Night quiet but hardly so peaceful were the empty hours that she lived through. These were the hours that were lacking serenity but the pain was numb and faded by the time the moon rose in the sky. Maggie watched him sleep even as she avoided the bed instead to choose a corner to sink down into and against.



Corners were where all the bad kids go.



It was when he slept that she could recall the better days when his mind wasn’t so broken. Those moments when she watched him would be where she ached to curl up against him and be held in his arms to sleep safe and sound. Those moments also happened to be the moments she was terrified the most to be around him. These moments in the night were those where she missed him even when he was right there across the room from her.



She worked by candlelight to keep him calm even if the idea of a burning flame, no matter how small, still would terrify her. Maggie imagined perhaps this was how Jude must feel about trees… how he must feel about ropes.



Her fingers picked at the frayed, worn edge of the leather cuffs at her wrists that made her seem far more razor sharp and cruel lined then she ever would be. Her fingers worked against the buckles, leaving a shadow play of bruises and nightmare touches against flesh before the cuffs were pulled off to reveal the scars there of self inflicted wounds.



The buckled leather cuffs were dropped to the floor as she crawled in her secretive and silent way over to the vanity if only to withdraw the knife once more from its hidden place in the drawer.



She didn’t dare cry even as she let her guard down but even now her body ached with unshed tears that she had suppressed for what seemed like an eternity now. Maggie bit down on her lip as the candlelight caught in a shine of silver against the blade as it slashed down to leave another mark at her flesh.



Blood letting.



It was the only way she knew how to remind herself now, these days, that she was still alive… that she was more then just a soulless shell.



Which anymore… was just exactly how she felt.