Bereft: Foretold

3 | A Remembered Place

Behind me I knew an elderly couple sat enjoying a quiet evening together. They were still waiting for their meal, undoubtedly because Cage's massive order had delayed the kitchen. They didn't seem to mind, as they each had an arm extended over the tabletop with their hands pressed together, fingers entwined.

Cage followed my gaze. "You can have that now," he said as his assault on the country fried steak slowed so he could bite into his order of teriyaki chicken. All the food looked repulsive to me.

I straightened myself in the booth, unsure of when I'd twisted around to blatantly stare at the elderly couple. "Have what?"

"That." He jabbed a fork in my general direction, indicating the table behind me. "You can meet a girl, have two point five kids, buy a minivan, and grow old together. You can have that whole blissful human scenario now. As a human, it's well within your rights."

I didn't deem his words worthy of a response, as it was one thing for the mage to be snide, but I couldn't stand the current note of sincerity in his voice, as if he actually believed that I desired such a prosaic future. I wanted to reach across the flimsy table and strangle him with that ribbon already tied around his throat.

"No? Is that not what you want?"

I used one finger to twist my plate and spin my meal. I'd never eaten a hamburger before. It seemed a simple enough combination, but I was still wary of it. I couldn't breathe in and simply taste everything within the meal before physically bringing the hamburger to my mouth as I'd once be able to do. "No, I do not want that."

An image suddenly superimposed itself over my vision. Cage disappeared and was replaced by my memory of Sara sitting across from me in this very diner. She was half-drowned and encrusted in brine from the harbor, the whites of her eyes red and irritated from the grime. I'd ordered all the greasy food I could possibly stomach just to replenish my strength and she'd had a beer as she stared out the window.

At that moment, witnessing the toll our nascent quest had already reaped from her, I'd thought her a very peculiar creature. I'd witnessed many calamities in my life, and had known humans to react more hysterically to near-death experiences. Sara had simply drunk from that amber bottle in her hand and had stared at the parking lot.

Cage considered me as the waitress returned and refilled his cup. She was nearly knocked down when the small teenager at the table behind the mage jumped to his feet and threw his chair back without regard as he stormed out of the diner. Cage spun his fork between his fingers, the metal clicking against the large ring encircling his middle finger.

"I guess not," he muttered. "Not now, anyway. You wanted her, am I right? Wanted a life with Sara?"

I stopped rotating my plate. The motion was so sudden the seeded bun slid off the lettuce.

"Were you in love with her?"

"You're ridiculous," I snapped, my fury constricting the volume of my voice. "Why are mortals so obsessed with love? It's not the pinnacle of actualization. It's not the sum of life's equation, nor is it eternal. Love is fleeting, ephemeral, and something shared between hormonal fools." I jerked my head toward the table behind him. "It's utterly stupid to ask if I loved Sara or not."

Cage waved a hand. "What of those behind you? Isn't that love?"

"That—." I tipped back and didn't look at the elderly couple. "—is devotion. Loyalty. Not love."

"Are they not the same thing?" Cage stuck a few french-fries into his mouth, smirking. "Aren't they all just threads of the same tapestry woven together? As a mortal, can't you freely admit you were in love with Sara Gaspard without infringing on any of your wild conjectures of Sin morality, or are you a completely different creature now? Aren't you the same, Darius? Aren't you the same man you once were?"