Always Yours

[Jaycy Ashleana]

(( This is basically the end of original Jaycy after her husband (Furyion Shadowsbane, Dawn's father) disappeared/died. The character currently known as Jaycy has been a clone of this version, since around 1999-2000. ))

Red and silver whipped at her flailing arms as she ran beneath the waning moon toward the sand. Stumbling, one foot caught the other and a moment later she fell with a heavy thud, a million tiny shards slipping past the fabric to embed themselves in her skin. She choked back a sob, planting hands to try and push herself up enough to look back, as if the very hounds of hell were at her heels. A moment later she turned her gaze forward, to see the sand... only the sand.

With another strangled sound she let her head drop, cheek to the sand. "Oh... gods.. Fury... oh Fury I miss you.. need... need you... oh gods Fury let me come home.." An outstretched hand balled, clutching the mixture of sand and glass, heedless of the danger to calloused flesh. "Oh gods I'm so scared." Sobbing, she squeezed her eyes shut as the memories struck her mind in punishing waves.

A flash of memory, recent. She could still feel his arms around her, loose but constricting, closing around her, trapping. Gentle words, tender words... yet words that tore her heart. Words that made her want to die. Words she couldn't say yes to. "Oh gods Fury I'm sorry" escaped as a tortured whisper as she relived the fear of Leo hinting at wanting to marry her.

Another wave sent her into a fresh round of sobs. Tearfully she remembered a quiet night outside, in his arms. A night of gentleness and tenderness in a lifetime of violent passion... the night they both assured the other they never wanted to marry again. "I shouldn't have... have gone back on that" she murmured to the past-Fury. "Things would have been different."

Darkness enveloped her a moment, sweet oblivion. Time seemed to stop in that single moment of respite, the moment before she was plunged into another memory. Unable to shut out the vision, she watched helplessly as a younger Jaycy climbed out of the pool and threatened "If you get me dirty or wet again, I'll make you marry me." No, she wanted to scream to her younger self. Don't do it, she mentally screamed. Don't kill him... you will...

The window seat. The young woman, alone, looking out. The man, coming toward her suddenly, hands clenched. The pouring of both water and dirt on the younger, sputtering woman. The words. "I've gotten you both dirty and wet." The love in his eyes, his voice... the moment she knew. The moment that killed her.

Mercifully, the memories ceased to flow over and into her. Slowly Jaycy's eyes opened and her hand released the sand. In the hollow for her cheek, damp droplets of her tears rested, a silent reminder of another memory. Blood seeped from a thousand wounds along her body, mingling with the sand where her beloved's home stood.

Seeing these things, she whispered sadly. "Dirt an' water." A pause to swallow, then she continued. "My blood to yer blood. My life to yer life. My death..." She almost choked, but finished the ritual words. "To yer death." Once more the tear-stained cheek was rested in its new bed, her uninjured hand reaching to close about the pouch she always wore. Through the leather she caressed the single dragonscale and ring with its precious starjewel.

Closing her eyes, she held the treasures to her breast, quiet as the tears slid down her cheeks into the sand. As night flew and the day dawned, she lay there, consciousness fading away. Her last thoughts before the dawn were spoken, floating away in the tiny breeze.

"Always yours. Only yours."