Disclaimer: If it was mine, then I wouldn't be waiting for Bloodhound and counting down the days until it comes out...
A/N: This one is really rather random...I had this angstfest about something the other day, and this kind of came out of it...don't ask me how. Don't forget to review!
Suddenly, she couldn't believe that she had ever loved the man who stood before her. His eyes were hard and full of hate, but also full of pain and anguish. Everything she had given him wasn't enough. He wanted more from her. He had asked her the impossible. And she knew the pain was just another mask he had put on.
She hadn't believed that this was what he had become of all people. She had never seen his slip. But the path he had taken was a slippery slope, and even if he hadn't intended to take it, he had, and it was what had put them in this situation now.
He hadn't killed anyone who had once been close to either of them, but he had changed dramatically. The light, sweet, good side of him had all but vanished under what had once been the façade he put on every night. Now it was who he was, not just a mask. He had become what both of them had feared that he would.
Somehow, deep inside, she knew that the man he had been was long dead now. He had died when the mask had become reality. How she had hated that mask, how she still hated it. None of it really made sense to her, but she knew it was too late for him. Somewhere between the pages of his story, things had changed…
And sometimes, things like that never would be fixed. Sometimes, she knew, things like that couldn't be healed. As she watched his last moment, her only comfort was that the man he had been was long gone. The one who was dying now was just a monster who had killed him and made him into that mask. The monster was the one who killed the man she loved, and there was nothing that could be done to change that.
As much as it wasn't fair, Beka Cooper knew that it was just a fact of life. Rosto had come into her life to teach her what she needed to learn, and then he had left it. Some people were meant to be a part of her life for a longer time, and others for only a season. Rosto's season was over, but that didn't mean that she had to forget him, or what he had taught her.
He had taught her how to love, and how to live knowing who she was. He had taught her that she couldn't judge people by what they seemed, by showing her who he was behind what she saw. Beka couldn't help but be grateful, but she was sad, too. He had made such a huge difference, and she had loved him more than she had thought herself capable of. And he had loved her much the same way, from what he had told her.
As she watched that monster die, she felt a tear slip down her cheek. She would miss Rosto. But he was always there, and she wasn't going to forget him…