General Commentary
~Enduring Pain~
by Fushigi
Kismet
I watched as he was blasted backwards by a burst of power. He
fell. I could not comprehend it . . . could not comprehend the hideous sound
that Beryl made that was her laughter. ZOISITE! my heart cried out.
ZOISITE! Sometimes, love is just too cruel . . . too cruel.
Beryl
spoke to me and I responded even though I was not really listening. How could I
listen with my Zoisite lying on the ground somewhere . . . dead, dying? I had
failed him. I should have leapt in the way of Beryl's blast . . . should have
saved him, but I had not. Why? WHY?! Why hadn't I saved him?
Later, I
held Zoisite in my arms as he died. Oh, why did he have to die? Because you
did not save him, my mind responded treacherously. You have failed him,
as you failed . . . the others. Others? What others? A memory struggled
within me, buried so long ago that is almost past the point of recall.
Faces . . . they swam up before me. Girls-no, *Senshi*-appeared before
me. One in particular . . . her long golden hair framing her face, her blue eyes
smiling at me. *Minako*. It was a face dearer to my heart even than that of
Zoisite. How had I forgotten? How could I forget?
Then something dark
and malevolent blasted into me from behind and before I blacked out I heard
shadowy voices whisper, "He musssst not be allowed to remember. He musssst
sssstay within our control." And a voice I knew well replied, "Yes, Empress."
I did not remember those memories when I woke, but I did remember one.
Though the image of the golden-haired girl had faded, the image of another had
not. *Zoisite*. His death clawed at me, hurt me. Every moment that we had shared
together came back to haunt me, playing over in my mind, taunting me with chants
of "Never again . . . Never this . . . Never again . . ."
And I wept. I
wept until I thought my heart would burst and I would die from the pain. What is
life without him? What is life . . . alone? I am nothing, nothing. Born in
darkness . . . living in darkness . . . suffering in darkness . . . destined to
die in darkness. This is no life, no existence. This is nothing but the eternal
torment that I have earned for myself.
And I just wanted Beryl to take
away all of my memories . . . to stop my suffering . . . to make all of my pain
go away . . .
She did not.
It did not.
And I was damned
to an existence of eternal torment and never-relenting, ever-enduring pain.