GOLDEN AGE | ON HIATUS

XVI | NARCISSA

[ 16 ]

A MAN'S HOME WAS HIS CASTLE. A man's home was a place where he could stand tall and deliver, a grin on his face, safe and secure. A man's home was a place where he could look around and marvel about how lucky he was to live in such a place. But a man's home was also where he sobbed into his pillow when the night was no longer young. A man's home was also the place where he fell to his knees, a bullet hole in his head.

If a man's home was his castle, then it was no home at all - no, it was a golden cage.

Narcissa lifted her head up from the windowsill, the ends of her hair trailing along the freshly painted wood. She could still distantly smell the paint, tickling her nostrils and making her let out a stifled cough, which she masked almost immediately. Just a few weeks off the job, and she was making noises already - she frowned, standing up with silent bare feet that sunk into the carpet as she made her way towards the door.

"Friend or foe?" a familiar voice asked as she slid the panel open, leaning against the doorframe lazily.

"That's my line, dude. You're the friend or foe, not me. Why did you ask me?" Narcissa rolled her eyes, stepping aside to allow Finn into the room.

For a moment, he didn't move, mouth slightly open as he looked into her bedroom, before regaining his self-control and plopping down on the bed with a thump. Finn winced as the springs squeaked desperately beneath him, but said nothing, peering around the room as if he was afraid of what he would see.

"It--" he cut himself off, chewing on the inside of his cheek, "--it looks exactly the same." A small smile spread across his face, and Narcissa resisted the urge to punch herself as her stomach gave a lurch that had nothing to do with the sandwich she'd had earlier. "Do you, like, have stuff to unpack, or something?"

She shook her head. "Nah. I just pinch stuff from houses I'm in and burn it later. You know, easy, breezy, beautiful."

"I think you and I have different meanings of that, but sure," Finn laughed, legs dangling from the side of the bed as he lay back against the wall.

"Really? What's yours, then?" Narcissa asked drily, busying herself with rearranging the pens on her desk in an attempt to stop her hands from shaking.

"Not what you said."

With a shrug, Narcissa forced herself to look back at him, shuffling over and sitting down on the bed. A sigh formed on her lips, but she swallowed it, tucking her legs beneath her and putting her head on a pillow behind her.

It took her only a few seconds to fall asleep, and this time, there was just stardust in her vision - no death, no Semper, no Crux.

Just stars.

It felt...nice, just flying blind, no worries, no enemies chasing after her. Because as much as Narcissa Corvus liked to hide, there was no denying that safety was something she craved. She wondered what it would be like to not have to worry about surviving every day, not replacing the locks on her door every week, not having to move into a new place every month.

But as long as Narcissa lived in Semper, she knew that would just be a part of her life.

No arguments.