taxonomites | 024: The Saints Can't Help Me Now [Location: Hyperion Hotel / Accidental Visual]

While Drusilla slept on the silk sheets that Angel had promised her, the figure reflected in her window pane - a girl who was both like and unlike the vampire - said her prayers.

Her lips barely moved as she murmured her supplications up to heaven. They were secrets, her prayers. Secrets that weren't for the ears of anyone but the Lord. (It was strange, wasn't it? The girl gave her heart and her trust to the same deity who had, in another life, abandoned her to the clutches of the devil.) The rosary clutched in her pale hand was worn with use and with piety.

The Drusilla on the bed wore red. In the right light, it looked as if she was a corpse in a pool of fresh blood, stark against the snowy sheets.

The Drusilla in the glass wore a coarse nun's habit. In any light, she glowed with virtue.

It was the life that she could have lived. The person that she could have been. She rarely dreamed of such things - the pixies whispered of the future, not the futures that had never been able to come to pass - and, when the sudden sharpness of the reflection pierced her head, Drusilla woke with a start. For a moment, she gazed - wide eyed and unblinking - at the window.

"No."

She snatched up the lamp that stood on the table next to her new bed, throwing it without hesitation. The glass shattered and the girl disappeared before she'd had a chance to ask for forgiveness for the sins that her other self had committed.

"I'm not sorry," she snarled, addressing the broken window and the shadow that had stood there, "I'm not sorry."

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The statement garnered a short hum from the older vampire, a sound caught between a scoff and a laugh.

"Touché," Katherine smiled wryly, inclining her head a little in acknowledgement. It was useless to try to fool Drusilla.

Her kind of vampires were much like humans in their ability to feel emotions; in fact, they felt them even more keenly. Everything became more amplified after turning and feelings were no exception. But there was also a mental switch to turn off emotions and morality and to let the predator right beneath the surface take full reign. But Katherine had spent her entire life as an undead from the moment she'd turned to run from those who were even older and stronger than her, the Original vampires of her world. She needed the steadiness of a clear head to aid her in running and hiding, in surviving, not one that was only concerned with bloodlust. Hope of freedom was a constant companion of hers.

"Perhaps I still have something left to learn, then."

Hope was, as far as Drusilla was concerned, a strange thing. A human thing. She didn't hope that things would be better or that things would change. She knew. It was far more convenient that way.

"Read the stars," she suggested, "They forgot how to lie a long time ago."

But she had a feeling that Katherine would try to change what she saw if she really didn't like it. That wasn't how it worked. That only paved the way to that future.

"I fear I haven't your talent for that," Katherine spoke softly. With a tiny smile tugging at the corner of her mouth, she added, "I have to rely on myself."

Drusilla was right, as usual. Katherine refused to believe anything was preordained. The odds were always stacked against her, but she was first and foremost a fighter. A survivor. Self-preservation outweighed all her other characteristics; she would fight fang and nail against anything trying to drag her down. She believed in making her own luck, and determining her own future. She had to. If she didn't, then she might as well give up - and Katherine Pierce never gave up.

"Nobody does," said Drusilla ruefully, thinking of her sisters, who had died for being ordinary, and her parents, who had cursed her for being wrong. "The devil kept it all for me."

She tilted her head, her hair an ebony waterfall that she longed for someone to drown in.

"Do you trust yourself?"

"You're a special girl, then," Katherine stated smoothly, inclining her head a bit. At Drusilla's question, she hummed softly in wry amusement.

"I trust only myself." Over five centuries on the run had made her distrustful to a fault. She'd started to trust Stefan during the past few months, which is a mistake - little does Katherine know that his recent romantic involvement with her is in large part simply a ploy to subtly extract information out of her that she wouldn't normally divulge. Even someone as old and experienced as her could still be fooled.

Drusilla smiled demurely at that comment, making no attempt to deny it and knowing that confirmation was unnecessary. Angelus had realised how special she was straight away. He'd crafted her into something even more exciting in the months and years that had followed.

"You must be lonely."

It was a statement rather than a question. Drusilla was mad, but she trusted. She trusted her version of the Slayer and the Angel Beast and her ersatz family. She wasn't alone.

Katherine's gaze sharpened just slightly at Drusilla's comment, her smile slipping just a bit. It was true; she couldn't trust anyone, therefore she was almost always alone. Sure, she could charm or compel herself some temporary entertainment, but lasting connections? She didn't really have those. Much as she would like them.

Regrouping, Katherine responded with an air of indifference. "Good thing I enjoy my own company."

Although the space in her heart were her soul used to be made relationships difficult for Drusilla, she was capable of more love and affection than others of her kind. She liked Katherine. Friends were rare in this cage of a city and there was a certain degree of kinship between them. A shared darkness. A shared hunger. A shared thirst for mischief. That was almost affection.

"You have me," she offered, simply.

Katherine understood the value of allies better than anyone. It was good to have people on your side in whatever capacity. Drusilla was genuine and she saw truly. There was no need for pretenses with her. Katherine appreciated that, was old and experienced enough to pay heed to her words - even if she couldn't necessarily figure out their full meaning sometimes.

Drusilla's offer made Katherine smile. "I appreciate that. We'll look after each other in this alien prison, us girls."

Because Drusilla was one of the very few people in Taxon for whom Katherine would lend a helping hand if ever needed.

Everyone listened to Drusilla, but very few people understood. Even her family, who had been with her for years and years, failed to untangle her words before it was too late. (There were times when she came close to losing her patience with them. They just needed to open their ears!)

She was satisfied with Katherine's answering smile. This time, she had listened.

"We should have another party soon."

A sleepover, with dolls and stories in the darkness and sweetmeats for dinner.

Edited 2011-09-23 23:36 (UTC)

"Yes, we should," Katherine agreed, her smiling never slipping. "It's been a while since we last had one, after all."

"Too long," she said, wistfully. She was always honest and open about who and what she was, but being able to spend time with someone who embraced that part of her was a rare treat indeed. Especially now that the Angel Beast had left the city.

Edited 2011-09-30 20:03 (UTC)

024: The Saints Can't Help Me Now [Location: Hyperion Hotel / Accidental Visual]

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