Hollow and Alone

[Samir Chaitanya]

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He would be the end of her. The tiger had set out to kill her, as he had those other wolves that threatened his existence. She would go to them, call upon her species and chase him from these lands. But they were his, she was here to take them from him. The tiger needed to remind himself of this, to repeat the words again and again so that his stone facade would not crack. But he was wavering inside, crumbling bit by bit as he breathed in her scent and listened to the voice that willed him to remember. But he refused, couldn't bring himself back to a time where he had held such things as hope.       He couldn't. Couldn't allow his mind to wander back to those days where he held that hope and even happiness. They had been ripped from him, slowly. It was not immediate like the deathly choke hold that he would use to end her, but it had been like a slow bleed that left him weaker in each passing minute. The green eyed cat had moved constantly, leaving bits of that hope each day that passed and he didn't find the one that had opened that wound. This was not the day that he would reopen that cut, deeper then any scars that lined his body.       She did not answer him, but moved closer. The wolf did not have the same lifelessness, she was unhappy and sorrowful but she was the empty shell that he had first met. She trembled, but it was her heart that shook and radiated through the air. She was so close now, and though she moved slowly towards him the tiger was surprised by the touch. No, he said, with a voice that screamed inside his head. Her words, they brought him back; for he refused to truly feel the touch that she gave him. No, he refused to believe that this was life and that this was what he had bleed from that gaping wound for all these years. The emotions were new and strong, over powering and his defenses against them weakened by disuse. Tell me who you are. for the rest was trickery, her scent, her voice, her eyes. They lied to him, shadows he had chased for so many years. If he allowed to believe it would be the end of him.

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