Faked

Dreg woke up in cold sweat.
There was a thumping in his head, in his ears, behind his lips, through his hair.
It was like his heartbeat.
It was her voice.

Dreg. Dreg. Dreg. Dreg. Dreg.

What terrified him even more than the dream that stretched in his past like a black abyss, was that when he woke up, he found himself right outside of Vanity's warehouse door.
His heart thudded along beat with his name.

Dreg. Dreg. Dreg.

Tears that were not his stung his eyes as he saw the heavy lock and chains.
Together, he and Vanity saw the steel door, both of them knew that there was a wall of concrete behind that door, but for a supernatural concrect was like paper... too easy to break.
Dreg's hand stretched out in front of him, his fingertips brushed against the cool and slimy door.

Dreg... Dreg...

A cry broke free from his throat as he pressed his palm flat against the door.
He missed her!
Now that he knew it every fiber of his being longed and stretched to see her, to feel her touch. He didn't care what happened to him, he didn't care what happened to the world.
He didn't care that if Vanity saw the sun, she sap all of the energy out of it.
He didn't care that she could suck the life out of him if she wanted to.

But I don't want to... I just want to see someone... Please.

With finality Dreg's hands found the lock on the door. His hand froze.
He wasn't going to open the door.
He couldn't.
He never ever would.
But how could he see her? How could he see his Vanity?
Licking his lips, Dreg shut his eyes and walked straight through the heavily locked doors. He felt himself pass through the metal and the cement and the concrete.
One of the gifts of being an angel...

Don't look at me...

He felt a pressure on him as he came into the room.
It wasn't Vanity Mae, it wasn't one of her freakish powers... it was the air.
It was rank and disgusting.
Dreg retched, but stopped as he saw the twisted form on the floor.

Stop, don't look at me... please, Dreg.

Her hair that had been full and flowing was so greasy it looked like liquid. Spilling over the floor, she resembled Medusa with snakes writhing from her scalp.
Skin was stretched taut over a skeleton that shouldn't be so apparent. Once full and pink lips were shrunken and wrinkled.
Clothes were ripped free of the body that didn't even appear human anymore.

Hate me... hate me like you already do.

"I-I," he found his voice, "I don't hate you."
Bending down, he wrapped his arms gently around her.
Tears that were hers and his own fell from his eyes as he held her hideous body in his arms.
With a scream he declared his love.
His love for the ugly and dead body in front of him. His love for the spirit that haunted his everything. His love for... for Vanity.
With a whisper into her dark yellow ear, moist from his breath, and heat from his skin sent a pulse into her body. But it was the whisper...
It was the whisper that made her open her black, black eyes.
It was the whisper that brought her back.

"I love you."