Wapun Meadow round round baby right round

Indra—

She ran away, then.

Laurel just stood and stared as she watched life depart her once more.

A reason to live.

Gone as fast as it had come, and her previous optimism fled as soon as Indra's look-alike did. She would never see her again.

But at least you still have me.

And for the first time in her life, Laurel thought to herself that maybe she should end it all, find a cliff to stand upon and jump down and feel the wind blow past her skull before it cracked open into a million pieces on the ground beneath. It would be better, anything would be better than the pain.

But I won't let you.

And she broke down, sobs choking from her as she huddled on the ground and smashed her skull against the ground again and again as the tears kept coming, trying to break the pain, trying to overpower the pain inside her heart with something stronger, something more real, something else -- but it wouldn't allow her to -- now it was her head and her heart that hurt in equal degrees as she lay on the ground crying,

broken,

just like the day I

and she didn't see how she could ever be whole

-- was she ever whole to begin with? --

ripped your life to shreds

and she thought of how she had lost Indra's love before she died

took her away from you along with your dignity because you loved those children and she did not

and how senseless it was -- this -- all of it -- everything -- because she had less than nothing left and now the one thing that had given her a semblance of hope, of feeling good, of not just numbing but taking away the pain

do you remember, dearest?

that, too, was taken away from her, fled away just like Indra had

fled away from this life

how I took everything from you that day?

Rain pattered down as she ceased smacking her head against the dirt and just lay there until the water soaked her fur, until her cold skin made her shiver. Until her headache was consumed by how cold she was and how much her eyes hurt from crying.

But it didn't matter, in the end.

Even the piercing cold could not stop her heart from screaming.