"I've learned that you can lose some things without ever really gaining them in the first place sometimes. People's trust. Their respect. Your own feelings. Some mortal concepts that I never understood, and never will. I lost that the first time through the dark." -C775Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡszGOp831UP
He was in a clearing, roughly half a mile in diameter. The scent of the forest surrounded him, woody and thick and full of animals. The grass was soft against his back, tickling his bare heels and neck.
Cassiel's hand was intertwined with a woman's slender fingers, and he looked over at her. She had the longest, lushest brown hair Cassiel had ever seen. She seemed to be basking, eyes closed, not quite asleep in the summer's warmth. Her lips were in a soft smile, curving only slightly at the corners. She was Cassiel's wife-to-be, Alisha Meunier, and she was beautiful. She was clothed in a white cotton dress, her feet bare. In reality, she was his wife, but she couldn't be old enough here to be married to him yet. She was the woman Cassiel had decided to marry, not his wife.
Cassiel slid his fingers out from hers and rolled onto his knees. "No, you aren't here." he whispered. "You can't be here."
The woman looked over at him and sat up herself. "What do you mean, Cass? Of course I'm here."
Cassiel felt he was shaking. His entire body tremored, and tears were blurring his vision. "No. You're not. You're... You're dead." He spat the last word out, hating the taste of it.
"Yes Cass. I'm dead. But I'm still here, aren't I? Or am I so long gone that even your heart forgot me?" the woman asked, tilting Cassiel's chin up to look at her.
"I've never forgotten you, Ali. Never will. You are... were, my everything." He had to check what he was saying. Alisha had been his first love, but she wasn't his everything. Not anymore.
She wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close into a hug. Normally, Cassiel wasn't one for physical contact, but for her he always made an exception. They rocked slowly, as if their upper halves were dancing as their legs remained still. Cassiel didn't return the hug, but he wanted to. He wanted to wrap his arms around her, never let her go, but if he did, he wasn't sure if he would leave.
After several minutes of silent hugging, Alisha pulled away from Cassiel. She brought up one pure, eggshell white sleeve and wiped Cassiel's tears away with it.
Cassiel stood up shakily, carefully, as if seeing his dead wife had physically weakened him. He looked around the clearing slowly, realizing where he was. He began crying harder. "Damn it! Why here? Why?" He practically shouted the words. Alisha stood up and looked around herself. Her mouth formed a silent 'O' as it became apparent to her as well. She had never been here, as a matter of fact, she didn't even exist in the world they were in.
"This is where your house is," she said softly, carefully wrapping her fingers inside Cassiel's clenched hand.
"With her." Cassiel finished, adjusting his grip to squeeze her hand tightly. He took a step towards his former home. He barely recognized it now, what he saw before him was only a pile of rubble. Burned and smashed and looted by an army, the same one who had-
Cassiel hit his foot against something in the grass. He was only a few feet away from the wreckage now. He knelt down and picked up the object, realizing what it was.
In his hand was a bone, at least, what remained of one. There were long, even slats in it, four of them cutting away even parts of the bone. It was hollowed out, and four wooden balls were inside of it. The bone had been placed back together with rope, and was something of a sadist's baby rattle, which it technically was.
Or had been. The rope was missing, three of the balls were gone, and the bone itself had been broken in half. It had been a baby rattle that Cassiel had made for his son when his child had been born; though it was slightly too large to use until he had been two.
"Of all the things they took from me, this was the worst. They killed them first, and I have to live knowing they're gone. Like you are." Cassiel said to Alisha, not looking at her.
"Would you have preferred you died first? Made them die with the pain of you being gone?" She asked quietly, her voice full of a quiet anger that made Cassiel stop.
He turned to look at her slowly. "What do you mean? I always seem to die after the ones I love. Every time."
Alisha shook her head slowly. "No, you don't Cass. You died long before I did. When the doctor told us of my... condition." This was all inside his head, and because of it, Alisha couldn't bring herself to say the word that had killed her, just as Cassiel couldn't.
"I still don't know what you mean."
"I know you don't. You never did."
"Ali, please, what are you talking about?"
Alisha turned her head and looked at the sky, which was a deep purple. Only moments ago it had been pale blue, the sun high in the sky. "It's getting late. You need to go before dark."
"No, Ali, please, I want answers."
"I love you Cass. I always will." She planted a soft kiss on his lips, tasting of strawberries and sadness. Then she stepped back. Not only her though, the entire world seemed to back up, become further and further away from Cassiel, until nothing was left until the darkness that he always seemed to return to.
A/N: Note to self: Strawberries and Sadness sounds like a band name.
"Ali, no, Ali, Ali!" Cassiel shot upwards again as he shouted the last word, smacking his skull against something hard and cold. He cursed and rubbed his forehead, opening his eyes and looking at his new surroundings.
He was in what looked like a medical barracks, concrete walls and a concrete ceiling. A bunker of some kind, possibly?
To his right was a wall of a dark gray, and to his left were three people. The first was a woman, her arms crossed in front of her. Her hair was a bright red, and she had a piercing in her lower lip.
To her right was a man, kneeling and watching Cassiel patiently. He was a large man, his muscles profound and impressive. Finally, on his right, was a skinny man. He wasn't looking at Cassiel, but checking a computer of some sort by where Cassiel's head was. All three were dressed in what looked like combat suits, almost pure black, with thin lines of blue energy running through them. He recognized the designs from somewhere, but was unable to pinpoint what exactly it was.
"So you're awake," the man who wasn't looking at him said, tapping a few keys on a keyboard just below the screen.
"Really? Never would've guessed," Cassiel muttered as he turned to look at the other two.
"You've got a lot of balls to be walking the streets like that," the large man said.
"Or a tiny brain." the woman with bright red hair said.
"Joke's on you, it's both," Cassiel said. For a moment, it looked as if the larger man smiled at it, but if he had his feeling had disappeared shortly after. "Now, where am I?" He looked up at the woman as he said it. He realized she was the same woman he had seen through the grate, and filed that into his mind for later reference.
"This is our home here, our center of command for all our operations. There are three others in the quadrants of the city underground. This is Beta Two." The large man said, standing up. His voice was low and dramatic, almost to the point where he would make a great announcer. "This is Hestia, our scout. She runs point for most of our operations here. That's Eros. He patches people up when they get hurt. You owe him your life." The man gestured at the other two in turn as he said their names.
"Everyone here does." Eros said, still not looking at anything but the computer.
"I'm Herakles, I run things around here." The large man finished with a glance in Eros' direction.
Cassiel's lips tightened, waiting for him to finish. When he did, he let out a sigh.
"That's nice. Now, where exactly am I?" His voice was full of disdain, as if he was only humoring Herakles by listening.
"He just told you. This is Beta Two." The woman, Hestia, said.
"I heard him. But that didn't answer my question. I'm new here. What is this city? What's going on? I really don't care about whatever it is you do here, just tell me and I'll be on my way, got it?" Cassiel said.
"Real great fella you made me save, Hestia. 'He has potential,' 'I don't think he deserves to die,' blah blah blah. Could have been directing my attention elsewhere, at somebody who actually needs it, but no, Eros needs to save the random dumbass Hestia sees walking above." Eros grumbled and glanced at Cassiel. He was wearing a pair of horn-rimmed glasses, and clearly disliked him based off the face he was making in his direction.
"Oh, can it Eros," Hestia said. "You know we need every living body we can get, and I've got a feeling on this guy."
"No, he has a point. I'd be fine with dying." Cassiel said, completely straight faced. "Happens every other day sometimes. Anyways, back to my question." As he said that he would have been fine with death, Eros muttered something under his breath that sounded vulgar.
Herakles stood up. He was a good head taller than Cassiel was, and he was built like a truck. Strong, rigid, tough. "Come. Walk with me. That is, all right, isn't it Eros?"
Eros gave a grunt and walked away, to another person lying still in the barracks. Herakles gave a nod and pulled the man up off the bed. "I suppose this means we can get going then. Hestia, as you were."
He moved his hand to Cassiel's shoulder and began walking towards an open hole in the wall. Hestia moved towards another, on the opposite side of the barracks.
"Let's give you the grand tour." Herakles said, and stepped out the door with the sandy haired man in tow.
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