Still, memories bubble up unbidden, ugly fish pulled from cold depths, unsuited to the surface. Bounding through the forest, each step punching up leaf-litter that tangled in grey fur to be lovingly groomed out later. Sun burnishing the high points of their pale face as they dozed off in the high grass. Tucking her head into the curve of a shaggy neck when night fell and her darker dreams crept in.
Vampire flinches as if burned, jerking their paw away from the sodden earth. All that, and for what? A turned back and a bloody wound. His only legacy, because certainly there is nobody else walking this earth who would tolerate him. A foolish train of thought to follow, and they know it. There are a thousand better things she could be doing with their time than standing here with a lizard in her teeth and memories in her head.
They don't do any of those things. They sit down in the rain and cry.
