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You feel the air grow warm.
Staring down at you, a loving smile burned into her face, the Princess explains why she has done this. To tear down this cabin, this house, this tower, this cell, this cage that has caused you both so much harm and destruction, either to each other or to yourselves. You can feel the flames behind you, snaking up the walls of the cabin and devouring all in their wake, as if the walls and floor were made of gasoline, they grow intensely with each passing second. You look back. The sides of the room are almost coated, but the middle is surprisingly bare.
Eyes trailing along the fading wood, within moments you see her... or what used to be her. Her corpse, skeletal and blackened with age, lays bare, her wrist bound once more to the wall of this infernal prison, and it fills you with a rage. Not just you but something else is furious, mad at this world. How could it do something like that to something so precious? How could you do that to something so precious and pure.
Approaching what was once her, you kneel down and stare deep into what used to be her eyes, the hollow, empty sockets greeting your gaze with none of its own. Her skeletal visage is caked in a layer of dust, so much so it seems as if the dust itself were her skin and flesh. You gently reach down, cupping the side of her jaw with finesse and grace, gently wiping dust from her forehead before giving it a gentle kiss. You are sorry, so sorry. The flood crashes against your walls, and you do your best to hold it back, to deny that which has been waiting for so long to be released, to crash forwards and wash all in its path with its sorrowful waters.
You hold, although barely, and stand back up. The room is even hotter now, and you can feel sweat beginning to release from your pores into the room before you, offering a weak and temporary defense against these hungry flames of destruction, vengeance and punishment that nigh-cloak the entire room in their warmth. You turn around to find the Princess mere feet before you, her hands clasped together in front of her, tight to her stomach as she stares at you, her face still wearing that beautiful and morbid smile. Her eyes, weary and tired, full of a flame that not even the mightiest of storms or waves could drown burning brightly in them.
You walk towards her, slowly, placing your feet carefully as to avoid the flames beginning to lurch towards you to. The room seems to vanish as you stand before the Princess, only a foot away, your eyes locked with hers, gazing into each other. You try to speak, using the dregs of oxygen available to you to speak to her, your victim, the one who you have hurt.
"I'm sorry."
"I forgive you."
And with that simple exchange, the flood gate cracks, almost shattering, but you hold it back. Barely. You swiftly look down, only aged dust and floorboards greeting your eyes as you do, the outlines of flames dance just out of the corners of your eyes. It is only time now till it bursts, and your sorrow and self-hate and sadness pour forth from your eyes like steady waterfalls of the soul.
You can feel it. You're going to die here, whether you wish to or not. You can feel your skin beginning to warm as the flames grow evermore, as unstoppable as the sun rising and setting, as inevitable as a deer falling prey to a beast. You look back up and meet her gaze once more.
If you're going to die here, why not at least have fun? Live the last remnant, the last page of your beautiful and sorrowful life full of smitten love and cold stares to the fullest.
You reach out your arm, palm raised up to the blazing heavens above you two. You offer your hand to her, outstretched as much as comfortable towards this beautiful bride before you, the life she hoped to live already burned up, just like this cage around you shall be in long, steady moments.
"May I have this dance?"
She looks down to your hand, and her smile seems to become brighter, happier. A morbid happiness fills her eyes as she takes your hand.
"Yes."
Her soft voice, filled with a strength betraying her frail form, carries forwards into your ears and soul, with even the flames seeming to pause at the sudden strong emotion billowing their way. Like a powerful gust of wind, it breaks apart the flames momentarily.
And so, you dance. Hand in hand, this blazing world around you becomes your ballroom, and this beautiful, sullen and heartbroken and lovestruck bride before you becomes your partner in dance, with each movement you make seeming to break apart the hungry flames of damnation around you. Sweat builds across you both as you dance your heart out, going above and beyond to show not just the world but yourselves that you and her are not afraid of death. That you accept your fate, you accept death, you accept finality, you accept peace.
Sweat begins to pour across you and you continue dancing, the inferno around you seeming to disappear as you and her become the only things in this world, your love being expressed and shown with every quick and hard and graceful motion you do.
You throw her up into the air and catch her in your arms, holding her gently, cradling her gaunt and beautiful bride. Your Princess, your Burned Bride, your Beloved in this forever inferno that will end in mere moments. You look deep into her eyes, and she looks back up into yours. Her smile, still as beautiful as ever, seems even brighter now, more full of life and vigor than she once was moments before. You gently cup her cheek in your free hand, pushing hair out of her eyes, to get a good look at your beloved's own. They're dazzling, like two small pearls beckoning you to fall inside their depths of white. Both of your bodies covered in beads of sweat, each of them being swiftly consumed by the heat in the air made by the gluttonous flames.
You gently lean forwards and plant a loving, gentle, serene kiss on her lips. Your first kiss in all of your beautiful and sorrowful life, filled with smitten love and harsh cold. You feel her grasp the sides of your head as your lips depart, your eyes still locked together. You breath in, intent on speaking your last words to her, professing your eternal love to her, how sorry you are you made all this happen, how you wish this could have all turned out better but...
Nothing comes out... You fool. You used the last of the air, the oxygen, the vapor that you need to live, in your final dance.
Your thoughts seem to slow as your body comes to a lurching halt. Worry and sadness and realization flashes across the Princess's eyes, her smile still as serene and beautiful as ever. You fall to the ground, the old floorboards creaking and almost splintering under the sudden weight they have not felt in centuries. You look around, the world returning. The room is covered in flames. You can barely make out what once was cracked stone and the remnants of aged wood around you.
And then you see her, looking down to you, her eyes full of sorrow and love, mixed together in a holy and beautiful cacophony of silent emotions. She kneels down, the world seeming to slow as she does. She sits before you on her legs and gently lifts your head, your wearing body hurting as the flames start to lick at the edges of your flesh, devouring you bit by bit, slowly.
She then softly rests your head upon her lap, her wedding gown feeling like the softest ocean of silk for your weary mind. You look up at her, into her, analyzing every small bit of her face. She leans down, gently cupping your face as you did to her only moments ago in your final dance, and slowly places a kiss on your lips, and then another, more tender one on your forehead. She lifts herself up again, her hands, even as they begin to burn, never leaving your flesh.
Your floodgates break as you realize this is it. In mere moments you will be consumed by these flames along with the cage. Tears stream down your face, onto her lap and hand and onto the burning floor below, the tears only quelling the flames for a second before being swiftly burned away. You don't stop crying, the flames seeming to stop as you do, giving you the final respect they can before they inevitably devour you.
You cry.
and cry.
and cry.
The world seems to slow to a crawl as you cry a voiceless cry. The roaring of the flames is the only thing that fills your ears, the visage of your beloved is the only thing that fills your blurry vision.
Until, finally, you're emptied of all your sorrow, your eyes drying from the ever-growing heat. Your skin feels tight, and you can smell yourself burning up in the air. Just before you close your eyes for the final time, your bride leans down and gives you one final kiss on the lips, pushing nigh all of the dregs of air she had left to her own, allowing you to say your final words.
You move your hand, arm burning and smoking, to the one she rests upon your chest. You gently grasp her hand, interlocking your fingers with hers for the final time. This is it. You're sad but... it is an end you deserve. You speak your final words to your beloved, using the air she so generously gifted you...
"I love you."
Her smile strengthens, and she opens her mouth to speak. The roaring of the flames seems to strengthen as she responds, and you barely make out her confession. Your heart feels warmer than ever before.
And then you close your eyes, feeling tears not of your own rain down across your face. You feel her lean down and hug you, almost trying to shield her love from the flames she created. You can feel a new warmth. Not the flames or yours, but hers. You can feel her and she feels you. You love her and she loves you. She forgives you, and you could not be happier.
Death comes, and you welcome it.
You're both at peace now.
Happily ever after.