Chapter Text
The damp earth beneath her clung light on her skin, broken twigs dug in sharp as pins, long ago fallen from the canopy above. This space felt heavy, the silence stretching beyond tranquil into the realm of the unnerving. That being said, Lena had begun to grow accustomed to the discomfort that came with her first few moments within Eternity. She briefly wondered how long her stay would be this time around.
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The house itself was brilliant, situated on a track of well-manicured land. Prospering evergreens, towering ash, and the pale blossoming of ornamental fruit trees pleasantly tucked the dwelling in with the aid of stout well-trimmed bushes. The spring sun and sweetly singing birds gave it the feel of a home, tucked away from the clamor of rapidly developing cities. The building's foundation was relatively square, its upper-level hanging over the lower, held up by charcoal pillars. The siding a spotless white, accented by the same charcoal found on the supports, the windows bearing not a smudge nor a streak.
The Zor-El family had purchased the home when Alura gave birth to their daughter Kara. They had longed to give Kara a beautiful place in which to grow, but when she was thirteen, both parents fell ill and were taken in the night not long after. The young girl was swiftly taken in by the Danvers family and the solemn quiet that had befallen the property was quickly replaced with the warmth of family once more.
In this warmth, young Kara had flourished, growing into a brilliant young woman and yet despite her profound loving nature, not a soul was willing to wed her. Rumors of her preference towards women began to circulate when she took a shine to the endeavors reserved for men, wearing tailored suits and dedicating her time to the expansion of her mind. They were rumors that caught like a spark to dry leaves when she refused the constant proposals of Lex Luthor. Though it was widely acknowledged that his interest was founded in the fact that she was the sole heir to the remainder of the Zor-El fortune, most thought her mad to not accept due to her lack of awaiting suitors. In truth, Kara had been quite taken by a Luthor heir, but Lex was far from the one. His younger sister was who caught the young Zor-El's eye, and soon she was swept from her feet and fixed with the doe-eyed gaze of a school girl tossed head over heels.
All talk of Lena that was passed around was a critique, a note of flaw to be found in her character. She was far too stubborn, too icy, too cold to the outside world and ungrateful for what the Luthor's had provided her. Kara had been quick to pay the sentiments no mind and the pair had connected almost instantly, sharing a love of intellectual pursuits and having both been adopted they shared an understanding of one another that others simply didn't have. They grew close throughout the two long-drawn years of Lex's restless courtship, and as their friendship thrived, it bred feelings considerably more intimate than those of a platonic variety. It was gentle and warm as the sun that was cast through the impeccably cleaned windows but never formally acknowledged. Never, until Lex was forced to take his leave from the house, swooping Lena away with him. It was his decision that sparked Kara's last-minute scramble to keep Lena close.
Kara stood framed in the open window, surveying the vast courtyard in front of the house, having watched Lex's coach disappear into the forest encompassing the property. Her crisp white suit felt all too constricting, dread pooling in her stomach, her every nerve stood on end when she was finally drawn from her pensive silence. She was approached carefully, a delicate hand on her shoulder, ultimately prompting her to turn and face Lena.
"Please, Lena, do stay with me. I know this feeling I have is surely reciprocated, you feel the warmth of it in your chest, in the way your breath does catch when I am near. Please, dear Lena, tell me I am not the only one with love weighed heavy in her heart and longing filled her lungs," Kara's eyes fell wide and pleading, desperate for some sign that her words struck where she aimed, praying Cupid lend to her his marksmen's eyes.
Kara opened a gentle hand that had hidden away a pendant on a string of pearls. She knew it was bound to be a gift of parting, a reminder of her grieving, the loss of love. Of her love. Of her one and only love.
"The Luthors would never allow it," Lena uttered even as Kara festooned the chain of pearls around her neck, her fingers traced it wearily.
"Then run away with me. We can steal off to some distant land, be rid of them and their wrath," Kara reasoned, "We can make a life together free of them and their cruel fury."
Lena studied the dilapidation in the floorboards, allowing the information to settle in her conscience, preparing to bear them as yet another burden. She dared not speak, trusting not in her ability to refuse the offer hung in front of her so appetizingly.
"I would not dare drive you away from your family, besides, no matter how many miles we travel, or oceans we cross, Lilian and Lex could not be held at bay. They would scour every inch of every continent so as to drag me back to that cold dead house." Lena held the necklace close, her final token of remembrance.
"I plead with you, my love, do not leave me. I will have lost my way without you by my side, I fear that with you absent from my world it may lose its brilliant intensity and leave me alone in a bleak and beautyless husk of what it once was," her final plea was punctuated by a cry from the coachman below, sealing it with the finality that Lena needed to step from Kara's orbit and hurry towards the door. Sparing only an apology from the threshold before departing from the warmth of the loving home.
The carriage rolled away down the dirt path disappearing into the woods. The plaintive wails of the mourning doves' filled Kara's ears as the sorrow settled into her bones. It felt wrong, her gut twisted at the realization, dread further seeped in, and Kara couldn't stand the feeling anymore. Something compelled her, whispered in her ears that she must go after Lena, that danger was woven into Lena's story.
Soon the dirt was being worked into the treads of her pricey new leather soles as Kara ran thundering down the semi-packed earth. Her too constricting blazer was shed, left behind on the road without a second thought. Her pulse was in her head, her legs ached, but her dread urged her onward like a whip against a race horse's hide.
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Lena sat stiffly on the thinly cushioned seat of the carriage, watching the road ahead with a fierce intensity, focus solely on placing her feelings into their boxes and keeping her stinging tears at bay. Her eyes glassy, not registering any happenings in front of them, wondering, only for a second, what might have happened had she stayed, her hand once again finding its way to the pendant on her neck.
The horses slowed, and her eyes refocused landing the cause of the disruption. Two men stood in the center of the path, familiar men, Lex's men. They looked to one another, sharing unspoken words as one's lips parted slightly, allowing thick white tendrils to snake out, spilling over his chin and dissipating into the air around his head. With a small nod, they began forward flanking either side of the coach, pulling the coachmen away and tossing them to the ditch with a dull thud. Lena attempted to take to her feet and flee but stumbled over her frocks, once more cursing the wretched things.
All too soon hands found her arms hoisting her up and dragging her to the road. The horses stamped at the dirt uneasily, huffing, ready to bolt. Lena fought, her legs flailed in an attempt to dig in her heels, she felt bruising on her arms as the man's grip tightened keeping her in his hold. He hollered to his partner who ran obediently and attempted to assist, clutching wildly at Lena while taking hits from her legs. His fingers caught the delicate chain of pearls, Lena heard them break apart and begin to fall, ripping a frantic wail from her lungs. A wail cut short by the sharp, hot pain of a blade puncturing skin. She felt her body go into shock, her mind went cloudy, and she felt herself connect fully with the dirt of the path but registered none of the pain.
She stared at the forest canopy, noting the birds as they watched curiously from their perches and the carriage roared past her. The familiarity of the scene was haunting, she'd been there before, deep down she knew that this was just one time of many past and many to come.
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Kara's lungs felt as though they were going to catch fire and burn right through her chest yet faster she ran. Something in the distance had caught her eye, and her pool of dread had deepened tenfold.
She stopped dead when her greatest fear had been confirmed. Lena lay a mere foot away, her heart fell swiftly to her feet, out her toes, and into the dust as she collapsed to her knees.
With shaking breath and unsteady hand she reached out, fingertips ghosting over the now crimson stained lace, a sob broke forth, a gunshot in the silence of the woods. Never again had she wished to feel the despair of loss so great and yet once more was it tearing through her with feverish intensity. Silently she wished that her lungs had burned to ash within her bosom so that no longer could she feel such anguish in her soul, to be reunited with Lena once more.
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A letter was sent, bearing word of Lena's death, to the Luthor manor but no reply was received. No one came to retrieve Lena's body, and so she was buried on the Zor-El property. In a clearing in the woods under a towering shade tree, sent off at a pitiful service, with no family, two friends, and one grieving love. She was lain in the damp earth by Kara herself who worked late into the night to fill the hole she now occupied. Once the dirt was replaced and tamped down, Kara lowered herself and pulled the restrung necklace from her pocket and held it tight in her fists.
Several times she tried to leave Lena with one more set of parting words, even with her ears that could no longer listen. After trying and trying and failing again, she allowed herself to simply weep, to cry her woes to the heavens until her throat went raw and her mouth was dry. Until finally, she could hold herself no longer and slumped into the dirt beside the freshly filled grave.
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Kara looked about, taking in the long-familiar path, and sighing into the fog of the forest. She blinked slow and focused on placing one foot in front of the other as she made her way down the path bordered by tall grass and low ferns not stopping to bask in the light cast through the gaps in the trees. This go 'round had been particularly painful, and she asked herself if destiny was her own sort of personal Hell.