.:.Pains of an empty goodbye.:.

.:.Pains of an empty goodbye.:.

Several years ago and in the deep dark recesses of the Carnival, a young Angel found herself alone and emotionally completely broken.

It had only been a few days since she saw her mother’s lifeless body laying halfway onto the hood of the car that her own brother had driven through their double front door. He was dead before the car ever came to a rest, a slice of glass sticking out of his neck.

Angel Vanessa Wilde was so young but she could easily close her eyes and remember that horrific night as if it only happened yesterday. But on this night, she was crying in what can only be described as a closet with stone floors and no windows, and a cot holding her small frame. She hadn’t eaten in days.

Her father, Thomas would pop in once in a while to check in on her and she would pretend to be asleep, mostly because the last time they had spoken she demanded to go back to her mother and he dragged her to this god awful place.

A little girl shouldn’t have to wish for her death but anything would have been better than this. Not even a funeral for them, no goodbyes...just instant death. Something she found herself being jealous of.

As the years passed on, on what she would assume would be the anniversary of their deaths, she would light a candle that she kept hidden from them, to remember them, promising that they would never be forgotten.

One year, she was caught by her father.

Where they were currently keeping refuge had something resembling a chapel, she took her candle, snuck in and lit it.

“Mom, Henry...today is year 6 of you being gone. I have never forgotten. I used to be so mad at you, Henry for what you did, but after all our time here....I- I don’t think you are to blame anymore.” she would whisper to no one but the shadows, “Mom, I know now what you were trying to save me from. I- I hear things. These people talk in corners about me and I hear them say your names and...what I’m told to my face about how he was out of control and what I’m hearing doesn’t match up.”

“ANGEL!” her father bellowed as he stomped up and whipped her up to her feet, “How dare you!”

He would slap her, throw the candle to the ground and from there things got blurry.

In the honesty of it all, he would take her to deconstruct and reconstruct her memories, it would fail but as time went on she would learn to hide it, but she would never change her mind as hard as they tried. She would continue to do it every year, in secret and fuck them all for not giving her this.

Now that she had be excommunicated from the Carnival and found herself in the care of the Good Doc, V and Muri, Angel felt for the first time she could mourn in comfort. And it confused everyone but V when she began to make her preparations.

“A candle?” the doc would ask her when she made a request. Angel was following him around as he made his rounds through their medical ward, mostly still taking care of the guys her and V had put in there the night before. But she wasn’t acting like her normal brooding self, instead it was almost like an annoying teenager, nagging him at every turn.

“Yeah, just a simple wide one about the size of a softball would be ideal. I can take care of the rest, it’s just...it’s important to me.”

The doc shook his head and gave her a look to match what he said next, “I’m confused.”

“You’re the only one I know that gets to leave this place on a regular basis and I’ll even give it back after I use it, I just...” Angel said with a sigh, “Could you get it?”

“I mean, I should be able to. I’m just wondering why?”

Angel just glared at him, “Do I really need a reason? I’m not going to burn the damn place down, doc. It’s something that I need as soon as possible and I just don’t know who else to ask. Muri is too young to get it and well, V...I don’t know how to ask him for anything and I think he’s still bitter about that whole hitting him with the lunch tray.”

The doc couldn’t help but laugh, “Something like that. But if it will get you off my back and let me complete my rounds, I will find one for you....”

“OH THANK YO-”

“BUT!” he cut her off, “I’m gonna ask something in return for it and I get no argument from you when I ask for it. Deal?”

Angel steps back in shock for a moment and looks nervously around the ward, chewing on her black painted bottom lip. She sighs because she really doesn’t have any other option, she clears her throat and sticks out her slender hand that has wrecked so much havoc and yet so tiny, “Deal.”

They shake hands and she spins on her heels with a genuine smile on her face as V pops up on the other side of the doc, “What did she want?” V said in that accent that no one has yet to be able to identify.

“A candle, a pillar candle to be more specific. Any chance you know what she’s up to?” the doc says looking at him.

“It’s her business and her business alone.” V simply said, but he smirks at him, “Which means I obviously know. Just bring it as soon as you can.”

“Just call me DoorDash.” the doc sighs, as V slaps him on the back as a way to show thanks.

A few days later, he indeed brought the candle to her and was surprised to get an actual hug out of it before having her door slammed in his face. She wasn’t seen much the day before and then suddenly in the middle of the night, she wandered the halls, her hair flowed freely, her face free of makeup, her body wrapped in a black material that revealed some scaring from the years of torture and wars.

She would enter into a room, where the moonlight shined brightly and simply walk forward as the further she got in the more you could see it was almost a chapel but it hadn’t been used in years. She would place her candle onto the table with her right hand, her mother’s jewelry box in her other hand would be placed next to it. The candle, which used to be a simple white was now carved up with designs, would be lit with a lone match that was left in a pack that she had kept in the box. She stared at it for a moment before turning and kneeling in front of the table and just sitting there on her heels, in silence.

She would close her eyes for only a moment before a gust of wind from a drafty window suddenly blew through and just enough to blow the candle out, her eyes would shoot open and would cry out, “NO!” as she looked down at the matchbook still in her and and only see that it was completely empty. For the first time in a long time she would sob and scream out loud throwing the book down. But just as quickly as it happened, suddenly we would hear a flick on a zippo lighter and she would look up to see V light the candle with his hand around the other side.

She would have to stop herself as she would notice the light from the candle would only make his brown hazel eyes look almost golden. She would watch as he looked up and pull a rope in the room on the wall and it closed the evil drafty window with a heavy cloth, only keeping the room lit by candlelight, “I’ve been meaning to fix that.” V would say with a chuckle.

“Did- ...did you-” Angel would sputter out.

V would smirk, “Follow you? Yeah, call it a general curiosity, it’s not every day we get a request like yours but seeing when it is, I had a feeling.”

Angel would shake her head, and if looks could kill he would probably find himself 12 feet down, burning in the hell she would send him to, “How do you even know?”

“You forgot already?” V said as he kneeled by her, leaning in, “I’m hurt Angel. Do you not remember who brought you the new candle after your father found out?”

Angel’s eyes blink blankly for a moment, like she’s trying to dig deep into the memories she had suppressed, and then she remembers...the boy in the walls, “I completely forgot.”

“There’s a lot we want to forget about that place, so I’m not surprised.” he says leaning back and looking to the candle, “The things we forget, the things we will always remember...the empty goodbyes.”

“And the hollow hellos.” she says before she lets a tear trickle down her cheek, she quickly wipes it away, “I’m wishing we could just forget that hell but it’s going to follow us to our graves from the looks of things. It sent the most important people in my life to theirs and I still don’t know why. I’ve grown to realize I will never get those answers.”

V looks down, “I will leave you to do your thing. I’m never far if you need anything.”

He goes to get up but she reaches over and grabs his hand, “Stay.” he looks down at their hands joined before he looks up at her but she doesn’t look at him, her eyes glassy but no tears fall, “Please.”

He just squeezes her hand but doesn’t let go and stays by her side, “All you had to do was ask.”


.:.The Enemy of my Enemy.:.

Angel had to laugh, the minute she got word all she could do was laugh herself to tears and to the point where her stomach hurt.

“I do believe, my darling V, that you gave them a horrible idea when you decided to trail Lachy.” Angel said as she slid over the tablet that held the match-ups for the upcoming Victory. “How does it go? The enemy of my enemy is my friend?”

V picks it up and looks at it still rubbing the spot on his cheek, “Something like that. I will have you know that he has a pretty hard slap, almost harder than your hook.”

“Not my fault you have a glass jaw.” Angel says with a smirk, leaning her head on her first and poking at one of his dimples.

“Quit! It’s still tender.” V swats at her hand.

Angel rolls her greens eyes and snatches the tablet back from him, “Big baby! Besides, if Lach is wise as he claims he’ll know to stay on my good side if he really wants to win this match.”

“I don’t think we have to worry about him more than he’s worried about you, sweetheart. It’s not exactly like you have the best track record with him.” V says, he rest his own head in his hand, those weirdly colored brown eyes twinkling with mischief, “Wonder who’s fault that was.”

“Not like I had much of a choice! Ah the hell with it, we’re just gonna have to live with the fact that my own tag partner in this match will never trust me but that doesn’t mean I won’t hold my weight against our opponents. Especially because I still own that bitch Chelsea Skye, a punch in the face.” Angel says rolling her eyes, “‘I’m the one true angel’ blech, I can’t help what my parents named me. She can have that title and wipe her ass with it for all I care.[/color]”

“Someone is loving this.” Muri says laying on the table, holding her mirror up above her and moving it left and right, “You two enjoy the conflict way too much.”

V just glances at his little sister, “Who taught you it was proper to lay on a table like that?”

“Angel said it was ok,” Muri says, looking at her brother and sticking her tongue out.

“Such a brat.” he says as he pulls a water gun from his jacket and squirts her a couple of times which causes her to yell and them going back and forth picking on one another.

Angel whistles loudly, “Ok you two, we need to focus, we know the Lach factor but obviously we have a lot of things going on here with it being a whole the champs and challengers tagging up. There is obviously a whole lot of the same tension between all three teams in this match so this is obviously one of those things where I could obviously be a major devil's advocate here. But to be honest, I haven’t cared to pay much attention to anything else really going on.”

V smirks, “It should be a glorious mess that PWE brought on themselves and they will have no one to blame.”

“But they will try to blame the most chaotic of us and that will go to me of course. I’m more than happy to bare the brunt of that blame with all the generosity that I can. I’ll just add it to the list that I will hold against them.” Angel looks at Muri who sits up and holds her mirror in front of them, “Then we’ll show them their true reflection and what they really brought on themselves.”

We see the reflection of the mirror, of Angel and V sharing almost the same evil little smirk.

And Muri leaning on her beautiful mirror, “For reflection truly shows us the truth of it all in the end.”