Biker Mice From Mars - Somewhere I Belong

Stay In My Arms If You Dare

"I love you..."

With these harrowing words echoing through Charley's head, the image slowly vanished and again, all that remained was darkness, yet it seemed different.
Less dominant.
There was a soft click, and all of a sudden, Charley felt something again.
A tingling sensation in her fingers, one that soon spread through her entire body, warming up her cold and sore muscles.
It felt good, at first.
As if she was taking a warm bath after driving her cherished motorcycle on a cold winter night.
However, the more she became aware of her body, the more distress she sensed.

Like her heart, which was painfully pounding against the inside of her chest.
Or her breathing, which was rapid and unmanageable.
There was a strap around her torso, or at least it felt like there was, pressing its heavy weight on her chest.
Her stomach felt strange, almost hollow.
As if she hadn't eaten in days.
Swallowing seemed to be difficult as well, as if there was something stuck in her throat.
And then there was her head, which really, really hurt.
As if it was being crushed in a vice.

All things considered, she felt pretty miserable, but at the same time, it felt as if she still wasn't really there to experience it to its fullest.
As if she was caught in a place between reality and illusion.
As if on cue, there was another click, a louder one this time and while she suddenly felt the nighty cold caressing her damp skin, her eyes flew open.
And just like that, she was back in her own head.
Back in her own body.
Too bad that Vinnie's memories were now etched into her brain, which was exactly what she had been afraid of.
To make it even worse, she was still entirely caught up in his misery, which now mixed with feelings of her own and the result was... overwhelming, to say the least.

With every cell in her body now on high alert, her senses started to work again, even more so, they seemed to go into overdrive.
Vinnie's scent hit her in the face, but where it usually calmed her nerves, it now only reminded her of that awful smell when the flames of the explosion melted the flesh off of his face.
Her ears caught the sound of his breathing, but all that echoed through her head was the wailing sound that had left his mouth shortly after the explosion.
Her vision became sharp, and soon, her eyes locked with red ones, but all she really saw was the mask, which reminded her of Harley, or actually, of how much he had loved her.
Of the pain losing her had caused him.
Of him whispering the words 'I love you', words she so desperately wanted to hear him say to her, but it would never be the same again.
His grief had stained the purity of those three simple words which were in reality the antithesis of simplistic.
It had stained the purity of their love...

"No", Charley gasped as she pushed Vinnie away, for his arms suddenly felt like a prison.
He quickly gave her some space, and she scrambled to her feet, or at least, she tried.
But after stumbling a few passes, her legs gave out and she dropped to her knees, tears streaming down her face.
"Jesus, Vinnie...", she panted as she leaned forward, resting her weight on her hands in the hope that touching the wooden floor of the treehouse would help her snap out of this awful state of mind, but it didn't.
"Make it stop... Please, make it stop..."
Warm hands soothingly rubbed her back, but in some sort of reflex, she backed away from them, for she couldn't endure his touch.
But the hands didn't go away.
One now slid to her neck and feeling his fingers brushing her skin almost made her throw up, but he still didn't let her go.
"Look at me", he said quietly as his furry fingers now drifted into her hair, gently caressing her scalp.

Charley shook her head, still completely overwhelmed.
"I can't... God, it hurts, Vinnie, it hurts...", she sobbed as she buried her fingernails in the wood, but she didn't even feel the pain when they broke, one by one.
She had no idea what was hers and what was his.
One Mind Walk was enough to lose her own identity, to lose herself in his complex and blood-stained past.
Shit, this was completely and utterly insane.
"Please, take it away... take it all away..."
"I will, but you'll have to look at me, sweetheart."
But she couldn't.
She didn't dare to.
She couldn't bear looking into his scarlet eyes, for it would only remind her of what he had been through and the pain that was intrinsically linked with it was just too much.
Even without looking at him, it was crushing her, literally, and her breathing became more wheezy.