Take me to the edge [Micah]
Posted: 07 Apr 2016, 18:17
[Rion] I hate you for it.
Miserable *****.
I hate you for it.
The words resounded in her mind and nearly brought her to her knees. It had been a month - an entire ******* month - and she hadn’t been able to escape them. It seemed no matter what she did, his voice haunted her. Her every waking moment was possessed by him; his sneer, the venom in his voice, his lifeless eyes. No matter how hard she tried, he refused to relinquish his hold over her. He had become her ghost - her nightmare. Even now, when she had fought so hard to think of anything but him, he was in her mind, his words taunting her. Gripping the edge of the counter, she bowed her head as she grit her teeth. There was no way to rid herself of the sickness he had infected her with. His very being coursed through her veins, claiming everything that had once belonged to her. He had burned all remnants of the Hale bloodline, leaving her with only one thing. One name.
Andras.
“God ******* damnit.” Slamming her fist into the counter, she watched as a crack spiderwebbed its way through the ceramic before meeting the wall. It came to a stop, as if the plaster was too strong for the force. It was ironic in a way - it symbolized everything that had gone wrong in her wife. It didn’t matter how strong she was - the storm inside of her was no match for the monster that had claimed her. His perverse need to control everything in his path had dampened the very core of her being. She had suffocated beneath his thumb, and when she had reached her limit, he had turned on her. His egotistical personality refused to allow him to be defied, and she had pushed him. She had refused to get down on her knees and worship him, and it had lead to this.
She still had no ******* clue what this was.
She had reached the end of the line, and the rope she was balancing so precariously on was frayed. One wrong move, and it would snap, plunging her into the darkness that gripped her soul. She had never felt hatred as strong as she felt it for him. It ate at her soul and coiled in her chest, an ever burning fire that lit her veins brighter than the sun. She had once respected him, had once thought him something far greater than the pest he had reduced himself to. He had been there for her in her worst of times, had looked away when her mask had cracked to reveal the human within - and then he had humiliated her. The desire to twist her nails into his chest and rip out his heart overwhelmed her. The need to watch the life fade from his eyes had become her obsession - and it had become her curse.
Tipping her head back, she stared at her distorted reflection in the mirror, the grime and dust that coated the glass smeared to the point she was unrecognizable. Or was that just what she had become? Had she lost herself so completely that her mind could no longer tell it was her face that stared back at her? Had he fucked her up that much? She felt her rope tug again, another piece of coarse straw snapping free, causing it to slacken. The shift in her dizzied her, and she watched as another crack formed in the glass without her touch. She noticed it then, the faint tremors beneath her feet. She was close to losing control, and she knew that the building wouldn’t be able to handle the destruction she was about to create. It would crumble down around her, much like her life had. The remaining pieces would lay in shambles at her feet, the memories the stones held disappearing with time.
“What the **** have you done to me, Micah?” Her words were spit through grit teeth as she finally turned from the mirror, unable to stare at it a moment longer. She would never like what she saw - that would never change. She wouldn’t find the answers in the ghoulish creature that stared at her, and the rotting flesh only reminded her of what she had become. She would never be able to forgive him. He had betrayed her in one of the worse ways, and she detested him. His very being repulsed her - and yet, she couldn’t shake him. She couldn’t stop herself from reaching for her phone or bringing his number up on the screen. The only thing that put an end to the torture before she had given up all pride and called him was shattering the device into a thousand pieces.
It almost hadn’t been enough.
You’re an abrasive *****.
Closing the bathroom door behind her, she stepped out into the deserted hallway and stared at the misshapened pictures that decorated the abandoned offices walls. She could tell that the place had once held such beauty, but in a flash of an eye, it had been reduced to garbage. With a quiet sigh, she trailed her fingers along the tile as she headed towards the elevator, the faint hum of electricity calling to her. She highly doubted that the building held anything of promise within its empty rooms, but she had nothing else to do. If she went home, she would have to face her husband, and she knew the concern in his eyes would cause her to snap. He hadn’t been the same since she had come home that night, her face covered in blood and her eyes devoid of any emotion. It had taken nearly incapacitating him to keep him from tracking their sire down - but she hadn’t done it for Micah. She would have been fine with his death - in fact, it would have brought her joy that she hadn’t felt in ages.
No, she had worried for Osiris.
Their sire would have destroyed him, and the thought of it left a bitter taste in her mouth. He had thought her unable to love - to show emotion - but even he didn’t realize the depth of her feelings for her husband. He was the only thing that kept her above water - and at one point, she had held Micah on that pedestal. She had put him above all the rest, but then he had opened his mouth and let the truth spill out like oil. He would never be able to take back what he had said - or what he had done. I hate you for it. Her madness - the very thing he had said that he would be able to handle - he had condemned her for it. Taking a shuddering breath, she pried the elevator doors open and climbed into the car, her fingers gripping the edge of the shafts entrance. With barely any effort, she pulled herself up until the darkness shrouded her.
“Your days are numbered, ******,” she hissed, and the words caused that familiar and annoying agony to crash into her. It sent her off-balance, and her hand shot out to curl around a thick cable before she plunged into the shadows below. Once she was steady, she began to climb up, her small form easy to maneuver through the shaft. When she saw the light to the next floor, she swung herself forward and grabbed the doors, once again forcing them open until she could slide through. Dusting off her skirt, she moved forward, her steps silent as she crept through the hall towards the main office. Even this, the very thing she was doing now, reminded her of him. He had trained her for this - had made her as quiet and strong as him. Well, nearly. She still had so much to learn, but without him, she was on her own. I hate you for it. Pressing her hands to her head, she tried to push his voice from her mind, the sound of it causing her to stumble. The turmoil inside of her was growing to be too much, and she couldn’t tell it apart anymore.
She hated him - she needed him. She wanted him dead - the thought of living without him tore her heart into pieces.
No matter what she did, she couldn’t find solid ground. He was constantly on her mind, constantly plaguing her every ******* waking moment. Even in her dreams, he was there, tormenting her. Every thought of him was too much, and she felt herself beginning to snap. Her hands shook as she pushed open the door - and came up short. On the other side was something she had never expected to see. Ten guards stood around a single glass desk, their weapons drawn and their eyes covered with masks. Behind her, the sound of pounding footsteps echoed off the walls, and she knew that there was no escape. As one guard moved for her, she lashed out, her blade slicing through his stomach and spilling his intestines. Before he dropped, she grabbed his gun and pulled it back, spraying bullets at the guards that stood behind the desk. As they fell, their blood pooling beneath her feet, she twisted and sent her arm out, her elbow meeting the face of a guard with a satisfying crack.
Her pain - her rage - fueled her every movement, until something inside of her seemed to click into place. There was a way to end this, wasn’t there? Her solution to the turmoil that the ****** made her suffer was right in front of her. One wrong move, and she would be freed from his psychotic embrace. Without giving it another thought, she freed her phone from her pocket and brought up her husband’s name. The message was short - subtle - but she knew him. He would know. I saved myself. After pressing the send button, she turned to face the hallway as another guard emerged from the shadows. She didn’t move as he rushed towards her, his gun aimed at the ready. She had searched for a month for a way to pry herself from his claws and free herself from the emotional onslaught he had inflicted on her. She would never again have to face him, never again have to feel whatever the **** he had cursed her with. Time seemed to stand still as the guard appeared in front of her, his gun pressed to her forehead. With a movement to quick for his eyes to register, she had pulled it down, the barrel placed into her mouth. When he noticed what was happening, his eyes widened - and she gave a cold smirk as she forced his finger down on the trigger.
Blissful relief.
I hate you for it.
<Micah> Regret was a funny thing.
There were many things he regretted doing in his life. Things he’d done as a human that looking back he wished had never happened. He should have been smarter. He shouldn’t have allowed his grief to consume him and make him do everything he possibly could to forget everything about the way he was raised. He regretted leaving Lizzie the way that he did. If he’d have just stuck around he would have been around for Zoey’s childhood but on the other hand he probably wouldn’t have met Vel. Micah liked to think otherwise though, as that woman was his destiny. Sooner or later their paths would have crossed and Lizzie would have been a distant memory. Some things you just can’t fight and fate was one of them. Of course there were other regrets but if he sat down and tried to list them all it would take him years, so he just refused to dwell on them. No time for that ****.
Vampire regrets? Well those were a whole other can of worms. The biggest one that currently weighed on his mind? Siring Rion.
It had been a month since he’d heard from her or seen her. A month since he’d dropped her on Osiris’ lap and walked away without giving a single **** about her. Micah was tired of being her verbal whipping boy. Every single time they met face to face it ended up dissolving into insults and scorn. The young necromancer was more than willing to dish it out but when it came down to her getting a taste of the venom she liked to spew at him on a constant basis, it wasn’t ok. That wasn’t how the universe worked but in Rion’s mind it did. Everyone else was to blame for everything and she didn’t have what it takes to stand up and accept that she was part of the problem. Until she did that, there would be no solution.
You’re the most miserable goddamned vampire that I have ever met
“Get the **** out of my head!” Even now he could still hear the accusations she spit at him. He couldn’t escape it. Her words crept up on him at the worst of times, taunting him. How ******* typical of her. It was just like her to haunt his subconscious and be a pain in his ******* *** just like she was in person. He ******* hated her, or so he liked to tell himself. You made me this way. His fingers slid into his hair, tugging at the short strands but no matter what he did he couldn’t get the sound of her voice out of his mind. “You miserable, ******* ***** leave me alone!” The chair he’d been sitting in was sent flying across the room from the force of his kick. Grabbing his jacket he stormed out of the garage hoping to banish his thoughts of Rion by killing anything he came into contact with.
The universe had other plans for him.
His phone vibrated in his pocket as he stepped inside the castle. He’d thought to ignore it but he was waiting on a delivery and had tasked Bunny with informing him when it arrived. That was the only reason he checked his phone. The text wasn’t from her, it was from Osiris. Micah was sorely tempted to ignore it. Osiris probably knew what had happened between Micah and Rion, and the killer wasn’t all that keen on getting into it with another one of his childer. Osiris would probably feel honor bound to defend her and the way Micah was feeling in regards to Rion he wouldn’t hesitate to kill Osiris if he tried to get in the middle of it. Curiosity was the only reason he read the text, and he wished he hadn’t.
Rion is dead.
No matter how many times he read those three words they didn’t change. They stayed the same. Rion is dead. Rion is dead. Dead, dead dead. They taunted him and he almost called Osiris, ready to rip into him for scheming with Rion for the purpose of ******* with his mind. However, he knew it wasn’t a joke. Somehow, he knew Osiris wasn’t lying to him. Rion really was dead, and he had no idea how it had happened or why. In order to do that, Micah needed to go to the one place he swore he’d never go to again if at all possible.
The Shadow Realm.
The thought of going in there of his own free will made his skin crawl. The week he’d spent there over the summer with Every lingered in the back of his mind. The silence….that had been the worst part. Even now long stretches of silence made him uncomfortable. Something always had to be running, or music had to be playing just because he couldn’t stand the quiet. Before he’d welcomed it but now? It was far too unsettling. Regardless of how he felt about Rion in his current state of mind he couldn’t leave her there with nothing, with nobody to talk to. Just a quick visit, he told himself. Find her, find out what happened and leave. That was it. The less time he spent down there the better. Besides she was this tough, independent woman was she not? She’d probably welcome the break from being surrounded by those who, as she said, kissed his feet and acted like wounded puppies starving for a moment of his attention.
Micah stepped out of the doorway of the castle. He didn’t want to do this, but he knew that he had to. As he focused his power on opening a doorway into the fade his eyes slid closed. Instantly he was surrounded by the still, soundless air and when he opened his eyes he was met with the same desolate landscape that had greeted him in August. The urge to leave was already strong, clawing at his insides in order for him to listen but he ignored it and set off. He had no idea what he would be met with when he found her, but at least she wouldn’t be able to say he hadn’t tried.
[Rion] “You didn’t think I actually loved you, did you?”
“Usually when someone goes out of their way to marry me, yeah, I tend to think they mean it.”
“God, how fucked up could you really be? I could never love someone as disgusting as you. Look at you. You don’t belong in my world, Grace.”
“Don’t ******* call me that.”
“I can call you whatever I want. I own you.”
----
“Daddy, please. Help! The monsters!”
“Shut the **** up and go to sleep.”
“Daddy---”
“I said shut up, god, I can’t ******* stand you.”
----
“Oh, stop crying. It’ll be over in a minute. You want to please your husband, don’t you?”
“Get the **** off of me.”
“It’s not like you’re my first choice, but you’re all that I got tonight.”
----
“You’re an abrasive *****.”
“I hate you for it.”
----
What the hell have I done?
The second she opened her eyes, she knew that she had fucked up. The blood splattered walls that had once surrounded her had been replaced by an open field, and the silence nearly deafened her. At first, the knowledge of what had happened eluded her. Her mind refused to cooperate, as if it was trying to protect her from the consequences of her brilliant plan. It wasn’t until she brought her fingers to the base of her skull to inspect the damage that reality set in. She was dead. That single thought was all it took to force her mind into action, and in a matter of seconds, the pieces had fallen together form a rather disturbing image. The guards, the shouts, the blood - the taste of steel - she remembered all of it. “No. No, no, no. ****! No.” Out of all the outcomes she had ran through in those few seconds, death had never once occurred to her. She had thought she would have been able to escape the torment of his voice for a few days, and she had fully anticipated to survive the attack. She had never once thought that she would have died. Shaking her head again, she lifted her hands to run them through her hair, only to find them slipping through the nothingness she had become.
“Goddamnit.”
Dropping her arms back to her sides, she snapped her teeth together and turned her gaze to the take in her surroundings. It was if something had sucked the color from the world, leaving nothing more than a bleak void in its wake. The buildings were decayed, their colorless walls crumbling to dust at their base. It would only take a single gust of wind to bring them to their end, and she found herself almost pitying them. She knew how they had to feel, even if they were nothing more than inanimate objects left to die on their own. They were hanging on by a thread, their entire being depending on one force of nature to condemn them to nothing but ash and memory. Shaking her head, she turned in a full circle, her gaze hungrily searching for even the smallest splash of color.
When she saw none, she closed her eyes and took a slow, shallow breath. At least, that was what she intended to do. The movement was supposed to offer her comfort, and it didn’t take her long to realize that it had been a waste. There was no comfort for her in this hell. In a matter of seconds, she had been reduced to nothing but a spectral remnant of who she had once been. It might be better this way, she thought to herself as she studied the ground at her feet, lifeless gaze following the cracks that spiderwebbed through the eroded concrete. It was so decayed, that she worried one wrong step would cause it to fall apart. Carefully stepping around the worse of the sidewalk, she forced herself to move forward, each step more reluctant than the last. She had no idea what she was going to do.
She had heard about the Shadow Realm, yet she had never thought to witness its ruins for herself. Now that she had, she found herself wanting to leave as quickly as possible. She wasn’t one to run from death - ****, she wasn’t the one to run from anything - but she didn’t think she could stand another moment in the shadows. The darkness seemed to seep into her body and rush through her veins until it began to suffocate her. However, it had nothing on the silence. No, the silence was going to drive her mad. It was heavy and thick, and the longer she stayed silent, the further she was pulled beneath its suffocating current.
How could anyone survive this with sanity in tact?
Giving herself a small shake, she knew she had no choice but to continue on. The silence, no matter how maddening, wasn’t going to be the reason she remained locked in this hell. With a quiet sigh, she began to navigate her way through the bleak world, though it seemed the further she walked, the more lost she became. Everything looked the same to her without the color to guide her way, and she quickly found herself too tired to continue. “What’s the ******* use? I’ve no goddamned clue where I am.” Her voice held a bitterness to it as she lifted her hand to brush at her hair - only to be once again reminded to the fact that she couldn’t. “This is his ******* fault.”
In truth, she knew it wasn’t. He hadn’t forced her to that building - and he hadn’t been the one to pull the trigger. However, he had been the one to possess her every waking thought until she was driven to the point of insanity. Even know, she was beginning to realize that her plan had failed her in more ways than one. She could still hear him, though weak, in the back of her mind. The cold laughter, the venom to his voice. His hatred clung to her like a second skin, and it seemed to awaken something dark and twisted inside of her. Even now, surrounded by nothing but death and destruction, she could think of nothing other than him. What would he say when he found out? Would he take care of Osiris?
Would he even care?
It was that thought that troubled her the most. She shouldn’t give a **** if he cared or not. Emotions weren’t her strong suit, and yet, he had managed to ignite something inside of her that she couldn’t escape, even in death. “**** him,” she snapped, before shaking her head. With nothing but his memory to distract her, she found herself falling deeper into the the insanity that threatened many of her kind in this realm.
She needed to find her way out - and soon.
<Micah> It was so still.
The landscape never changed. It was constantly a dull, dismal scene of nothing. Grey. Lifeless. Colorless. Trying to shrug off the uncomfortable sensations he was experiencing by being surrounded by the desolate landscape, he focused on the reason he was there in the first place.
Rion.
Micah had no clue where to begin. He had absolutely no idea how he was going to find her. The Shadow Realm was huge. When he had been there a few months ago he’d just kinda of moved in a single direction until he couldn’t go any further. Every had turned up not long after that and he had been grateful for the company. Her voice filled the utter silence that now drove him crazy. Neither of them had let conversation lapse. Maybe she too had decided that random, somewhat nonsense chatter had been better than nothing at all. That was one of the reasons he needed to find Rion. And, he wanted to know what had happened to her and why she had been sent to this place.
Thoughts of their last meeting brought him up short. Did he really want to do this? No. He didn’t. He wanted to turn around and walk right through the door that shimmered behind him. It was a comfort to know that his escape from this place was so close but responsibility kept him there and wouldn’t allow him to reach out and allow himself to be sucked back into the real world. Just find her. See what happened. The walk away and leave her to her fate.
If only it was that easy.
Remaining in one place wasn’t going to find her so he just picked a direction and started walking. His anger at her remained. It wasn’t something that was going to dissipate with a simple apology, or even a single conversation. It was going to take time and effort, not just on his part but on hers as well. This wasn’t going to be an easy fix. Did he even want to fix it? He couldn’t answer that, but it was going to depend on her too. If he was met with more attitude and snark then the killer would have no problem walking away. Micah wasn’t the same person and people were slowly going to start seeing that.
“Where the **** are you Rion?”
There was, of course, no answer. With only the shadows and the eerie silence to keep him company Micah kept walking, determined to stay until he found her.
Miserable *****.
I hate you for it.
The words resounded in her mind and nearly brought her to her knees. It had been a month - an entire ******* month - and she hadn’t been able to escape them. It seemed no matter what she did, his voice haunted her. Her every waking moment was possessed by him; his sneer, the venom in his voice, his lifeless eyes. No matter how hard she tried, he refused to relinquish his hold over her. He had become her ghost - her nightmare. Even now, when she had fought so hard to think of anything but him, he was in her mind, his words taunting her. Gripping the edge of the counter, she bowed her head as she grit her teeth. There was no way to rid herself of the sickness he had infected her with. His very being coursed through her veins, claiming everything that had once belonged to her. He had burned all remnants of the Hale bloodline, leaving her with only one thing. One name.
Andras.
“God ******* damnit.” Slamming her fist into the counter, she watched as a crack spiderwebbed its way through the ceramic before meeting the wall. It came to a stop, as if the plaster was too strong for the force. It was ironic in a way - it symbolized everything that had gone wrong in her wife. It didn’t matter how strong she was - the storm inside of her was no match for the monster that had claimed her. His perverse need to control everything in his path had dampened the very core of her being. She had suffocated beneath his thumb, and when she had reached her limit, he had turned on her. His egotistical personality refused to allow him to be defied, and she had pushed him. She had refused to get down on her knees and worship him, and it had lead to this.
She still had no ******* clue what this was.
She had reached the end of the line, and the rope she was balancing so precariously on was frayed. One wrong move, and it would snap, plunging her into the darkness that gripped her soul. She had never felt hatred as strong as she felt it for him. It ate at her soul and coiled in her chest, an ever burning fire that lit her veins brighter than the sun. She had once respected him, had once thought him something far greater than the pest he had reduced himself to. He had been there for her in her worst of times, had looked away when her mask had cracked to reveal the human within - and then he had humiliated her. The desire to twist her nails into his chest and rip out his heart overwhelmed her. The need to watch the life fade from his eyes had become her obsession - and it had become her curse.
Tipping her head back, she stared at her distorted reflection in the mirror, the grime and dust that coated the glass smeared to the point she was unrecognizable. Or was that just what she had become? Had she lost herself so completely that her mind could no longer tell it was her face that stared back at her? Had he fucked her up that much? She felt her rope tug again, another piece of coarse straw snapping free, causing it to slacken. The shift in her dizzied her, and she watched as another crack formed in the glass without her touch. She noticed it then, the faint tremors beneath her feet. She was close to losing control, and she knew that the building wouldn’t be able to handle the destruction she was about to create. It would crumble down around her, much like her life had. The remaining pieces would lay in shambles at her feet, the memories the stones held disappearing with time.
“What the **** have you done to me, Micah?” Her words were spit through grit teeth as she finally turned from the mirror, unable to stare at it a moment longer. She would never like what she saw - that would never change. She wouldn’t find the answers in the ghoulish creature that stared at her, and the rotting flesh only reminded her of what she had become. She would never be able to forgive him. He had betrayed her in one of the worse ways, and she detested him. His very being repulsed her - and yet, she couldn’t shake him. She couldn’t stop herself from reaching for her phone or bringing his number up on the screen. The only thing that put an end to the torture before she had given up all pride and called him was shattering the device into a thousand pieces.
It almost hadn’t been enough.
You’re an abrasive *****.
Closing the bathroom door behind her, she stepped out into the deserted hallway and stared at the misshapened pictures that decorated the abandoned offices walls. She could tell that the place had once held such beauty, but in a flash of an eye, it had been reduced to garbage. With a quiet sigh, she trailed her fingers along the tile as she headed towards the elevator, the faint hum of electricity calling to her. She highly doubted that the building held anything of promise within its empty rooms, but she had nothing else to do. If she went home, she would have to face her husband, and she knew the concern in his eyes would cause her to snap. He hadn’t been the same since she had come home that night, her face covered in blood and her eyes devoid of any emotion. It had taken nearly incapacitating him to keep him from tracking their sire down - but she hadn’t done it for Micah. She would have been fine with his death - in fact, it would have brought her joy that she hadn’t felt in ages.
No, she had worried for Osiris.
Their sire would have destroyed him, and the thought of it left a bitter taste in her mouth. He had thought her unable to love - to show emotion - but even he didn’t realize the depth of her feelings for her husband. He was the only thing that kept her above water - and at one point, she had held Micah on that pedestal. She had put him above all the rest, but then he had opened his mouth and let the truth spill out like oil. He would never be able to take back what he had said - or what he had done. I hate you for it. Her madness - the very thing he had said that he would be able to handle - he had condemned her for it. Taking a shuddering breath, she pried the elevator doors open and climbed into the car, her fingers gripping the edge of the shafts entrance. With barely any effort, she pulled herself up until the darkness shrouded her.
“Your days are numbered, ******,” she hissed, and the words caused that familiar and annoying agony to crash into her. It sent her off-balance, and her hand shot out to curl around a thick cable before she plunged into the shadows below. Once she was steady, she began to climb up, her small form easy to maneuver through the shaft. When she saw the light to the next floor, she swung herself forward and grabbed the doors, once again forcing them open until she could slide through. Dusting off her skirt, she moved forward, her steps silent as she crept through the hall towards the main office. Even this, the very thing she was doing now, reminded her of him. He had trained her for this - had made her as quiet and strong as him. Well, nearly. She still had so much to learn, but without him, she was on her own. I hate you for it. Pressing her hands to her head, she tried to push his voice from her mind, the sound of it causing her to stumble. The turmoil inside of her was growing to be too much, and she couldn’t tell it apart anymore.
She hated him - she needed him. She wanted him dead - the thought of living without him tore her heart into pieces.
No matter what she did, she couldn’t find solid ground. He was constantly on her mind, constantly plaguing her every ******* waking moment. Even in her dreams, he was there, tormenting her. Every thought of him was too much, and she felt herself beginning to snap. Her hands shook as she pushed open the door - and came up short. On the other side was something she had never expected to see. Ten guards stood around a single glass desk, their weapons drawn and their eyes covered with masks. Behind her, the sound of pounding footsteps echoed off the walls, and she knew that there was no escape. As one guard moved for her, she lashed out, her blade slicing through his stomach and spilling his intestines. Before he dropped, she grabbed his gun and pulled it back, spraying bullets at the guards that stood behind the desk. As they fell, their blood pooling beneath her feet, she twisted and sent her arm out, her elbow meeting the face of a guard with a satisfying crack.
Her pain - her rage - fueled her every movement, until something inside of her seemed to click into place. There was a way to end this, wasn’t there? Her solution to the turmoil that the ****** made her suffer was right in front of her. One wrong move, and she would be freed from his psychotic embrace. Without giving it another thought, she freed her phone from her pocket and brought up her husband’s name. The message was short - subtle - but she knew him. He would know. I saved myself. After pressing the send button, she turned to face the hallway as another guard emerged from the shadows. She didn’t move as he rushed towards her, his gun aimed at the ready. She had searched for a month for a way to pry herself from his claws and free herself from the emotional onslaught he had inflicted on her. She would never again have to face him, never again have to feel whatever the **** he had cursed her with. Time seemed to stand still as the guard appeared in front of her, his gun pressed to her forehead. With a movement to quick for his eyes to register, she had pulled it down, the barrel placed into her mouth. When he noticed what was happening, his eyes widened - and she gave a cold smirk as she forced his finger down on the trigger.
Blissful relief.
I hate you for it.
<Micah> Regret was a funny thing.
There were many things he regretted doing in his life. Things he’d done as a human that looking back he wished had never happened. He should have been smarter. He shouldn’t have allowed his grief to consume him and make him do everything he possibly could to forget everything about the way he was raised. He regretted leaving Lizzie the way that he did. If he’d have just stuck around he would have been around for Zoey’s childhood but on the other hand he probably wouldn’t have met Vel. Micah liked to think otherwise though, as that woman was his destiny. Sooner or later their paths would have crossed and Lizzie would have been a distant memory. Some things you just can’t fight and fate was one of them. Of course there were other regrets but if he sat down and tried to list them all it would take him years, so he just refused to dwell on them. No time for that ****.
Vampire regrets? Well those were a whole other can of worms. The biggest one that currently weighed on his mind? Siring Rion.
It had been a month since he’d heard from her or seen her. A month since he’d dropped her on Osiris’ lap and walked away without giving a single **** about her. Micah was tired of being her verbal whipping boy. Every single time they met face to face it ended up dissolving into insults and scorn. The young necromancer was more than willing to dish it out but when it came down to her getting a taste of the venom she liked to spew at him on a constant basis, it wasn’t ok. That wasn’t how the universe worked but in Rion’s mind it did. Everyone else was to blame for everything and she didn’t have what it takes to stand up and accept that she was part of the problem. Until she did that, there would be no solution.
You’re the most miserable goddamned vampire that I have ever met
“Get the **** out of my head!” Even now he could still hear the accusations she spit at him. He couldn’t escape it. Her words crept up on him at the worst of times, taunting him. How ******* typical of her. It was just like her to haunt his subconscious and be a pain in his ******* *** just like she was in person. He ******* hated her, or so he liked to tell himself. You made me this way. His fingers slid into his hair, tugging at the short strands but no matter what he did he couldn’t get the sound of her voice out of his mind. “You miserable, ******* ***** leave me alone!” The chair he’d been sitting in was sent flying across the room from the force of his kick. Grabbing his jacket he stormed out of the garage hoping to banish his thoughts of Rion by killing anything he came into contact with.
The universe had other plans for him.
His phone vibrated in his pocket as he stepped inside the castle. He’d thought to ignore it but he was waiting on a delivery and had tasked Bunny with informing him when it arrived. That was the only reason he checked his phone. The text wasn’t from her, it was from Osiris. Micah was sorely tempted to ignore it. Osiris probably knew what had happened between Micah and Rion, and the killer wasn’t all that keen on getting into it with another one of his childer. Osiris would probably feel honor bound to defend her and the way Micah was feeling in regards to Rion he wouldn’t hesitate to kill Osiris if he tried to get in the middle of it. Curiosity was the only reason he read the text, and he wished he hadn’t.
Rion is dead.
No matter how many times he read those three words they didn’t change. They stayed the same. Rion is dead. Rion is dead. Dead, dead dead. They taunted him and he almost called Osiris, ready to rip into him for scheming with Rion for the purpose of ******* with his mind. However, he knew it wasn’t a joke. Somehow, he knew Osiris wasn’t lying to him. Rion really was dead, and he had no idea how it had happened or why. In order to do that, Micah needed to go to the one place he swore he’d never go to again if at all possible.
The Shadow Realm.
The thought of going in there of his own free will made his skin crawl. The week he’d spent there over the summer with Every lingered in the back of his mind. The silence….that had been the worst part. Even now long stretches of silence made him uncomfortable. Something always had to be running, or music had to be playing just because he couldn’t stand the quiet. Before he’d welcomed it but now? It was far too unsettling. Regardless of how he felt about Rion in his current state of mind he couldn’t leave her there with nothing, with nobody to talk to. Just a quick visit, he told himself. Find her, find out what happened and leave. That was it. The less time he spent down there the better. Besides she was this tough, independent woman was she not? She’d probably welcome the break from being surrounded by those who, as she said, kissed his feet and acted like wounded puppies starving for a moment of his attention.
Micah stepped out of the doorway of the castle. He didn’t want to do this, but he knew that he had to. As he focused his power on opening a doorway into the fade his eyes slid closed. Instantly he was surrounded by the still, soundless air and when he opened his eyes he was met with the same desolate landscape that had greeted him in August. The urge to leave was already strong, clawing at his insides in order for him to listen but he ignored it and set off. He had no idea what he would be met with when he found her, but at least she wouldn’t be able to say he hadn’t tried.
[Rion] “You didn’t think I actually loved you, did you?”
“Usually when someone goes out of their way to marry me, yeah, I tend to think they mean it.”
“God, how fucked up could you really be? I could never love someone as disgusting as you. Look at you. You don’t belong in my world, Grace.”
“Don’t ******* call me that.”
“I can call you whatever I want. I own you.”
----
“Daddy, please. Help! The monsters!”
“Shut the **** up and go to sleep.”
“Daddy---”
“I said shut up, god, I can’t ******* stand you.”
----
“Oh, stop crying. It’ll be over in a minute. You want to please your husband, don’t you?”
“Get the **** off of me.”
“It’s not like you’re my first choice, but you’re all that I got tonight.”
----
“You’re an abrasive *****.”
“I hate you for it.”
----
What the hell have I done?
The second she opened her eyes, she knew that she had fucked up. The blood splattered walls that had once surrounded her had been replaced by an open field, and the silence nearly deafened her. At first, the knowledge of what had happened eluded her. Her mind refused to cooperate, as if it was trying to protect her from the consequences of her brilliant plan. It wasn’t until she brought her fingers to the base of her skull to inspect the damage that reality set in. She was dead. That single thought was all it took to force her mind into action, and in a matter of seconds, the pieces had fallen together form a rather disturbing image. The guards, the shouts, the blood - the taste of steel - she remembered all of it. “No. No, no, no. ****! No.” Out of all the outcomes she had ran through in those few seconds, death had never once occurred to her. She had thought she would have been able to escape the torment of his voice for a few days, and she had fully anticipated to survive the attack. She had never once thought that she would have died. Shaking her head again, she lifted her hands to run them through her hair, only to find them slipping through the nothingness she had become.
“Goddamnit.”
Dropping her arms back to her sides, she snapped her teeth together and turned her gaze to the take in her surroundings. It was if something had sucked the color from the world, leaving nothing more than a bleak void in its wake. The buildings were decayed, their colorless walls crumbling to dust at their base. It would only take a single gust of wind to bring them to their end, and she found herself almost pitying them. She knew how they had to feel, even if they were nothing more than inanimate objects left to die on their own. They were hanging on by a thread, their entire being depending on one force of nature to condemn them to nothing but ash and memory. Shaking her head, she turned in a full circle, her gaze hungrily searching for even the smallest splash of color.
When she saw none, she closed her eyes and took a slow, shallow breath. At least, that was what she intended to do. The movement was supposed to offer her comfort, and it didn’t take her long to realize that it had been a waste. There was no comfort for her in this hell. In a matter of seconds, she had been reduced to nothing but a spectral remnant of who she had once been. It might be better this way, she thought to herself as she studied the ground at her feet, lifeless gaze following the cracks that spiderwebbed through the eroded concrete. It was so decayed, that she worried one wrong step would cause it to fall apart. Carefully stepping around the worse of the sidewalk, she forced herself to move forward, each step more reluctant than the last. She had no idea what she was going to do.
She had heard about the Shadow Realm, yet she had never thought to witness its ruins for herself. Now that she had, she found herself wanting to leave as quickly as possible. She wasn’t one to run from death - ****, she wasn’t the one to run from anything - but she didn’t think she could stand another moment in the shadows. The darkness seemed to seep into her body and rush through her veins until it began to suffocate her. However, it had nothing on the silence. No, the silence was going to drive her mad. It was heavy and thick, and the longer she stayed silent, the further she was pulled beneath its suffocating current.
How could anyone survive this with sanity in tact?
Giving herself a small shake, she knew she had no choice but to continue on. The silence, no matter how maddening, wasn’t going to be the reason she remained locked in this hell. With a quiet sigh, she began to navigate her way through the bleak world, though it seemed the further she walked, the more lost she became. Everything looked the same to her without the color to guide her way, and she quickly found herself too tired to continue. “What’s the ******* use? I’ve no goddamned clue where I am.” Her voice held a bitterness to it as she lifted her hand to brush at her hair - only to be once again reminded to the fact that she couldn’t. “This is his ******* fault.”
In truth, she knew it wasn’t. He hadn’t forced her to that building - and he hadn’t been the one to pull the trigger. However, he had been the one to possess her every waking thought until she was driven to the point of insanity. Even know, she was beginning to realize that her plan had failed her in more ways than one. She could still hear him, though weak, in the back of her mind. The cold laughter, the venom to his voice. His hatred clung to her like a second skin, and it seemed to awaken something dark and twisted inside of her. Even now, surrounded by nothing but death and destruction, she could think of nothing other than him. What would he say when he found out? Would he take care of Osiris?
Would he even care?
It was that thought that troubled her the most. She shouldn’t give a **** if he cared or not. Emotions weren’t her strong suit, and yet, he had managed to ignite something inside of her that she couldn’t escape, even in death. “**** him,” she snapped, before shaking her head. With nothing but his memory to distract her, she found herself falling deeper into the the insanity that threatened many of her kind in this realm.
She needed to find her way out - and soon.
<Micah> It was so still.
The landscape never changed. It was constantly a dull, dismal scene of nothing. Grey. Lifeless. Colorless. Trying to shrug off the uncomfortable sensations he was experiencing by being surrounded by the desolate landscape, he focused on the reason he was there in the first place.
Rion.
Micah had no clue where to begin. He had absolutely no idea how he was going to find her. The Shadow Realm was huge. When he had been there a few months ago he’d just kinda of moved in a single direction until he couldn’t go any further. Every had turned up not long after that and he had been grateful for the company. Her voice filled the utter silence that now drove him crazy. Neither of them had let conversation lapse. Maybe she too had decided that random, somewhat nonsense chatter had been better than nothing at all. That was one of the reasons he needed to find Rion. And, he wanted to know what had happened to her and why she had been sent to this place.
Thoughts of their last meeting brought him up short. Did he really want to do this? No. He didn’t. He wanted to turn around and walk right through the door that shimmered behind him. It was a comfort to know that his escape from this place was so close but responsibility kept him there and wouldn’t allow him to reach out and allow himself to be sucked back into the real world. Just find her. See what happened. The walk away and leave her to her fate.
If only it was that easy.
Remaining in one place wasn’t going to find her so he just picked a direction and started walking. His anger at her remained. It wasn’t something that was going to dissipate with a simple apology, or even a single conversation. It was going to take time and effort, not just on his part but on hers as well. This wasn’t going to be an easy fix. Did he even want to fix it? He couldn’t answer that, but it was going to depend on her too. If he was met with more attitude and snark then the killer would have no problem walking away. Micah wasn’t the same person and people were slowly going to start seeing that.
“Where the **** are you Rion?”
There was, of course, no answer. With only the shadows and the eerie silence to keep him company Micah kept walking, determined to stay until he found her.