A/n. Just a little one shot that I wrote in a particularly upset mood about how Ashes ended.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this so if you have a second, please drop it a review.
Enjoy!
MBRB'xoxo
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Come, I'd like to tell you a story; a fairytale if you will. It has all the elements that a good fairytale should involve – magic, a curse, good guys, bad guys, a woman who doesn't belong, and of course, love. Oh, this story has plenty of love. I can't promise it will end in happy ever afters and sunsets, but I can promise that it ends. After all, everything has to end, even if we don't want it to. So please, indulge me for a while. Listen to my story and once it's finished, you can make your choice as to whether you'd like to remember it and bring it with you, or walk away from me and my tall tales leaving us behind. You can choose to try and forget us, until one night when you're quite alone, you take comfort in my words. Whatever you chose, that's okay. Just listen.
There was once a man who was painfully lonely. This mans name was Gene and he liked to help people. Sometimes he was able to help them and sometimes he wasn't. But he always tried. He often liked to think that he made peoples wishes come true, a bit like a Genie, but deep down he knew that he was just a man and no man was indestructible. Now, Gene had everything that he thought he could possibly ever want, but he was still a sad man. He had lots of people who were around him a lot of the time - and some of them even thought that they were friends with the lonesome gentleman - but even when he was in the busiest place in the world, Gene always felt that he was the only person there. Why? Because a wicked devil had put a curse on him. He was damned to walk the earth and never know love in return for eternal life. Many moons ago, Gene had made a pact with the devil, but he had been tricked. He had been hurt by an evil woman who had broken his heart and he no longer wanted to feel the agony that his shattered heart was causing him. Blinded with pain, he had sought out an old wise man and had been promised that he would never be hurt by love again, but he had not realised that he was making a pact with the Devil himself. As he had shaken his hand, the old man who was before him transformed into his true self with a cackling laugh and told the man that he would not only never be hurt by love, but he would never love or be loved ever again and he would walk the earth seeing couples fall for each other and grow old together but he himself would never know the feeling of being cared for. The Devil had disappeared with his prize – the mans heart – in a puff of smoke leaving him alone. And alone he had stayed. He had tried to care about the people around him but no matter how hard he tried, it did not work. He had even married a young lady, but when he found out that she did not want to be with him anymore, he realised that he did not care as much as he should and that he had never really loved her after all. Once again, he walked alone in the world. Until one day in 1981.
Gene had not known where she had come from and she refused to tell him, but a fair maiden dropped from the sky one day and, because he liked to help, he caught her. As she was in his arms, Gene brought her into his little chessboard world that he had created and watched her as she looked around with eyes as large as moons. As he watched her, he thought that perhaps, just maybe, she didn't fit into this world, just like he didn't fit in. She hadn't looked like any of the other ladies that he knew and she certainly didn't act like them either. He found out that her name was Alex and they were soon working together every single day. She was bold and brave and she didn't let anybody tell her what to do and soon, Gene realised that he liked her. He found out that she also liked to help people and although she had a very different way of helping than he did, she was very good at it. And then Gene realised something else; he didn't feel as lonely when she was there.
After a while, Gene and Alex became the best of friends and they would spend lots and lots of time together. They argued a lot and there was lots of screaming and shouting and 'Where are you going? Get back here!'s, but deep down they knew that they could always rely on each other when life got too hard for them. Not many people realised how close they were, but they all knew that for the first time since anyone could remember, Gene had a friend and they were all very happy for him. They didn't see the little smile that he gave no one but her and they didn't see that sometimes Alex would get very sad and phone Gene up just so that he could sooth her and share her pain. And even they didn't realise for a very long time that they loved each other.
But someone realised and they were not happy about it.
One day, a man walked into their checkered haven. He oozed confidence and he pretended to be there to help Gene and Alex, but really, he wanted to make them hate each other. He was angry because his plan had not worked and the curse on Gene was breaking. He called himself Jim Keats and he didn't understand how it was that Alex had fallen in love with Gene. It was impossible. But she was not like everyone else and he thought that perhaps when she had fallen from the sky, she had accidently brought some stardust with her. Star dust was the most powerful substance in the universe and it played havoc with the Devils magic. Keats knew that he would have to extremely careful if he was going to turn their love to hate. And so he began to worm his way into Alexs' mind. You see, Alex was still very scared and very lost. She knew she didn't belong in the world that she was in and although Gene helped her to feel a little less restless, he didn't stop her from wanting to get back to where she was from. Jim told her that he could help her get home, and like Dorothy, she wanted nothing more than to be at home. And so Alex was torn right down the middle because she knew that she liked Gene an awful lot, but she also knew that Jim would be able to help her. Jim knew this, and he knew that he would need to stop her from trusting Gene so much if he was going to stop her from loving him and so he told her everything that she wanted to hear and when he thought that he had her trust, he began to drip little traces of poison into her ear. He made her doubt that Gene was as nice as he made out that he was and he even told her that Gene had once killed a little boy who had asked for his help. A little boy who was just like Alex; alone and in need of a friend. At first Alex didn't believe him, but if you're told something enough times then you can't help but to think maybe it's true.
Now. All this time that Alex and Jim were becoming friends, Gene was getting jealous. He knew that he felt something for Alex that he could barely remember feeling for anyone and he didn't want her to be taken away from him. But instead of being nicer to her, Gene started to argue with her even more than he had before. He told her horrible things and even when he wanted to, he never apologized for them. Until one day when Gene saw Alex and Jim talking at the table that was always their table and Gene got so jealous, that he just knew he loved her. He knew that he wanted to spend every minute of every day with her, even if they were shouting at each other. And he knew that he had to tell her.
One day, Alex and Gene were alone and they both knew that there was something different about this evening. She told him that he looked handsome and he told her that she looked alright. But really he meant that she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his entire life. She looked like an angel because she was dressed all in white, but there was a small hint of sin about her because her lips were painted ruby red. He decided that he liked it. They both ended up at Alexs' flat and every time they touched, there were little sparks that could very nearly be seen. Alex wanted to dance with him and although Gene really didn't like dancing, he did. For her. Music played softly as Alex and Gene wrapped their arms around each other and accepted that this was how it was meant to be. Just them against the world. It was then that Alex realised that there was nothing in the world that she loved more than Gene and that it would kill her to leave him. As she looked into his beautiful eyes, they were drawn together like magnets and their lips very nearly touched until there was a loud knocking and things suddenly didn't seem so simple. Jim Keats was there and he knew that this was his last chance to make sure that Gene remained lonely and sad forever He snatched Alex away and told her that she could never trust Gene. But no matter what Keats said, Alex always wanted to believe Gene because when you're in love, the worst thing in the world is to know that you have been lied to.
And then one dark night when Keats had thought he had succeeded in ripping Gene and Alex apart, he told her that she could go home and it was Gene – her Gene – who told her the truth. He told her that he could never go home and that she would have to leave him. But Alex didn't want to leave him. She wanted to stay with him forever. She had smashed through the curse on him and she loved him even though noone was supposed to be able to ever love the Gene Genie. But she did. More than anything in the world and she wanted to stay with him. Gene didn't want her to leave either – he had never known anyone like her and he knew that he never would again. If she walked away from him, he would be alone once more and he would be the same sad, miserable man that he had been before she fell into his arms and into his life. But deep down, he knew that she didn't belong here and so he told her that she had to leave. He tried to ignore the tears that she cried and the devastating pain in her voice. And he tried to ignore the fact that it was the pain he was causing her that had put him in this situation in the first place. He knew that he wasn't allowed to love anyone and they weren't allowed to be together. He knew she had to leave.
So he accepted a kiss from her – a kiss that he would never forget. One that he would cling to and when he was feeling all alone in a big world, he would remember and he knew that for that second, he wouldn't feel as lonely anymore.
And then Gene tried to help one more time. He told her a truth and a lie. He told her that she needed to go through the big doors that waited for her and she would need to get him a drink and wait for him because one day, he would walk though the same doors and they would clink their glasses together. They would sip their drinks like they had done so many times before and they would be together.
She needed to leave, that much was true.
But he knew that he would never be able to have that drink, for he had never forgotten the other half of his curse – that he was to walk alone for all eternity.
And so with the thought that they would be together again one day, Alex turned and walked away from the love of her life and she didn't look back at him, she only looked forward to him.
Gene was never able to collect his drink and he never will. And so my story comes to an end, of sorts. I suppose it will never end, but we shall leave it here.
I shall tell you this though; the Devil was pleased with himself. Though his curse had been broken by a woman with stardust, he was able to break apart a couple who loved nothing more than the other. I guess that any story could end in the same way. Oh, I know that there may not be a lonely destiny or a woman out of time in most tales of passion. But really, can dripped poison not tear apart any love?
And so you are free to leave. Click off this page and move on to the next tale, may that be happy or sad. But we shall leave Alex and Gene in peace now. Allow them to continue on alone as they have both grown accustomed to. Its strange, don't you think, that one man cursed to walk alone for all eternity has involuntarily caused another to live her life out in much the same way, waiting for the sound of doors opening, a dusty drink to be snatched up and a hand to fall around her waist.
Yes. Let us leave them now. I shall say my goodbyes and I, too, will move on to the next story in the hopes that it will be happier.
And let us, as we leave, hope that the distant sound of a door opening was our Gene Genie walking through the doors having found an impossible way back to his love.
Lets.