The Crow: Redemption
(This takes place after The Crow: Eric Draven's Return. I know I took it to a weird place with Sarah and Eric. She's almost twenty so, -sticks tongue out- Ha!)
Rating: R for sexuality and violence
Elements: Drama and Angst
Memories flashed in his head. Little Sarah, Shelly and all the times they spent together. Eric winced and pulled away from Sarah. Sarah looked at him, confusion on her face. He held his head and one hand inbetween Sarah and himself.
"Eric, are you alright?" She asked touching his head. He back away.
"I-...I can't." He said, standing up. Sarah looks up at him. He looks at her, a tear rolling down his face. As he looks at her, Shelly pops into his mind and he looks away. Sarah stands up.
"What going on?" She asked.
"I can't do this. You...your like...I don't know. I can't help but feel like I'm betraying her." He says in a shaking voice. Sarah nods.
"Shelly..." She whispers, looking down at the pavement. She looks up to see Eric gone. She looks around her.
"ERIC!" She yells out to him. "Eric..." She hugs herself as the rain started to pour. She sighs and looks up at the cloudy sky.
"It always rains when you leave me, Eric."
Eric huffed as she jumped roof top to roof top. He felt horrible for leaving Sarah behind like that but he needed to get away. He jumps and lands on the floor with a thud of his boot onto the loft floor. It looked pretty much the same as he had left it. Gabriel was gone, living with Sarah and Albrecht. Floods of memories succumbed him. Shelly and him having shaving cream fights. The small fire on the kitchen stove. Him on his guitar, writing music. Then a new memory, of Sarah, like she is now. She was sobbing in a corner holding his mask in her hands. He felt her sadness and longing for him and it made his ache inside. "Eric...come back to me, please." She said as her tears fell onto the mask. Then she pulled out a razor blade. He gasped as the pictures didn't leave his mind. He saw her slice up her wrists and her life, her blood pour out of her.
"Oh, Sarah." He gasped, holding his head as the memory left him alone at last. Sarah walked up the stairs and opened the door of the loft. She saw Eric on the floor and she rushed over to him.
"Oh god. Eric." She held his head in her lap. He looked up at her.
"You...hurt yourself. Your pain." Sarah looked over at the corner, blood stains on the floor. She gasped and looked down at him.
"How did you..."
"I saw it as if I was there." He sits up and puts a hand on her face.
"Please, I couldn't bare the thought of you taking your life because..."
"I've missed you so much. I just wanted to the...want to go away. I wanted to love for you to disappear. I've felt this way the passed two years and I knew you were gone and he were gone. I felt like I was losing the love of my life all over again." She sobbed softly. Eric caressed her cheek.
"Sarah..." He started. Sarah stood up.
"Don't. Don't tell me. Don't say it." She walks for the door, slamming it behind her.
"Sarah!" He rubbed his face. Sarah clutched her jacket and pulled it around her and took off down the street. Eric stands up and looks at his old vanity. The mirror was still broken from his flying fists. His white face paint was on the desk only closed and the black lips stick sitting on the tin of the paint. He walked over to it and touched it and a flood of memory washed over him. Sarah stood over the make-up. His face cringed up in confusion. then he saw her putting it on. She looked at herself in the mirror. She giggled and smiled holding his mask. She sighed and started wiping it off, when the door was kicked open.
"No..." he whispered as the memory of Shelly mixed with Sarah's. Sarah backed away from the door as a man walked in and pointed a gun at her. He felt her fear as the bullet went through her shoulder, knocking her to the floor.
"Sarah..." He gasped, holding his head.
Sarah gasped on the floor and pretended to die. The man cocked his gun and walked out. She waited for a time and then stood up. She held her shoulder and limped out the door to the bathroom of her mother's and her's apartment. He heard her cry out as she dug the bullet out of her shoulder. He opened his eyes and looked around the room. He gasped and stood up, looking out the window, looking for Sarah. Then, at the top of his lungs.
"SARAH!" Sarah stopped and looked behind her at the loft as Eric stood in the broken window. She looked at him jump out and land perfectly on the sidewalk, scaring a woman to death. He ran over to her. Her grabbed her face gently and kissed her. She was caught off guard by it but got used to it quickly. He wrapped his arm around her small waist, pulling her closer to him. Sarah pulled away and gasped for air. Her breath was visible as she huffed. She looked up at him and they shared a look. Then she finally broke the silence.
"What about Shelly?" She asked. Eric sighed and kissed her forehead.
"She would want me to move on and be happy." Sarah smiled and Eric's arms incircled her. She relaxed and rested her head on his chest. Eric closed his eyes and sighed. He felt her relax. He looked up at a clock and noticed that it was passed nine o' clock. Sarah sighed and looked up at him. He looked down at her and his hands rested on her waist. Sarah lifted her hand and brushed some of his wet, long hair out of his face.
The room warmed as the blankets shifted as the bodies underneath them did. Eric caressed her cheek. She opened her mouth, a small sound escaped. Candles burned and the soft glow of the flames consumed them. Eric buried his face in her neck, his hair on her soft pale skin. Sarah's hands ran over Eric's back, over the scars from the bullets and glass. A gasp escaped his lips. Sarah looks into his eyes, her hand brushing hair from his eyes that were hypnoticly blue.
The next morning, Eric woke with the sunlight streaming into the room, the candles having burned to the table, the wax dripping all over. Sarah was asleep beside him, the blankets over her small form. He smiled and wrapped his arms around her.
"Sarah..." He whispered in her ear, brushing her hair out of her eyes. Sarah rolled over and looked up at him. She smiled and kissed him. He smiled and looked down at her with happiness and a hint of confusion.
"What was that for?"
"For you actually being here." She smiled and sly smile. "For last night happening." He smiled and kissed her. Then the front door opened.
"Sarah! Are you home! Sweetheart!" Darla called out. Sarah scrambled, settling for Eric shirt, walking out into the livingroom. Darla smiled then it fell as she looks at her wardrobe. Sarah shifted in her spot.
"Sarah-"
"Mom, I'm turning 20 tomorrow." Eric walked out of her room, his pants on and he walked over to Sarah's side. Darla gasped and almost knocked the chair over. Eric backed off, knowing why she as freaking.
"You--you're the guy from that night you..." Eric nodded. Darla looked at him to Sarah. She looked at him confised.
"Aren't you..."
"MOM! Don't worry about him." Darla nodded and set a grocery bag down.
"I bought groceries, well I better start getting ready for work." With that, Darla walked away giving Eric a look then walking in the bathroom. Sarah ran her fingers through her hair. Eric wrapped his hands around her waist. Sarah sighed and placed her hands over his. He rested his chin on her shoulder.
"Don't worry. I'm here." He said, rubbing her stomache.
"You are, aren't you?" She said, smiling. Then Sarah jumped.
"Oh god, Albrecht probably freaking out. Come on." She runs for the door.
"Sarah!" She turned around.
"Clothes." Sarah rolled her eyes and they walked to her bedroom. They got dressed and they walked to Albrecht's.
Sarah knocked on the door and it opened with the touch of her fist. She got tense and Eric grabbed her hand.
"Albrecht?" Sarah called out, then he walked around the corner and jumped. Sarah sighed in relief.
"Where have you two been?" Sarah sighed.
"He stayed at my place. I sneaked into the house but I guess Mom didn't care." Sarah put her bag down. Albrecht sighed and looked the two of them over.
"You seem different, Sarah." Sarah stopped moving. Albrecht walked to the kitchen where the news was on on the tv. Eric and Sarah walked to the tv screen and listen to the news castor.
"It seems as if Devil's Night has resurfaced. A total of 79 fires were set last night in the city and the arsonists are still at large. The arsen rates went down dramatically 5 years ago for some strange reason, but the fires are starting again and with no end in sight." Eric stared at the screen. Sarah rubbed his back.
"Eric, are you alright? Eric?"
Eric's eyes didn't leave the tv. Albrecht had been standing there the whole time.
"It's one of Top Dollar's groups. They are starting it all over, Eric." Eric turned around.
"Maybe that's why you're back." Sarah looked away as she felt the sinking feeling that if Eric stops this people that he will go back and be with Shelly up in heaven. She gasped and looked at Eric, shaking her head. He touched her face. Then Albrecht took out a tin of white face paint and black lip stick.
"I think it's time to bring him back."
To Be Continued