Crazy and the Beast

[badyogi]

When Lucian exited the car to go up to the front door, Harper slid into his seat, watching out his window, her hands and nose pressed to the glass like an orphaned child staring in at a happy family. She didn't forget about the others in the backseat, and wasn't intentionally ignoring them, but when Minuet and Alex left the car, she barely noticed. Lucian seemed so comfortable, talking to her mother. It should have made her feel more at ease, but instead, she was starting to freak out more and more. Her mother...

The woman, Bonnie, stared up at Lucian. Up, because he was very tall, and she, well.. wasn't. He seemed nice enough, but there was something about the man she felt intimidating. Her blue eyes, which were a clear reflection of her daughter's widened when he mentioned the girl, and she brought a hand to her throat. "Harper is here?" She asked, a southern twang to her words.

"But, I don't understand. The good doctor came by, told us she had.. escaped. And now you're saying she was discharged?" Bonnie looked around Lucian to the long limousine sitting in front of her yard. She spotted two people getting out of the car and walking in the opposite direction, and then her eyes settled on the driver's side door.

Harper glanced back at the only ones left in the back seat. Rain and Léa were staring out their own windows, not speaking. "Uh.. I'll be back.." She said, but didn't think they were paying much attention anyway. She stepped out of the car, straightening the yellow sundress they had bought when they got into town. Her long hair was brushed until it shone, and she was quite pretty in her new dress, but there was a nervousness about her that made her look jittery.

She walked up the sidewalk to stand next to Lucian, slipping her hand into his for comfort. "Hi mama." She said, her voice trembling. The woman gave her daughter a full once over, turning deathly pale at the sight of her, grown right before her eyes. "Oh my lord..." She whispered, and fainted right there on the porch.

Léa hadn't had much to say the last couple of days. The group Rain was travelling was seemed nice, for the most part. They bickered at each other a little, the way any family would, but she could see the love they felt for each other anyway. But still... Rain had basically ignored her since she kissed him on the carousel,and even if that hadn't hurt her feelings, she was pretty bothered by Lucian's presence.

Throughout most of the drive, she'd stared at the back of his head, wondering if she could catch him on fire with just her gaze. He had, of course, apologized when he saw her for the first time. And she had accepted it. But she wondered if either of them were sincere. Was he truly sorry? Did she really forgive him? Probably not, on both accounts. Relief filled her when he finally left the car, and she slumped down in her seat a little. What was she doing here, with all the people? Had she made a mistake by coming along?

She glanced at Rain, who seemed to be having some sort of existential crisis. Léa wanted to help him, but how could she when he wouldn't talk to her? She thought she heard him say something, but she couldn't quite make out what it was. She looked at him fully, waiting for him to repeat it, but then he was practically on top of her, finally returning the kiss she had started a few nights before. For a second, she recoiled, just out of surprise, but then she melted into it, inwardly sighing with happiness. Maybe it hadn't been a mistake after all.

When they broke apart, she laughed, poking him in the chest. "Took you long enough."

 

[Scripted Away]

Lucian raised one eyebrow as Harper's mother fainted. That however only lasted a split second, then he darted forward and caught her up before she'd hit the ground.
With her mother in his arms as if he was the Prince, carrying the princess home, he looked at Harper.
"Is it a family thing to faint quickly?", he chuckled and planted a gentle kiss on her cheek.

Now there was just one problem:
There was nowhere where he could put the woman down. She was a featherweight like her daughter, or maybe it was just lucian's supernatural strength, he could carry her for days, but that would probably startle the poor woman to death when she woke up.

In lack of a better place, he lastly just lay her down on the long bonnet of the car, before turning to Harper and pulling her close.
"Did I mention how absolutely beautiful you look?", he said with a gentle smirk and kissed her.

Then his thoughts snapped back to Léa. He'd have to talk to her tonight, and make peace. He wanted her to understand how bad he felt for what he had done to her, and that he hadn't even forgiven himself yet, but he didn't want to interrupt rain and Léa right now.

Instead, he just took out his phone and texted her.
'Please Meet me at midnight on the roof. I think we should talk. ~ Lucian.'
He just hoped he could somehow make her feel a bit less bad around him.
Turning to Harper again, he smirked.
"Now...tell me a bit about your family, honey. You said you have...3 brothers, right? And a sister? Or am i mistaken?"

Rain smiled awkwardly.
He gently pulled Léa closer to him and wrapped his arm around her waist.
"I'm sorry it took me so long", he said with a soft smile.
"You know, I've never been close to anyone. Not like this. Emotionally, yes, I mean, Lucian is like a big brother for me, but all this hugging and kissing and...guess I was jusy scared.
In my past, it meant pain to be touched, and and...urgh, I don't know, guess I'm marked there..."

He leaned his head against the window, looking at the sky.
His gaze wandered to Léa's face for a moment, before he stared up again.
She was so beautiful. Those eyes, that smile... she could have anyone, but seemingly wanted him, a mentally ill, dead, suicidal ghost with social phobia and fear of loud noises.
What the hell?

Averting his eyes from the clouds, he turned his head to Léa again and softly kissed her once more, far more secure this time.
"...why me...?", he asked silently, leaning his forehead against hers.
"There's so much wrong with me. How...i mean... out of all those people you could have given your heart to...why me?"

 

[badyogi]

Harper gasped when her mother suddenly fainted, but relaxed again when Lucian caught the older woman in his arms. She shrugged her shoulders. "I have no idea..." She mused softly, taking a moment to look through the open door to the house inside. She could just walk right in, and she would be home. Biting her lip, she followed Lucian back to the car, watching as he laid her mother down.

"You did," Harper said with a smile, chuckling softly when he kissed her cheek. "But I love to hear it anyway. And you're quite dapper looking yourself." She looked at the unconscious woman while Lucian pulled out his phone, and she wondered if the woman was startled by the sight of her because she was happy, or scared, or something else altogether.

Chewing her lip, she brought her attention back to Lucian when he asked about her family, and she glanced at the house again. "Yes.. three brothers.. Derek is 21, Jeremy is 17, and Bradyn is 13. And Natasha is 16." She looked at Lucian thoughtfully. "Do you think.. I mean, I live here, technically, right? So, I could invite you in, and then, we could take her inside.." She gestured to her mother, who was starting to rouse from her period of unconsciousness.

Léa smiled softly, taking Rain's hand in her own. "You don't have to worry about that kind of pain with me, Nicky. I would never do anything to hurt you." But a worried frown creased her brow when Rain looked away. She could feel how tormented he was internally, and it broke her heart to know he had been so beat down in his lifetime. "'Why you'?" She repeated, tilting her head at him. "I think the better question would be 'why not you'? Nicky.. you have been so wonderful to me, through all this. Except, you know..." she teased, "the part where you ignored me for two days." Léa winked.

"In all seriousness, Maybe I could have given my heart to someone else.. though I don't really see that happening, but you're the one I want to give it to." She shrugged her shoulders. "If you'll have it, of course."

Her phone buzzed then, and she pulled it from her pocket, surprised by the text she read there. A frown darkened her gaze and she held the phone out so Rain could see it as well. "He wants to ... talk.." She moved the phone back into her own view and started furiously typing all different ways Lucian could go screw himself, but then she stopped and erased her message. "Okay," was all she wrote back, and she shrugged, looking at Rain. "Whatever, I guess."

 

[Scripted Away]

"Not... to offend you or anything, but eh..."
Lucian looked at the house, at Harper and back at the house again.
"You haven't been here for over ten years. You've never been inside this house, I guess...honey...no, you don't live here..."
Lucian sat down on the bonnet, his slender fingers drumming on the black metal for a moment as he tried to pick the right words carefully.
"Look, I'm not saying you shouldn't call this house your home. It would be nice to do So, wouldn't It? But just because your parents live here, doesn't mean you do... I know this sounds harsh. But imagine your family's situation. They all haven't seen you in ages. You're basically a stranger to them, and how must your parents feel, seeing you after all these years of not even visiting you? There's a lot to progress now, and we should be sensitive about that, okay?"

He gently wrapped his arms around her and planted a kiss on her forehead, a weird mix of happiness and sadness in his eyes.
"I uh...harper? Would you mind if I...retreat for a while, while you get your family-things worked up? I'm..."
He sighed silently and stared up into the sky. "I'm not feeling particularly well... there's something I have to do... I'll be back in an hour, okay?"

When he got Léa's answer, he smiled sadly.
' thank you... Would you like to accompany me? I gotta visit some place...And I don't want Harper to come with me now. She's got more important things on her list for now. Family stuff...'

Rain pulled Léa into a tight hug, burying his face in her hair for a moment.
"I know you'd never hurt me", he sighed, his eyes sparkling softly.
"That's the thing about fear- sometimes it's unreasonable."
He was touched by how deeply Léa already seemed to care about him, and he'd be lying if he'd say he wasn't feeling just the same for Léa.

"And of course I... i mean..."
He just gently stroked over her cheek and kissed her forehead.
"You know that moment when the sun breaks through the thick rainy clouds and everything starts to sparkle? Everything that had looked so rainy and sad before suddenly is so beautifully shining in the light of the sun. That's you. The sun that makes my rain beautiful."

 

[badyogi]

Lucian's words did deeply hurt Harper, and she looked down at her yellow flats, scuffing them on the gravel driveway. It wasn't him who had hurt her, so much, but his logic. He was right. The last time she had been in this house she had been, what... 8 or 9? Of course she didn't live here anymore. It may be her family's name on the lease, and her siblings walking its hall, but this was not her home.

She was a stranger to them. Maybe she always had been. Harper began to wonder if she had ever fit with these people, maybe that's one of the reasons they had sent her away. Because they knew, deep inside, that she wasn't really one of them.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Lucian's hug, and his sudden need to be somewhere else. Her frown deepened, and she lifted her chin to look up at him, something like betrayal swimming in her gaze. "Yeah, sure." She said halfheartedly. "Go.. I'll figure it out." She moved out of his embrace over to her mother, who was not sitting on the hood of the car, murmuring incoherently to herself.

"Mama...?" Harper asked tentatively, earning herself a tired look from the older woman. Harper helped her slid off the hood of the car, and the two of them walked towards the house, Harper casting a worried look over her shoulder at Lucian.

Léa knew all too well how unreasonable fear could be sometimes. But she also knew how amazing and overpowering love could be. Her parents had the kind of love when they were alive. Léa always imagined if she did find someone, they would share a love like that. Looking at Rain now, she had a feeling they were definitely on the right track.

She blushed deeply at his adorable compliment, and she leaned forward to kiss the tip of his nose. "Trust me. I feel the exact same way about you." Her phone buzzed again, and she looked at the message for a long moment, before sighing. "I have to go." She said, slipping it back into her pocket. "I'll see you soon, okay?"

Outside the car, Léa looked at the house, in time to see Harper and her mother disappear into the front door. Turning her attention to Lucian, she noted the sadness in his eyes, but didn't comment on it. "Well..? Where are we headed?"

 

[Scripted Away]

While rain was watching them through the window, Lucian hesitantly startled walking, scanning Léa from the corner of his eye.
"I want to show you something that might help you to accept... your state of being."
It was a relatively long walk until Lucian gently pushed the door of a beautiful little cathedral open.
Looking around, he sighed silently.

The roof was slightly broken down, and the moon was sending streaks of silver light through the holes and the beautiful Windows, mosaics of colorful glass, shaping stars and subs and all other sorts of beautiful pictures.
The worn out red velvet carpet that covered the aisle seemed to shimmer in this light, while an ebony black door on the left side behind the altar led into another part of the cathedral.

"Welcome to my old childhood home", Lucian said silently, with a slightly sad tone in his voice.
"And the place where I was turned into a vampire. Until I was 3582 years old...i used to be an angel..."
He had been facing the candles on the altar till now, his fingers gently running over the cool marble, but now he faced Léa with deep regret in his eyes.

"Léa...i wish all that hadn't happened. I wish I hadn't lost control of the monster inside me and spared your life.
I wish i could turn back time and save you from myself, but i can't.
And now I'm standing here and all that's left to do is apologize. I know I can't ask you to forgive me. What i did to you is unforgivable."
He stared at Léa with big, sad puppy eyes.
"I just brought you here because I hope that this place might help you to understand that I know how you're feeling. I lost everything i was too, and even after all those years, it's hard to accept. I know what it feels like to lose everything...so please believe me when I say I'm sorry. I'm endlessly sorry for what I put you through, Léa, and if there's anything I could do to make you feel a bit better...pleade Just let me know, okay...?"

 

[badyogi]

Léa had walked alongside Lucian, silently. Her steps didn't make a sound on the gravel, and she had taken to watching her feet pressing into the ground, sort of awed by the strange sensation. She could feel the Earth beneath her feet, but it was a far away feeling, like she was touching it through a different plane of existence. Which, she supposed, she was.

In regards to the vampire beside her, she mostly ignored him. Léa could feel his eyes on her at times, but she found she didn't care much about whatever thoughts were rattling around in his head.

The cathedral was beautiful, breathtaking even in its dilapidated state. Léa looked at the way the light shone through the glass, making the pretty patterns bounce off the walls and furniture surrounding them. Lucian spoke to her, telling his own life altering story, but Léa didn't relent. After he had finished speaking, she turned to look at him, disbelief in her green eyes. "I'm sure that puppy dog thing works on most people," she said hotly. "You can't really expect me to believe that your situation is similar to mine, do you?"

Léa took a set in one of the pews, crossing her arms over her chest as she stared him down. "Sure, what happened to you sucked. But you're still alive, technically or not. People can see you, touch you, hear you scream." Léa didn't realize she had started to cry. Tears ran down her cheeks, dripping from her chin. "All I have is this.. ragtag bunch of supernatural weirdos. And Nicky is the only one that actually understands. Your life can still grow, flourish, and move on. But I will always be.. this..." She gestured to her own ethereal form. Her eyes were angry now, and she glared at Lucian. "You will never understand."

 

[Scripted Away]

Lucian silently took a seat beside Léa, a bitter smile on his face as he stared at the altar.
"I will never move on. Yes, people can see me, but they will never really know who I am. I will never see the sunlight again, or go for a walk at the beach. Animals are afraid of me because they sense that I'm a monster. I will never have a future. The world moves on...but i will forever stay the same, just like you. Just like you, I will never have a family. Never take my kids to school or watch my grandchildren play..."

"Léa..."
He gently put a hand on her shoulder while he wiped a black tear off his cheek with his other hand.
"You don't want to hear it, you don't want to see that I know your pain...but believe me, I'm just as trapped as you."

He stared into the moonlight while another tear ran down his cheek.
"They made sure."
As a bright light appeared in front of the altar, he smiled sadly. Three bright figures, apparently two angels and a bald man, appeared out of it.
He slowly got up and hugged the female angel and the man.
"Mother, father...", he whispered silently, then looked at the male angel who had kept silent till now.

After a while of talking, Lucian turned to Léa.
"You can have my life. Macon here can take it from me and give it to you."
The angel named Macon, the same one who had been the doc in the hospital, nodded in silence.
"He's right Léa. I could transfer his life to you. You wouldn't be fully human. You still wouldn't age, but people would see you again, and you could still touch rain, as well as everything else. Your touch would just be cold, but..."
Lucian slightly shook his head, but Macon ignored it. "I don't kniw what would happen to Lucian. He might turn into a ghost, or vanish or... fact is, a vampire never gave his life for a ghost before."

 

[badyogi]

Léa just frowned throughout Lucian's speech, and she realized more and more how little she actually liked the guy. Even if he hadn't been the one to rip her throat out and leave her for dead in a dark alley, he was annoying as hell. She rolled her eyes and looked away when he started to cry, a new type of anger swelling up inside her.

When the three new figures joined them in the dark cathedral, Léa turned her attention to them, watching quietly from her seat, her arms still crossed defensively over her chest. She couldn't hear their hushed conversation, not that she cared much anyway.

But when Macon turned and started talking directly to her, Léa's frown deepened. What gibberish were they spewing at her. She could take Lucian's life force? What good would that do? According to Macon, she wouldn't be really alive still, just visible and maybe a little more grounded. And where would that leave Lucian? Harper.. Rain, the rest of the group that all cared so deeply for him? Just because she hated him, didn't mean she wanted all the people he loved to suffer.

"No." She shook her head and laughed, standing. "Are you all insane? Why on Earth would I do that?"

 

[Scripted Away]

"Because you hate me and would be glad to be rid of me", Lucian Stubbs Coldly, his gaze locking to her like a fighter a second before the attack.
"You know Léa, it's okay, I get it. You're pissed, and you have all right to be. But that's no reason to behave like an asshole. I tried, okay? I tried everything I can to at least make peace, but you really seem to enjoy hating me. Not for what I did. Just because you need someone to take out All that anger, frustration and fear out on.

He stared into the moonlight for a moment, before looking into Léa's eyes again, his gaze cold and lifeless.
"But you know what? I'm sick of it. I'm sick of being a monster, I'm sick of your hate and I'm sick of hiding. Harper is with her family now. She'll be better off without me as well, and you can finally stop drowning in self-pity."
He turned to Macon, sighing sadly.
"Do it."

The angel pushed his pale hand against lucian's chest, and a bright light rose from it, like a little sun.
It surrounded the angel for a moment, as if it was a cat, cuddling against him. Then it suddenly raced to Léa and right into her chest, her transparency immediately disappearing.

"You complained about nobody seeing or hearing you anymore. Well, apart from being ageless, you're human Again. You won't grow older, but everything else is just as before."
He looked at the point where Lucian had just stood, but the vampire was jusy gone, as if he had never been there.
"I have a task for you, Léa. Learn more about Lucian. Then you might finally understand him. He was by far not as bad as you picture him, and I think deep inside you, you know that."

 

[badyogi]

Léa reared back as though she had been slapped, when Lucian turned his hateful angry words towards her. Self-pity? Was he serious? It had been what.. 2 days since he had killed her? She would bet her life it had taken him longer than to come to terms with his new fate. She opened her mouth to say so, but shut it again when Lucian turned to Macon. "Do it," he had said.

Do what..?

Léa looked at Macon too, her eyes widening when the bright ball of light rose from Lucian's chest. Fear welled up inside her, and she could have sworn she tasted bile at the back of her throat. "No.." She shook her head, trying to move backwards as the ball of light came towards her, but she bumped into her seat and fell down on her rear.

The light didn't really hurt when it entered her, but it wasn't exactly a pleasant sensation. For a moment, her whole body felt very hot, as if she had laid out in the summer too long and had a healthy sunburn. She was staring at her hands, no longer able to see through them, when Macon's words caught her attention. She looked up at him, seeing that Lucian was no longer beside the angel.

"I didn't want this." Léa said, her voice cracking. "I didn't.. I would never have asked for this."

What was she supposed to do now? How could she return to the house, where Harper, Rain and the others, would be waiting for her and Lucian to return... together? How could she ever begin to explain what had happened in this God forsaken cathedral?

She looked up at Macon again, a deep well of sorrow and exasperation in her tear filled green eyes. "I just needed time."

 

[Scripted Away]

The angel sighed silently, a sad frown on his face, and slowly sat down beside Léa.
"I know Léa. You are a good person. I think after more than six millennia of living, Lucian was just tired. As far as I know him, I assume he just didn't want to throw away the gift of life, so he gave it to you instead. He hated himself for what he did to you, and so many other humans, you know? He never saw himself as equal, but as a monster, a worthless..."

Macon sighed.
One of his shining wings gently wrapped around Léa's shoulders to comfort her.
"I know this is a really hard time for you right now. But i have to ask you to do me a favor. My people and me are keeping a close eye on Carden for days already, and we assume he will attack in a few days. You have to tell Minuet about that, okay? Now that Lucian isn't there anymore, the group will need a new... glue that keeps them sticking together. My brother and me will try to find a solution for this whole mess, together with Lucifer and Death, and hopefully we'll be able to save Lucian, but until then, you have to help them stay strong, even if you feel like breaking apart right now. Rain will need someone to lean on now, Lucian was like a brother for him. If you need a shoulder to cry on, go to Minuet or come to me. But for their sake, show strength when Harper and rain are around..."

With another silent sigh, he turned his head towards the door, where a black-haired tall man was standing.
"You coming, Bacon?"
The angel nodded.
"One second Jimbo."
He turned to Léa once more and looked deep into her eyes. "I promise, we will do everything to find a way to bring him back." Then he walked out the chapel, side by side with the other guy, already discussing.

 

[badyogi]

Léa turned into Macon's hug, seeking comfort and strength in his embrace. She listened carefully to what he had to say about Carden, and nodded her head. "I will.." she promised.

After Macon and the other left, Léa had herself a good cry. She rested her hands against the back of the pew in front of her and she leaned her forehead against them, sobbing. Everything that she had been feeling the last few days came up and out of her; her attacking, and then death, realizing she was a ghost, meeting Rain, seeing her brother at the hospital... Being around the group of supernaturals, the final confrontation with Lucian, and now his apparent death. She cried until she couldn't cry anymore, and her eyes were red and puffy. Her head ached terribly, so she laid down, pulling her knees up to her chest and hugging them. Her eyes drifted close, and she fell into a fitful sleep, full of dreams of Lucian and Rain, struggling in a battle.

When Léa awoke, the moon was high in the sky. She needed to be getting back.. there were a few people she had to confront. The walk back was a quiet one. When she saw Rain sitting on the front porch of the house, she inhaled deeply and let it out again, walking over to sit beside him.

"Nicky..."

She swallowed hard around the lump in her throat. "There's something I need to tell you."

Léa told Rain about everything in the cathedral, the talk between her and Lucian, and then their argument. She told him how the angel had come, and how Lucian had insisted she take his life force. She did what Macon had asked of her, and kept herself together, even though she felt like crying the whole time she spoke. After she told Rain that Lucian was gone, she added that the other angels were going to try to find a way to bring him back, hoping it would help ease the sting a little. Léa bit her lip, watching Rain apprehensively. "I'm really sorry.."

 

[Scripted Away]

Rain didn't talk at all when Léa told him about everything.
Lucian...dead? Just gone?
That couldn't be true, it just couldn't!
Lucian was the one he had always been able to lean on, the big brother and best friend he had needed so desperately. They hadn't been a day apart in over 50 years.
They were like parts of eachother, and losing that part hurt hellishly.

He leaned his head against Léa's shoulder and stared into the darkness of the night, his face covered in tears, eyes dead and dull.
There was nothing but darkness, nothing that protected him from the loneliness he was fearing even more than crowds.
Everyone left, everyone abandoned him in the end. Léa wouldn't be an exception, now that she could live her life again.

Hundreds of faint symmetrical scars on his arms opened again, all own their own, leaving rain bleeding into the grass. Tomorrow someone would wonder what had happened here, but rain didn't care. It wasn't like he could control it anymore anyways.
His soft blue eyes switched to a clouded deep black, like a thunderstorm of the very worst kind.
When it started to rain, the drops were thick and red.
Blood.
Nicolas made it rain blood.

When his hair turned black, his skin corpse-grey and a pair of crooked wings and bull-like horns burst out of his back and forehead, his true nature was revealed.
How Lucian and him told their story of meeting, was the sunny version of the truth.
Rain had shot himself and turned into an evil spirit when he roamed the corridors as invisible as ever.
He had killed dozens of patients, but when he had tried to kill Lucian, the vampire had stopped him, and talked to him. He had regained his sanity, but...
Well, things like this triggered Venge, his dark side.

The blood that was falling from the sky ran down his face and body as he hovered in the hair, darkness emerging from him like a dangerous aura.
Normally Lucian had brought him back to sanity the one or two times it had happened, but his best friend was gone now.
And he still didn't say a thing, didn't even breathe.

 

[badyogi]

Léa watched in horror as Rain transformed in front of her eyes. She stood up on the porch steps, unsure of how she was still able to move when her entire body felt frozen with fear. "Nicky...?" Léa asked in a very quiet voice, so that it could be barely heard above the sound of rain.

Rain...

Taking a step off the porch, closer to him, Léa realized the raindrops on her skin felt sticky, and hot. She looked down at her arms, and rubbed her fingertips across one forearm. Holding it close to her face, she could see the thick red color, and she noted the familiar metallic scent. It wasn't rain.. it was blood.

"Nicky...?" Léa asked again, a tremor in her voice. "It's me, Léa. C-can you.. hear me?"

When she realized that he couldn't seem to hear her, Léa walked backwards up the steps, keeping a frightful eye on Rain. Her hand found the doorknob, and she stepped inside the warm house, unaware of how she must look. First of all.. she was visible again. Second, she was covered in blood rain, and her eyes were as wide as saucers.

She walked through the house until she found the living room, the source of family noise and chatter. "I need some help.." Léa said, stepping into the room. Her eyes found Harper, who was sitting on the floor with an older boy, probably her brother, looking at a family photo album. Minuet and Alex were on the couch, lounging comfortably. In another doorway, Harper's mother was holding a pitcher of lemonade, a smile on her face. It was a picture perfect moment. And Léa was about to ruin it.

When the older woman saw the girl covered in blood, she became very pale, dropping the pitcher so that it shattered on the ground. Harper and her brother, Derek, immediately jumped up and rushed over to Léa, but she was looking at Minuet. "Please.. come outside.. Rain, he needs you."

 

[Scripted Away]

Minuet jumped up in an instant and ran out of the house and on the meadow, slipping out several times because the grass was slick like soap from all the blood.
And where the hell was Lucian?!
Wasn't he supposed to come back with Léa? Something must've gone horribly wrong, and telling from the fact that Léa wasn't seethrough anymore, and rain had completely lost control, the vampire probably had given his life to her.
Damn, why hadn't he believed Lucian when he had told him that he wanted to 'put it right'?!
>>I'm such an idiot...<<

He knew that words wouldn't help a thing now, so Minuet made his demon wings appear on his back and flew up to where rain was hovering.

"Hey spookie", he said with a totally calm voice, carefully stroking some hair out of rain's face.
"Remember how we went on that camping trip together? You helped me propose to Alex, remember? You told me to be romantic without exaggerating it, and then you helped me find the perfect ring and slapped me when I said I was afraid. I mean, it didn't hurt of course, but still! That was impolite."

Smiling sadly, he hugged rain, who was impressively firm for a ghost right now.
"Nicky, you're not alone. Harper, Alex, me and Léa, we're all here for you!"
"You will all leave. Everyone leaves in the end!", Rain shouted desperately, trying to push Minuet away, but he didn't let go of the ghost.
"Look into my eyes rain, do I seem as if I was lying?"
Rain calmed down a bit, turning normal again, just as the rain falling from the sky, that turned into water and washed away the masses of blood. He clinged to the demon, sobbing into his black sweater.

After quite a while of sobbing, Rain declared he would go for a walk- "alone!" - and Minuet took a seat on the stairs beside Léa, gently hugging her for a moment with his one arm wrapped around her shoulders. "Hey...you Okay?", he asked silently. "There's a lot to proceed now... If you need someone to talk to, I always have an open ear for you, okay?"

 

[badyogi]

When Minuet rushed outside, the rest followed. Harper focused on keeping her mother inside, while Léa hurried out onto the steps, looking up at Minuet and Rain hovering above them. She could hear snippets of conversation around her, but she was too focused on the floating pair to pay any attention.

"Mom.. please, stay inside." Harper said, blocking the doorway with her whole body. She looked over her shoulder, searching the darkness for Lucian. Where was he?

"What in the hell?" Derek stuck a hand out from under the porch, catching some of the blood rain on his palm He stared at it in wonder, then looked at his younger sister. "Harp.. what's going on?"

Harper shook her head, still blocking her mother's path. "I don't know, Derek."

Léa glanced at Alex, who was standing beside her. "Is.. is this a .. normal .. thing?" She asked quietly, wiping the blood from her face when the rain changed back to water. She watched as Rain went on off his own, her heart breaking in the process. When Minuet came back, she sat next to him, shrugging and shaking her head at the same. "No.. no, I'm not okay."

She told Minuet and Alex everything that had happened in the cathedral, like she had done with Rain. Nearby, Derek and Harper were listening, their mother having finally gone back into the house. When she had finished her story, there was a gasping sound and Harper collapsed against the side of the house, her eyes wide.

"Wh-what... Lucian is gone??" Harper looked like she might throw up, and tears began to pour down her face. Léa sighed and closed her eyes.

"There's more... Carden is coming." Léa said softly, hating that she had to be the one to deliver all this terrible news.

Harper whimpered in terror, and began to press herself backward against the house, as if she were trying to disappear through it.

 

[Scripted Away]

While Minuet silently got up, Alex gently put a hand on Léa's shoulder.
"Thank you for telling us everything", she said with a sad smile and wiped a last bit of blood off her face.
"Hey eh...i know we barely know eachother another and everything, but if you need a friend to talk to, or just a shoulder to cry on, you can always come to me, okay? I know how hard these things can be, when my besy friend died, I was the one who had to tell her sister...and It was my fault."

She hugged Léa for a moment, before summoning a crystal ball in her hands.
"She's right...", the which said to Minuet. "Two, maybe three days and he will attack."
Minuet ran his hand through his hair and nodded soundlessly.

The crystal ball disappearing again, Alex turned back to Léa.
"About your question- Rain is a vengeful spirit, who regained his sanity, but still... he's walking the line between light and dark, and things like this... well they push him to the point of stumbling into the dark. The rain you know... he's the white half of yin and yang, and what you just saw is the black half."

Meanwhile, Minuet was holding the sobbing Harper in his arms. "Harper, try to breathe...", he mumbled silently, hoping to be able to call her down. How could Lucian have done that?! Why had he never talked to him about how tired of life he was, and how had that tiredness been able to be stronger than his love for Harper?
If he'd ever go back to hell and find Lucian there, he'd kick his ass into the fire with great pleasure.

And still... It didn't feel as if Lucian was gone. Just as if he had gone on vacation for a while...
He could have sworn Lucian would come back. But until then, the group needed someone to lean on.
"Alright everyone", he said calmly, looking each of them in the eyes for a moment. "A lot had happened today, and it's very late. We should go to bed. Alex, would you stay with Léa until rain comes back? Only if you want that, of course, Léa. And I will spend the night on the roof and keep watch. Harper, if you need me, I'm right above your window. One word is enough and I'll be there, okay?"

 

[badyogi]

Harper was retreating into the corners of her mind. She vaguely heard Minuet telling her to breathe, but she couldn't quiet focus on his words. She was still making little animal sounds of fear, when her brother gently pulled her to her feet and led her inside. He gave Minuet a worried look. Derek didn't know what kind of world Harper had brought home with her, but he was an open minded and understanding guy, who could go with the flow. "This won't be good for her illness," he said quietly, before guiding Harper through the door and up to her old bedroom.

Léa nodded, sighing. "Yeah, that's fine." She said in regards to her staying with Alex. The girl was kind, and Léa liked having a friend. Especially since she had more than likely just severed whatever relationship could have grown between her and Harper.

All through the night, Harper had night terrors. She whimpered and cried out in her sleep, even screaming at one point, but she never woke up. Very early the next morning, before the sun had even begun to rise, she awoke, sitting up slowly as if her muscles were still. With dead, empty eyes, that were almost grey instead of their usual blue, she rose from the bed and made her way downstairs.

Outside, she took a seat on the porch swing, using her foot to slowly rock the swing back and forth, as a slow, wicked smile crept across her lips.

 

[Scripted Away]

"Lucian...my little shadow, wake up..."
A gentle voice woke Lucian from what felt like a deep slumber.
What exactly had happened? He had given his life to Léa...but after that? Had he blacked out?
He slowly opened his eyes.
Bright light was shining on his face. He felt the warmth and energy he had missed for over three millennia.
Sunlight.
Sunlight...?
He was laying in his back, looking up into a bright blue sky, a few white clouds crossing it and between those...the sun was shining on his face.
But it didn't hurt, and as far as he could tell, he wasn't smoking as well.

Lucian slowly sat up.
After looking around in wonder for a While, he noticed the beautiful woman sitting beside him.
He tilted his head.
Those eyes, that smile...!
"...mom...?" Tears gathered in lucian's eyes and he pulled her into a tight hug.
"Oh my God mom!"
His eyes wide, he noticed that his tears weren't black anymore as well.
"Mom, what is happening to me?", he asked with wide eyes, like a kid that saw snow for the first time.

"You died honey", his mother said while she softly stroked over his back.
Lucian tilted his head as he looked around once more. If this was death...it was everything he had ever dreamed of. He felt the warmth again, the sunlight, felt how the energy gently lit every single of his cells up.
For the first time in so long...he felt alive.

His eyes widened even more and he pushed his hand against his chest. Against his beating heart.
"I...i thought I'm dead?"
His mother smiled warmly.
"Well, you died, but you aren't dead."
"How can that be?"
"You reached a point where you can choose. You can stay here, with your father, seraphina and me, and spend your afterlife in peace. Or..."
Lucian furrowed his eyebrows.
"Why should i choose anything else? This is all i ever dreamed of."
His mother smiled sadly.
"...or You go back. This world still needs You, my little shadow."
"The world?"
"Minuet, Alex, rain, Harper, Léa. Your family might be up here, honey, but it's also down there, and they need you more than ever."

Lucian stared into the sky.
"Rain... Harper...but, mom...how am i supposed to go back? You said I died."
His mother took off her amulet with a soft smile.
"That's the thing about your good old mama. She still has a few tricks. So, will you go back, honey?"

Lucian nodded slowly, a sad smile crossing his face. "Harper and rain need me...i can't let them down, no matter how much I want to stay. But...can I see sera for a moment?"
"Oh honey you will see us all as often as you want now. And now go home. And don't forget how proud i am of you. We all are."
She gently kissed his forehead and lucian's eyes closed again.

When he opened his eyes once more, he was standing in the sunlight, at the edge of a forest. The soft smile was still lingering on his face. God, that heavenly feeling.
A glimpse of white caught his attention.
His wings! They weren't black anymore, but shining white.
As he used the selfie camera of his phone to have a look if something else had changed, he grinned upon noticing that his eyes had gained the heavenly blue they used to have before he had become a vampire.

>>Harper! <<
He rushed up into the sky and only landed when he saw a familiar figure sitting on a swing.
He landed in some distance and silently came closer.
"Harper?", he said with a soft smile, stretching out his hand to her.
An aura of peace and hope surrounded him, as if all the agony from the past had vanished into nothing.
"...im back honey..."

 

[badyogi]

The girl that was Harper was gone. Whoever had taken over her consciousness had a firm hold on her and wasn't planning on letting go anytime soon. The girl tilted her head in an odd way, looking at Lucian, but not really seeing him. "Harper can't come out to play right now." She said in a singsong voice, still using her foot to push herself back and forth.. back and forth.

After a moment, she stood. Her motions were still stiff, and when she turned on her heel, it almost resembled a robot. "I think I'll go back inside now." The singsong voice was gone in an instant, replaced with a sinister tone that one may hear in a horror movie, used by someone who was possessed by a demon.

Just before she stepped over the threshold, she looked over her shoulder at him and grinned maliciously. "They've been naughty. But I'll fix it."

Inside, Derek had gotten up and was setting up the coffee maker in the kitchen. He hadn't slept much the night before, and was unusually unaware of his surroundings. He pressed the start button on the coffee maker, and when it started to brew, he leaned his forehead against the cupboard above him, closing his eyes. So, he didn't notice when Harper walked into the room. He didn't hear her when she opened a drawer and pulled out a long, thick butcher knife, used for cutting steak. He didn't know anything was wrong when she walked over to where he stood, raised her hand and then plunged the knife deep into his back, hard enough that it pierced his heart.

Blood gurgled out of his mouth as he slumped to the ground, breathing ragged for a moment, before his eyes closed. But Harper didn't seem to care. Pulling the knife out of her brother's back, she turned and left the kitchen calmly, in search for her next victim.

 

[Scripted Away]

Lucian's eyes lit up in a bright white as he saw what happened to Derek without even being inside the house.
Oh God his poor girl...
He ran into the house and gently pushed his hand against the deep wound. It healed, and Lucian could just hope he had been quick enough to bring Derek back. He couldn't imagine what Harper would go through if she found out what she had done to her own brother...

Now where was Harper?
"What the...?!"
Minuet's shocked voice was hear from upstairs, and as Lucian had rushed up the stairs, he found Minuet blocking Harper's attacks, obviously trying to not ha her im the process and being utterly confused.

The confused look on his face just increased when the demon saw his declared dead vampire friend standing in the doorway as an angel.
"Lucian?! I'd love to shout at you right now but would you please take your girlfriend off me at first!?"

Lucian clenched his teeth, that now weren't fangs anymore, and wrapped his arms tightly around Harper from behind, pulling her away from Minuet and holding her in a way that would make it impossible for her to stab him as well.


"Harper, wake up", he mumbled to her ear, not a hint of stress in his gentle, warm voice.
"Hey, you're not being yourself. I know you want to sleep...to forget about the pain, but there's no pain anymore. I'm here. You hear me?"
He turned her around and looked deep into her clouded eyes.
"I'm here", he repeated, took her free hand and gently pushed it against his heart. "I'm alive. My heart is even beating."
He hummed the soft melody that had played in the restaurant on their first date, in her previous life, and gently kissed her neck. "Please come back to me..."

 

[badyogi]

Harper stood frozen in Lucian's embrace for a long time. The whimpering sounds she had been making the night before returned, sounding like a puppy who had been kicked around. Finally, after what seemed like ages, her stiff body relaxed, and she melted into Lucian's embrace, letting the knife clatter to the ground. Wrapping her arms around him, she balled his shirt in her hands, clinging to him for dear life as she cried, hard and messily. Her face stayed buried in Lucian's chest, until she was able to compose herself.

When she pulled away, her eyes were red rimmed and puffy, but their crystal blue colored had returned. She looked up at the angel, her gaze questioning. "Are you really here?" She asked quietly, almost not daring to believe it.

Downstairs, Léa helped Derek sit up, checking him over. He was confused and disoriented, but he was alive, and would be okay. She looked up to see Harper's mother and three other siblings walk into the kitchen. When they saw Derek on the floor, covered in blood, they all freaked out equally. "It's okay, it's okay.." Léa reassured them, biting the inside of her cheek. She sure hoped things upstairs were going okay. And where was Rain?

She wished he would come back. Something told her it would be better if they all just left this place, before Carden came, and things got a million times worse.

 

[Scripted Away]

Lucian just held her, his arms and wings both wrapped around her, and gently stroked over her back to calm her down."its really me, I'm really here", he said silently, leaning his cheek on her head while she dug her fingers into his shirt.

As she looked up at him, he gently wiped her tears away, his skin not cold anymore, but warm like a human's.
He planted a kiss on her lips and looked deep into her eyes, leaning his forehead against hers.
"I'm really here", Lucian repeated.
"I'm here and I won't go away again. I'm so sorry this hall happened, Harper...i...i guess i just lost my nerves."

"I heard voices from upstairs...one of them was lucian's..."
Rain had appeared behind Léa, his eyes red and puffy as if he had cried the entire night.
His voice was completely emotionless, empty as if he was dead.
Or, well, deader than he already was.

"Léa...i Believe I'm driving insane again...", he whispered lifelessly.
He looked more seethrough than ever, as if he was vanishing.
"I'm sorry you had to see that yesterday..."

 

[badyogi]

Léa stood, walking away from the gathering in the kitchen to where Rain stood. Harper's poor family... they must be going insane right now too, seeing all these different things at once.

"It's okay, Nicky.." Léa said, her voice quiet. She reached out to touch him, feeling under her hand that he was slipping away from her. "Lucian is upstairs. I just saw him... he's back." Part of her wanted to be hurt that she couldn't help Rain the way Lucian or Minuet could, but she knew they didn't know each other all that well yet, and the others were his family. She bit her lip, and then smiled, softly. "Come on," she said, taking his hand in hers. "I'll take you to him."

Upstairs, Harper had pulled away from Lucian, to look at him desperately. "You and me.." she said, her voice cracking. "We keep running away from each other. No more of that, you hear me? We're never going to be able to face what's coming if we aren't united."

She swallowed and rubbed her face with her hands, before looking back at Lucian. "Carden is coming.."