Put Your Lights On

Put Your Lights On
by Danielle Delaney
(Santana/Everlast)
* Hey now, all you sinners
Put your lights on,
Put your lights on,*
Jude lays on the cold concrete of the warehouse floor. Her breath racing in ragged gasps, sounding like the dying sighs of child. Her bare skin dully gleams with the grimy mixture of blood and sweat. Her vivid hazel eyes glazed over in fear and pain. High over Jude's head Kai watches her slightest movement. The angel turns her head away.
* Hey now, all you lovers
Put your lights on,
Put your lights on*
Jude watches Naomi and Megumi with something akin to envy burning in eyes that remain hidden under the wild curls of her auburn hair. Kai stands slightly behind her with a hand raised to touch, to easy away pain that she can sense but not understand. A sudden jerk brings Kai to a halt and her eyes are haunted with helpless pain as Jude walks away without a backward glance. Kai brings her outstretched hand to her chest as if she had been burned by the unspoken violence.
* Hey now, all you killers
Put your lights on,
Put your lights on*
Kai watches with troubled gray-green eyes as Jude loads her Seburo with unerring efficiency and straps it onto her back. Smoldering hazel eyes lock onto soft gray ones, furiously challenging her to say, to do, anything. Kai hangs her head and lets her midnight hair swallow her a silken cocoon. With the sound of Jude's bike roaring in her ears Kai sinks to her knees and sobs anguished tears that Jude never sees.
* Hey now, all you children
Leave your lights on, you better
Leave your lights on*
Jude leans against a wall with a look very close to peace settling onto her fine features. She opens one eye to watch Anne prepare to mallet Joseph into oblivion. She smiles quietly and catches the mallet before it smack onto his head. She merely raises an eyebrow at Anne and then tousles the furious girl 's golden hair. Kai grins happily, swinging her legs as she sits on the table. Just happy to be somewhere that Jude seems to be at peace. She sneaks a glance at Jude, who doesn't even look at her. Her slender wings tremble for half a second.
* Put your lights on
Because there's a monster living under my bed*
Kai jerks backward in shock at the raw fury in Jude's wild eyes. The other girl turns away in a sudden movement without another word and slams her fist into the wall as she passes. Much later, Jude sits holding a bloody nametag, but all her eyes see is the Sagawa logo blazoned onto flimsy plastic. The intense hatred burning with in her slender frame wracks it with tremors identical to those of a fever patient. She holds the nametag so tight that her knuckles go white and a slender trickle of blood begins to drip down her hand. Her eyes echo that raw fury; her delicate mouth sets into a hard line.
* Whispering in my ear*
Kai stands with her wings spread to full extension, her legs braced and her arms outstretched before Jude. The lean girl just watches her impassively, waiting for Kai to get out of her way. Kai screams at her in desperation, her voice breaking as Jude continues to just watch her with dark passionless eyes. But Kai can see the hatred lurking in those dark swirling pools of color. She could see it dwelling there like a little demon waiting to come out. The desire to kill, destroy and hurt in the name of vengeance waiting in those eyes, ready to spring up and come to life. Kai finally drops to her knees in defeat. Jude merely shoulders her Seburo and walks past.
* There's an Angel with a hand on my head*
Kai stands watch next to Jude's bed as the auburn haired girl tossed in restless sleep. Finally unable to bear Jude's obvious torment she gently smoothes back the tangles hair from Jude's fitful face. Jude almost instantly calms at Kai's touch. Sighing, Jude turns in her sleep to Kai's gently caress and drifts into gentler dreams. Kai's breath hitches slightly as she watches Jude in a rare moment of peace and vulnerability. The angel's deep gray eyes depict the battle of emotions that she's not even sure she's supposed to have, especially about this human girl.
* She says I've got nothing to fear*
Kai inhales sharply as if coming to some inner resolution. She very gently gathers the sleeping Jude into her arms and just holds her, smoothing away the haunting nightmare-memories as they come. When the sunlight kisses Jude' s dark lashes she wakes to find two long white feathers half-hidden in the jumbled sheets. She draws her knees up and just studies the soft, slender reminders of her angelic houseguest. She buries her face in her arms and doesn't move for along time.
* There's a darkness deep in my soul*
Jude walks through double doors that have been thrown wide open by a blast, the fires still burn in small flickering patches. She looks neither to the left nor the right as she walks calmly by. With her hands hooked in her pockets and her Seburo strapped to her back, she seems almost lazy in her appearance. But the cold hatred glows in her vivid eyes, making them burn with an unholy light.
* I still got a purpose to serve*
A sobbing man kneels at Jude's feet. A thin line of blood snakes its way down his face. Her dark eyes gleam with an edge of rage pushed into insanity. She levels her delicate submachine gun at his forehead and pauses a moment, listening to his stream of broken please of innocence. His 'just following orders' excuse clamor and fall short of ears closed by hatred turned to cruelty. Jude doesn't even blink as she pulls the trigger. She turns on one heel and coolly walks away as blood washes the room behind her. The characters of her tattoo gleam, just barely visible under her short hair.
* So let your light shine, into my soul*
Kai walks out of the darkness of the warehouse to lean against one wall and watch Jude. The auburn haired avenger sits with her back to Kai, feet propped up on the table, one hand wrapped around the neck of a barely touched sake bottle. Kai gently touches Jude's shoulder. Getting no response she sighs, but lets herself have the luxury of quietly smoothing the wild curls. Jude sighs almost imperceivably (sp?) and leans back slightly.
* God don't let me lose my nerve
Lose my nerve*
Jude watches Kai sleep in a state only reached by completely calm at heart. The young angel lays curled around a pillow, her whisper light wings forming a cocoon around her slender form.Jude rakes a hand through her untamable hair, expressive hazel eyes showing her frustration, confusion, and guilt. She turns to leave and stops at Kai's low whimper. Half turning to regard the delicate seraphim, she gently tucks away a loose silken strand of raven hair. Letting her fingers trace the soft curve of Kai's cheek she gazes wonderingly at the innocent girl. Jude balls her hand into a fist so tight that it turns the knuckles white. She turns to leave and this time she doesn 't even pause at Kai's whimpering moan. The Seburo once again strapped to her back and her tattoo shining dully.
* Because there's a monster
living under my bed
whispering in my ear*
The whispering of memory voices breaks the silence of the gutted and razed safehouse that once was home to the Neon Dragons. The moonlight lingers and clings like water to the slender figure that stands unmoving in the middle of modern ruin. A wasteland that Jude thinks reflects her own battered and bruised soul. "I swear I'll make it right. I'll make it right.."
*There's an angel with a
hand on my head
She says I've got nothing to fear
She says, whooo-ahhh hey
La la, you shine like stars
Whoo-aohaha heyla la,
You shine like stars
And fade away*