We're all rotten, buried and forgotten,

Living it up underground

Harley was undoubtedly stuck, unable to move forward to her life as though her feet were cemented in place. Not with all these unspoken ties holding her down, weaving their way so deep into her very soul that she cannot dare move passed it. Hell, she didn't even want to. There was so much unfinished business that hung above her head continuously mocking her with their shadowy incoherent faces. They plague her and left her wondering with such a frantic urgency. It was why she returned to her old stomping grounds, a place where things actually made the most sense to the raven haired woman. But right now, in this very moment she is stunned, despite not missing a beat with that acerbic sarcasm which so freely falls from her lips.

Looking at her friend she realized how little has changed and yet somehow everything had. It was like a looming presence she couldn't quite place but she doesn't care, she was quite content to ignore it. She welcomes just being in the existence of her long lost friend in which she had no doubt they could just pick up like they left off. Regardless what transpired there wasn't a single thing that would make her think any differently of her.

Isolt simply accepted Harley when so many had tried to stuff her in flimsy box made up of common brown paper but she was so very far from common. How quickly she could burn that paper, demolishing that paper prison they had constantly tried to shove her in, refusing to be stuck inside their flimsy confines. How boring it was and small minded to think that a person could truly harness the firestorm that was Harley. Her inner fire could burn through any kind of shackles despite her human frailty.

For now, she can leave the past in the past, quite content to simply be.

She clings to the control that she found in that sarcasm, a crooked smirk finding her full lips only fueled by her companions giggle. A tension she hadn't realised that was winding her so tightly relinquished its taut hold only slightly. It was like she was waiting for that bomb to drop and destroy it all, after all, there was a reason why Isolt had left her alone in the cold. Maybe they all had a reason. Harley could respect that, but she couldn't help but wish they had at least said goodbye. It corroded her, each and every time someone left her she grew more and more hollow.

The bar keeper had agreed to her instruction even he was just entertaining the strong willed woman and yet she sat a little straighter. Damn right she had thought rather smugly. She offers a mere nod in his direction not bothering to look at him. If men simply did as she said they would certainly find it a much easier road to travel, for this spitfire did not relent when she was spoken the word 'no'.. However the man earned a small devious comment that was intended more to rile him rather than compliment him. "Smart man." Was all she said about that matter.

Harley knew vampires, knew their telltale signs, hell she knew she spent far too much time around them and their toxic clutches. She knew their coldness and how helpless she was against them, not that she admitted nor accepted this very notion. Never once did the thought even cross her very mind that Isolt lacked that pulse she once possessed or what had transpired which had caused her death.

There was a moment where she was met with silence and she couldn't really expect much else. After all, she did trick her into meeting her here. She was not prepared for the slew of twenty questions that wanted to sprout from her all at once and that very dreaded question that haunted her. Why did you leave me? She had far too many abandonment issues that it was starting to get unhealthy. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, not allowing that toxic silence bother her, she becomes that impervious steel, that unreadable wall that she was so good at creating. There was a moment where the perfect storm churns within her threatening to bubble out, but she refuses it. No way she was going to become its victim. Not now. She danced upon a precarious edge at his very moment and she hadn't realised she held her very breath until Isolt once again spoke.

It was then that she realised so much had changed. They used to live together, they used to share almost every dark secret, used keep each other afloat. Now, she didn't know what she was. Now she didn't even know that she was to be married and all the pain she had gone through. All she can do is simply listen and try to piece together the fragments of time and put them back together, that was if she didn't pull another disappearing act. But there was something about knowing someone a long ass time that simply left them imprinted upon you, that no matter how long has passed those years seemed to melt away into nothiningness.

Her mind nearly exploded after Isolt spoke. She remembered when she just started her residency and now she was almost finished. Now she's what? Maybe she had misheard what she was truly saying. Yeah.. engaged as in engaged with her residency? She almost sent those drinks that barkeep brought flying and wasted upon the floor. "YOU ARE WHAT?" Her manicured brows shot up whilst her eyes widened so large that she thought they would have fell out of her skull. She nearly choked out the following words, glad she wasn't chewing on anything or else it would have flown across the room. "Engaged??? Who, what, where, how??" Was that the reason why she disappeared? Isolt fell underneath a man's spell. It suddenly made all the sense in the world. Right? "He must have been pretty special to simply disappear." She fully inserted her foot in her mouth but she couldn't hide the hurt that welled up in her chest. Not now, she couldn't bleed all over the place. Emotions beat within her like it had its own pulse flooding her veins with pain she wasn't quite aware she was holding onto. It would seem she could add more internal battle scars to her already impressive collection. Yet still it was impossible to truly hate her, she was Isolt, her best friend.

But then she asked her a question that was entirely meant to be light hearted. It was then, that shift in mood within her made her freeze, staring almost dumbly at the red-haired familiar face. How did she begin to tell her what happened, that Ryker had found her yet again. That fucker managed to find her no matter what hole she crawled into. Why couldn't he just be happy with that empire he stole? "Don't you remember trouble likes me more than I like it?" Okay, maybe that was a lie. "I tried to break up with it but that fucker still comes knocking on my door." Amusement peppers her voice as she nearly rolls her eyes, grinning mischievously back at that kind but familiar face. "So you know old habits and curses have a way to linger or find you." She mentions almost cryptically.

After careful consideration she finally admits knowing full well the weight her words carried despite how lightly she spoke them. "You know Ryker found me again.. Considering he's a vampire he's rather slow, but on my own it makes it easier for him to show up. You would think he would have found something more entertaining by now." She shrugs it off like it was nothing like a casual indifference, but it wasn't nothing. Yeah, water off a ducks back.

Harlequin Ray Westward