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"Redemption isn't an external thing," Fulton said. "I understand that now. It can't be imposed from outside. It has to
come from inside yourself. You say you have found it and I am glad but the credit for that goes to you and not me. I can't kid myself anymore waiting for my love for you to make everything all right. What I did to you just shows that love isn't all powerful, it doesn't conquer all. This is the only way that I can find peace."

"Please, how can you turn your back on us? How can you deny our love?"

"Why do you keep talking about love like it has anything to do with this?" Fulton retorted. "Do you believe we could really, truly, love each other, being what we are? Love has nothing to do with us."

Gabriella made to shake her head but was restrained. "I know what I felt for you, and I know you felt it too."

"We were deceiving ourselves."

"I don't believe that and I don't think you do either. You're just using it as an excuse to make this easier for you."

Gabriella continued to argue, to beg with him to reconsider, interspersed with fits of tears. She said she forgave him for what he had done but please would he come inside and not do this. Please would he stay and not leave her.

Fulton tuned her words out and lifted his eyes back to the horizon. It was better for both of him that he did this. His eyes ran up booted feet and bare legs topped with garish shorts.

"I suppose you're here to try and talk me out of this as well?" He kept his voice too quiet for Gabriella to hear.

Pseudo-Fulton shook his head. "Not at all," he replied. "I came to you whenever your heart was troubled. But
now you are finally committed to this with all of your being. You are so sure that this is the only way, that this is the path you must tread. I just wish it could have worked out better . . . for her."

"So do I," Fulton said. "I hope she can find a way to live at peace after it is all done. I hope she finds real love someday, with a better man than me."

Gabriella recovered from a fit of tears. "Fulton please. Fulton I love you, don't do this!"

More sobbing. "Please, for me."

That was it, she had played the only card left to her. The one thing that might force him to make a different choice. Fulton had stopped caring about himself and no appeal to save himself
for
himself would alter things now. But for
her
, for
her he might be willing to put a stop to this madness . . .

Perhaps there was some way for them to be together after all. Perhaps together was the
only
way for the both of them to conquer their natures. Was he about to damn Gabriella because he was too afraid to even try?

But it was too late to change his mind.

"I'm sorry. I love you!"

The sun crested the horizon and Fulton viewed its deadly beauty through a screen of tears. It took very little time at all for the direct light to trigger the reaction with his vampire blood. It roared through his veins blistering his skin and erupting in flashes of flame. The pain was too much for Fulton to keep all inside and he opened his mouth to scream.
Blood erupted from ruptured vessels in his mouth and face. Faintly in the background before his eardrums burst under the pressure from his own blood pushing inside them, he heard Gabriella's cry of grief mingled with his own agonised wail.

There was a flash of intense fiery agony as most of his skin split and flaked away burned by the fire in his veins, then the burning liquid reached his brain and there was relief. The pain stopped for that one moment and he tried to force some final words to escape his ruined face.

And then his heart exploded in his chest sending a burning fountain of blood and charred flesh into the air and it was over.

Inside the house Gabriella's sobs eventually became silent while she waited to heal. Her physical injuries would fade quickly enough, perhaps too quickly. In a few hours when they were gone she would have lost everything of Fulton's. All she would have were memories of a few stolen  moments together when they had dared to dream of a better future.

How cruel could fate be? To offer her love now, after centuries of waiting. To reveal the truth of her life as a lie, to offer her love, redemption and who knew what else and then to snatch it away.

What would become of her now? The simple girl who had been taken from her family and gifted immortality. A girl who had not been truly alone for more than a short time in centuries and was
now utterly alone in the world. How could she go on?
Should
she go on? Or should she follow Fulton's example?

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