Over
There’s a point in your life in which you decide to take a new direction, live a new life. Sometimes it’s just a dream. Sometimes it’s just talk. And then there’s the rare occasion that a person goes out and starts over. It’s like there’s just a drive in that person to be something else that they have to make their entire fantasy world a reality. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
Wednesday, February 11th, 2004, we arrived in Merriton, New York, northwest of Albany. It was a was an oddly large community by Rock Pond and Salmon Lake. A small city rather than a large town. We stayed at a quiet inn on the outside of town, where we saw a stable to keep our companions. I tried to smell the fresh air, but the only smells I now knew were blood, flesh, and fear.
Blood, that was the smell I now lived for, the smell for which I hunted. There was a new smell. A smell I recognized, and yet was strangely new. The smell of birth. Not human birth, but my birth. Marlina knew it, too. It was Adrian.
“He’s near,” she said, and turned away. Quietly she landed on the ground from the window of our second story room. We had roomed together to understand each other. I knew Davis. I had made him. I knew Marcus. Not only had I made him, but he was my brother, my twin. But Marlina I did not know. She was one of us, from the same creature, and she knew him better than any of us could.
In my mind I cried out to him, and he answered. Where are you?, I wondered. I knew he was here somewhere. Where are you?
For once, Davis was quiet and alone... standing on the corner of an alley watching the boys and bois walk by him. Whenever a large group of girls walked by he stopped and stared... watching for her. Why he was watching for her I did not know. Was she here, too? Were they all here? Adrian and his crew? She was the most recognizable. He knew her well enough to spot her. He could spot the many small differences between women and girls, but now men were the hunt... no longer the love. He could no longer love.
Marcus stood by my side. He wrapped his arm around my waste as I watched Davis from across the way, wondering if Adrian would walk past. He took my earlobe in his lips. Marcus had never loved so much as when we became one. I felt for him, but I was afraid. Society had left it’s mark on me. I was the smart one during life after all. I couldn’t help but think about how wrong this all was. But somehow it all seemed right.
Davis’ eyes focused... I could see it as well. I saw through my eyes, and his. A young girl in skin tight jeans, stiletto boots, and a black leather quarter trench. Dark red hair flowed past her shoulders and moved with the wind. It was Cassandra. Once and for all, we were face to face with the one who chased us. She knew it, but it wasn’t us she was after. It was Marlina. It was Adrian.
Without a moment’s warning, Marcus was gone. He very much enjoyed the fact that the normal rules of physics no longer applied to him, the non-living. Now that he had branched away in this city, I was free to roam, but carefully. I nodded at Davis, and he smiled, without a single look in my direction. Take care, my son, my friend, my lover.
I stepped into “Five”, a strange club that seemed to take me to the top story of a very desolate building. When I reached the top, the dim red lights moved around the room. I focused on the darkness so that I could see which humans (or non-humans) were moving around. In such a crowded place, it was hard to keep track of one person, but somehow I saw her. Maybe she wanted me to see her. No, it was not Cassandra. Her name was Lilias Marial. The girl who first took my essence and lead me to the life I am living now. She was standing there, staring across the distance to nowhere. She turned around and walked into nowhere, and I followed.
Across the room, or whatever this large space was to be called, there was a spiral staircase leading back down to the second floor in which there was no viable entrance where I had come into the building. I walked down the stairs, and, the moment my feet hit the floor, there was a sudden silence and darkness. There was the smell again. Birth. I was alive, and free. And there Marial stood, smiling at me. She turned around and the glass crashed, and she was gone. I saw nothing. I flew towards the window and out, and landed on top of the building across the street. It was one story, and no one seemed to notice me flying over there heads. I was standing alone, once again.
Yet I was not standing alone. I turned towards the street and came face to face with Cassandra. Where is she?, my mind echoed. I don’t know.
“I will find her, and when I do, you will all die.” And she was gone.
In the distance, a baby cried. Charlie moved past. Come here, Charlie. How you doing, you crazy cat? Where’s Noelle? Is that Kristina crying? I haven’t seen her yet. I bet she’s beautiful. Why is she crying? What’s going on? No, Adrian, stay away! They haven’t done anything to you. She’s just a baby. No... NO!
I woke up to a glow of red under the curtains. The sun was going down. Where was Marlina? I walked into the bathroom and splashed my cold dead face with cold water. I felt strangely warm. I looked into the mirror and saw... myself... but barely. I could see every inch of the wall behind me through my own reflection. Something was happening. Why had I dreamt of my sister? And Adrian? And my cat?! Who was Kristina? Did my sister have a child, or was this just my imagination working? Can I imagine? I am, after all, dead by all technical means.
“I noticed, too.” Oh, Marcus. You scared me. “Sorry,” he said, and grinned. “Touch me.” I lifted my hand, and brushed his face gently, and he seemed to purr in the silence. “No,” he grabbed my hand. “Right there.” He roped my arm around him and put my right hand against his right ass cheek. He then pushed his body against mine and licked my neck, nibbling without breaking the flesh.
Suddenly, he stopped. We turned towards the door seconds before it crashed open. There she was again. Cassandra. And in a moment, a moment I cannot remember, there was darkness, and we were gone.
I want to watch you die. Suffer the pain you have caused me. You don’t deserve to live. We lost our parents. I lost you a long time a go. I don’t believe you. No, I will not stop. Die... die... die...
When I finally came to, I saw Marlina strapped to a tall wall upside down. Wait, SHE was not upside down. I was. Where am I? I looked around and realized what had happened to my body. My arms would broken and tied behind my back. I could not fix them until they were back in place. I was left hanging by my ankles. I could hear a soft cry and pounding. I managed to spin my body to the other direction where a large cement box... no, coffin... was lying against another wall. My brother was in there. We were all trapped, but why? Cassandra. The Slayer. We were meant to die, but not yet.
This is the room, the room where I was reunited with my love, Marial. Oh, but where are you now, Lilias? Where are you when I need you the most?
“You will see her soon.” The face, the unsmiling face, was looking up at me. The same face that had meant so little in Healing was now here to save my life.
As I laid on the ground, I could feel my arms healing slowly, as fast as I could really. I looked over at my brother, whose legs were still misshapen, to see Aiska reaching to release Marlina. Why was she fighting?
“We have to go.”
“No, leave me here. She wants me. Go, and she will not find you.” But it was too late, she was here. She screamed as she rushed towards Charles Aiska and Marlina. She struggled against Aiska, until she pushed him away, and forced herself upon Marlina. Gone. Air. Marlina was no more.
“You shouldn’t have done that.”
“Well, I did. What can you do, Charles? What do you really think you can do?”
Silence. Darkness. Emptiness.
“So good to see you again, Cassandra. It’s been so long.” Adrian... Adrian, you’re here. Still... hollow air... nothing here but smoke and words. I looked around. I could hear Marcus crying out for me. I tried to call back, but all still seemed silent. I closed my eyes.
Marcus... Marcus, I am here. I am here. I opened my eyes and spun around and suddenly, Adrian stood at my side. “It’s nice to have you here, my child.”
“Nice to see you, too.” It was Cassandra... and he was gone. I screamed... I cried out for Adrian. No. Where are you? I wept tears of blood. The drops fell into the emptiness below... and I fell. I fell to where? There was nothing left. My creator was destroyed. Where was I to go now? What am I to do? How am I to live?
“Luke, baby? Wake up... Wake up.” My eyes opened, and in front of me stood a beautiful woman with dark red hair. She kissed my forehead. “C’mon, we have to make breakfast before class. Mark and Davis are on their way over.”
“What? What happened?”
“It’s all over. We’re living a new life.”
I looked out the window... sunlight. It had been so long, and it felt so good. I looked out towards the sky and saw buildings for miles. Etik City. And below was ECU, Etik City University. I graduated... it was appearing now. New memories mixed with the old. My life was given back. But Marlina... I turned to look at her. She just smiled.
Was she given a second chance? Is this our second chance? True, her sister is trapped forever in Abole once more, but she... she had outlived her mistakes. It was time to move on. And it was all over. It’s all over.
Thank God it was all over.