Train Wreck [Solo]

For once, the City of Lights sunny sky wasn't bearing down on her skin. It was a dreary day, the kind that gave Maria a sickly feeling, the kind of day she didn't even bother hiding her horns. Today was the day she confronted the person who was stalking her, and claimed to have info on Anton. It wasn't like she didn't want to know about the sueki man, but just the thought of someone tracking her moves and knew of her past made the woman feel queasy. She didn't just go around telling everyone her issues like a blabbermouth, contrary to what people may think of her. Telling Helle her secrets felt like she was exposing herself naked to the sun, painful and heartbroken, but also so free. Like the freedom of her shell and straight into death's embrace. But who would that really satisfy? Not her, not when the woman knew that made that caused all of her grief was out there, living scot free. Her heart clenched at the thought of Anton, and with him came the thought of another could-be friend. Uriel Snacroix.

The thought of the blonde haired man griped a mix of emotions in Maria's heart. She wasn't in love with the man, despite how pretty his eyes looked, but she couldn't help but feel empathy with the man. With the fall of a King and the evacuation effort, he looked so withdrawn and hurt. She barely knew him, but how could she not want to help someone who looked beaten? Memories of her family from the orphanage flashed in her mind, and Mimi choked back the tears with big gulps of her Starbucks coffee. No one gave those thoughts permission to resurface and hurt her, but that's all Uriel did for her. To ask her to blindly trust him and fall, would be asking her to repeat history again. It would surely break her into pieces, even more than she already was.

The feeling of her dry mouth despite the coffee made the woman frown, this was her fifth cup in the last hour to try and gain some semblance of energy. It basically did nothing for the sueki, making her frustrated enough to just throw the cup onto the ground, effectively littering. That made her feel bad, but the fact that she couldn't function made her feel worse. When and why did the coffee stop working? This wasn't normal, it always made up for the little bit of energy she seeped from people. Granted, she did stop feeding entirely this time, but she thought coffee could at least keep her going a little longer. She was hungry, so hungry, and it didn't help that men would approach her at the bench she rested at, waiting for her little spy. Since her first meeting with Chickpea and how she had vehemently expressed her distaste for homewrecking, she just stopped seducing men for meals entirely. She would usually at least sap a little from crowds of people to sustain herself, but ever since the taunting memory of Anton began to haunt her even more than usual, the self hate started to get worse and she just couldn't force herself to do it anymore.

The sky looked to get worse as time continued on, the dreary look slowly melting into a light drizzle. Maria's skin already felt freezing, the droplets of rain on her skin just made her feel bone cold. But she didn't move, she couldn't, she damn near refused. Not because this was the meeting spot, she had her umbrella right there, but because of the fact that she almost felt as though the sky was weeping for her. It was cheesy, highly unlikely, and just downright pathetic. To think she would have enough grace and importance for the heavens to weep for her was laughable. The woman was nothing, and knew she was nothing. So Mimi sat there, letting herself become slowly drenched in the rain, easily being weighed down by the rain soaked jacket she had borrowed from Helle. It smelled like her and the rain washed away that scent, making the woman feel even more downtrodden. Leaning back against the bench, the sueki stared at the sky with half lidded eyes and a dazed look on her sickly pale face. The stalker was late, about an hour late by now. Did she back out? Was she being tricked? The possibility of it being Anton fucking with her made her chest tighten. But he didn't mess with old flings, he considered them used goods, so that made no sense. Plus if a sueki was out there causing trouble in the City of Lights, she doubted the Vandenreich would just let it happen. That should have eliminated the thought of this all being a prank by her ex, but she couldn't stop worrying.

The sight of a black umbrella blocking out the bleak sky made Maria blink in surprise, causing the woman to turn with great effort and find the culprit that dared to invade her personal space while she was vulnerable. She felt so sluggish that everything felt like it was in slow motion and she still couldn't wipe off the dazed look on her face. She was met with the face of a girl no older than eighteen, with eyes the color a dying sun. The young girl looked at her with worry that seemed to speak volumes, but this only caused more confusion on Mimi's behalf. Who was this child? Maybe it was just a citizen who saw her and was being a good samaritan. Which was very nice of her, she liked the people in this city, but also wholly unnecessary. She opened her mouth, "Thank you, but I'm okay, really.", but the words never left her mouth because the next moment everything became far too blurry, far too fast. Her head lolled from side to side as her eyes began to slowly close on their own. Her body was giving out on her, chest tightening to a frightening degree of pain that had the blonde woman sputtering some gibberish about Helle and how she hated pain. She could faintly hear the panicked voice of what she assumed was the child next to her before everything went black.

For her credit, the black haired girl caught the unconscious sueki woman just before she hit the ground, discarding the umbrella in exchange for her safety. She was panicking pretty bad now, squeaking out for an older man who came running to the scene. This wasn't supposed to go down like this.

""

The darkness in her mind was never a welcoming entity. It mocked her and dragged her further down the sea of depression like lamb to the slaughter. It pulled every which way, making the woman feel like a doll. It threw her worst memories at her and dug her nose into the ground, as if she wasn't even a person. Maria tried to escape, desperately attempting to run away from the pain, but the mental image of her attacking Saisei and Uriel's powers burning her had her in hysterics. The pool of depression flooded and attempt to drown her in its sorrow, but a sound broke through her mental and cracked the inner plane. Helle's voice and the night of confessions had her still as she stared upon now much brighter sky.

“Mimi… Let it all out. I am here. I shall always be here until death decides it is my time, and even then, I shall not leave thee comfortless.”

"I think she's waking up."

The first thing Maria could identify when opening her eyes was the face of the the young girl that had approached her earlier looking down at her worriedly. The second thing she realized was that she was in a home she did not recognize. This immediately put her body in an alert mode, but she could do nothing but stare listlessly back at the concerned black eyes. Another figure of an older man appeared behind her, before disappearing again only to return for a second time. The black eyed girl left her side and Mimi attempted to follow but she couldn't even gather the strength to turn her head. Is this how she died?

A beat passes before she could feel some kind of tube being forced passed her lips and warm liquid began to be forced down her throat. Her eyes that were previously half closed immediately shot open in panic, her taste buds immediately recognizing the taste. Memories of that day on the floor with the pink haired boy assaulted her mind, her body responding by attempting to weakly fight against the blood, but failing helplessly. Even if her mind screamed no, Maria's body had no qualms on taking the liquid gold down to the very last drop, sitting up and practically gulping down when she finally regained some strength to actually move. Once finished, the blonde took a moment to gather herself, and curled herself into a ball to stop herself from vomiting back up her lifeblood. A hand grabbed her shoulder to turn her over to face them, the man she just barely saw before passing out earlier. The woman flinched away from his touch, but his firm grip kept her from getting far.

His voice was calm and soothing as he introduced himself, Duyi, and started from how he knew who she was. Apparently his great, great grandfather was someone from her family at the orphanage and had always wondered where she had ended up. During his final years he searched all over for her, barely finding any form of information on the woman before he accidentally stumbled upon Anton Fang. The sueki male had cheerfully explained how he "ruined" the blonde in such gruesome imagery that the elder man nearly had a heart attack. But in the end, he still didn't know where she was and the horrific information just made him feel even more guilty about their distance.

Duyi explained how he only knew who she was, was due to the fact that their family home had kept a large photo of all the orphan kids in the living room next to their great great grandfather's portrait. They had been hesitant to approach her due to her connections with Helle Armstrong and the giant man she accompanied on her first day of arrival. But with things happened in America and her being more alone than ever, it seemed like a good time to contact the woman, until they discovered just how bad of a shape she was in.

At the end of his story, the asian man pulled out a photo of a younger Maria and a handful of other kids from the orphanage surrounding one of the caretakers, pausing like a bunch of hooligans'. Tears began to fall down pale cheeks as the sueki woman gazed with sad eyes at the photo, gently taking it in her trembling hands. Time at the orphanage seemed so long ago, and here she sat being miserable past her expiration date, while her family aged and had families of their own. She would have loved to settle down and have a family, if she wasn't such a fool she could have died happily by 90. Yet here she sat, surviving by draining other's essence. Such thoughts nearly sent her into a depressive crying mess, but a hug from behind had the blonde woman pause. The young girl from earlier was hugging her warmly, as if trying to squeeze the sadness out of her.

"We found you! Grandpa would be so happy to see you, so don't be sad. It's ok that you're a sueki, we don't care, we can take care of your hunger for you! Or even force you cuz you're crazy, ya know. Even if you don't know us, we can be family! You don't have to be alone, you don't have to seek revenge— you can settle down, we can find a solution, together."

She was going to hate crying at this point, she was sure she looked absolutely ridiculous with tear streaks down her face and snot trying to escape her nostrils. But no matter how much she hated how much she looked at this moment, she knew deep in her heart she didn't care, couldn't care. Not when they were offering her a second home. Helle doing it had already made her fall for the woman, but for ancient family to welcome her back, regardless of what she was made her dead heart squeeze painfully in her chest. Was this the right path? Giving up on revenge? It sounded easy on paper, but to give up on such a path just so easily didn't sit right. But maybe, maybe putting it out of mind right now seemed like a good idea. Besides, she's already spent more than 100 years chasing him, pausing now wouldn't be such a big deal, would it?

And if that ended with Maria dropping the chase entirely, then well, who could blame her?