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Merlin has always been on the run: from his past, from his Family, from his sins. He's got a handgun tucked on him (a prayer), a fast car or whatever he can get his hands on (an out), and his pills (a prison of his own making).
The Dispatcher is on his tail and is set to retrieve him, and if not, to put an end to him. Merlin won't let himself be caught so easily: he is sparks and piano wire, delicate-looking perhaps but strong and deadly. Meeting Pendragon was like supernova, a chase and run, a deadly tango, one pushing the other and the other pulling him back.
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Merlin may be free from Their grasp but it's about the pills, always about these forsaken red pills. He's slowly purging them by himself - it may be rough and dirty but it gets the job done. But he's got his moments of weakness, when It takes hold of him. He trembles, dropping the bottle on the cheap linoleum, wanting to take more, more, more (he must not) but his entire body is in agony and spilling away on a dirty bathroom floor.
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His very being is on fire, until cool fingers cup his jaw and a strong arm cradles him against a solid presence. In his pain, and his delusions catching up to him, he does not process the soft murmurs against his temples. He feels light as gravity leaves him and comes back in the form of a soft mattress. The body withdraws and Merlin feels that absence keenly, as the air itself seems to wrap up against his feverish skin again, trapping him there.
After a few eternities, the cold hands pull him up and he feels like a rag doll, weak and shapeless. Cool glass touches his lips and despite the alarms sounding in his subconscious, he swallows the refreshing liquid. If what was fed to him was poison, well he wouldn't mind dying like this. He tries blinking but what he sees is a combination of dirty orange (from the hotel room lights), black, and a glimpse of icy blue, although he isn't sure what that is, or he does but refuses to let himself think about it.
In the morning, he wakes up alone, with clean clothes and a cool compress slipping from his forehead.