Crazy and the Beast

[Scripted Away]

Minuet wrapped his arms around Alex' and Harper's shoulders and smirked slightly.
"You two... are awesome. I love you both. But I only looove my evil old hag here, of course! ", he giggled.
Alex chuckled softly and poked his side. "Min, did you eat chocolate again?"
"Yeah and it was good!" The demon was grinning widely by now.
"Last time you had a total meltdown. Remember? You tried to eat my shoe."
"Ahh, instincts mylady! I'm fine, really. Anyone have a phone?"
Alex held up her phone and raised one eyebrow, before giving it to Minuet. "Don't melt it again!"
Minuet rolled his eyes. "That was two years ago! The ringing startled me!"
Then he dialed rain's phone number.
"Nicky? Kittycat landed in an animal shelter, gotta get him out.
...
You sure?
...
Alrighty, call us if you guys get lost.
...
See you, creep."
He hang up again, gave the phone to Alex and smirked at both of them.
"Rain said he will catch up."

After rain had ended the call, he turned to Léa again and softly ran his fingers through her long, soft fur.
"So beautiful...", he mumbled with sparkling eyes and kneeled down, so he was about at her height.
"You did it! You're...a wolf! ...an absolutely beautiful wolf, to be exact."
He smiled happily as he ran his fingers through her fur once more.
"...this feeling...reminds me of something...i just can't figure out what it is..."
He quickly shook his head to clear his mind.
"Ah eh, my friends just called. Lucian landed in an animal shelter. They're off to get him out. I said we'd catch up."

 

[badyogi]

Harper listened quietly while Minuet and Alex bickered lovingly at each other like an old married couple. It was really sweet, and it warmed her heart. She was being exposed to so many new things since falling in with this lot of supernatural beings, but she was also seeing what true love really meant. And family... it made her smile, and the three of them walked out of the hospital.

"I think I saw a convenience store on the way in, they probably sell cat food." She chuckled at the thought of Lucian actually eating that, and then she blinked, her cheeks tinting pink. "Wait.. were you kidding about that?"

An unexpected tremble went through Léa's body when Rain ran his fingers through her fur. A moment or two after he pulled away, she turned back into her human self. She didn't ask what he meant when he said Lucian was in an animal shelter, she didn't really care to know much at all about the vampire who'd ended her life. "Okay," she said, shrugging a shoulder and wrapping her arms around her waist. "So, what do you want to do then?"

 

[Scripted Away]

Minuet grinned lopsidedly, while Alex let out a small chuckle.
"Well, he ends up in animal shelters more often than you think", then demon explained. "That's why..."
He rummaged around in the pockets of his jeans and then turned to Alex. "Did I give it to you?"
"You know I'm you camel, fluffball."
She pulled a few sheets of folded paper out of her bag, And it instantly folded into the shape of a tiny person.
"Alex! I was sleeping!"
"Sorry Chester! Wrong papers!"
The paper man folded into a square again and Alex put it back into her bag.
After a few more moments of seeking, she finally found the right ones and gave them to Minuet, while discussing with something that was growling in her bag.
Minuet held up the papers.
"We 'own' his cat-form, to get him out easily. And every time we bring a can of tuna for 'Mr.Sprinkles'. I mean, hey, it's just too good to ignore that opportunity to tease our fallen angel!"

Rain got up again and smiled softly at Léa. "Well, actually, I'd love to learn a bit more about you. If you don't mind. I have a friend in this town who runs a cafe for ghosts. If you'd like we could go there and have a drink or ice cream or whatever together. Or...or..."
He furrowed his eyebrows, thinking, And lastly smiled at Léa again. "Or, Well, what do you enjoy to do?"

 

[badyogi]

Harper looked down just in time to see the pieces of paper fold themselves into a tiny little man. She blinked and frowned, then glanced around to see if anyone else had seen it to. "Not crazy," she whispered, to reassure herself she wasn't seeing things. With these two, she never really knew.

She chuckled at the comment about the cat food. So they were joking, sorta. "This happens a lot?" Harper asked, surprised. She tried to imagine Lucian constantly getting sent to animal shelters, and she shook her head, bewildered. After they stopped to pick up the cat food, they drove to the pound, Harper quietly mulling everything over on the way. She'd never been one to talk much, and she had often found herself staring off into space for hours or even days at a time. It was how she coped. Now, it was a way to arrange all her thoughts and new facts about this new life. By the time they arrived, Harper felt like she had a good head on her shoulders, and she was ready for what was next. Getting this crew to her old home. Seeing her family again. Finally...

Léa smiled, but shook her head. "I don't think I'm up for being around that many people.. er.. I mean, ghosts, just yet." She looked around the park, then shrugged, gesturing to the walking path that surrounded the lake. When she was alive, she'd go jogging around it a few mornings each week. She felt a sting looking at it, but there was a sense of familiarity about it that comforted her. "We could just take a walk... if that's okay?"

A little while later, she looked at Rain, feeling a little bashful talking about herself. "What would you like to know? I'm Léa. My parents originally pronounced it Lee-uh, but after they died and I moved in with my brother, I changed it to Lee. He hates... hated.. it. I really love clothes, and fashion. My biggest dream was having my own clothing line someday. And.. I really love 80's movies." She chuckled, shrugging again, feeling like it was becoming a nervous habit that she didn't have before. "That's it, really. I'm not that special."

 

[Scripted Away]

"Good evening, We're here to pick up our cat", Minuet said to an elderly woman behind the counter of the pound, after they had entered.
"Papers, please...", she sighed, without looking up from her sudoku or even getting back.
Rolling his eyes, Minuet put the papers down on the counter, muttering something like "manners definitely have been better 50 years ago...".
The woman tapped around on her stone-age calculator, painfully slowly, and while Alex was taking a deep breath to contain herself, Minuet was groaning annoyedly.
After what felt like ages, she looked up again.
"37.50."
Huffing, Minuet payed and the woman left through a door, into the part of the building with cages.
"Oh oh...", Minuet muttered as she came back with a poofed-up 'Mr.Sprinkles' in a small box.
Grabbing the box, Minuet turned around and rushed into the next dark alley.
He wasn't even entirely in the shadows, when Lucian burst through the carton walls of the box, breathing heavily and with gleaming eyes.
"You okay, man?"
All the vampire did was taking a break from panting to huff sarcastically, and lastly pant on.

This wasn't good. No this wasn't good at all. Walls. The box had been narrow... so narrow..."
He pushed his hand against his chest, closing his eyes, and slowly started to calm down.
Slightly bent over, he leaned against the wall, catching his breath.
"I... hate... claustrophobia...", he grumbled.

Rain smiled softly as he looked at Léa with his ocean blue eyes, that were sparkling so softly, despite everything he had been put through.
"Of course you are special", he said with a soft smile, as if it was an everyday thing to say.
He softly took her hand to pull her up as he stood up to walk around the lake with her.
"For example, you are brave. I've seen people freak out way worse when they found out they were dead. Hah, I freaked out worse! I hadn't exactly expected to come back when I shot myself... by now I'm glad I did come back."

Chuckling gently, he side- glanced at Léa.
"I love 80s movies as well. Back to the future, dirty dancing..." He looked up asy the clouds. "E.T. that was the last movie I saw before they put me in the psychiatry. And the first movie I saw after my death was Avatar. You can imagine how flashed I was by ask those special effects!", he laughed.

 

[badyogi]

Harper had waited outside the animal shelter, pacing back and forth while she waited for the others to return. When Minuet came rushing out with the box that contained the cat form of Lucian, she followed them around into the alley. Seeing Lucian, as his once again normal self, she sighed in relief, and looked to the heavens for a brief moment.

"You really have to stop running off like that." She scolded him, albeit lovingly. "You're not alone anymore, Lucian, and I deserve to know where you're going. Especially, when we're in the middle of some godforsaken town that none of us know!" Harper crossed her arms over her chest, giving him the stink eye, her sky blue eyes full of agitation. "Understand??"

"Dirty Dancing is my favorite." Léa said, gushing when Rain mentioned it. "I watched it so many times, I burnt out the tape. Back when VHS was still a thing.." She laughed. "Avatar is good too, my brother likes it a lot. What was it like, for you, when you realized you had come back?"

They hadn't taken that many steps when there was a sound of tires screeching to a halt. Turning to look over her shoulder, Léa saw her brother, Florian, stumble out of his car, and go running into the entrance of the hospital. She looked back at Rain, suddenly stricken with horror. "Oh no..."

 

[Scripted Away]

Lucian looked up from the ground at the sound of Harper's voice.
He however lowered his gaze again when she started scolding him.
When she was finished with ranting, he softly pulled her into a hug and sighed silently as her familiar scent calmed his metaphorically pacing heart down a bit.
She was here. The walls were gone. There wouldn't come some men in white coats to torment him with electro shocks. And there wouldn't be a man in a black gown as well, to torture him for several centuries.
There was only his slightly angry girlfriend, and as far as he could tell, she wasn't dangerous.

"Understood", he sighed silently, as he finally managed to stop cuddling against her and looked into her eyes.
"I'm sorry I worried you, Milady. I didn't mean to. I was just so excited I forgot to tell you what I was going to do. And then that man from the animal rescue got me..."
Softly stroking over her cheek with his cool, slender fingers, he looked at her with puppy eyes. "Don't be angry at me, okay? I didn't mean to worry you..."

Rain looked at the sky for a while, to think about Léa's question.
A slight shiver ran down his back.
"When I was still alive...", he said silently "i somehow wasn't much more visible than i am now. I mean, look at me, I'm smaller than most guys, rather fragile than anything else, and haven't changed much by dying. I had that weirdly light blonde hair, so light it already seemed silver, and...ah well you got eyes.
Whatever.
It was all a giant mess of doing some really sick stuff to be noticed by anyone and creating a world in my head to live in. A world where I was someone, not anyone. And I got so caught up in it that I more or less lousy my mind in the end."
A slight frown crossed his face as he looked up at the clouds.
"Then my family couldn't take it any longer. I was... ten or eleven, I believe, when they put me in the psychiatry.
It was easy to figure: those who threw a fit, got the most visits from the docs. I was so desperate to finally find someone, anyone, to talk to... But I was invisible. I did everything to catch their attention, but it was as if I had already been a ghost back then.
I finally couldn't take it anymore, stole the gun of a guard and...well.
Then I suddenly was standing beside myself- a little side note: shooting yourself in the head causes a giant mess- and I was more invisible than ever before.
I felt betrayed, lonely, desperate, and so i almost turned into one of those horrible rotten souls that haunt some old buildings.
Lucian. He noticed me. He was having a hard time as well, his fiancee had just been killed, and...we kind of cured eachother in that padded cell. I mean, it still wasn't ideal, Lucy being the only one to notice me, the only one I could talk to, but it got a bit better when we met our friends Minuet and Alex two years ago. And by now I've given up on it and just usually spend my time in the library of our mansion, studying everything I can."

As he saw the young man running into the hospital, he sighed sadly and shook his head. Comfortingly wrapping one arm around Léa's shoulders, he sighed silently.
"I'm truly sorry your life took this turn", he mumbled.

 

[badyogi]

Harper sighed, her aggravation with Lucian melting away when he pulled her into his embrace. She hadn't even been that mad, just worried and concerned, really. And it wasn't like she wasn't in good hands while he was gone. Minuet, Alex, and Rain were all quickly becoming the family she had always wanted. Still, not knowing where Lucian was, or if he was alright, had worried her. She was just glad they were all back together now. Mostly... they still had to collect Rain.

"It's okay," she said softly, leaning into his chest. Harper was a good deal smaller than he was, so she fit perfectly in the crook of his arms, her head laying where his heartbeat should have been. "I just missed you. I'm not angry." When he pulled back a little, she looked up at him, a little smile twinkling in her eyes. She really was happy to have him back with her.
"Can we go now? This has all been... a lot, to digest. I need some quiet time."

Léa wasn't sure why, but listening to Rain tell his story of his life and immediately after his death, made tears well up in her eyes and spill down her cheeks. She felt truly sorry for him, and hated that such a sweet kind boy had lived a truly undeserved painful life. "I am so sorry." She said, her olive green eyes looking at him with pain and sorrow. "I can't even imagine.." It was then that she realized her life had been rather full compared to some people. Maybe she should just be grateful that she got to live it at all.

Chewing her lip, she looked down at her feet, then up again, her gaze going to the hospital entrance. Florian had disappeared inside now, and was no doubt, being led to her body, covered by the sheet in that white room. "Should... Do you think... can I go.. see him?"

 

[Scripted Away]

"Of course", Lucian said with a gentle smile and took Harper's hand, softly squeezing it- not too hard of course.
He planted a quick kiss on her cheek and looked up at the slowly darkening sky.
"I'm a weird vampire, awake during the day! ", he chuckled, his one arm laying around Harper's shoulders.
Upon noticing that the worst sunlight seemed to be gone by now, he carefully stretched one hand out of the darkness of the alley. No smoke.
"Dark enough! ", Lucian announced smiling.

"Lucy?", Minuet said, holding up two keys. "75 or 76?"
"Is there any difference?"
"75 has a whirlpool."
"Alright, You two can have 75, I'm sure you guys can make good use of it."
Lucian's fangs were glinting in the dim light, as he grinned widely because Minuet blushed to deep red as Alex pulled him with her with some evil laughter.
Lucian giggled silently, looking after them, and turned to Harper again, the key for 76 in his hands. "Min booked a hotel for the night. Do you want to go to our room already or go for a little walk? I know a nice place for a comfortable evening for two here."

Rain sighed silently as he gently pulled her a bit closer to his side to comfort Léa.
"Of course you can", he said silently. "You should just keep in mind that you will be able to see him, but he won't see you. You will see him and his pain, and won't be able to do a thing against it. All you could do is watch... excepting he's one of the rare people who can see the supernatural."

A soft sigh escaped his throat as he heard someone shouting in the hospital, and lowered his gaze, a single, little tear sneaking out of the corner of his eye.
He hated it to see or hear people suffer, and at the same time...
He smiled sadly as his silvery tear dripped to the ground, a little silver flower starting to grow there.
"Sorry...", he said silently. "It just... reminds me of the fact that my own family didn't even notice I died. They forgot about me. No funeral, no tombstone, nothing. As if I never existed. Nicolas? Who's Nicolas?"
Shaking his head, he huffed silently. "I should stop whining. You're the one who's having the worse day of us."

 

[badyogi]

Harper watched as Minuet and Alex hurried off, and she laughed softly, shaking her head in amusement. "A small walk sounds nice." She told Lucian. "As long as there aren't any other paranormal secrets to be discovered tonight, I'm up for just about anything." She teased, poking him in the ribs playfully.
"You wouldn't believe all the things I learned about you while you were off chasing mice, or whatever it was you were doing."

Léa bit her lip, still looking at the hospital. "Couldn't I show myself to him? The way you did to scare those bullies before?" She turned to look at Rain, desperation clearly showing in her features. "I just.. I want to let him know that I'm okay now. He.. he won't be able to understand why this happened to me." Not that she understood it very well, either, but at least she had Rain to keep her company. Her brother would be all alone now.

 

[Scripted Away]

"That was a very fitting description of what I did", Lucian admitted with an awkward smirk and raised one eyebrow.
"So what did they tell you, Milady? Hey- all the good things are true, and the bad things are all made up!"
He winked.

Holding Harper's hand, he led her away from the city center and to the countryside of the town.
The road turned into a small path after a while, that lastly ended at a simple chain-link fence.
He quickly ripped a hole into it and walked on.
"I used to come here thousands of years ago. Back then it was all forest here. Then they started building this city and poof- forest gone. But one thing didn't disappear."
He stopped in front of a pond with Crystal clear water. A few flowers grew on the meadow around it, and the smooth, rounded rocks on the ground seemed to shimmer slightly.
Lucian took off his shirt and jeans and jumped into the water in his black boxers. Surfacing again, he grinned at Harper. "Come in! The water is warm!"

Rain sighed sadly once more.
"Look, when you flicker, You basically show yourselves in your state of dying...i don't know how big of a mess Lucian caused when he got you. If it's just the two bitemarks, You should be fine, but if he... well, rip your throat open or spilled blood all over you, You would probably only scare him unnecessarily."
He furrowed his eyebrows for a moment. "Do you know if there's a mirror somewhere in there?"

 

[badyogi]

Harper enjoyed the walk through the city and out into the country. By the time they were slipping through the chain-link fence, the sun had fully set and the moon was high in the sky. The pond was a sight to behold, and her breath was momentarily stolen from her lungs. "It's beautiful." She said, but then blinked when Lucian began to strip down. A blush tinted her cheeks, and she looked away instinctively, but her gaze slid back to him curiously when she heard him splashing in the water.

"What...?" She stared at his bobbing head in the water, and she laughed nervously, shaking her head. "Lucian, no." She looked up at the moon for a second, then sighed and tugged at the hem of her shirt self-consciously. "One.. I don't have a bathing suit... And two.. I don't know how to swim. We didn't exactly have a community pool at the hospital."

Listening to Rain's explanation of flickering, Léa's face paled noticeably. "Oh.. I didn't know." Thinking back to her first moments as a ghost, when she was standing over her own body, watching as the doctors tried to bring her back from certain death, she sighed. There had been blood. Lots of it, running all down the front of her shirt so it clung to her body. Lucian hadn't simply bitten her, either. There was a large gaping hole in the crook of her neck, her muscles clearing showing through the mess of blood.

Rain was right. She would never want to subject anyone, let alone her brother, to that mess. He would surely be having a hard enough time coping with the sight of her body on the examiner's table. She didn't need to be appearing in front of him in her final form. When Rain mentioned the mirror, she shrugged. "I don't know." Looking at the hospital for a long moment, Léa finally turned to meet Rain's gaze. "I think it would be better if we left. I don't want to stay here anymore.."

 

[Scripted Away]

Lucian chuckled evilish and looked at Harper with his cutest, sweetest puppy eyes...which rather turned out as perfect bedroom eyes and an evil smirk.
He had never been good at being cute. Maybe a long time ago, but he couldn't really remember a time like that.
As the moonlight shone on him, his hair seemed to a gain a deep blueish shimmer and his skin appeared even whiter than usually, if that was even possible. The contrast was surreal.

He climbed out of the pond again and softly wrapped his arms around Harper's waist. "Don't you worry about the swimming. I'll hold you. And it's not like I haven't seen you in underwear before. What do you think who washed and bandaged you when you had blacked out in the living room?"
He planted a gentle kiss on her neck and made a small step backwards, closer to the pond. "Come on, trust me."

Rain nodded silently. He understood why Léa probably wanted to say goodbye to her brother, but the average human just wasn't...made for recognizing the supernatural.
"He will say goodbye the human way", rain explained softly. "Funerals aren't made for the dead. They are made to help the living to say goodbye and let go."

After silently looking at the stars for a while, he turned his head to Léa again and smiled, trying to cheer her up a bit.
"So what do you want to do? Be alone for a while, talk, go to rest? Whatever it is, I'm fine with it. Open for everything."
He took off his jacket and put it around her shoulders with a half smile.
"Don't want you to get cold after all."

 

[badyogi]

Harper's blush deepened when Lucian made his way back out of the water, but she didn't avert her eyes this time. He wrapped his arms around her, and a shiver went through her body when she felt the cold water droplets on his skin seep through her shirt. He was right.. and she was being silly. When Lucian stepped back toward the lake again, with her still in his embrace, she hesitated for just a moment, then laughed. "Okay, okay.. fine."

She ducked out of his arms to strip down to her underwear, looking at her own white skin. She was already pale by nature, but with the years of behind behind the walls of the asylum, her coloring was almost porcelain like. Raising a brow at Lucian, she smiled softly. "We sort of match.." She slipped her hand into his, intertwining their fingers. Letting Lucian lead them back into the lake, Harper was surprised that he was right about another thing.. the water was pleasantly warm.

"Do you remember the night we met?" Harper asked, after they had submerged themselves into the water so only their heads and shoulders were above the surface. "The first time, I mean.. all those years ago?"

Léa smiled when Rain placed his jacket on her shoulders. She wanted to ask if ghosts can even get cold, but the gesture was so sweet, she didn't want to ruin the moment. "Thank you, Nicky." She said, using the new nickname for Rain for the first time. She thought about his question for a few minutes, not sure what there was to do, now that she was dead. She pondered going to her home to say goodbye, but that would just lead to more emotional heartache, like the hospital. So she shrugged.

"Actually... there's an abandoned fairgrounds outside of town. The rides and stuff don't work anymore, and it's all overgrown with weeds and crap now." Léa chuckled. "I used to think it was really morbid and depressing, maybe even a little creepy, but I liked going there for some reason.. it's peaceful, in a weird way."

 

[Scripted Away]

Lucian gave everything to suppress a huge grin forming on his face, but it didn't really work. He was grinning like a complete moron.
His one arm tightly wrapped around her waist so she wouldn't go under, he watched the waves in the pond for a while before his eyes glinted angrily for a moment.

"Of course I remember", he growled deeply. "And i still want to rip their heads off. Those little bastards can be glad they died years ago from age. If I had gotten them i wouldn't have been so nice..."
With a snort of anger, he locked his eyes to Harper's, took a deep breath and closed his eyes to calm down.
"Sorry", he sighed. "Got a sore spot there. I'm just glad I've been around and heard you shouting for help..."
Slightly shaking his head, he forced his mind back to the here and now.
"You still have the same eyes. But why do you ask?"

Rain smirked surprised as he was called Nicky. Such a sweet nickname.
"I'm in, sounds great. I just quickly wanna spot my family."
Like back then in the mansion, he closed his eyes as they started to glow white and rain poured from the sky that didn't show a single cloud.
Again, his eyes moved quickly behind his closed lids, almost as if he was dreaming.
"Alright, Lucy and Harper are fine..."
A silent chuckle rose from his chest and the rain stopped as suddenly as it had come.
"And Min and Ally can be glad they don't know the rain was mine."

Opening his now normal eyes again, he smiled at Léa. "Okiedokie, ready to go when you are too. You'll have to lead the way though, I've never been here before."
A soft smile crossed his face.
"I'm just really glad you aren't bound."

 

[badyogi]

Harper blushed when Lucian said she had the same eyes, though she wasn't sure why. It was just a sweet thing, she supposed, seeing him so protective over her, even though she wasn't exactly the same person in this life that she had been in the previous one. "I do..?" Playfully, she fluttered her eyelashes at him, and then her gaze turned a little more serious. Floating there, in the lake, she knew she was in good hands. He wasn't going to let her drown, in the lake, or in her own head.

"No reason really. I just don't remember much of it, or.. I don't understand which parts I do remember. I was wondering if you could tell me.. it it's not too hard to talk about."

Léa looked up at the sky when the rain began to fall out of nowhere. There wasn't a cloud in sight, and her mouth fell open as she looked back at Nicky, realizing it was his doing. "Rain..." she whispered, understanding then where his nickname came from.

"That's... wow," she said, and she was obviously amazed by him, yet again. "After we go to the fairgrounds, we can go back to meet up with your friends, if you'd like." She shrugged a shoulder nonchalantly. "I think I'm ready to.. face him, I mean.. if you're there." Léa smiled slightly, her green eyes twinkling.

It was a easy walk to the fairgrounds, and when they arrived, it was just as Léa had said. Overrun with weeds, fixtures falling down or worn out from the sun and storms over the years. It was desolate and empty, but from the signs of fresh graffiti, people had been there not so long ago. Still, the shadows cast by the moonlight and the creaking sounds of the rides were peaceful in a strange way. "Tell me about your group," she said, when they were sitting on top of a carousel. "Where are you all going?"

 

[Scripted Away]

Lucian sighed silently, clenched his free hand into a first for a moment and took a deep breath.
His eyes were black as he opened them again, but he got himself under halfway good control.
He softly ran his nosetip over Harper's neck and inhaled her calming scent, until his eyes normalized.

"1768. I had spent the day with my old friend Jonathan. We had been working on the design of the Cugnot Steam Trolley all day. We...had that argument."
Lucian's eyes locked to the starry sky, as if he could watch his story like a film up there.
"He wanted to activate it with the same system the old steam trains used, steel bars that were connected to the tires and pressed them down at the pressure of the steam... complete nonsense. I told him right away to use a V-belt, but of course he wouldn't listen.
At some point, I was annoyed by such a pig-headedness, so I took the next train home when I suddenly heard someone screaming from outside. I jumped out of the window, not like i could take damage by things as trivial as jumping out of a driving train, and followed the noises."

A growl rose from his chest, before he continued.

"Then i saw them.
Three men, laughing sadistically while a fourth man was bending over a beautiful young woman.
Her dress was torn apart...and that scumbag was frantically trying to open his trousers.
It was clear what they were doing there.
The first one died from a broken neck, the second one landed in front of the next train. Number three and four could run away.
I wanted to hunt them down, make them pat for what they were about to do, but the woman...she was injured, frightened...so i sorted out my priorities and carried her all the way from Idaho to Montana. Luckily I'm a fast runner. At home, I washed the dirt off your bruised body, better your wounds...
Of course you immediately knew that something about me was different. Nobody could break a neck with one hand, while throwing a 6'6 guy several feet away in front of a driving train...
When I told what i am..."

He giggled silently, and ruffled her hair with his nosetip before speaking on.

"You stabbed me with a fork and ran off. But i explained it all to you, and, I don't know, we grew closer. Friendship turned into love, and then that one evening..
You told me about your favorite fairytale. Sleeping beauty. You told me the whole story, and then made that dramatical break... And i was just 'hey, don't stop telling now! What did the Prince do?! How did he save her?!' And you 'you wanna know what he did, Lucy?' And before i could even say yes, you kissed me. That was exactly three months, two weeks, five days, eleven hours and twenty minutes after I had saved you."

Rain smiled softly. That was the first time he really felt as if someone needed him. He lifted one shoulder. "I could already do that when I was still alive. I mean, seeing things. Visions. It had all began after I had been struck by a lightning during a thunderstorm when I was 5. And well, for some reason since I'm dead it always starts raining when I do it..."
This was one of the good sides about being a ghost- he didn't get wet from the rain.

He looked around for a while when they had arrived at the fairgrounds and entered a half broken-down dark purple tent.
And immediately came back with a frown on his face.
He mixed a deck of cards in his hands and looked at the first ones.
"Hanged man, the sun, the death, 8, 9, 10 swords, the magician, the star, judgement, the world, 2 cups, 10 cups, wheel of fortune, ace of cups."
He raised his eyebrows, looking up at Léa, who was sitting on the carousel, and smiled warmly, nodding to himself.

He sat down beside her, and watched her from the corner of his eye for a while.
"We're traveling to auburn, Alabama, to find Harper's parents. Lucian didn't want to risk leaving me defenseless at home, so I came with them, and Alex and Minuet came with us for protection. The other vampires have a grudge against my big bro. And a psycho killer vampire is after Harper, that's another reason. Lucy is a vamp as you know, Harper is a human yet, Alex a witch and Minuet a demon."
He smirked slightly.
"Well and I'm a ghost and you're pretty. Duh, I mean a ghost!" He chuckled awkwardly, looking away. "Admittedly- pretty ghost."

 

[badyogi]

Harper listened to the story Lucian told of their very first encounter. The beginning of their love story. She was grinning like a fool in the moonlight, but she couldn't help it and didn't care. It was just too beautiful, and wonderful. And sort of funny...

"It seems like I'm destined to stab you with silverware in every lifetime, huh?" She asked, laughing. Leaning forward, she rested her forehead against his shoulder, the laughter dying and turning into a serene smile. "And it is your destiny to save me."

Straightening again, she looked into his grey eyes, her own sparkling with unshed tears. "I love you, my knight in dark armour." She paused, then tilted her head and asked. "How long after that, did you change me?"

Léa watched as Rain recited the names of the cards, her brow quirked. "Do you read tarot cards? What do they say?" When he had taken a seat beside, she swung her feet a bit, chewing her bottom lip. "Wow, that's quite a group you're traveling with." His last words sank in a moment later, and her eyes widened as her head snapped in his direction. He had just called her pretty... a faint pinkness tinted her cheeks, and she looked back down at her feet.

"Th-thank you, Nicky. You're very pre- I mean.. handsome, yourself." She laughed softly at her own slip up, then looked at Rain, "Thank you. Really.. I don't know how I would have gotten through this alone. You're like my own personal guardian angel."

 

[Scripted Away]

Lucian laughed silently, his grey eyes sparkling from happiness and love as he softly kissed her.
"You always go straight to my heart as it seems", he said with a happy smile and then ran his fingers over the water surface.

"Since you are with me again, I feel so much brighter...", he said silently. "You know, all my life, since I lost my family, my world had been dark. But there were little spots of light and joy, little starts twinkling in the black abyss. Then you came and lit up my whole world like a comet. And when you were gone, my eyes were blinded by the light, and I couldn't see the stars anymore. Only the darkness. I'm just... I'm so thankful for the second chance w have been given."
He leaned his forehead against Harper's for a moment, his eyes closed and with a peaceful smile on his face.

Then he opened his eyes again and grinned lopsided, his fangs glinting in the moonlight. "Five years after I saved you. You..."
He snorted and giggled amused.
"We were enjoying the sight on the sunset on a cliff in Scotland and suddenly yippy grinned at me like that... And 'I found out how to make you turn me' and I said 'no way' and then you jumped off that friggin cliff! Of course I had to turn you then..." he snorted silently. "That was so mean!" But his smirk clearly showed he wasn't angry about it anymore for a long time.

"They tell a whole story, You know?"
Rain pulled out the cards again and lay them down in front of him so he could have a good look at all of them.
"There's a new perspective, happiness. Something changed in my life... I'm Feeling powerless, frightened, and defeated. But then, something happens. Someone happens, maybe come into my life newly. There will new hope, and something new will begin. Wholeness and completion will settle, because of a new partnership, a blissful feeling. It will go up and down, but in the end there will be a deep fulfillment and joy."

With a small smile, he collected the cards again and smiled his typical innocent smile at Léa. "Shall I read them for you too?"
When she called him handsome, his eyes widened slightly.
"I've only been referred to as cute till now", he said silently, and then took Léa's hand.
"And no need to thank me for that. I'm enjoying your company. You're so easy to talk to! Normally, I get totally anxious when someone new shows up, but somehow contact with you..."
He held up their hands with a soft smile.
"... doesn't scare me. It's nice to let go of all the anxiousness for once."

 

[badyogi]

Harper beamed when Lucian compared her presence in his life to the light of a comet. It made her heart beat faster, and she could have sworn she fell a little more in love with him in that moment. "Lucy... that was beautiful," she murmured, draping her arms loosely around his neck. She kissed him then, deep and adoringly, and when she pulled away, there was so much love in her gaze it was almost uncontainable.

The story of her jumping off the cliff was laughable, and seemed exactly like something she would have done, in her past life, or this one. "Minuet said.. well, that you wouldn't want to change me, this time around." She tilted her head, looking at him in the darkness. There was a peacefulness in her light blue eyes, and trust mixed in with all that adoration.

"You do know, I believe in you, right?" Harper smiled softly. "I know you would never let anything bad happen to me. Ever since I came back to you, things have been calmer, in my head. The monsters lurking in the shadows don't seem so scary anymore, with you here to chase them away."

She paused to bite her lower lip. "Lucy... I don't want to die, and leave you here alone, again."

Léa had never read tarot cards before, and wasn't even sure if she believed in their magic. But she couldn't help but wonder if Rain was talking about her when he read his own cards. She was new in his life. She felt like she could bring him happiness and hope.

She nodded when he asked if she would like him to read them for her and she watched curiously as he began to lay the cards out again. "I enjoy your company too." He was so sweet, and adorable. Things were happening inside her that she didn't think she'd ever get a chance to feel. Even before she had died. Sure, she had boyfriends, but they were just boys.. silly high school jocks or hipsters who all took themselves way too seriously. She'd never been in love. And when she died, she didn't think she'd ever feel that way. But now.. maybe there was hope for her love life after all.

Looking at their intertwined hands, Léa smiled warmly, giving his a gentle squeeze. "You're kind of amazing.. you know that?"

 

[Scripted Away]

"Ist Not that I don't want to turn you", Lucian said silently, while a scared expression appeared in his eyes.
His stomach was still filled with butterflies from that kiss, and so his mood didn't turn as bad as it normally became when he had talk about that topic. And he knew he could talk to Harper about everything. He could trust her with his life without hesitation.

"It's...how do I explain..."
He sighed silently.
"You know i never attack humans normally. I normally just steal a few blood bottles from hospitals all around. But there's a difference between fresh blood and blood from blood bottles. The fresh one is still full of life and energy. It gives us more power, like a stronger battery, but at some point you get used to it, and the... amount... of power you need to stay alive rises. Then fresh blood is just enough, and you need more and more and more, like a drug-addict who needs higher and higher doses to get high. The more fresh blood I drink, the harder it gets to live from blood bottles. So many of us are driven insane by their thirst because there's no more way to satisfy it. They turn into monsters. I don't want that. And you're radiating an energy I've never seen before. One drop of your blood and it's over for me. I wouldn't be able to stop. I would drain you to the last bit and turn into the most dangerous thing this world has ever seen. What do you think why Carden would do everything to get you back? He needs you as a living blood reserve. Luckily he's so far related to me that his vampiric power is relatively latent, but I don't want to know what would happen if a direct descendant of my father would..."

A cold shiver ran down his back at just the thought of it.
"It will be a relief when you're a vampire. Then it won't be such a challenge to resist your blood anymore..."
He cleared his throat.
"Sorry, that was scary."

Rain nodded in silence and thoughtfully chewed around on his lip as he looked at Léa's cards. His deep blue eyes locked to a certain card as he blushed slightly.
"Okay, let's see.
You've got a
The tower here, with a queen of wands and four of wands right here. You were certain, right? You felt safe in your life, and everything seemed fine. You were confident about the direction your life took, but what seemed so certain collapsed. Everything you held on to is far away now, and there. The Devil. You experienced descruction. Nine of swords. You are afraid. What will happen? Temperance, sensibility. It leads you to judgement right here." He pointed at the card he was talking about. "Something new will begin, a new phase. There's the knight of cups in your future. Romance, and the need to follow your heart. It leads you to the moon. New dreams, surrounded by ten of cups. You will see a good future for yourself." He tapped at the knight again. "If you follow your heart and accept the six of swords it holds. The chance to leave what was to start something new."
He collected the cards, excepting the last three, which he hadn't read yet. "The seven of cups means that there will be choices on your way. It connects these two. Seven of wands. Feeling defensive and on guard, but if you accept the challenge with yourself it holds for you, you will reach..." He held up the last card. The name was written in intricate letters below the picture of two kissing people. 'The lovers' it spelled.

"You don't need to be afraid of the future, you know?", he said with a such a confidence and calmness in his eyes as if he was talking about something simple as one plus one. "When you're dead, your future never ends, so you have plenty of chances to make changes or start over."

Smiling gently as Léa squeezed his hand, he squeezed hers back.
"I'm an optimist."

 

[badyogi]

Harper could understand where Lucian was coming from, even if she didn't really want to. Somewhere in her mixed up head, thrown together with memories from two different lives, and multiple delusions, multiple personalities, she could remember what blood lust felt like. She knew she couldn't ask Lucian to risk it, especially when he described the way her energy was different than other people.

"Well... I guess I'll just have to throw myself off another cliff.." Harper said, her eyes flashing playfully in the darkness. She was kidding, of course. "No... I don't want you to be put in a dangerous situation for me. We'll figure something else out, together."

Léa watched Rain read the cards, her head tilted curiously as he explained what each one meant. If she hadn't been sure about tarot before, she definitely was now. He was telling her her life, word for word. When he started talking about her future, she looked up at him, her breath hitching in her throat.

Follow her heart.
Take chances.
Start over.

Closing the gap between them, Léa did something she didn't normally have the guts to do. She kissed Rain, softly, not full on the lips, but instead on the corner of his mouth. She let her lips linger for a moment, then pulled back a little bit, meeting his gaze with a smile. "Like that?"

 

[Scripted Away]

"And we will find a solution. I promise.", Lucian said determined, his hug tightening as he rested his cheek against the side of Harper's head.
"I couldn't survive losing you a second time."

The sudden moment of intimacy startled rain enough to make him fall of the carousel.
Grinning awkwardly, he looked up at Léa and lastly sat down beside her again.
"Sorry, you startled me a bit", he said silently, his nose nuzzling into her hair as if he was a cat for a second.
"But yeah, pretty much like that."

The following two days were rather eventless. A lot of driving and an overdose of Minuet's lamest jokes were the worst things to occur.
While the demon was fast asleep with a slice of bacon sticking out of his mouth, Alex was watching the scenery, or at least pretended to. In fact she was watching rain, who seemed to be fighting with himself. Since the night on the carousel, he hadn't said or done anything in connection to the kiss he had told her about yesterday, to ask her for advice. Léa didn't seem to happy about that.
As the sun was setting, Lucian parked the black limousine in front of a beautiful house beside a river.
"Were there", he said silently, and everyone stayed silent. Everyone except Minuet. He was barking silently in his sleep.

 

[badyogi]

Throughout the rest of the drive to Harper's family home, she hadn't spoken a word. It wasn't because of the talk she'd had with Lucian the night in the lake, but more because she was terrified of seeing her mother and father, her three brothers and sister again. It would be the first time she'd been face to face with them all in a decade.

What was she supposed to say?
How was she going to explain why she'd left the hospital.. or even harder, who her new friends were?

Harper tried to swallow around a massive lump in her throat, but she couldn't quite do it, so she sighed heavily instead. "Okay..." She said after a long quiet moment of looking at the house. It wasn't an intimidating home, but it sure felt like it to her just then.

"Okay.." Harper repeated, then turned around in her seat. She was staring at a demon, a witch, two ghosts, and next to her was a vampire. She started to laugh then, at the absurdity of the situation. "Nope." She shook her head, still laughing, and turned back around in her seat. "Nope. Can't do it."

She looked at Lucian, a sort of desperate wildness in her eyes. "How about... you go say hello, and I'll wait here."

 

[Scripted Away]

Lucian chuckled silently as he guessed what Harper was thinking. You didn't travel through the entire land with a black limousine full of supernatural creatures after all. It was absurd. Ridiculous, to say the least.
After a long, soft, and admittedly relatively deep kiss, Lucian got out of the limousine, tied his hair into a messy bun and stroked some creases out of the light blue shirt he was wearing, top three unbuttoned as always. The anthracite grey blazer and jeans perfectly matched eachother and his black dress shoes didn't make a sound on the gravel path, as always, as he made his way to the front door.

It didn't take long until someone opened the door after Lucian knocked on it with his slender fingers.
The woman stared up at him in wonder, seemingly a bit dazzled by the gravity that seemed to emerge from the mysterious man right there in front of her, who looked so out of place on this gravel path.
"Ehm...hello?"
Lucian smiled softly and held out his hand to the woman who apparently was Harper's mother.
"Good evening, ma'am. I'm Lucian Black, your daughter's boyfriend. She ran into me right when she was discharged from the sanatorium." A soft chuckle, warm and gentle like a cup of milk with honey, rose from his chest.
"We went for a breakfast together and, well, are together since quite some time now."
>>If you knew how long!<<, he thought and suppressed a grin.
"She was eager to introduce us to eachother, and I have to say, I understand why. You seem just as bright as her. It's a pleasure to meet you."
With his typical warm smile, he held out his hand to her, looking over his shoulder at Harper, inviting her with a smile to come.

Rain stayed silent as he watched Lucian interact so openly and natural with a complete stranger. His eyes widened in admiration.
He wished he could be like that.
Outgoing, brave...
But he didn't even dare to mention, let alone...
Just then, he was interrupted by Alex and Minuet, who left the car to go for a walk, leaving him alone with Léa and his constant almost-heartattack he was having since the night on the carousel.
"Well...", he silently. So silently he wondered if he had even really spoken.
Damn.
He had had the guts to shoot himself I the head, but when it came down to other people...
Thinking everything he wanted too sry was easy, but speaking it out... whenever he said something, he wondered if his words ever were actually audible, or if they just echoed I his head while people stared at him, waiting.

"Léa I...", he started another attempt, but then just leaned his head against the window and sighed silently. What he wanted to say just didn't pass the coward barricade in his head, but at least he could apologize for saying nothing at all.
"I'm sorry...", he said silently.
As he locked his deep blue eyes to hers, the barricade seemed to crumble, at least for a second, and before he'd waste minutes with over thinking now, he'd to the only thing he could to finally break through.
He more or less pounced up from his seat and on Léa, kissing her while his stomach turned into a million of butterflies.
Finally!