Stormclouds Gather

[Hemlocke]

---

As the man trembled over her, and the final hour of her life blurred within her eyes. The guillotine tightened, but instead of dropping, it lifted. The blade that was poised to split her neck had been drug away, yet still ever present to remind her where she was but a moment ago. The burning and unstable gaze had left her to release a heavy exhale of breath, trying to focus himself, the surging heat of the breath told the woman she was still very much alive. His hand removed itself from her, before he took a step forward to bring himself directly over her face, his wild hair falling around her face as he loomed over her, eyes opening again to stare down into hers deeply. Even with breath still shaky, as the inner fire raged within, he spoke again.

"Yet... that willingness to sacrifice everything..."

"That /loyalty/ to your dream... to risk it all to get what you want..."

Another pause, yet his tone shifted, a hint of respect emerged from the hateful man's voice as it slowly returned to its smoother tone.

"Is why I will provide you with what you seek."

His eyes still studied hers, searching them, a very driven and peculiar woman. A means to an end. Despite how horribly he hated everything she had done, the core reasoning behind it was not one he could simply ignore. They'd come from very similar positions, all be it with a different beginning. The woman who'd known she lost, who remained defiant against the insurmountable odds until the jaws of death had closed around her very throat. And instead of begging pathetically for her life, had given the world one last smile, an admittance of failure, rather than clinging to who she was... what she could give, where she'd come from, and who could or couldn't kill her.

"With a condition."

---