Gilded Cage - ALTERNATE ENDING

The Gilded Cage

All the usual disclaimers…except I think I would like to own him…maybe chained in the dungeon…but that's a-whole-nother story.

A/N I am posting the originally planned ending for Gilded Cage…if anything doesn't fit with the storyline as written it is because this story took a life of its own beyond the planning stages. This is the ending I had originally written, the ending that the entire story was BASED on in the first place, it is the first scene I wrote for this story, and will be my FINAL update for this story.

Chapter 14 ALTERNATE ENDING

The door to the gallery opened, slowly. Its hinges little used in the last few years. He hadn't felt the need to come in here, to be with his art. So many things had happened. He didn't know when he had lost his way. The room was little changed. The artwork from her apartment was hung back where it belonged, in this sealed chamber, where it would be protected for all time. There hadn't been that many additions, and only one major one. A six foot by four foot by four foot glass case in the middle of the room, under the Botticelli; inside it, her body preserved for all time.

At first it had been good, having her with him, having her love him, but it was never enough. She wasn't enough, the blood lust had returned, full force, and with the Brotherhood, and the X-Men, he had less and less time for art, for beauty. Her sealed apartment had kept her safe. She had never seen his face, only heard his voice. The notes and messages they had passed to each other were still preserved, he still carried them with him. One day, after being gone a few months he had come home…and found her. At first he had thought she was asleep. Had tried to convince himself she was asleep, even without the sound of a heartbeat or breath, even with the blood soaked sheets. She had still been beauty incarnate, even in death. He had her sealed in this glass box, and placed in this room.

He had come daily, then weekly, now…it had been three years since he even opened the door. He heard the noises behind him, the movers. It was time to abandon the house, too many people knew about it. He stood there, looking at her frozen face, and began to signal them to take down the paintings, the cases with the Guttenberg Bible, the Stradivarius Violin, the medieval tapestries. Finally everything in the room was packed, everything but the case…he walked out the door and turned off the power. She would finally decay. There was no more room in his life for her.