The night had started off so well. Ethan had taken her to the theatre. They'd watched a play called 'The Transformed Beast'. It was horrifically gory, but Brona loved every moment of it. Even while she was screaming and hiding her face against Ethan's shoulder.

There was an interval between that show and the next, presumably while the actors prepared for their next performance. Brona and Ethan went to go and get a drink at the theatre bar, where Ethan was approached by a woman Brona had never seen. He introduced her as Miss Ives, and Brona shook her hand. But discomfort began to stir in her stomach. It only intensified when Dorian Gray then approached. A man who had hired Brona once for her.. speciality. The three got into light conversation, but Brona felt like she was suffocating. She excused herself, leaving the theatre.

Stumbling on the street outside, Brona coughed into her handkerchief, trying to catch her breath. She couldn't do this. Ethan couldn't do this. He couldn't bring her to the theatre, the one place she'd always wanted to go, and show her what it was like to be happy. She'd already come to terms with what would happen to her. She'd accepted it. Ethan had no right to come to her, to give her a reason to want to live, and then show her the people who'd he'd continue on his life with when she was gone.

Ethan followed Brona out, trying to help her as she collapsed, coughing up blood. But she wouldn't have any of it. She told him exactly what they were – that there was no hope for them. They couldn't be happy, just like the lovers in the play. But this time, it was Brona who was the beast. Transformed by her condition. Doomed to hurt Ethan with her own end if she let him get too close.

Brona left Ethan outside the theatre. She stumbled through the streets of London, clutching her cloak around her. Her lungs burned as she coughed and heaved, blooding spilling from her lips and onto her handkerchief. The woman collapsed against a building, curling up and trying to settle her aching chest. The coughing calmed slowly, leaving Brona to gasp for breath, huddled up against the cold of the night.