Restless Nights

She'd given up trying to sleep at night.  At least until she'd had a bottle of wine or two in her.  Instead, she'd taken to pacing the halls of her empty manor, spiders living in the corners, a snake in its tank and her owl, her beloved companion, coming and going as she pleased.  Nothing felt right anymore, everything was chaotic and out of place.

It had too long since she'd seen his face and his mother's ring still sat on her finger.  How she loved that ring and what it symbolized but more than that, how she loved the man that placed it there.  As she paced the halls, she caught sight of herself in the mirror and the phantom that stared back at her frightened her.

She didn't recognized the haunted woman staring back at her. None of the life that had once filled her veins and colored her cheeks existed anymore.  Instead, she look fit to sit at Luukos' side, Queen of the Undead as it were.  The bottle breaking against her floor drew her attention and she jumped back, staring down at the mess, swearing under her breath. In losing him, in missing him, she'd lost herself along the way.

A few hours later, after making a rash decision, she was sitting in Victory Court, laughing and talking to Lynaera, Elurana and a little mobile pantry with furry toes as she'd come to call him.  For once in months, she'd felt a glimmer of joy.  She thought maybe, just maybe, she'd managed to drink her feelings away.

All of that came to a grinding halt when he appeared. The pain she'd felt, the love that still burned so deeply, so fiercely, reared its head.  They went back to a table and all she wanted to do was hug him, hold him and just be with him once more.

Once or twice she thought he might still love her too but she was too scared to ask, too afraid to tell him of her own feelings.  He left quickly, leaving her more confused than she had been before.  She waited for but a moment before returning to her home and finding her way to the bottom of another bottle before she fell into unconscious once more.