Work Text:
A woman in an empty house.
Utter loneliness.
Work boots thudding up the stairs.
Cheerful, ominous.
A giggle from the kitchen.
Bright, unsettling.
Pages whisper in the library.
Gentle, ghostly.
Once upon a time, this was home.
Now the tomb of a lone survivor.
Stony silent.
And yet not.
Never ever silent.
The floors will never forget those feet.
The walls will never forget those voices.
The books will never forget those hands.
Inescapable and maddening.
Oh, how she feared the coming silence when they died.
Now she aches for it.
And yet.
Her ears refuse to forget those sounds.
Her shoulders refuse to forget their arms about them.
Her hands refuse to forget their hands in hers.
She wanted to forget and claimed to have succeeded.
Now the whispers belie her desperate unbelief.
She pleads for the silence once again.
But it never comes...
Once chosen and loved.
Once Gentle.
Once beautiful and wild.
Now lost, heart-bleeding, and alone.
They will not let her forget again.