[CONTENTID2]what is his emotion but a tremulous sea in need of pacification[/CONTENTID2][CONTENTID1]

With hands clasped in prayer, the nurse is on her knees.
She is a statue.
Immobilized. Unmovable. A statue.
Insides, no longer filled with fear.
Charred.
Body, an empty shell.
Soul, at great risk of eternal damnation.

• • • • • • •

Like alluring waves, lapping on to the shore and flowing on, she takes and takes and takes from him, never to return. Always moving. Never stopping. Not even for him. Outside his body, he hears her speak his name, calling to him. He flings out his arms in a great gesture of longing. The sound is distant. Dry-eyed, he grasps on to that which lies beyond his reach. Inside his body, in the dank caverns of his heart, guarded by sharp rocks, the mermaids and mermen of the deep blue world sing to him. Their song, drenched in treacherous mockery. Tinkle. Tinkle. Their voices trill. A water droplet's roar.

We have shared with you our ballads of separation and betrayal. But... you do not heed them. Do you not wish to heed them?

Beware. Beware of the double-edged sword. Do not trust us, Jaejoong. We will slay you in your sleep. Our voices, deafeningly sweet. Do not trust our voices.

Never trust us. Never trust her... for she shares our gift. Though a creature of fire, she knows our dampen ways. The temptation. It is far too strong for you, Jaejoong. Her song will drown you. Nurturing false hopes and giving life to abandoned dreams. She will drown you.

With her thin lips parted, she has fed you poison. Sent you through hell. Sent you to us. Deep, deep... into the deep blue world. Do you feel it?

Yes. Yes, he can... the stinging venom of tainted blood coarsing through his veins like an elixir of youth. The power... to tear his nerves into raw bleeding fragments. But his body remains dreadfully still. A still figure of stone and fire, ice and flames. She had done this to him.

Xinling.

"Jaejoong."

Xinling.

"Jaejoong. My dear, sleeping prince. Will you not open your eyes and look at me?" She is a selfish being. Toxic to those who meet her gaze.

Outside his body, he tries to convert the roars of water sprays into words. To speak the name she longs to hear... but an object has lodged itself in his throat, preventing him from doing so.

"Will you not whisper my name, darling?" Her untamed hair falls, kissing his forehead. "Have you carelessly forgotten it so soon?" He feels the softness of her palm against his cheek, the warmth of her finger brushing across his frozen lips, urging them to part. To part for her.

The object vibrates in his throat, humming her song, a ballad of separation and betrayal. Her sinister black pearl. It wishes to be, once again, in the embrace of her lovely flames.

It lurches forward with intense yearning... to think of swimming again in the red sea of her uncharted hair.

He chokes.

At the moment of its escape, his eyes fly open to meet her fiery gaze. The first thing he sees in his wake... are her eyes. Sparks of amber in a sea of green. Only to warp. Only to burn. Dark. Like the color of scorched earth. Her scars of unsung devotion give way to unblemished skin. Smooth and glowing... like new glass in the furnace of creation.

"Welcome back, my love." Her whispers... psychotic and possessive. "You must be tried from battling all the human emotions that have come along with your wake."

"Xinling..."

She leans in closer and rewards him with a smile. "Thank you, Jaejoong." She giggles. "Shall I show you something amusing?" From the tip of her fingers spring little dancing flames. White, silver, blue. They spin and spin, dancing in the palm of her hand, creating little spirals. Further and further, the spiral grows. With her head resting against his own, she shows him their reflection in the spiral of dancing flames.

"Do you see it?"

He does... the hideous scars consuming his face.

"Look what you made me do, dearest? Can you still call that a face? But I must say, they do look better on you than they do on me. They belong to you, after all... just as you belong to me."

Ugly words. Bitter words. They fly. Sparks from steel clashing against steel. Unreasonable hate and loneliness erupt like a geyser.

His eyes turn silvery blue. Blue.... like the deep blue world. Blue... like the color of her ruthless flames. He is too angry to cry. The most dangerous state for a demon.

"Although you made me do it... I have a confession to make. Will you listen?"

He can do nothing else but listen.

"I enjoyed it, Jaejoong." She fiddles with the tips of his frosty hair. Her guilty pleasure. "Very much so."

[/CONTENTID1]