[ WP ] Make us fall in love with your character , and then immediately kill them off .

**Dead Inside** 
 
 “ Listen, ” she said quietly, standing just inside the jamb of the door. “ I-I… I should be in bed, I know— ” A small smile pulled at the corner of her mouth as she caught the withering glower from the man sitting at the table, fixing her with his best admonishing father glare he could muster. “ The pain was just too strong to keep laying there, counting wood grain and mistakes. I ’ m healing, and… and I think I should disappear for a while. ” 
 
 He was on his feet and in three long-legged, quick strides, he was in front of her with his arms banded gently around her upper arms. His mouth was a grim line, but he offered no words, only a worried stare that betrayed every emotion that he had held bottled up inside since he first laid eyes on this bewitching—vexing—woman. His silver-blue eyes searched her face, unable to speak. 
 
 “ I don ’ t mean to hurt anyone, ” she murmured in a rush, that ghost of a smile curving up the right side of her mouth having vanished almost as immediately as it had appeared. “ But, part of me already has departed. The part that would tie me to this world. ” 
 
 His heart was wrenching in his chest and he felt as though it would shatter within the confines of his rib cage. His blood was pooling at his feet in an icy downpour that left his usually ruddy cheeks ashen. All of his senses were strangely heightened, almost as though he were about to enter battle. He would fight any foe, face any odds, for the woman who stood trembling before him. *Trembling*, he thought, eyes dropping to the ivory flesh he held captive in his hands. He watched, transfixed, as her skin quivered and her body quaked gently. *How can I possibly let go? * 
 
 Slowly, carefully, he released her left arm so that he may brush a couple errant strands from her face. He followed the flow of her corkscrew curls to tuck those lawless tresses behind her ear, brushing his knuckles against the token hanging in a silver loop attached to the cartilage. He traced the tender arc, following the slope and lobe of her ear, before touching her jaw and tipping her head to better see her beautiful face. He committed her to memory; her hairline of red-gold, the arch of her brows, the seemingly permanent worry line between them, her porcelain skin mottled with a sweet dusting of freckles over the bridge of her nose and across those highborn cheeks. He would never forget the color of her eyes, not quite blue, and not quite purple—a variation of violet he had never witnessed before, and two of the most serene, and yet abject tragic, pools he had ever seen fringed by dark, fanning lashes. Her lips were delicious, he knew, from a mere sampling he had taken—it felt like ages ago, now. Her lips contained the sweetest of nectars and held the shade of some exotic coral he ’ d seen a sea merchant selling from his cart; pink, luscious. 
 
 “ Take as much time as you need, ” he whispered to her. His voice was straining around the lump of emotion that had lodged in his throat, restricting anything more than that mere, simple answer of which he cursed himself to the Nine Hells. He swallowed hard, reluctantly lifting his gaze to meet hers. They seemed lightless, almost vacant despite their color and glassy reflection. 
 
 “ I just… I feel so shut off, so disconnected. ” Her frown deepened and her eyes trailed away from his face. “ So dead inside. ” 
 
 His large, warm, calloused palm came to rest over her cheek and his fingers combed through the heavy mass of her curls. His thumb began to caress the expanse of smooth skin just beneath her eye and over the apple of her cheek. “ I am here for you. Always. I will always remain. ” He began to feel the light of her being begin to sputter and panic shot through his own, making his internal flame rage at its impotence. Surely, he could rekindle it… 
 
 “ Are you aware that your name means ‘ beloved ’? ” Her question was the barest of whispers as she tilted her head into his touch. A skinny tear raced down her exposed cheek, and soon dribbled from the gentle point of her chin. 
 
 “ Yes, ” he rasped hoarsely, suddenly crushing her to him, molding her softness to the rigid steel cloaked in velvet that was his masculine frame. 
 
 “ It ’ s a good name, and it ’ s true. ” 
 
 The admission was ripping apart his insides and his trembling matched her own. His dark head lowered to allow his lips one last sip of heaven, and in turn, she matched his fervor… but, all too soon, he found that the tight embrace he had on the woman had slipped, that the taste of her lingered on his now barren lips, and his arms were empty but for her scent and a dwindling, wispy light that blanketed him like twinkling starlight, then eventually winked out. 
 
 “ I love you, Fair One. ”
