Work Text:
From his rough palm, scarred and hardened, radiates a warm heat produced by small pink flames; joined pressed onto flesh, wounded flesh; an injury on Dani's pale skin. Vlad was trying the best as he could to cauterize the ugly deep wound.
“Don’t move, or you will bleed to death,” he murmured.
Below him, on the cold ground, Dani replied weakly, voice raspy, “No need.”
It was only a small whisper, he didn’t want to but Vlad heard the silent truth under it. He removed his hands from the spot, the wound now sealed.
“Even with the bleeding stopping, I can sense in my core that the damages are beyond repair. That bastard really didn’t miss me this time,” a mirthless laugh escaped from the young girl’s dried lips.
Vlad stared silently at her pale face covered by black messy hair, her breath was uneven and heartbreaking to hear, but the most distressful were her half-closed eyes turned to the blue sky, glassy like they had already accepted the inevitable.
The old man took her gently in his arms with all the care of their ruined world, holding her close.
“I often asked myself if I was more than a failed experiment born in a test tube,” she articulated painfully. “I cursed this life because I still don’t know why I am alive, who I am. When I looked at my reflection, I only saw him, the perfect and loved by all; a hero,” she coughed, not bothering covering her mouth. “And now, after all that , every morning in the mirror, I only see the monster he has become. A freak, a clone, a mistake. And to be honest, more than once I wanted to end it all.”
Vlad’s grip tightened around her frail body, “Please stop talking. I’m sure the others will soon-”
“I never asked to be born.”
Vlad fell dead silent, fingers slightly shaky.
“But now, I just want to live. I can't even be reborn as a full ghost even with all my regrets, because I was never born human," she bit her lower lip, barely hiding her cold anger. "Did my life even belong to me? Did I achieve anything? Was I even « loved » for being me? I still have so many questions. Just- Fuck. I don’t want to die.” Her strength and voice slowly becoming weaker and weaker, “I don’t want to die.”
Dani gritted her teeth into a grimace to choke a sob that was trying to escape from her burning throat, but she didn’t have the strength to stop the single tear rolling from her aching eyes. She turned her head and hid her face deep in the torn jacket, rubbing her cheek against the soft fabric covering a hard chest. She sighed deeply. Why did he even bother continuing to wear a suit? Perhaps as a way to tell themselves that their lives were still normal. Maybe as a way to maintain control and sanity in a burning world, among the ruins that are now their home.
She wished she could go back to that, to this past and lies, when everything was simpler and happier. What was once the faint comforting scent of an expensive male cologne, was now the acrid mix of dirt, ectoplasm and blood. Dani inhaled deeply.
Painfully she coughed, staining the dusty jacket of green and red. “I hate you…”
Vlad tightened his embrace, gently stroking the dark long hair, "I'm so sorry."
She didn't hear his apologies. And with her, the last remains of what was once Danny Fenton died out of this world.