

 

V looked crest fallen and she knew he was over stretched and about to snap.  Every action has an equal and opposing reaction.  A hinged door opened wide will slam shut with a great force.  Evey had visions of V locking himself up again and another uncomfortable vigil in the hallway.  Not tonight.  Tonight you are going to let me love you.

 

“Come to bed, V.”  Evey said as she climbed in, pulling the covers up to her chin in an effort to make her intentions seem as companionable as she hoped they would be.  “I’ll sleep better if you’re near me.”

 

V regarded her for a moment with his head cocked sideways.  It was the quintessential V pose made surreal because he was not encased in black but revealed flesh and blood, not Guy Fawkes but still a masked man, not interested in sex but still semi-erect.  He was a marvel of contradiction.

 

After what appeared to Evey to be a lot of thought V climbed into bed beside her, his back to her and as close to the edge of the bed as he could get without falling out. 

 

Feeling rejected but knowing he didn’t mean it that way, Evey considered again his issues with touch.  Since she returned he had been more comfortable with it, initiating it more often than usual and accepting it much more readily.  Just as she began to enjoy his new openness, he withdrew.  Of course, now he was naked, exposed and extremely self conscious and her errant fingers were not helping.  She had to be patient.  She had to give him time to adjust and decide what he was willing to do. 

 

Evey looked over at the apex of his shoulder just poking out from the covers.  She wondered what he was thinking, imagining him going back and forth with himself about how far apart they were.  V would tell himself she was staying away because he was ugly and then he would tell himself he was the one creating the distance, but then he would worry he was simply justifying her behavior.

 

What to do?  If she hung back, he could assume she was repulsed, but if she put her hands on him, tried to love him, he might think she was acting out of pity.  Damned if you do, damned if you don’t, Evey sighed to herself.  If it’s a problem either way, you should go for it.  You know you love him and eventually he will catch on.  He’s not stupid. 

 

Evey decided to close the gap between them and rolled into the dent his greater weight made in the soft bedding.  When her body touched his, V shifted as far from her as he could, a distance of only inches. 

 

“Would you rather I leave you alone?”  Evey asked as she moved with him, maintaining the contact even though she felt terrible for tormenting him, but she would wait for him to insist before she surrendered.

 

“No, I...please forgive me for making it seem I abhor your touch.”  He rolled onto his back and she made room for him adjusting so his arm was around her neck when she lay down with her head on his shoulder.  His hand came to rest on her upper arm.  Evey could feel the tension in his over tight grip. 

 

“It’s new to me too, but I like it.” Clearly what she was offering was something his body wanted to take.  Tented bed sheets attested to his body’s mutiny.  She raised her lips to just shy of his black clad ear and enticed, “Can I kiss you again?”

 

The wait was intolerable, but eventually V’s hand slid up from her shoulder to the side of her face and his head turned toward her.  His lips claimed hers tentative at first but with growing confidence. 

 

Thoughtlessly Evey wrapped a leg over his hip, inviting, enticing, hoping.  For a moment it seemed okay, seemed more right than anything ever had before but then V broke the kiss and whispered, “Not like this.”

 

What man in his right mind refused sex?  Her gaze shifted past his masked face to the huge piles of books that lined the wall.  V had redefined himself through those books.  It occurred to her that perhaps, like a teenaged girl, he had a romanticized view of how their first time should be.  Wondering if she was right, she asked, “Then how, V?”

 

He turned his head away from her.

 

Another piece of the puzzle fell into place.  Had V ever had a lover?  One he could remember?  Or were Lilliman and the guard at Larkhill the only ones he remembered?  Diane’s anger when she found out was the only thing Evey had been able to relate to in the journal.  Those pages had been taped in.  V had put them back.  No secrets then.  Not even irrelevant ones.  Oh, V.  I understand.  I wish I didn’t but I do.

 

Out loud she said, “Can you imagine what it’s like when it isn’t for power or control but instead for love?” 

 

“Pardon?”  V’s body tensed and his head turned back toward her, everything about him the picture of suppressed violence.

 

“Five years in a Youth Reclamation Centre.  What do you think happens in places like that?”  Evey revealed with more bitterness than she intended. 

 

V seemed on the verge of saying something when she cut him off not wanting him to control what happened next.  It was her history, her life and her ability to choose who would reclaim what had been taken. 

 

“I’ve always thought of sex as a weapon.  It was used against me, but then I learned I could use it too.  It was sort of a survival tool I guess.  I got used to being used.  I kept thinking someone someday would decide he wanted more than a fuck and would take care of me.  Pathetic isn’t it?  Anyway, I thought it just worked that way and if I played along I would be okay.  You taught me I don’t have to play along.  I can rewrite the rule book and that is what I’m doing.  Does that make sense?”

 

V’s head was turned toward her.  His eyes were covered but his lips were pursed in a hard line.  Having zero familiarity with his facial expressions, Evey didn’t know what he was thinking and started to panic. 

 

She had never told anyone.  A girl she knew from JRC had told a boyfriend what had happened to her and he had turned his back on her calling her a whore.  From her friend’s experience, Evey had learned never to reveal her secret, but tonight was a night of revelation.  V was not the only one with a hidden past.  He was not the only one who had to trust and she was not the only one who had to forgive.

 

“You’re the only man I’ve ever wanted to give myself to.” She said in an effort to bolster her case, but as the words passed her lips Evey realized how trite they sounded.  Of course she would say something like that. What money grubbing whore didn’t?

 

V’s hand gently ran down her cheek as if he were testing for tears.  His voice was thoughtful as he said, “I’m in no position to pass judgment, Evey.”

 

“You don’t care?”  The words felt like hiccups as she tried to stop them.  She did not want to sound so desperate for his approval, but there was nothing she wanted more.

 

His arms tightened around her and his voice was carefully gentle. “Oh no, Evey.  I care very much, but it changes nothing about how I feel about you.”

 

Relief flooded her as V once again proved he was in a class by himself.  She snuggled in tighter against him feeling safe in his strong embrace.  “I never told anyone before.”

 

“Cathartic, is it?” He asked as his lips brushed her hairline.

 

She laughed, grateful for the change of topic.  “Cheeky, V.  How’s your catharsis going?”

 

“Rather better than expected, actually.”

 

“I should hope so.”  She could not keep the pleased tone out of her voice feeling for the first time she knew he understood.  He might fight it a while, but for the first time he knew she genuinely loved him.

 

“V, my heart leads only to you.” She said as she curled in even tighter against him, finally abandoning self restraint and succumbing to desire.

 

“Where the heart leads the loins do not automatically follow.” He replied, shifting to give his hips more distance from her leg. 

 

“Oh.  Okay.  I understand.”  Evey replied trying to mask her disappointment. 

 

V pulled her tight against him using his voice to soften his words and abate her fears.  “Leaping to conclusions does not suit you, love.  I mean only that tonight is emotionally charged and thus less than rational.  I want no more regrets between us.  The ones I already carry are nearly too much to bear.”

 

His regret, her regret, too many regrets to name or dwell upon.  Instead Evey returned to the thing she knew was the real reason he hesitated.  He could not see himself the way she saw him and he resisted her love because he still thought himself unlovable, an idea she knew his nakedness compounded. 

 

Evey dragged her hand down from its grip on his neck to the centre of his chest over his heart.  Past experience with misunderstanding and hurt feelings forced Evey to be both direct and bold.  “You think this is the first time I’ve ever considered you and I as lovers?”

 

The way V opened and then closed his mouth she wondered at the ease with which he could be unsettled. 

 

Evey clarified her position further.  “I’ve thought about you as a lover since the day you brought me here from BTN.”

 

“I had not thought…” V started but she cut him off.

 

“Seriously?  You never thought about it?”  She questioned knowing full well that he had.

 

“I would have had to be dead to avoid it.”  V said as his own hands began to move on her back. 

 

The feel of his hands on her skin was wonderful, sensual, needed.  Evey answered his caresses with new ones of her own.  When he didn’t resist, she allowed herself more freedom.  Again her hand drifted lower.  Again there was no indication when she closed in on her target until she had him in hand.

 

V froze, but did not withdraw.  Pleased Evey tempted, “Then why not follow your heart?” 

 

“My heart is located somewhat higher, Evey.”  V said placing a hand on hers, stopping her stroking but not removing her touch. 

 

Without thinking Evey quipped, “And your brain should be in my hand right now.  Can we call a truce and get on?”

 

V said nothing, but removed his hand from hers allowing her to do to him what she would.  She searched out his lips once more and her hand resumed stroking him, harder and faster than she had before.

 

V stopped breathing for a moment, the kiss became one sided and Evey wondered if she had gone too far.  Then he pulled her on top of him.

 

Was he giving her the green light?  Did he want her to take charge?  What would the repercussions from this be?  Questions flashed through Evey’s mind without being answered.  She was too absorbed processing the feel of him beneath her.

 

Her arm was squashed between them and Evey pulled it free more interested body to body contact than maintaining a grip on his manhood.  His hands, rough yet oddly smooth, moved down her back to the curve at the base of her spine.  There they stopped as if waiting for an invitation.

 

“Touch me, V.  Anywhere you want.” She whispered between kisses, hoping that he wouldn’t assume she was just being polite. 

 

VEV

 

Was this not a dream?  A most vivid dream?  Too often had dream and reality bled together confusing his purpose and blinding his vision.  She was above him, looking down on him like some sort of angel.  Perhaps he was finally dead and this was heaven.

 

The flawless skin beneath his fingers was real though and his hands seemed to have developed minds of their own.  He was no longer in control of them as they roamed over the landscape of Evey’s body.  She arched into him, urging more intimate caresses with gesture and sound.  What glorious music, the soft moans and sweet nothings of a woman near ecstasy.

 

Somewhere in the back of his blood deprived mind, V suspected what he was doing was going to be regretted later but he could not stop.  Evey was atop him, grinding against him overwhelming his senses with need.  It was a rough pleasure, the lace of her panties starting to rub him raw.  He wouldn’t have cared, but they stood between him and paradise.  He hooked fingers into the sides of them and was pleased when the flimsy material gave way to his pull.  Evey gasped and raised her hips inviting him to remove the last barrier between them.

 

Pulling the material free V was instantly rewarded with her hips back atop his, the ready wetness of her the final breach of his defenses.

 

“I love you, V.”  Evey whispered as she rose up and sank down on him, impaling herself with groan of pleasure.

 

V could not speak though his heart was composing sonnets of love.  They were beautiful, the best poetry of his life, but he lost the verses in the effort to maintain some semblance of control.  His hands gripped her hips tightly holding her still as he gathered his frayed nerves and sought to control his rebellious body.  It took seconds to realize it was a battle he would not win.

 

She knew.  “Let it go, V.  I want you to.”

 

It was not supposed to go like this.  It was to take hours, to allow him to express how much he loved her, desired her, and needed her.  Mere seconds were unacceptable. 

 

“Let it go.”  Evey repeated finding a way to move her hips even though V struggled to hold them still.  The sensation was too much and his own hips refused his control moving under her, meeting her, driving him deeper into her and closer to the edge with each stroke.

 

V came hard, washed over with an ecstatic joy he had never before felt and could not cope with.  His body sang with pleasure as his heart broke open and it took him a while to recognize the sound filling the room.  His own sobs, wracking through his body with the same force as the pleasure they replaced too quickly.

 

Evey was flat against him again, her arms around his neck, her face beside his, sounds of comfort filling his ear.  He laid beneath her, held down both by the feather light weight of her body and the titanic power of her love. 

 

EVE

 

Evey had never heard a sound more raw and agonized.  It was horrible and all she could do was hold him tightly while talking into his ear trying to keep him in the present where things were beautiful and loving, but it was no use.  His mind had gone somewhere terrible and she knew it was only a matter of time before he fled from her.

 

It still took her by surprise when he pushed her off of him, swept something off the floor and leaped out of bed.  Before she could get a single word out the door slammed shut behind him.

 

Evey climbed out of bed slowly feeling strangely calm and bent down to gather her dressing gown.  Throwing it over her shoulders she followed him out into the hallway and down the corridor to his rubber room, but the door was wide open and he was not inside.

VEV

 

 

[21] Bram Stoker – Dracula