Tell the truth - confess your sins

You have **** but to admit your fault. Pearl would know if you lied.

"I may have taken a few liberties when you were nothing," you sheepishly admit.

Pearl lifts her eyebrow. "A few liberties?"

"Okay, well, I may have fooled around a little."

She furrows her brow. She does not look happy. "Chase. What did you do?"

"We had sex, okay?" you blurt out. "I was freaking out and you were naked, and I couldn't think straight -"

Pearl goes totally still, her hand hovering over her lower abdomen. "You **** me."

"I didn't **** anybody, I asked if it was okay," you insist. "You said you wanted it. I made sure you enjoyed yourself. You even said you liked it!"

"You said I was unresponsive," says Pearl, sell-shocked.

"Okay, so I led the questions a bit - but you seemed okay. Really!"

Pearl can't believe it. "You put the words in my mouth. You put the words into me. I was nothing, I was a naked soul, and you made me like it."

You expect Pearl to explode, to come at you swinging. What you don't expect, is for her to do nothing.

Pearl sits on the counter, deeply troubled. "This isn't good."

"I didn't think you were Pearl. That's why I called you Rose. You didn't exist. If I thought you still did... I didn't mean to hurt you," you try.

"You did worse," says Pearl. "You changed me."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't think I'm the same Pearl you used to know," says Pearl. "Part of me is still Rose."

"If we Cleansed you once by accident, we can do it again on purpose," you offer. "We can make it so this never happened. Take Rose out of you and make you totally Pearl again."

Pearl touches her chest. "That's the problem," she says. "I don't know if I want to be totally Pearl again."

"What?"

"Look at it from my perspective," says Pearl. "As far as I knew before now, there was no Rose, and no Pearl. Just me. My feelings - all of them - were always mine. Falling in love with you, falling in love with your body, with how you make me feel, physically and emotionally, that was all me."

You grimace.

"Until I met you, everything followed a script. I was okay, but not really. I never knew what was wrong before," says Pearl, distantly. "I always knew I wasn't supposed to fall in love with a blockhead like you, Chase. And I knew you weren't supposed to fall in love with a freak like me." She has a thousand-yard stare. "But then we came together and we rewrote the script. A new script, just for us."

You shake your head. "What are you saying?"

Pearl looks at you. "What you did to me was horrible."

You feel like you're facing down a stony sea cliff, with your toes hanging off the edge. "I'm sorry."

She shakes her head. "But that's the thing. I don't want you to be sorry. I know you **** me and all I can say is... I'm glad."

Your stomach rolls. You're falling. "What?"

"The second I met you," says Pearl, "I knew you were the one. The first time we had sex, it was like you were making love to my soul. And I'm supposed to give that all up because, fuck you, it wasn't real? Because who I am, my whole life, was only possible because of ****? That fucking sucks."

"But I have to fix this," you say.

"Do you?" asks Pearl, glaring at you, pleading with you. "If it was me - it would've been okay. And it was me, wasn't it? The Pearl you're talking about, the Pearl I supposedly was, didn't exist anymore. It was just me. And when you chose to make love to me, you filled me with love for you, too. It made me whole, too. So when I think of you **** my soul on this table... I can't describe anything that sounds more perfect. It's making my heart pound just thinking about it."

You shake your head. "Pearl. This is crazy. You're talking crazy."

But Pearl hops off the table and grabs your hands, pleading. "Is it though? We made each other happy, until now. I can make you happy again," she says, her teeth fiercely bared, and her fingers digging desperately into your hands. "Don't ask me to go away."

"Pearl..." you say.

"Call me my special name again, and I'll do whatever you say," Pearl says. "I need you, Chase. Please."