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"To err is human, to forgive, divine." Alexander Pope

Song =

The pale skinned hand traced its way down his chest and Adam moaned and mumbled incoherently. The fingers tenderly caressed his weary flesh and left a trail of Goosebumps in their path.

He called out to someone in the dark. As soon as the name left his lips, the loving caress ceased, the hand paused at his navel, the fingers clenched into a taut fist.

Rose stared at Adam whilst he tossed and turned in his fretful slumber. She watched him with both intense rage and longing. She wanted him to be able to touch her. To tighten his fingers around her hips with such a force that he left bruises. She wanted to feel loved...

It was just him and her now. The way it should have been all along. Soon Adam would be able to touch her... Touch her rotten and maggot infested flesh and know true suffering as she clawed her way into his flesh.

He would pay for wasting the years they had shared together. He had strung her along from the very beginning why else had she died without a ring on her finger and without a legacy to call her own... without children. She was alone, Discarded and disheveled in the darkness, tortured by the sound of the silence of death. She was alone, trapped in a perpetual limbo but not for long. Soon she would feel the warm rays of the sun on her skin.

Rose smiled at the prospect of returning a corporeal state of existence, leaned into Adams' ear and screamed louder than she had ever before.

Adam woke instantly, his eyes wide and dilated with fear. He cupped his hands protectively over his ears and fell out of his bed. At the base of the bed, he curled his knees closer to his body and wept.

He had slept but only as a result of exhaustion... His sleep was restless at the best of times, between her screams, and the dreams he found himself constantly exhausted.

It had been three weeks since he was released from the police station and since then she was everywhere and nowhere... One moment he was alone with nothing but his madness, the next she would manifest into existence. Usually inches from him and screaming with rage.

He tried to eat to maintain his health but Rose had other ideas, she clearly wanted him to be weak. She would point an accusatory finger at him and whatever he was eating would become replaced by maggots. Water would taste like ash in his mouth. It had been over a week since he had managed to stomach anything without running to the bathroom and vomiting. Between the exhaustion and lack of food, it had started to have an effect on both his appearance and overall health. His clothing that once fit perfectly on him had now begun to feel baggy. His once muscular body was now nothing but gaunt flesh and prominent bones... And then there was the hunger induced migraines... He felt as is his skull was splitting in two, his vision would blur and sometimes flip completely rendering him immobile.

Adam screamed as the pain raced through his eardrums. It was only a matter of time before he perforated his eardrums himself. He didn't want to but he could not take the screams another moment longer.

It was a while before Adam recognized the sound of silence. The screams had stopped. He slowly pulled himself from the cold comfort of the floor and felt woozy; sweat had covered his gaunt body. He needed to eat something fast but he would not give Rose the pleasure. He would rather starve than let the bitch play with him another moment longer.

He knew what he had to do... he did not know whether the idea was a result of his exhausted mind or whether it was something deeper... something instinctual.

He twisted the door knob and jumped as Rose greeted him from the other side of the door. Adam shot her a disdainful glare and walked past her. He felt her eyes burn into the back of his skull but Adam smiled as he grabbed his scattered clothes from the hall floor. This would soon be over. He could not wait to see her face when she realized what he had planned.

Adam walked to the bathroom to tidy his appearance he stared at all the congealed blood that clung to the sink and sighed. He knew it was not real but knowing something and believing it was apparently two different principles.

Adam grabbed his tooth brush and turned on the tab. Thick blood oozed and flowed into the sink. Adam stared at it and shrugged he knew it was not real but his senses were persistent, the blood had a smell and a distinctively coppery taste.

He could hear Rose laugh from his rear; he squeezed the toothpaste onto his brush and lowered it into the blood that had jettisoned out of the tap.

He turned to her and began to brush his teeth in defiance. Rose merely smiled at him and locked those amber eyes into his.

He threw the toothbrush over his shoulder and walked out of the bathroom Rose screamed at him and swiped her hand at his face as he approached. Adam walked through her with false indifference, he inwardly was terrified. His heart raced every time she was near him but he could not bring himself to be the victim another moment longer.

He grabbed his coat and walked toward the front door.

"Adam..." she spoke with cold fury.

He paused at the threshold. Rose did not speak much, but every time she did, he felt as if he had been submerged in Arctic waters.

He shuddered and reached for the doors latch.

"You can't stop me..." she laughed.

Adam sighed as he opened the door to the bright summer day.

"I just want to be left alone..." Adam mumbled meekly and stepped out into the daylight.

Rose clenched her fists and followed...

Xxx

Adam stood at the threshold of Lily's apartment and stared at the remnants of the police crime scene tape that still lingered as a bitter reminder. Lily's body was still in the morgue. The police wouldn't release it to the public until they had finished collecting evidence.

Even if they released her body it would be too late. Adam most likely would be in the same morgue by then...

He took a deep breath and pushed open the apartment door. If he was in luck the item he needed would be still wedged at the back of the kitchen drawer...

Adams' hand trembled as he saw the blood stain on the carpet. His mind flashed images that he thought he would never see again and he clenched his fists.

He knew she would follow... she always did, he looked behind his back and saw nothing. He had to be fast. He did not know how long he had before she appeared before him.

Adam ran to the kitchen and yanked the kitchen drawer open. Lily's pills were nowhere to be seen. He frantically rummaged through the drawer and screamed in a fit of rage. They weren't here...

He pulled the draw out and threw it against the wall. The wood splintered as it slammed against the brick wall. Adam felt dizzy.

He leaned against the kitchen counter and began to breath labored. He barely had the energy to do anything anymore...

As the cold kitchen counter cleared his frantic brain he smiled. He remembered why the sedatives weren't in the draw...

Adam stood and his world began to spin. He slapped himself forcefully to ground himself and lumbered over to the bathroom.

The drugs would end his suffering; he would soar high amongst the clouds and forever be lost to the insanity that had become his life. And he would do so with a smile and give Rose the finger.

He stared at his gaunt self in the bathroom mirror. He looked so fucking tired... with a sigh he used his limited energy reserves to pull open the medicine cabinet and laughed as he saw the prescription.

He snatched the sedatives from the cabinet and tucked them into his pocket and made his way out of the apartment.

He was speeding down the freeway at 60 when Rose appeared in the car next to him. She tried to grab the wheel and Adam panicked before he remembered that she couldn't.

Rose grinned wickedly as she removed her hand from the wheel.

"Going somewhere?" She asked with a bitter tone.

Adam ignored her and tried to keep his vision from doubling in on itself.

Rose crossed her arms over her chest and laughed when she saw the cemetery in the distance.

With a snarl, she yanked his face towards her own and spoke.

"That place is empty... They all are... Do you really think you're talking to your loved ones...? These are nothing but bone yards Adam..." she said as she pointed at the thousands of gravestones.

Adam pulled himself free from her grasp and turned the corner to pull up to the parking lot.

It didn't matter what she thought. This was his moment to say goodbye, to confess his sins and beg the dead for forgiveness.

Rose didn't forgive him but he could live with that.

Adam slowed the car to a crawl and turned the ignition off. He exited the car and reveled in the sound of silence.

Without any hesitation, he crossed the threshold into the grave site and Rose followed...

Adam walked beyond the gates of the graveyard and sighed as the silence of the hallowed earth welcomed him. From behind him, Rose screamed with rage.

Adam spun on his feet and watched as Rose had ignited into flames. She screamed the very sound of her screams shrunk Adams testicles. Adam stared open mouthed as Rose fell to her knees inflamed.

Adam could hear himself laughing beyond the sound of her screams. Rose turned to glare at him with rage and leaped from the hallowed earth and landed beyond the gates. The flames instantly dwindled to the point of none existence. Rose screamed in rage and once more tried to take a step into the gravesite. Again the fire consumed her and she wept with rage as she fled away from the graveyard.

Adam stared in fascination, he had been to this graveyard a few times with her and this had never happened before. Something had happened. Adam saw the boy from his peripheral vision and knew who was responsible. He turned to greet him with tear stained eyes and saw nothing. The boy was gone.

Adam felt the pills in his pocket and realized he had been given a choice. He could stay here and swallow enough pills to kill an elephant or he could fight...

Adam retrieved the pills from his pocket and stared at them. He tightened his fist around the container until it cracked in his hand. He turned his hand and watched the pills as they spilled out onto the freshly cut grass...