The cement was growing colder beneath Deirdre's back, even as blistering rivulets of blood continued to blaze a trail down her ever diminishing countenance.  "T-time's up Dec.  Heaven or hell I'm coming to get you."  

She could barely hear her own voice, her windpipe crushed, air desperately trying to bubble up past the blood and saliva she had inhaled during the hand to hand combat.  There were several corpses around her and before she had collapsed to the crumbling warehouse floor she had heard a thundering roar of defeat, then a grunt and a great heaving crash down the rickety iron stairs.  There was no one else left to fight.  No one to hate, no one to care for, no one to live for.  

"Gods and Goddesses, I am coming to you naked."  She paused, this wasn't particularly a traditional prayer for her.  "Well, naked of soul.  Take me as I am, use me as you will, grant me peace in this life and the next."  Her hands were trembling from the cold and her eyelids kept drooping.  "Well I'll be damned, it does feel like going to sleep."  She managed a half smile, the pain in her body beginning to fade as her heartbeat slowed. As her hearing waned she thought she heard voices, but knew in her heart that no one was coming for her. 

"Holy fecking shite she looks like death.  Is she dead? Is she going to die?"  Deirdre moaned, the sound being pushed through tightly contricted ribs and cracked lips.  

"Hush you idjit! The doctor said she werna gointa die.  If I hear you or anyone else ask that I'm going to brain them!"  The urge to leap out of her bed was only tempered by the sudden awareness she was wrapped in plaster and gauze, parts of her body suspended in slings, and the voice, it was the unmistakable voice of her mother.  

"Ma?"  That was all Deirdre's tired throat could croak out but the work lead to a visceral reaction. Blazing hot tears raced one another down her face and into her tied back hair.

"Shh luv, shh.  Mum's here.  You need to rest or the doctor'll come back with more of tha nasty medicine that makes you dream and weep."  Deirdre could feel the soft skin of her mother's palm against her forehead, the callused fingers petting her hair.

"I won't cry ma."

"No luv,  no one said not ta cry.  Just rest.  Tears will come, they just need ta flow when you're well enough to cry like the wild animal you are inside."  There was a scent of roses in the air, then the press of her mother's lips on her forehead. "Sleep now luv. You've avenged those you set out to punish."