Have you ever had such a bad day, that it completely changes the way you see the world? I hope not. Because for me, it became way too literal. In Fact, the way I viewed the world didn't just change, but the world itself changed. You see...my name's Roman Torchwick, and one year ago I didn't have a semblance. In fact, I was kind of...dead. But, today, I'm alive, and...I sort of blew up the moon.
One year ago
The stench of blood permeated the pressurized cabin of the dropship. A faint sobbing could be heard over the dull rumble of the engines. Five people, two standing, one lying on a gourney, another crouched over the previous, and finally, a tall, gangly man, who was sitting flat against a bulkhead, his eyes wide, his white coat stained crimson with blood, not his own, and burnt, shredded gloves that hung loosely from his hands.
On the floor, one of his closest friends. Her eyes, void of life and emotion, stared into his, as if to affirm his own accusations.
It's my fault. It's all my fault! He thought to himself.
Her vibrant, green, hair, soaked with her own blood, clung tightly to her head, the occasional drop of crimson falling to the floor where a small puddle was forming.
I'm so sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, just stop looking at me please!' He begged internally.
Her right arm laid limp on the cold hard metal, the steadily growing pool of blood following her arm as if it was a conductor leading a marching band.
He flinched as the memory of her last moments flashed through his mind.
The gaping hole that her left arm once inhabited had been oozing blood like a volcano, tears streamed down her cheeks, and that damned throb. Of all the sounds that wouldn't leave him, the sound of her heart, beating rapidly, panicked from the pain and exposure, constantly pounded in his ears.
The sight of it nearly made him gag. Another gaping hole, this one nearly engulfing her entire chest, exposing her vital organs, and out of all of them, his eyes always returned to her heart as it pumped itself to death, globs of blood oozing from the aortas.
Emerald Sustrai had died one hour earlier, and her death hadn't been peaceful. She had screamed and begged for them to kill her, to put her out of her misery, that she didn't want to live in such agony any longer. She had gotten her wish in the form of a sudden seizure that had racked her body. Her body had flailed on the floor, a crimson froth forming at her mouth, running from the sides of her mouth. Then, she had simply gone limp, her eyes resting on him. On Roman Torchwick, the man who had let her die.
Tears fell and stained her top. Tears from her lover, Mercury Black. His arms wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her to his chest as he sobbed.
It should have been me. I'm sorry.
To his left, Roman glanced movement in the corner of his eye, and chose to ignore it.
A light touch of his shoulder. He flinched hard and turned to his left.
"Roman?"
He opened his mouth as if to respond, but only the sound of choking left him. Then more tears. He buried his face in her stomach and held onto her.
She gently stroked his hair, her free hand rubbing his back as he sobbed.
Cinder Fall, the woman who had grown up with Roman, hadn't seen him cry since they were young. He hadn't cried at when he broke his arm in third grade. He hadn't cried when he had nearly been beaten to death in high school, He didn't even cry at his parent's funeral. To see him cry now as an adult made her feel ill.
She cringed whenever he would breathe, each breath accompanied by shivering.
One week later.
The streets of Vale were always lively, especially at night when sleazy clubs would open their doors to old perverts and young crack addicts looking for a quick bang for their buck, when quite a few diners would restock empty shelves with liquor, neon lights adorning every other shop. At these times of night, the smell of cigarette smoke was almost palpable, as well as the smell of liquor.
As per usual the streets were busy, which in some cities could be surprising, as the weather had turned sour hours ago and a heavy downpour had begun, turning the streets themselves into a strange form of Russian Roulette, where every other car had a chance of hydroplaning, and smashing into the curb. It was nights like these that Roman loved. Cinder knew that.
She hadn't seen heads or tails of him since Emerald's funeral, and that usually meant he was most likely binge drinking at one of the "fancy" dance clubs he frequented, where their childhood friend Junior worked as a bartender, accompanied by his two daughters. Most times she found Roman either black out drunk in Junior's back room, vomiting viscous black liquid, mainly liquor, or halfway through a cigar, and every time he'd drunkenly slur a promise to not do it again.
She folded her umbrella and walked inside, passed a couple who were grinding like slugs against the wall. Inside she set her umbrella on a hat rack, as the container where umbrellas would be placed was usually overflowing on nights like these. She pushed through a generously large crowd to the bar and rang the bell.
"Hey Cinder, looking for Roman?" Junior called over from the other side of the bar.
"Yeah. I'm assuming he's here?"
"I'm not supposed to tell you but yeah, he's upstairs havin' a smoke."
"Thanks Junior." She turned to leave but Junior caught her attention again.
"Cinder, is he okay? He didn't even order a drink when he showed up. What is he sick or something?" He asked, a bit concerned.
"Honestly Junior, I don't know. I'm worried about him. He's been acting strange lately."
He nodded. "Well go make sure my most lucrative customer isn't goin'ta throw himself off my roof, be bad for business." He joked.
She smirked and waved, pushing back through the crowd and to the stairs. She ascended the floors, searching for Roman on each one, each one void of her Orange friend. In the end she could only assume he had gone to the roof, where she decided to try her luck and investigate.
To her luck she found him, sitting on a heater, letting the rain pelt him as he sucked on a fat cigar.
"Knew I'd find you here." She sighed.
"Yeah?"
She nodded. "The only twist here is that you aren't drunk."
"I tried that already, it didn't help."
"That's a shame. Why not come home? We could snuggle up by the fire and watch a movie." She half joked.
He let out a small huff and craned his neck to look at her. "No thanks, you might touch my willy."
"You'd love it."
Though his tone had become playful to match hers, his expression remained the same, empty.
"Roman, what's wrong? You've never acted like this, not since we were kids, what could possibly be eating away at you this badly?"
He sighed and looked back out over the street.
Silence hung between them, the only sound coming from the street below and pitter patter of rain.
"Roman?" She stepped forward.
"I could have saved her." He mumbled.
"What?" She flinched at his response.
"I could have saved her if I wasn't so useless."
"Roman, what are you talking about? You're not useless-"
"Yes I am Cinder. I could have saved her and we'd all be home celebrating a job well done if I wasn't."
She winced as he spoke, as occasionally his voiced cracked.
"If I had just used my semblance I could've done it."
"None of us could have known Roman-"
"It doesn't matter if we knew beforehand! All that matters is I had the chance to do something right for our team and I couldn't!" He yelled.
She swallowed hard. "Roman, can I ask you something?"
He hesitated, then nodded.
"Why didn't you?"
"Use my semblance?"
"Yeah."
"Because I couldn't."
Her brow furrowed. "What do you mean you couldn't?"
"I just couldn't!" He yelled as he stood, and faced her.
"Tell me why. Please Roman?"
He remained silent.
"Were you scared?"
"No! I wasn't scared!"
"Then what else could have stopped you?" At this point she had started getting angry, her voice raising.
"I can't tell you!" He yelled.
"Why?" She yelled back.
"Because I just can't okay?"
She scoffed. "Is this the mysterious crap again? You act like your semblance is some huge secret and y'know what? It's like you don't even have one!" She paused, trying to calm herself but failing. She had to know. "Roman, do you even have a semblance?"
She regretted her question moments later as his shoulders sagged and he dropped his Cigar.
He sighed and pulled his hat off, rubbing the back of his head and chuckled. "To tell the truth Cinder. I don't. And you know what? That's why I'm useless." He turned to look out over the street again.
"Roman, I'm sorry. I didn't know." She said softly.
"It's okay Cinder." He tossed his coat and hat aside and sighed. "Hey Cinder?"
She looked up.
"I'm sorry too."
As she opened her mouth to ask what he was sorry for, her heart stopped as he backed off over the ledge.
Her body instantly felt infinitely heavy and she fell to her knees. She didn't even realize but she was screaming out to him.
For nearly a full second she heard the normal sounds of the night, then she heard tires screech as they stopped suddenly. And that's when the screams came from below.
Hi everyone, QroZpin Here, hope you enjoyed this first chapter to a new story I'm writing called 'Do you even have a semblance?'. As you can tell this is going to get really fucked up, so reader discretion advised. Anyways, if you enjoyed this and have any sort of feedback let me know in the comments below, and check out my other stories...they're also things. Bye for now.
