Crazy and the Beast

[Scripted Away]

Lucian woke up yawning.


He blinked a couple of times till his sight cleared up and stroked a few streaks of hair out of his face, Manning a weird face since one had gotten into his mouth. His stomach was growling, and not for bread or something. He wanted to make sure that his hunger wouldn't get bad enough to lose control over it, so he took a piece of paper and a pen and wrote in his elegant handwriting


Went to the hospital for food. Be right back in no time. I hope you don't mind too much. Don't worry though, I'm not going to harm anyone.


If you need anything, call for Rain.


XOXO (is that the up-to-date way to end a letter? I'm a bit rusty...)


Lucian


Then he put the letter on the table and walked out the door and towards the hospital, a slight smile on his face.


He felt so so so much better than yesterday night.


At that time he had still planned to live alone for God-knows-how-long, until he would step into the sunlight one day and fall to ashes.


This version of the future looked much better.


Sure, Harper would grow older, while he was stuck in his immortality and agelessness, and a part of him would die when nature would take its tribute and her oh-so-short life would end...


That made him cringe heavily


... But at least he could be happy for a few years. And who said an 80-year-old and a 22-year-old couldn't be friends?


are you sure that's the only thing you want? A friend? He asked himself, but quickly shook his head.


>>Focus on getting food!<<

 

[badyogi]

Harper set her book down and stood, stretching her arms over her head. She had found a dress in a trunk, packed away in a closet, that she'd put on and had fallen in love with. It was the softest yellow she'd ever seen, and made her think of a fuzzy little duckling. She'd cleaned and bandaged the bite marks left by her captor, and done her hair so that it fell in a long braid down her back. Her feet were still bare, but she didn't mind. She never liked shoes much anyway. When she was locked away, she used to daydream about digging her toes into the earth, feeling grass, mud, water, snow. It was one of the few things that got her through it all. 


Now, she walked out of the library, finding the note Lucian had left her in the living room. She smiled at the XOXO, feeling a strange fluttering sensation in her chest. Is this what it felt like to fall for someone? If it was, she hoped it never ended. Humming a soft tune, she headed back into the kitchen to prepare dinner, something she had never done before, so she wasn't really sure what she was doing, but she managed to scrape something together that was halfway edible. She took the plates to the dining hall, setting the table with candles and the crystal dish wear she'd found in the china cabinet. 

 

[Scripted Away]

Whistling a happy melody, Lucian stepped through the massive entrance doors, a cool box with blood bottles under his left arm, a single red rose in his right hand, and on his face a huge grin. As he entered the kitchen, he chuckled silently. Someone had been cooking here. 


He quickly stored the blood bottles in the fridge and put the box away.


Then he followed Harper's sweet scent into the dining room, grinning widely.


"Hey, this looks really great!", he said happily, walking up to her. 


He softly wrapped one arm around her waist from behind and rested his chin on her head for a second.


"Good morn... Eh, evening, pretty lady", he smirked, holding up the Rose. 


He just hoped he hadn't startled her, since his movements usually were completely soundless. 


"May i?"


With the arm that was laying around her waist, Lucian stole a little piece of the food on the plate Harper was carrying. It tasted slightly burnt, but he was happy anyway.


"Hmmh, delicious", he said smiling. "I hope we'll be cooking dinner together soon."


Just imagining that made him feel as if his heart was beating again. And for a second, he could have sworn it had.


A slight frown crawled over his face.


"Is it just me or was that a heartbeat...?", he mumbled.

 

[badyogi]

Harper did startle a bit, but surprisingly enough, she didn't pull away from him. Taking the rose, she brought it to her nose and inhaled deeply, swearing she had never smelled anything so sweet in her life. She stifled a laugh when Lucian took a bite of the burnt food, amused that he would call her very first home cooked meal "delicious". They both knew it wasn't. But it was very sweet for him to say so.


At his last sentence, she turned in his arms to face him, looking up in his eyes, confusion and bafflement evident in her gaze. "A heartbeat? ... I thought .. " She didn't want to say anything rude /vampires, creatures, monsters/, so she settled with, "your kind.. don't have beating hearts?" She placed her hand on his chest where his heart would be, curious. "Do you still feel it?"

 

[Scripted Away]

"i mean, theoretically..." Lucian made his wings appear and slightly spread them. "Vampires don't have beating hearts, but angels do. So maybe... I'm only half-undead... That would be a possible explanation..." 


He focused on the feeling of her hand on his chest, that lively warmth, the soft pulsing running through every tiny vein...


And felt another weak movement. 


It hurt for a second, like moving stiff muscles, and he instinctively pushed his hand against his chest as well, in fact, right on Harper's. 


"Ouch...", he mumbled with furrowed eyebrows, but then smiled again. 


He didn't know what it was that made his heart move for the first time in over five millennia, but what he was certain about was that, even though it hurt, it had been an incredible feeling.


"What are you doing to me, bringing up my angel-half, hmm?", he chuckled. "But what about having dinner now?" 


He let go of her with a happy smile and sat down at the desk, looking up at Harper, grinning slightly. "So... Hope you haven't been to lonely all day? And how's your neck? Hurting from the bite?"

 

[badyogi]

Harper's pulse quickened when she felt Lucian's heart beat under her hand, her eyes widening a bit. "Whoa.." she whispered. Stunned, she took a seat next to him at the table, playing with the food on her plate with her fork. She was hungry, of course, but she was too in awe at the moment to eat. "I wasn't lonely at all. I'm used to being on my own all day. And at least here I had some distractions. My neck is okay." She reached up to touch the bandage lightly. "Hurts, but I think it'll be okay." 


She gestured to his "normal guy" clothes with a smile. "I like the new look. It suits you." She looked at her plate, poking at her baked potato, then she looks at Lucian, sheepishly, guilt and shame all over her face. "I'm sorry I stabbed you." 

 

[Scripted Away]

Lucian carefully stroked over the place where the bite was with one finger and frowned. "You have no idea how much i hate that monster that did that to you...", he sighed, a wary expression crossing his face for a split second, but then he noticed that the pulse of her neck under his finger had no effect on him. In fact, he felt like kissing it, instead of sinking his fangs into it.


He quickly pulled back his finger and stared at the table for a moment. What was going on with him?!


"I mean, sure, we are monsters, the most dangerous animals that ever existed, but does that mean we have to give in to it?", he continued to speak. "I don't see the excitement in making someone suffer..." Just at that, his face turned to stone again, as if there was an 'excepting' that he didn't want to speak out.


He took a deep breath.


Smiling as Harper mentioned his clothes, he lifted his shoulders. "Guess you're bringing out the man in the monster", he said with a soft sparkling in his eyes, before unbuttoning his shirt and taking it off. Thirteen scars, from the spears that stabbed him centuries ago, were shimmering slightly silver, and dozens of others that looked normal crossed his body everywhere. but he pointed at another one on his side. "Half as bad, just one of many, and by far not the worst. I'm fine." 

 

[badyogi]

Harper drew in a sharp breath when she saw the scars that littered Lucian's upper body. She fought the urge to reach out and trace them with her fingertips, but she moved her hands to clasp them together in her lap. She had some scars of her own, but she couldn't imagine what he'd had to go through to get his, and a shiver went through her. She pitied him, worried about him, and hated whoever would hurt such a wonderful, caring man. Surprised that she could feel so strongly about a man she barely knew, she lowered her gaze to her plate once more. Suddenly, she wasn't hungry anymore. 


"You said something about angels before. Is that what you are?" She asked,trying to not get overwhelmed by everything he was telling her. Days ago, she knew vampires were just a part of her schizophrenic delusions, but now they were very real, and apparently, they were everywhere. Everywhere.... Something occurred to her and she raised her gaze to meet his, panic suddenly floating in her eyes. "Is he going to come after me?"

 

[Scripted Away]

A soft expression of sorrow crossed Lucian's face as he heard Harper breathing in sharply, and her heartbeat, that seemed to have fastened in shock. 


Guessing her thoughts, he softly took her hand and put it on his chest, where a few of the scars were, smiling softly. 


"It's okay", he mumbled smiling. "That's mostly been centuries ago, sometime in mid-age. And the decades spent in captivity and torture are a blink of an eye compared to my entire lifespan." He let go of her hand and looked down at his plate. "I'm over six and a half millennia old, you know?" Looking up again, his eyes were tired, but the smile on his face was surprisingly soft.


"And, well, the angel-thing is the half truth", he explained. "My mother was angel, my father a vampire. The first vampire, to be exact. Brother of Lucifer, Lord of hell. I'm named after him." He sighed silently. Remembering all these things hurt, but he didn't want to keep anything secret. 


"So, my mother and my father had two children. Me and my little sister, Seraphina. We hid all the time, because relationships between angels and vampires are forbidden. It's basically one of two laws: keep the secret and kill every angel you see. When i was born, i was an angel. White wings, blue eyes, blonde hair... Well, then they found us, killed my parents and but me, trying to turn me into a vampire. As you see, they mostly succeeded. Then mid-age came and people got more aware of vampires and the like. While angels were loved by everyone, vampires and witches were hunted down mercilessly. My little sister was born vampiric, and so the hiding continued. I never harmed a single human! Spent decades on feeding on corpses on battlefields! And still they hunted us. They... They got us. At first Seraphina, then me, when i tried to save her. But they didn't kill us, no. They tortured me for two centuries, trying to make me tell them where the others hid. Then they threatened me to kill Sera, and...i... i just cried it all out like a beaten dog. They killed her anyway. I watched my sister being thrown into cooking silver. I still hear her scream every night... She was only 8 years old...!


...And they killed me. Or least thought they had. Thanks to my angel-half, i have no big problem with holy water. It just paralyzed me until the rain washed it away. Thinking i was dead, they threw me out to feed me to the crowd or whatever, but luckily i could escape. Since that day, I'm marked as a traitor. Every vampire who sees me is allowed to kill me. And that's, basically, the story. Or eh, chapter 1 and 2. It's just getting worse, so I'll just leave the rest out."


As she asked him about the other vampire, he wrapped his left arm around her shoulders and pulled her close for a second, a determined look on his eyes. "He might come here, if he's a tracker or idiot. Or both. But even though I'm not entirely a vampire, I'm still one of the strongest of my kind, so he better don't dare."

 

[badyogi]

Harper felt just a great swell of emotion, listening to Lucian talk of his past. She couldn't imagine half the things he'd been through, and the other half were too heartbreaking to be wished upon even the worst people that walked the face of the Earth. She thought that her own past was full of pain, but it was a walk in the park compared to his truth. "I am so sorry that happened to you." She said, tears of sorrow filling her eyes and spilling over in long hot trails. 


When he pulled her close, she dared to lay his head against his chest, closing her eyes. Feeling the cold skin there seemed to awaken something within her, and she suddenly felt like she was falling. The air was sucked from her chest with the sensation, and she gasped, opening her eyes. She and Lucian were no longer seated at the dining table in the mansion, their dinner cooling before them. They were running through the dark wilderness, faster than humanly possible, but still.. not fast enough. The moon was the only thing they had to light their way, and many roots tripped her, and tore at her long petticoat, and dress. Slipping on the mud, Harper... no, not Harper, her name was Alice. She fell forward onto her hands and knees. Looking back, she could see them closing in on her. "Lucian, run!" She screamed, trying to free herself from the branch that had tangled her dress, keeping her on the ground. Before she could get loose, then were on top of her, pushing her back against the ground. Alice fought, throwing two of them off her, but more came, faster than she could handle. The last thing she saw as a flash of moonlight, and she screamed Lucian's name again, just as a wooden stake was buried deep into her heart. 


Harper gasped, jerking away from Lucian. A twisted, panicked look crossed her face and she stared at him in horror. "Oh my god. I just saw.. I think I just saw." She shook her head over and over, feeling confused and tormented by her illness. "These delusions... they're getting so vivid. I don't know what's real anymore." Putting her head in her hands, she took a few steadying breaths, then she looked at Lucian, worried. "I think I just saw myself die."

 

[Scripted Away]

"hey... Hey hey hey... I'm here. Harper, I'm here", Lucian said with strong, but soft voice, his hands softly placed on her cheeks, looking deep into her eyes. For a second, just a second, he thought about glamouring her to make her feel better, but he decided against it. "You won't die, i won't let that happen, not again!" 


He frowned, wondering about his own words. >>Not again?<<


He let go of her face for a second, to get a napkin and softly pet her tears away. When he wrapped his arm around her again, to pull her into a soft hug, he flinched back as if she was electrified.


"Y-your skin...!" He carefully placed his fingers on her cheek again, but her temperature had gone back to normal.


"Your skin was ice cold", he whispered, now entirely confused and worried. When he noticed something on her collarbone, his eyes widened and he carefully pulled down the collar of her dress to look at it.


His eyes widened even more.


"The...i... You...", he stammered. That was really unusual for him. He never lacked of words normally.


>>The birthmark...! I would recognize that everywhere!<< He looked up from it and into her eyes, even more pale than he usually already was.


"... Alice...?", he whispered breathlessly.


"But... You... They..." 


All of a sudden, he was back in the darkness of the forest. His face covered in tears, he carried her dead body home. Killing those few humans hadn't been hard, as they were focusing on killing her.


He softly lay her down on the red velvet couch, the one he had taken with him. This was the place where she had kissed him for the first time, lifting him out of his darkness with the shining bright light of her love. This was the place where he had kissed her for the last time, falling back into his darkness because her life has vanished forever.


He had spent centuries grieving at her grave. Her marble tombstone was wearing dents where his fingers had dug into the stone as he clinged to it. As he clinged to her.


But she was gone, gone forever. And he was dead.


Trying was useless.


Whatever he tried...


He always ended up playing a lonesome piano piece.


As his sight cleared again, he stared at Harper with huge eyes, so filled with love that they were flooding.


Literally.


"Oh my..."


Breathlessly, he lunged for her and held her tightly in his arms, just soaking her beautiful dress with his black tears.


"I... i don't understand...", he whispered, but then decided that he didn't need to. He didn't need to know how this was possible or if they were so meant to be that fate itself had brought them together again.


His eyes glittering and sparkling, he pulled her into a soft kiss, something he had thought to never do again. 


Then he realized that Harper probably had no memories of their past and quickly let go of her, staring at her with big, fearful eyes. "S... Sorry", he stuttered. "I eh... You... i mean we... Do you... Do you remember...?"

 

[badyogi]

Harper gasped in surprise when Lucian suddenly pulled her close to him, planting his lips on hers. Her first kiss. It wasn't something she thought about very often, but she surely never pictured it would be like this. Kissing a vampire, on the run, while pretty damn crazy to boot. When he pulled away again, Harper brought her fingers up to lightly touch her lips. They tingled slightly, and a blush spread through her cheeks. 


What was going on?? Her head felt fuzzy, and the last few days were a whirlwind of events, she could barely keep up anymore. More presently, she was pretty sure Lucian had just called her Alice. Had she imagined that? How had he known the name she had in her delusion? Scraping the chair as she pushed it backwards, she stood, shaking her head. Nope. This was all too much. "I need to clear my head," she said. Knowing very well she couldn't exactly leave the mansion, for fear of being captured by Dr. Turner, she settled for heading back to the balcony outside the library. With her hands gripping the railing, she stared up at the moon, her head spinning. There she stood, a sight in her yellow billowy dress, silently begging the moon for answers. 


What do you think you're going to find up there? Harper sighed, pulling her gaze away from the moon to peer onto the grounds below. Why did that damned voice have to show up now?? 


I am always here. You know that. She closed her eyes tightly. Not now. "Please, just leave me alone." She whispered. 


I can't. I am you. Harper shook her head. "No. No you're not. You're something evil, something stuck on destroying me."


You destroyed yourself. I am the broken pieces of you, trying to put together something worth having.


Harper was quiet for a long moment. Then, finally she whispered, "Why did he call me Alice?" 


As if in answer, another vision dragged her under in a wave that knocked her knees out from under her, and she knelt on the balcony, her hands still clutching the railing. Meeting Lucian for the first time.. He had saved her from a group of men who wanted to take her for their own. He took her to live with him in his home. Their first kiss. The night he changed her, after many years of her begging him. The hundred years or so they had together, living happily, and then, horrifically, their tragic end. 


Harper sobbed, a mixture of grief, despair, and love overtaking her. She stayed, kneeling on the balcony for a long time after the vision had passed. When she trusted her feet to hold her up, she rose shakily. Turning, she went to find Lucian, but found him in the doorway, watching her.


She smiled, tears falling down her face. "I remember."

 

[Scripted Away]

As Harper ran off to the balcony, Lucian thought this would be the end. Their story, ending again before it could even begin. 


He had followed her silently and had been watching cautiously, ready to jump and save her. 


This fragile, little human.


Their song, he could hear it ringing in his ears. Him playing the piano, and her sweet voice singing this song of love and hope. 


There was a thing he was curious about, though.  How much did she trust him? He knew this could scare her, but he just needed to know


Softly drawing her closer, he ran his fingers over the bandage on her neck and lastly, very carefully, ran his nosetip over the two little wounds, before placing a soft kiss on them. 


His vision blurred again as he breathed in her wonderful, sweet scent. 


There they were again, black tears, running down his cheeks in happiness to hold her in his arms again.


Harper, Alice, the name didn't matter. All that matters was that the light of his life has come back to him. And this time, he wouldn't let anything happen to her. He would protect her, at any cost.


With his face covered in tears of joy and regret, he picked her up. It was cool outside, at least for humans, and he didn't want her to be cold. 


As he sat down on the red couch, Harper on his lap, he smiled softly. It almost was like back then, before his world had fallen to fall apart.


His Fingers gently caressing her back and cheek, he sighed happily.


"Alice, Harper, i don't know which name your prefer, but... God how i love you ...". 

 

[badyogi]

Harper moved her hands to cup Lucian's face, wiping away his tears with her thumbs. "I love you too," she breathed, leaning forward to rest her forehead against his. "I thought I'd never see you again. This is all so strange, isn't it?" She pulled back a fraction, searching his eyes for answers. "How am I here?" 


It didn't make much sense. She had felt them kill her, stab that stake through her heart and out the other side of her chest. How long ago had that been? How long had he been alone? It broke her heart to look at him now, knowing he had lost his sister, and her as well. But she was here, no matter the reason, and she wasn't going anywhere any time soon. Lucian had turned her once before, she'd just ask him to do it again. There wasn't even a hesitation in her mind. Nothing mattered expect being by his side forever. 


Except.. she was Harper now, not Alice. She did have a family out there somewhere. Parents, three brothers, and a sister. What would happen when they found out she was missing from the asylum? Would they look for her, or would they assume she was dead? She couldn't let things with them end on such a note, especially seeing the pain Lucian had been in. It wasn't something she'd ever wish on anyone. 


"I have to find my family," she said softly, biting her lower lip. She didn't want him to think she was leaving him, but she couldn't just let them think she had disappeared into thin air. It wasn't fair. 

 

[Scripted Away]

"then we'll find them", Lucian said with a determined smile, the widest grin he had ever grinned forming from it. "My car has one-way windows. They don't let any sunlight in. Perfect way to travel during the day. And we could ask my cousin's if they know anything. I mean, War hasn't been around that much lately, and Pestilence is basically unemployed by now, but Death gets around a lot and Famine is an expert for the African area, in case they somehow ended up there."


He felt so full of energy right now, as if he could build a castle with his bare hands on one day, playing saxophone and feeding ducks at the same time. 


"And Rain can help!", he burst out, slapping his forehead. Who was better for searching someone than a ghost? Only a tracker, and he surely didn't want to send that sort of vampire near Harper's family. 


Right on cue, a boy appeared in the doorway.


He was small, maybe 5'5 to 5'7, and had such a fragile build that one could fear a single stroke of wind could blow him away. He surely was a bit younger as well, maybe 18 or 19.


His snow white hair was shimmering lightly, a few streaks falling into his face now and then, where a pair of strikingly blue eyes was cautiously looking around. It was the color of sapphires with light shining through them. The ends of his simple sweatpants' legs were fraying, and the Royal blue knitted sweater was far too big for him, reaching down to the middle of his thighs, and the sleeves almost twice as long as necessary for him. He was barefoot. He looked somewhat cute, indeed, like a lost puppy.


One hand, hidden in the sweater's overly long sleeves, risen to his mouth as if he was thinking, the other one almost wrapped around himself, he looked at Lucian and Harper with big eyes. "I heard my name?" His voice was just as soft as his appearance.


Lucian smiled at the boy warmly.


"Hey, Rain. This is my girlfriend, Harper. We once were engaged... Then she got killed... But she's back!"


Lucian's excitedly loud voice made the boy flinch for a second, but he smiled warmly a moment later. "Your souls are like to halfs of a whole", he said softly. "You are connected. And you were right, Lucian, she's beautiful." 


Lucian blushed deeply. "I haven't told her we've been talking", he muttered, but the ghost just chuckled softly and floated towards Harper. Well, at least his feet didn't touch the ground while he walked. Everything about him was like an illusion. Just as the eye-catching, red Mark on the side of his head. 


"Hello", he said. "I would shake your hand, but I'm kind of bodyless, so eh... Oh, is it true that you were in a psychatry, too?"

 

[badyogi]

This was a very strange experience for Harper. She remembered things in small flashes, often as they were being talked about. Like War, Death, Pestilence, & Famine. Something told her using those four wouldn't really be necessary, but she didn't want to burst Lucian's happy bubble. Her older brother, Derek, often visited her in the hospital. He was the only one who did, in fact. He had told her that if she ever needed him, she could call him. But remembering the phone number was going to be a problem, especially now that her brain was on overload, with memories from two different lives rolling around in a big mess. 


"Rain?" She asked, confused, totally thinking he meant the literally rain that fell from the sky. She had also startled when Lucian spoke in a higher, more excited voice. Her eyes widened slightly when she turned her head to look at the frail looking boy, who looked to be around her age. Well, her age in this incarnation. She didn't really remember how old she truly was.. But a smile lifted the corners of her mouth at his words. Two halves of a whole. That felt true in her heart, and it made her happier than she could ever remember feeling. Well, in this life, at least. Very confusing... 


"It's nice to meet you, Rain." Harper said. "And yes, I was." Her eyes darkened a bit at the mention of that hell hole. "Were you as well?" She asked, trying to not think too hard about the fact that this boy was almost transparent enough that she could see through him. And what was that horrible red mark on the side of his face? Her stomach flipped, realization dawning on her. Rain was a ghost... She had certainly dived head first into a whole new world here, and she had to keep reminding herself to breathe. "What happened?" 

 

[Scripted Away]

While Lucian was basically cuddling against Harper's side, he looked at Rain as well. That boy was a great storyteller, even through the time when they both had been such in such a place.


As the ghost opened his mouth to speak, Lucian rested his chin on her shoulder, like he had always done. It felt all so natural with her. Being happy, being in love...


"I was a patient at the St. Mary's Sanatorium, Oklahoma. My parents brought me there when i was only four. Manic depression and Akustophobia. The fear of sounds. Well, and i heard voices and saw things... i was diagnosed with schizophrenia, but in fact i was born with the second face. The gift to be able to sense the supernatural. But of course nobody knew about that." He wrapped his right arm around himself tighter, looking at Lucian.


"That was where i met Lucian. He was breaking down the rubber room. Had been found trying to kill himself... Thirteen times. Apparently, it's hard to kill a vampire. So we got to talk about our problems, two manically depressed... He had lost the love of his life, i craved to be noticed by anyone. I have always been a wallflower, kind of invisible... It was a relief for both of us."


He smiled a warm, soft smile at the vampire and then looked at Harper again.


"Back then, they had shock-therapy. They electrified us to cure basically everything. Of course it didn't work, but just made it even more unbearable to be there. 


So one day, i sneaked out of my cell. The carers had forgotten to lock it. 


I was fast. Faster than them at least. Stole the gun of one of them and made the great escape.


But, well, i came back. I had realized i couldn't just let my best friend down. And a few years and many broken down padded cells later, Lucian was released. I came with him. 


Here i am." 


Now rain and Lucian were smiling at eachother.


"Thanks to him, I'm still here today.", the vampire said with a soft smile, planting a kiss on Harper's neck. 


Rain was just smiling. "You would have come together again, no matter what. Sooner or later, fate would have found a way to unite you again, so nothing to thank me for."

 

[badyogi]

It broke Harper's heart to hear this story, the story of her love's life after her death. But she was also grateful that these two had found each other. She only hated that Rain was only with them in spirit form. "Did you die, in that place?" She asked, the idea of it making her feel sick to her stomach. There were countless nights that she thought she would die in that little cell, and on her last night, she almost did. If Lucian hadn't come to break her out... She closed her eyes, pushing away those thoughts. She knew she mustn't think like that anymore. That life was behind her now. She was with her true love again. They would find her family, so she could say goodbye, at the very least, and then they would go from there. 

 

[Scripted Away]

Rain looked to the ground for a while, before looking up at Harper again, with sad eyes. "I killed myself in there", he said silently, and pointed at the red mark on the side of his head.


A shotwound.


"I couldn't bear that place anymore..."


"I have never seen it being that bad for anyone", Lucian added silently, his arms still wrapped around her from behind. 


"He didn't even have a name. He was 'patient 74'. If they even recognized him..." A very slight chuckle made his way up his throat. "I was known as 'the monster'. And not because I'm a vampire. They had actually started betting who of us would kill himself first."


At that, the furrowed his eyebrows.


"Seriously?!"


"Yup."


As Lucian smelled the slight scent of fear, he hugged Harper a bit tighter and softly kissed the side of her head. "Don't worry. That vampire will never get close to you again. Not if he doesn't want to die from a silver bullet."


"What vampire ha silver bullets in his house?!", Rain muttered.


"Eh...a six millennia old vampire who had decided to shoot that bullet into his head yesterday?"


"W... Eh..."


Lucian lifted his shoulders. "Don't make a big deal of it", he grumbled. "My perfect soulmate here came bursting in just in time and now everything's different, so no need to bring it up again..."

 

[badyogi]

Harper stilled in Lucian's arms when he said he had been planning on shooting himself in the head, just one day earlier. She really had come into his life just in the nick of time. She should have felt relieved by that, and she did, but a bigger part of her worried about him and his safety. He said he didn't want it brought up again, so she would grant him his wish, but she couldn't help the feeling of unease in her stomach. She tried, for the moment, to push it away, and she turned her attention to Rain. "I am so sorry that happened to you. I know what it's like in those places, and how desperate and hopeless you must have felt. No one deserves that.." 


"Before you arrived, Lucian said you'd be able to help look for my family. I hate to ask," Harper said, feeling silly bringing up something so trivial after so many dark and disturbing revelations had been made that evening. But she wanted it out of the way. She needed to put the past behind her and be done with it, once and for all. "Do you think you could find them?"

 

[Scripted Away]

The ghost chuckled softly and looked at Lucian with a proud smile, who nodded, with just the same pride in his eyes.


They were like brothers somehow. 


"Of course i can", Rain said with a smile. 


Just a moment later, his eyes went from shining blue to entirely white and it started to rain outside.


His eyes seemed to be moving quickly behind his closed eyelids, as if he was looking for something.


"We don't call him Rain for no reason", Lucian mentioned smirking. 


He could still barely believe that she was with him. Those beautiful eyes, the same ones as all that time ago, that smile, still so wonderfully bright. 


He just couldn't take his eyes off her, let alone let go of her right now. 


"I tried...", he whispered to her ear. "I really tried to save you... i would've done everything, but the was nothing... Nothing i could have done. And it was all my fault... i mean, i turned you in a time when we were hunted like rabbits. That's..." He sighed. "I'm sorry. Just sorry. Will you forgive me, little fang?" He flinched. That old nickname had just slipped out. Seemed like a lot of things he had pushed aside were coming back...

 

[badyogi]

Harper's eyes widened in surprise. "What are you talking about? There's nothing to forgive.." She pulled back to cup his face with her hands, smoothing his cheeks with her thumbs. "I wanted you to run, to save yourself. If you had died along side me.." She shook her head, grief filling her gaze at the very idea. "We're together now, and that's all that matters. Speaking of turning me." She glanced in Rain's direction, then looked back at Lucian. "When this is over, after I've found my family and said goodbye, I want you to do it again..." 

 

[Scripted Away]

Lucian's eyes were sparkling softly as he looked down into Harper's. His hand rested on hers on his cheek, enjoying that touch so much as if he had been waiting for it for an eternity. Well, he indeed had!


"So even all those decades didn't change a thing about your feelings, hm?", he mumbled softly, a loving smile on his face.


He slightly startled as rain suddenly called "got em! Auburn, Alabama."

 

[badyogi]

"What is there to change?" Harper asked with her brow raised, as though it were a silly question. "I have been yours for as long as I remember, and also, don't remember." She laughed, shaking her head. "I think this will all take some time to get used to." She still had so many questions, and she knew there were a million and one things they needed to talk about. Like her illness, the voices, and delusions, and how much of it would go away after he turned her. Also, she wondered why all of that had seemed to fade away for the time being. The voice that lived in her head was always there, mocking, or ridiculing her. But it h ad been silent since her time on the balcony. Why? She was just about to ask this question aloud, when Rain suddenly made his announcement, and she jumped up. 


"That was fast!" Her heart beat faster with something between fear and excitement. "If only I could hug you," she told the boy, a grin appearing on her lips. She turned to look at Lucian, still seated. "So, maybe tomorrow evening we can go look? I think we should all rest before making the trip."

 

[Scripted Away]

Lucian just smiled happily.
For him, it was a miracle, being loved by that amazing, perfect girl.
His soulmate.
Rain's words still lingered in his head, and made him feel as happy as never before, in such a long time.
They were ment to be, and even death itself couldn't separate them.
"And I have been yours since the day i saved you from those men", he mumbled softly.
Rain was watching them with a soft smile, and after a while slowly faded away, waving at them. "I'll go to rest then", he announced. "Keeping the mansion safe will need a wake mind. Good luck you two."
Lucian waved back at Rain, before he turned to Harper again. "I think you're right", he said smiling, stretching his arms for a moment.
With a happy sigh, he wrapped his arms around her waist and leaned his forehead against hers.
Looking deep into he eyes, he smiled softly.
It still was a miracle, to have her here and hold her in his arms again, after all that time, and he was thankful for every second with her.
"So, why don't you tell me about your family?", he asked curiously. "Will i have to do something or avoid something? After all i want them to like me." He winked.
Then a thought crossed his mind and he furrowed his eyebrows sorrowfully.
"I need you to look at this..." He got a huge book out of a shelf and dropped it onto the table, that almost seemed to break unter its weight.
"All existing vampires, sorted by kind, with name and picture. Tracker, royals, guards, outlaws... I know these are a lot of pages. The important ones are the first fifty pages. Would you have a look at them and tell me if the vampire that almost killed you is there?"