InsaneJournal

Fic: Running to Stand Still (Faith/Angel)
Author: thenyxie
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: F/A --but it's really all about the B/A
Prompt: 2.45 meters
Summary: He didn't save her.
Notes: Written for the 50_elements challenge. I've claimed Faith/Angel (since Ducks got B/A), and I picked the "Dark" prompts. This story is going to be seriously, SERIOUSLY dark and angsty. These ficlets/drabbles are going to comprise pieces of one whole story, but are not going to be posted in any particular order.
Disclaimer: If I fudged the math, please let me know. I tried really hard, but I suck at converting the metric system and I'm not 100% sure that it's right.


Running to Stand Still

2.45 meters.

8.202083 feet.

98.425 inches.

I know every single way to divide the distance, to break it down to its smallest unit. As if, by decreasing its measurements, I can somehow decrease its meaning.

Faith paces the room like a wary lion, throwing daggered glances at me. She doesn’t have to ask to know what I’m thinking. She alone understands the importance of this tiny, tiny measurement of space and time. The inescapable, eternal significance.

--

She stands before the hulking, dark-skinned beast, rain sluicing down upon her in buckets from the sky. Her eyes burn fire and her mouth drips red, pretty, pretty red like smeared lipstick and lost innocence. Bruised and broken, proud and defiant, she clenches her fists and grits her teeth, shoulders squaring straight.

She is power, raw and primal. Pivot and turn, backfist and kick. She is a dancer, a dealer of death gifted with lithe grace. Mascara streaks her face like war paint, primitive patterns and ancient bones that define her, make her fierce.

She is beautiful. She is everything. My hero. My beloved. Strong. So—

The sound her breath makes when the creature grabs her is wrong. Terribly, terribly, wrong—

2.45 meters, the distance between us.

Two running steps away.

I am fast.

The beast is faster.

--

(2.45 meters) The sound of her neck snapping still echoes in eternity,
(8.202083 feet) and I will always live there, in that moment,
(98.425 inches) that space.

And I will always be running.