verjulesia: (Default)
verjulesia ([personal profile] verjulesia) wrote in [community profile] bbc_robinhood2013-09-26 07:27 pm

The Link

Title: The Link
Author: [personal profile] verjulesia 
Character: Guy
Rating: PG
Word Count: 699
Prompt: #17-stagger
Summary: It should be better now, shouldn't it?
Disclaimer: I own nothing, Tiger Aspect and BBC do. No infringement intended, no money being made.
A/N: poor Guy when I am like this

 

Guy staggered under the weight of his burden. His struggle bespoke how weak he had allowed himself to become. But he would not allow that weakness to stop him in his moment of triumph.

His arms trembled as he lifted Hood's body above his head. Now, finally, he would be rid of his enemy. It would all be over.

Then it was. Hood was gone, disappeared over the edge of the cliff only Guy had even known about until today. He'd thought of throwing himself off it once or twice, but no, so much better for his enemy to fall forever to the cold water below that would surely mean his death. Surely now it was done.

The roar burst from Guy's throat as Hood fell and he opened his mouth wide to let it out. He threw back his head and howled his victory at the sky. But if it was victory, why did it sound more like the shrieking of the damned? Why did he feel another black pit opening inside himself?

Some emotion that was not the elation he expected boiled up in him. Guy shook with it. His emotions usually controlled him; he'd never had much reason to exercise discipline over that part of himself-it didn't suit the Sheriff for Guy to be too controlled. He liked it when Guy ran with his hate and anger.

But this was something different, black and empty, so dark even Guy could not embrace it, and for a moment, he was afraid. It would consume him, until he was nothing inside. He could almost have thanked Robin's fool servant for attacking him and tearing his mind from the coil of itself.

Even after the servant had been dealt with and sent to the dungeons, after Guy showed the tag proclaiming Hood's demise, that blackness crept at the edges of his mind. Only when that smug weasel Sir Jasper implied that perhaps the foul deed hadn't been wholly done did the blackness lift the tiniest bit.

When Guy tromped into the forest and pounded the undergrowth with his sword, it lifted a bit more. The longer he found no trace of Robin, the lighter he felt. A small voice inside him whispered that Robin was not dead, and the despair lifted yet more.

Guy did not want to think about the whys or reasoning behind a small part of him being glad he had apparently failed once again to destroy his enemy. He chose only to think that perhaps he had not severed the last link to Marian after all. Perhaps he had not destroyed the only one who could save him now.

It came as no real surprise to Guy at all in that small glad part of him when he heard the unmistakeable sound of arrows thumping into wood. Nor when Robin's voice rang out, strong and sure from the battlements. Robin survived, yet again, and that small bit of Guy's soul rejoiced.

But that relief, that minuscule bit of joy Guy held at Robin's living twisted back to bitterness soon enough. Guy had never realized that rage could burn as cold as it could hot.

He had believed that Robin would kill him on sight. He'd tried at Locksley, only Guy wasn't ready then. He was ready now. Ready to admit he could bear the pain of what he'd done no longer. And as the last real link to Marian, only Robin could release him.

Guy thought he would. Believed it to his soul. As usual, he was disastrously wrong. Robin refused to give that release, to free him from his misery. Instead, he made Guy live, to bear his unbearable sin and the agony with it.

Guy's hate returned in a burning flood when Robin refused mercy. And if Robin would offer none, neither would he. Resolve flooded the small bit of soul Guy had left. Robin would pay for this punishment he'd meted out. If it was the last thing he ever did, he was going to kill Robin Hood and end this once and for all.

jadey36: (Default)

[personal profile] jadey36 2013-09-27 10:13 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, poor, tormented Guy! I love how he wants Robin to live, so that he can release Guy from his mental anguish, even though he wants the outlaw to die. It's as though he's caught in some never-ending vicious circle of victory and defeat.

Great piece of writing!