Madness.

2.

I like this feeling.

Drowning, I mean. Salt water in my lungs, nose and mouth and ears and eyes. 

See Melina. I'm just as salty as you said I always was. And I'm just as bitter too.

My heart isn't here. Nor is my mind.

Where are they? Where are they if not here? Where did you put them?

Gone. Gone forever.

Arthur. Arthur, did you pack them in her suitcase? Do you keep them in your wallet to show all your friends? Give them back to me.

Please. Please.

Please, just give them back!

I was your queen, remember? So don't have me beg. Don't reduce me to my knees, for I have never learned to bow.

Warm arms wrap around my icy body, making me warm too. But I don't know these arms. They're taking me from the water. No. No No No!

Leave me to die here, dammit!

I feel the wind again. These arms aren't letting it steal from me. I feel the sand. I feel the moon, it's not as friendly as before. The water. The water says my name. It says it wanted me to stay, but I'll have to wait until later.

I open my eyes. 

My heart... My mind. There they are. They live in the eyes of this blue eye'd man. His suit is drenched with sea water.

I'd swear I've seen this face before. But I don't remember.

And he's worried. But he's not worried about his suit. He's worried about me. I made him worried. I think that's funny.

"Hey!" He roars "Hey, wake up!" He rages.

The air doesn't like my lungs. I can't breath. I don't want to. He places his lips against mine and fills my lungs with the air in his own. How considerate he must be, to give me the air he's worked so hard to breath. I don't deserve this, why is he wasting his breath on a broken queen when it will leak out anyway.

I wonder who else he's done this for, how many breathless bodies that he's tried to revive.

Maybe a lot.

He seems to know what he's doing.

I'm coughing now. Coughing water out of my lungs like it's my own blood. It feels like I'm dying. And I'm confused. Why does my restored life feel like untimely death. I must be dead. 

He must be death.

He falls beside me. Breathing heavy. A smile on his gorgeous face.

"I don't know who you are, but I do know that I'm never letting you out of my sight." He chuckles the pain away. For second I forget how I got here. I forget about the love of my life and my favourite sister and their baby and the whole of fucking Monte Carlo. I forget that I'm 25 today and that this was my birthday dress. I forget how much it hurts. For a moment, my throat ain't on fire and fingers ain't ice. And I think this is peace but I ain't real sure.

He got up, offered me a hand, got me on my feet.

"You're gorgeous" He smiled as he pulled me into his body "Too pretty to die"

He took me to his car, strapped me in too tight and got in on the other side.

Something told me it would always be like this. I would always fall. And he would always be there to pick me up again.