Eternal Lullaby The Depth of Adolescence Chapter 1: Choking On Water, a hellboy fanfic

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Also, please read "Geminis & Aquarius" and answer the poll for it.

Enjoy

To clear up one thing again, I'm not exactly putting in the city at the time and places. It's going to be the states, okay? And Stuttgart is a city in Baden-Wuerttemberg.

This chapter's song is;

"Innocence"
by
Avril Lavigne

http: // www . youtube .com/watch?v=Ir2Sg_8hC3w

Chapter Piece;

His eyes opened and closed under, he had just met 'her' again and now he was going to die. He laughed mentally at himself. The bitterness of it all. Maybe that night in the alley, he really was supposed to die, this was his fate and punishment for being the cause of her death. One's own demise truly was inevitable, there was no point ever to fighting, you die one way or another, whether it was early or late.
You die. Now he was going to die. He was going to die young, still in his rawest state,
before he had to end his career of being a singer,
before he could go off to university,
before he could travel the world like he dreamed of,
before he got married, before his ripe age,
before he could do anything, he was going to die. Just then as he looked up, he saw something. He kept his eyes open to see what it could be.

It was Evangeline.

Maybe he was already dead and this was heaven. He smiled and used up what was left of his breath and strength to reach for her, to touch her again. She was right above him in the moving water, it looked like she had wide open wings on her back, out-stretched. Was she a bird? An angel?
Then, her hands came around his face, white sleeves flowing around her bare arms. Her hair sunk in and spread all over like wild-fire. The locks of ebony looked like thin seaweed under water.
This was definitely heaven, he would be with the woman that haunted his memories for 3 years of his life.
Her face looked worried, like she was going to cry. Strange, the longer he looked, the more he thought of Evan. They definitely could've passed for brother and sister. But Evan didn't have a sister.... maybe they were cousins.

Just then, as the bubble under water carried away the very last of his breath, her face came closer to his. He closed his eyes, just waiting for the watery grave that would be his in but a few moments. But, he felt something press against his mouth. He opened his eyes, feeling air in his water-filled lungs again.
She said under water, bubbles escaping from her red-lined mouth, 'Ruprecht.'

He was so tired of kicking against the river and holding onto that little locket, he just closed his eyes and all went black.

All he felt now was the feeling of weightlessness.

Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany
1911

Young Karl Ruprecht Kroenen of age 14 sat on the wooden bridge at the edge of the river.
He wore casual clothes for the spring.
His fishing pole had been still for about 45 minutes now, with nary a bite.

Stuttgart was a nice place to visit in the spring a place where the wild flowers grew in great bounties and with the sweetest smells of perfume, his mother's relatives always took him to the nicest landscapes where he could sing and hear his voice echo back. He always found such a joy in it. Also, his uncle had been showing him some things in clockwork. The thought of gears and simple machines working together to make something so complicated always intrigued him. His high intelligence had always been to his advantage when his uncle was teaching.
He rarely had to ask questions like his older-by-a-year cousin about machinery.

He sighed as he looked down at the clear blue water. All he could see were little movements and round stones way, way down at the bottom of the river.
God, where were the fish today?
Suddenly, a loud siren from the fire brigade had him snap his head back to see what was the commotion all about.

Stuttgart had been getting so many fires recently, it was like some pyromaniac had gone loose. Setting the pole firmly on the bridge to not let the current carry it away while he was up, he walked off to some peak at the river fields and saw a spot where grey clouds were festering up into the clear skies. By the pattern of fire accidents and the large blue sigh he could see from the fields, it seemed like the fish monger's shop had caught on fire....again.
How could a place that was filled with water, be close to water, and always wet catch on fire so often?
Honestly, that was the 5th fire there this month!

He walked back to his spot on the bridge to resume with his fishing.
Even though he was studious and hard-working, there were times when he just wanted to do something in complete silence that didn't really need his complete attention and concentration. He enjoyed just reading, looking out the window, anything where there was a chance for him to think and to logically ponder if outing a set of gears here instead of there would make it work better or have it do a different job.
He sat back down at his usual spot and picked up his fishing pole. He reeled it in and shot the hook out farther. Then, he went back to his valley of thoughts.

Again, once more, another noise knocked him out of his thinking.

He noticed that there was a lot of yelling coming from the other side of the river. He looked up due to curiosity. All he could see from his view was a group of about 4 large boys, possibly around his age. They weren't exactly large and rugged, more like they were large, fat and pompous.
They were in a circle around something, maybe a dead animal or whatnot. He thought maybe one of them was making a commotion over nothing just because one of them was scared or wanted attention. He didn't really take any of it to thought... until he heard an agonizing scream.

He quickly threw back his pole onto the wooden bridge and stood up to get a better look at what was happening over there. He saw what was in the center of the crowd, a thin boy dressed in rags.
He couldn't really take injustice so easily. He briskly marched over to the crowd, but stopped halfway.

The victim to their bullying had leapt to his feet and started to fight back.

He bit, he clawed, he kicked, he even pulled hair. Kroenen was wondering whether or not now to help or just leave him be since it seemed that he was doing a good job defending himself. But the tables turned on the ragged boy.
The smallest out of the pompus buffons tackled him and pinned him to the ground.

The boy was kicking and screaming, threatening, "If you go any farther with me, you'll regret it!!!"

The bullies laughed and resumed with punching him and spitting in his face. Kroenen didn't waste a second, he rushed over to the bully was straddling the small boy and punched him straight in the face.
Kroenen was never the one with brute strength, but that punch knocked the bully a good 5 feet away. The ragged boy scrambled up to his feet, aching, and got into a fighting stance. Karl readied himself as well, his fists held up high.

He looked over to the boy who was panting and attempting to catch his breath. But he didn't really pay attention because in an instant one of them charged at him and Karl dodged it, sending an uppercut to his jaw.

The fight was longer than they would've thought. Karl was sure that with the bullies apparent lack of stamina, they would've tired and left in defeat, but it seemed that they were going in one at a time to fight.
Karl was fast, but there were a few times that he should have moved and he didn't.

Seriously, he wished he could be perfect.
Never tired, always better and better.

He felt a sharp pain on his shoulder. But the pain didn't feel so bad... instead, if felt good as cold rain to him. There had always been some sort of joy in the pain, in feeling stings on flesh. It fed his desire to fight even more. He wasn't really afraid of getting hurt, he relished it to help him ever since he was as young as 11 years old.
To feel the pain and love it, each cut and bruise and strike made him stronger. Thus, he enjoyed fighting, especially when it was against someone who could also hold their own.

He kicked the gorilla below the legs and the bully fell with a horrifying groan.
Kroenen was alert to whatever might come at him.
The ragged boy was doing just fine, falling and getting a punch in every so often. But whenever he fell, it looked like it was a planned move since he was always able to swiftly jump to his feet from lying on his backside.

The ragged boy spun on one of his foot while his other leg struck at 2 incoming. Unfortunately, the third one he hit, he got his foot stuck in the gorilla's gut.
Karl rolled on the grass, missing a kick that was supposed to go low. Then, right behind a tree a few yards away, he saw 2 thick branches that was just right for a little 'sword-play'. He got up and ran away.

The ragged boy looked at him with worried eyes. He feared he was going to have to do what he didn't really hope he didn't have to. The bullies surrounded him again, coming in menacingly with bruises all over their faces and disfiguring bumps. The unknown boy concentrated on his hands and jumped to deliver 2 punches to the first boy in front of him, one to the chest and the second to the gut.

He toppled over, gasping and flopping on the grass like a fish. But one of them was actually smart and prepared for what the ragged boy would do next.

He grabbed him and held his arms down while one rolled up his sleeves to fully punch him and the other ran to the dead weight on the grass and tried to bring him back. The sweaty oaf pulled back his fish, to get more of a swing, but then Kroenen jumped in between. In his hands were the 2 large branches. He used them in an X-Pattern to block the punch. The boy looked up in shock to what had just happened, but he was probably going to wish that he didn't.
Because the next thing the guy saw was a fist in the face.

He turned to the bully still holding the boy behind him. The boy dropped him and ran away into the town. Karl tossed the other stick to the ragged boy who caught it swiftly.
"Do you know how to fight with swords?" Karl asked.

The boy looked down at the stick in his hand, the brim of his large brown hat covered about his face.

Karl took a guess at what the boy was probably thinking now, "Just pretend that it is a sword."

The boy nodded and gripped it.
They looked at the group of 4, well... one unconscious and 3 who was just whimpering with fear and probably hoping that they still looked intimidating with their puffed out chests. It was so pathetic.

Kroenen seethed under his teeth, "Get out of here."

The boys nodded and ran away.

Karl looked back at the boy and smiled a crooked smile. Then he went back to his fishing, not even waiting to accept a thank you. But as soon as he bent down to pick up his pole, the bridge was vibrating with the running steps of another person.
He looked up to see the boy panting, his face flushed. The boy panted out, "You're hurt."

He had no idea what he was talking about. He didn't feel a single ounce of pain, just the rush of flying into action and beating the crap out of a group of bullies and a growing warmth in his stomach.
He graped the fishing pole and sat down and reeled in the line to toss it far again. The boy pointed with an unexpected pale hand that was scarred with light violet towards Kroenen's hand. Karl was taken aback a bit. He was definitely not expecting to see a burnt hand.
He quickly asked outloud, "Did they burn you?"

The boy shook his head, "Don't worry, this is nothing to worry about."
Still, Karl was curious, he always had to know everything. But before he could speak, the boy sat down next to him and answered, "It just happened. I was born like this."

Karl was confused. He had never heard of a case where someone was born with serious burn scars before. But before he could take more thought into it, the ragged boy took off his hat.
Without his hat on, the boy was beautiful.
His black raven hair was cropped short just below his ears -cut so jaggedly, it was as though he had just cut it off without looking at a mirror. His skin was white and flawless, but thankfully, there were none of the ugly scars on his lovely face. However, there were some noticable marks on his long neck.
His face was perfect, completely symetrical. His cheeks were high and dimpled to fit his features. Everything about him was captivating to Karl.

His heart was beating so fast around this boy that he was befuddled about what he was thinking and feeling. He mustered up enough courage to look this boy in the eyes and he was shocked to see that they were a beautiful golden-colour like.... Evangeline's.
He opened his mouth hesitantly and introduced himself with a hand held out, "Karl Ruprecht Kroenen. And you are?"

The boy grabbed his hand and they shook.
"Evan, my name is Evan."

Kroenen was still holding onto Evan's hand, not wanting to let go, all the old feelings that Evangeline had stirred up in him was coming back with every heart-beat. Evan's eyes were just like hers, wide with long eyelashes that were like butterfly wings.
He bet that his lips were soft as hers, maybe softer... he suddenly stopped shaking his hand and snapped out of the grip.
What was he thinking now?
He wasn't gay! He liked girls!
What would his parents think of him?
What would his other friends and everybody else think if they thought he... Oh God. He had to remind himself, this wasn't his Golden-Eyed Beauty from yore. This was probably her brother or something... yeah.... her brother.

He asked him, "Um... do you have a sister?"

"A sister?"

"Yes, do you have a sister?"

Evan shook his head, "I don't have a sister."

"Did you every have one, though?"

"No, I'm an only child."

Kroenen felt disappointed, he thought he could have another connection to her besides her mask, but apparently not now.
Evan looked at Karl intently, he asked nervously, "Karl."

Karl reeled in his line and tossed it out again, "Yeah?"

Evan was leaning in a little too close now, even if they were boys. His little thin lips puckered up a bit and asked softly, "Do you think I could call you 'Ruprecht' instead of Karl?"

'Just like Evangeline.' he thought to himself.
Evangeline had always been on his mind, since the second he saw her behind the stage in her intricate costume. But the memory of her was kept at bay due to his shows and busy school schedule.
Most of the time when she did come up was during his.... ahem.... 'special alone time' with an oak branch. Now it was like she was alive again, this time... to Karl's dismay, as a boy.
After the night in the alley, Karl had thought up thousands of little conversations between himself and Evangeline if they would ever meet again. Evan was the closest thing so far now to her.
But why was he so tongue-tied? He had thought up everything and planned everything in his head, but now it was as though all those little htings ere useless and would do absolutely nothing.

First he started with the basics, "So... do you live somewhere around here?"

Evan sat up straighter and pointed to the far left of the town, "My parents are the shoe cobblers here."

Karl was confounded. He had been coming to Baden-Wuerttenberg since he was about 5 years old and he had never seen Evan or anyone like him before. He didn't even think that the old shoe cobblers who always stayed in their shop and rarely came out even had a child his age!
He asked, "Really, then why haven't I seen you before here?"

There was some hesitance in Evan. The expression on his face was one stuck at a loss of musing. It was like he was wondering if he should lie. But subtly, the expression turned to one who was completely lost. Then his explanation came, "Oh, I just came here a few weeks ago."

Karl tilted his head a bit, luckily his pole started twitching so that gave his attention somewhere else to focus than the enticing boy next to him.
Finally there were some fish biting now! He was ecstatic since he had been out for hours and didn't even get a single minnow on his hook. He leaned in forward, "Yes, I've finally caught one!"

The neutral expression on Evan's face grew to one of excitement, "How big do you think it is?"

Karl struggled against the current, the pole even starting to bend to resemble something of a candy cane. "I don't know, but it must be big. It feels like a monster!"

There was a small creak-creak-creaking sound and before Karl could process what was happening, Evan already had his hands on Karl's and helping him pull. His hands were chafing and rubbing against the tough wood and wire. He was just ready to call it quits and give the pole up until there was a huge snap! From out the clear water, a huge bass about 2-3 feet long sprung out of the water.
The dim sunlight shining and basking in it's glory. Both boys were open mouthed to believe that such a gigantic fish was in the little river under the bridge. Unfortunately, the elastic and release effect of the fish flopping out and flying through the air, resulted in Evan falling forward on Karl in a very close and intimate position.

By instinct, his hands dropped the fishing pole at his side and immediately crept up Evan's shoulders. Even Evan himself looked confused by the action, but not as much as Karl.
Still, they found themselves looking at each straight in the eyes, as though they were watching each other through the windows of their souls, deep down. He had never looked at a boy straight on like that -except for a fight or so- thus the new experience was... almost frightening to feel. It was like he was looking through him, trying to find something that was important and focused on it. Karl could feel his face getting redder and redder by the second, he could easily see the same effect happening on Evan's pale face.

Just then the huge bass that had been in mid-air and now flying down on the bridge landed with a very set splat on Evan's back. Evan yelped a bit and hid his face in Karl's clean navy vest.
Karl's arms tightened around Evan when he saw that moment of helplessness. He muttered out in the muffle of Karl's vest, "Yuck, I think I got fish slime on my back."

Karl stood up, still holding Evan's shoulders in his hands. He leaned his neck out a bit, looking at the patched up back of the brown jacket, "Ugh, you're right." He started laughing because of the large oddly shaped stain on Evan's back.

Evan did a mocked disappointed sigh, "I must be the most unluckiest person in Germany, no.. in the world!"

"I don't see how you are."

Evan got up completely off of Karl and kneeled down next to him, "They say what goes around, comes around."

Karl really had no idea what Evan was talking about.
Evan explained himself with a happy expression, "You see, I gave my clothes to somebody and took these clothes in return. Then those idiots came after me, calling me stupid! I mean, I was just being nice, but for no good reason, they started to beat me!"
He suddenly looked up to the sky and stood up, taking off the patched jacket and rolling it up into a bundle in his arms. He asked, "Ruprecht, what time is it?"

He stood up and took out his custom designed pocket-watch, one of his own creations that he made from extra parts. "It's 5:30"

Evan sighed wistfully, "I have to get home now." then he smiled a toothy grin that was filled with pearly white teeth, "I wonder what my mother is going to say when she sees that I've given away my clothing again!"

Karl took off his vest and offered, "If you want, you could have this. I don't exactly like it."

Evan brushed it away, "Thank you, but that's too much. You've already saved me." He walked off the bridge back to the town, "Bye, Ruprecht. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

Kroenen waved back. He hooked up his fish and held it over his shoulder. But the reminiscent feeling of also having had watched Evangeline walk away just moments before her death urged him to run after him.
He ran after, "Wait, Evan!"

Evan turned around, "Yes?"

With a shy look on his face, he asked, "Do you think I could walk you home?"

Evan looked surprised at the offer. "......Sure!"

They walked together down the road. Mostly just taking in each other's company in silent. It wasn't too long till after they started talking about random things such as the weather and how big the fish was. As they walked up and down the corners through the streets, Evan asked, "Ruprecht?"

"Hm?"

He grabbed him by the collar and made him face him straight in the eye. "Ruprecht, you have to tell me this."

"What is it?"

"Have we ever met before? You look so familiar, like I should know you, but I can't remember!"

Karl wasn't sure how to exactly answer, sure Evan looked exactly like Evangeline's double and it was like she came back. But reincarnation was out of the idea, she died 2 years ago and by normal chronology, Evan couldn't have been..... well, Evan did look close to his age. But he couldn't be her in no way whatsoever. And this was about the first time that Karl had met 'Evan', so there was only 1 answer.
"Sorry, I don't think we've met before."

Evan sighed, "Shoot, I really thought I knew you before. You do look so familiar."

Finally, they made it to the shoe cobbler's, with the large sign in the shape of a shoe.
"Thank you for walking me home." He nodded smiling, but suddenly, the door in front of the shop opened up. A large plump woman with snow white hair and light age wrinkles stood in front of the doorway. Wrinkles adorned the sides of her mouth and the corners of her eyes. She looked old enough to be his grandmother in lieu of his mother. She exclaimed with arms wide out, "Evan!"
It appeared as though she stopped in mid-sentence, "Evan, don't tell me that you gave away your clothes again." She crossed her arms in front of her large chest.

Evan was about to open his mouth to explain, when his mother just shouted out-loud, "Hey, who are you?"
Evan looked to Karl, who was standing right behind him.

Karl turned around and did a small bow, "Karl Ruprecht Kroenen."

The large woman gasped and asked in a shocked voice, "Karl Ruprecht Kroenen? The Songbird of Munich?"

"Songbird?" Evan asked.

Karl did a small chuckle and scratched the back of his head, "Yes."

The woman said, "I'm Myrna Volksky." she eyed Kroenen like a slab of meat, "What is someone like you doing in a little town like this?"

"Just for a small school vacation."

"Ah." she looked to Evan who was fidgeting with his shoes. She slapped her forehead, "Your shoes, too?"

He answered quickly, his shoulders rising with the same tone of his voice, "the poor little boy said his shoes were too cold for him."

She sighed, "You're good, but there are limits. Now, in the house you go."

Evan stepped in between the doorway and his mother and said, "Bye, Ruprecht!"

Karl nodded and walked away. But as he was leaving, there was a loud tapping sound. He turned around and saw that the door had closed but a figure was at the window. He saw from the window, Evan. In just a few seconds he was already upstairs and it seemed that he had gotten something ready to show him in the short amount of time.
On a sheet of paper that he pressed against the window, it read; 'Meet me at the bridge tomorrow at 3!'

Karl waved and skipped home. Though it is better to say that he was practically floating back home.

His mind and heart set on Evan, his Golden-Eyed Prince.

Karl was just tapping his pencil against his music stand. Waiting for 3 o' clock to just come and hurry up.
Dong.
Dong..
Dongg..
The bell chimed in the grandfather clock. Then from a little door in the middle of the golden face came a little blue and green hummingbird which produced a small buzzing sound.

Karl hit his head on the low desk next to the music stand which was piled high with books; a low groan emitted from his throat. It was only 1 o' clock!
How could time pass by so slowly?
Why was it when there was nothing else to do on other days, it felt like time was too fleeting and the days were too short?
He stood up and wandered about the room, before he realized, 'Oh, maybe I can go to Uncle's shop for a bit.' He picked up his hat and jacket and a small screwdriver set that his uncle had given him on the first day he had come, then scrambled his way down the wooden creaking stairs. His mother and father were reading in room below, both had their noses stuck in what they were reading.
It was only when Karl took another step to the door, did his mother suddenly ask out loud, "Where are you going, Karl?"

Karl answered without a second thought, "I'm going to uncle's clock-shop."

His father spoke up, "How long are you going to be gone for?"

"Just till 5 or so, maybe sixish."

His father and mother set down their books and looked up at him, "Just what will you be doing that long? Today, the shop's going to close at around 3:45."

Karl answered sheepishly, "I don't know, maybe I'll be taking a walk around the river."

His mother raised an eyebrow up, "Karl, what's the real reason?"
Mothers. How do they always know what's the ulterior motive? It's like they had a freaking detector in their brains which just buzzes when they hear someone saying something that doesn't sound right.

Karl answered truthfully, as much as he could, "I'm just going to the bridge, that's all."

His mother stood up, the page book-marked with her fingers, "Karl." The glare in her eyes intensified. Again, how could mothers do that stare which made you just want to tell them everything and whatever else they wanted to hear? He tried to tear his eyes away from her 'look', but it proved difficult. The special thing about his mother's look when she was interrogating was that you could never look away from those steely blue eyes of hers.

He sighed and knew that he was defeated against his mother, "I'm going to go and meet a friend!"

His mother perked up when she walked back to her seat, going back to her more care-free self, "A friend? Is is a girlfriend?"

Karl could just hear the gears in his mother's head shifting, "No, it's just a friend!"

Now it was his father's turn to question and conclude. "Oh, what kind of friend is it, son?"
With his father, Karl knew that it was pretty straight-forward, play and hang with guys who had proper reputations and wouldn't get him into danger or drag him down to scum.

He answered carefully, "It's just a guy I met at the river yesterday."

His father inquired, "So, who is he?"

"He's the shoe cobblers' son."

His father lowered his book, "Really, they have a kid your age?"

"Yeah, why do you sound so surprised?"

His father shrugged his shoulder and answered, "Well, they're just pretty old and I've never seen them have a kid before so...."

His mother snapped at his father, "Dear, don't say something like that in front of Karl. God knows he might say it out loud to them and you're the one who'll get all the blame!"

His father chuckled, "Not all of it, of course some will go to you as well, darling."

His mother did a mock face of spite. Seeing that his parents might've forgotten completely about him, he asked pointing at the door with his thumb, "So, may I go?"
His father was more alert and turned his attention to his son, instead of his wife who was giving her husband a strange look in her eyes,
"Sure, is he a nice boy?"

Although Karl had many things to say about Evan, he feared that his parents might be a bit shocked to hear, hence the fear of homosexuality in their time. So, all he did was answer, "Yeah."

His father looked at him blankly, before waving his hand and saying, "Then, have a nice time, son!"

He was certainly going to have a nice time.

He walked quickly out of the door, lest his parents changed his mind.

As he walked down the street, to his uncle's shop at the end on the corner, he saw a small boy in the barber's shop, sweeping up hair. The bald man inside with a red nose was laughing heartil; his voice booming deep like soft thunder, "Good job, here's your hour's pay."

"Thank you, sir." came the familiar celeste voice.

Karl walked back to see who was the source of the voice. It was Evan. And.... he was working in the barber shop? Karl went to the barred window and tapped 5 sharp taps. When Evan noticed and turned to the window, Karl gave him a bright smile as he waved.
He waved back and bid the barber good bye. As soon as he stepped through the door, the bell dinged. Karl asked, "What were you doing in there?"

"Just a little bit of working."

Karl took a look at Evan's clothes today. It appeared he was telling the truth, his clothes today looked just as nice as Karl's. A nice dark and white creamy colour contrasting together to make a striking ensemble. However, he was soaking wet.
"Evan, why are you all wet?"
His voice was sharp almost -the consanents biting and tapping off his tongue and teeth- but he didn't mean to make it that way of course. His voice just came out that way as a way of questionning. It really did see to be true; Evan was the most unlucky person in all of Germany.

Evan looked down at his soaked clothes, it was hanging off of him like coats on a coat rack. He started to chuckle nervously, "I fell into some water."

Karl didn't think that Evan would be one to fall in to water so easily, least of all be soaked from head to toe. Plus, there was that little thing called intuition that just told him when someone was lying or not. It was probably something that he picked up from his mom. Good God, that lady could tell the difference between which was the raw egg in a batch of cold hard-boiled eggs,
"Evan, I can tell you're lying. Were those bullies picking on you again? You know you can tell me."

Evan sighed and his eyes were half closed as he asked, "How is it you can tell when I'm lying?" His hand went to adjust the baggy hat over his head, the few strands of hair poking out from under tha burlap-like material.

Karl shrugged his shoulders, "I guess I know you a lot better than you think."
They stood right in front of the shop, until the barber stepped out and shooed them away with a forced painted grin on his wrinkled face, "You can talk all you want, but you can't stand in front of my door!"

They walked away, just wandering around the streets for a while.

The squishing sounds of leather and cloth scratched against his eardrums and he just wanted to... he scratched the thought immediately from his head. His eyes traveled up and down his slinky form, the clothes wrapped themselves around him like twisted snakes. Just looking at him was getting him irritated, he could almost feel discomfort rolling off of him and he was almost furious that he would submit himself to such a punishment. Most of all, he was furious as to what sort of person would do that to him. How someone could find a pleasure in tormenting him.
After a few silent moments of biting his tongue, he finally spoke out, "Why areyour clothes wet?" he turned around to face Evan directly and grabbed his soaking wet wrist to acent his point, "And don't lie to me and give me some bogus excuse that you simply fell into the water. If someone did this to you, I want you to trust me enough to tell me."

His golden eyes traveled from his wrist in front of his face to his face. Those golden orbs jumped side to side, surely looking for some sort of bluff or something else that could be on his face. He was sure that the only thing on his face was a look of seriousness. He heard a gulp. He sighed and answered in a defeated tone, "Someone fell into the water near where I was working and I swapped clothes again."

Karl believed him right away, "Really?"

"I can only hope that he won't be too embarrassed by what I gave him." A small blush came onto Evan's face as soon as he mentioned swapping clothes with another boy. Karl couldn't help but feel a small twinge at his chest when he thought about that blush of Evan's. Evan obviously mistook that look of jealous on Karl's face and assumed, "Oh, you don't even want to know what he was wearing! It's too much and he's probably going to hate me for it!"
Karl wouldn't really mind if this boy and his Evan would be enemies. He would be there to protect Evan if anything happened. If the world came crashing down, he would let it rot and die before he could allow this boy to. If Evan ever needed him, he would be there till the bitter end.

Evan suddenly asked, "Ruprecht, what time is it?"

He took out his pocket watch and read out loud, "It's... 1:30."

Evan slapped his forehead, "Sorry, Ruprecht! But I just have one more job to do and we can see each other again."
Before he could say or add anything to that, Evan had already ran off, little beads of water dripping off him and his cropped black hair. The boy was much too obsessed with time. He smiled as he watched Evan run through the streets, no one noticing anything about him. He bet that no one would even offer to help him for anything. The only thing that Karl was wishing now was that... nothing bad would happen to Evan and he would see him the next time alive.

He quickly made his way to his uncle's clock and repair shop. As he turned the handle and walked through the pine-smelling shop, his uncle walked out in a dusty green apron, greeting, "Welcome to 'Gears Alive' and.... Oh, Karl, what are you doing here?"
His uncle was older than his father. His hair was never as neat as his father, but it still looked nice. The colour of it was a greying brown that grew like a plant in thick strands. His beard mixed iwth his sidebrows and he had larger ears than anybody he knew. He wasn't as built as his father was; his form instead was a more scrawny but full body. Albeit his looks weren't as great as most of the other family members, his intelligence was greater than most and he always had a smile on his face which had him seem appealing.

Karl hung up his hat and jacket at the rack in the corner of the room, behind a door, "I'm just here to experiment."

His uncle scoffed, "Experiment with what? There's really nothing to experiment, you know a lot more about clocks than your lazy cousin."

A "Hey!" came from the other room behind the counter, "I can hear you out there, pop!"

"Lazy, you can't even come out here to tell that to your pop's face!"

"Busy!"

His uncle muttered under his breath, something about having daughters would've been better, then his face brightened up as he picked up something from under the counter, "Karl, I have something for you!"
Karl strode over to the counter and looked over, "What is it?"

His uncle came up with a small stand that had a little dancer in the middle of it with her leg upraised. He kept his face on the little trinket, but his eyes looked up at his uncle, "Uh... isn't it a little..?"
Before he had a chance to finish, his uncle interrupted, "Just watch!"

He picked it up and spun a little wind up on the bottom of it. As soon as he set it down, the little dancer started spinning. Although it looked plain, Karl noticed that the dancer was swaying her head and moving her arms as she spun. He was interested by such a human feature that his uncle had given to the inanimate object. Aside from that, it was playing an aria of Mozart, 'Symphony 25 in G Minor'.
However, the little dancing toy was a bit too girly for his taste. His uncle uncle started talking, "Isn't it beautiful, Karl m'boy?" he picked her up and handed it to Karl.

"Don't you think this is a little....y'know, Uncle?"

His uncle slapped his forehead and complained, "Of course, how could I have forgotten the other half?" He ran to the back of his shop and came rushing back to the counter, in his hands was a large cardboard box that was fairly around the size of 4 heads of lettuce. He set the box down on the wooden counter with a clink. He looked into the box as his uncle leaned back against the wall behind the counter. "Get it?" his uncle was asking with a 200-watt smile on his face.

Even with Karl's very high academic report and brains, he didn't really understand what his uncle meant by it. "Yeah." he answered quickly.

His uncle stood up and answered his own rhetorical question, "That is just a prototype for you, Karl. I thought you might want to learn how to make music with mere clockwork. It's really quite interesting, you know."
He was interested. He could make clocks easy, with his hands behind his back and his eyes closed, but making the gears and springs play music itself as well, then that was something that he just had to know. "That would be amazing, Uncle."

His uncle nodded eagerly and poured out the contents of the box onto the counter, from the pocket of his apron, he pulled out some tools. "Now, Karl. What you do is....."

After just 2 hours, Karl had memorized the entire method of bending the angles and what not of the gears and things to produce sound. With what he had, he just made a small palm-fitting box-like object that was in the shape of an oval.
It was silver, with the carvings of a 2 wolves facing each other at profile and a crown on the top between their heads. He was able to carve it so swiftly and perfect in but 15 minutes, a symbol of his family crest. Just as the first test, he set it up so that instead of activating it by just a wind-up key, you would open it and the hinges would start it off, then as back-up, would you turn the key tight. The song he chose for his first musical contraption was Fur Elise, a simple piece for a simple box. As he looked and eyed at htis little 1-inch thing, he felt that it was too plain. He decided to add a chain to it, just like what he did for his pocket-watch.

As he was bending the little bits of wire to make the chain-links, his uncle who was now just sweeping up the shop, asked, "What are you adding the chain for, Karl?"

He answered as he was still working, "I don't know, it felt a little.... it felt like it was missing something."

His uncle walked over to look at it, "That's very pretty, do you know who you're going to give it to?"

Karl thought about giving it to his mother at first, but since it was his first one, he wouldn't want to give her a test piece, a better product after a few more trials. His father was an idea, but the closest thing that his father would want in music was listening to him sing and the concerts they went to, not this little trinket.
Just then, he thought of Evan and.... Evan! Oh no, what time was it?! He pulled out his watch and the time read a good 3:40! He was 40 minutes late already! He ran to the rack behind the door and grabbed his coat and hat,
"Bye, Uncle. Thank you for the lesson!" he bidded.

His uncle waved to the thin air where his nephew had been just a few seconds ago.

He ran out on to the streets, gracefully dodging the cars and carts that were running like buzzing bees. He ran past the church in such a hurry that the clergy man lost all his papers in the wind. "Slow down, there is no need to rush!" he cried out to the runaway Karl, as he was shaking his loose papers in his fist.
Karl could only think of cursing thoughts to the clergy man who said that there was no need to rush. He was more than a whole half hour for his meeting with his new friend and the running time from the clock shop to the bridge was a full 15 minutes! If you were to run straight for that long, anyway.

Finally, he arrived at the bridge, where he saw Evan sitting on the side, with his legs hanging out. He was slouching, his burnt hands holding his lovely face. It appeared that he had changed, but he wore work clothes instead of something casual.
It didn't seem that he saw Karl because he started to get up and walk out into the woods.

Karl chased after him in the woods, "Evan!"

Evan turned around, a look of shock on his face, then an odd expression that was like something had just sucked the life out of him.
He snapped back to reality, "Ruprecht! Stop!"

He didn't know why he should stop, he just wanted to run quickly to apologize to his new friend, but then his foot broke through a board on the wooden bridge! He fell forward, crashing onto the railing of the bridge and having that break against the force of his impact.
He fell into the water. From looking up at the bridge, one could guess that the water wasn't all that deep, only 3 feet or so. But looks could be deceiving. It was actually much deeper than that, so deep that his feet couldn't even touch the bottom.

The river was suddenly so fierce and cruel, crashing him about in the coldness. It growled as he moved in it, all sounds were muffled, all sounds were so much more intense. Everything rumbled in his eardrums, like the role of a chorus of marching drums.
The music box was still in his grip, slipping away, while he squeezed it tight like it was his very essence of life instead of the last few bubbles in his lungs that were slowly being replaced by water.
His hat was lost, floating down the current, perhaps never to be seen again.

He tried to go across the flow, to either side of the shore. He went under, the entire vision was blurry to him, swaying waves and small schools of fish. When he realized what was happening, he screamed.
No good, no air.
His lungs felt like they would implode, devour itself to just get a small breath of air. His chest hurt so much, he kicked more to just relieve the pain. No, that didn't work. His head jerked and shaked and twisted to and fro, just trying to hold on, mediate on the last few ounces of air that was escaping him.
He tried to kick up, but the river rolled him back down under. When had the river been so rough. Why, just yesterday when he was fishing in it, it looked calm and serene, still like it was frozen in ice.
He was able to get his face to the surface at least once to get in a breath of air. Before he could even finish breathing, he sunk down again. He tried to swim straight, but the current knocked him off course, sending him farther down with it. He looked up from beneath the water, the blue skies were but a blur of lines as he rushed down, the darkness was closing in on him. His chest felt like it was about to burst open. He wasted too much of his energy running to the bridge.

Where was that blasted adrenaline you heard so much about when you were in danger?
He could've really used it about now.

It was Evangeline.

Maybe he was already dead and this was heaven. He smiled and used up what was left of his breath and strength to reach for her, to touch her again. She was right above him in the moving water, it looked like she had wide open wings on her back, out-stretched and white like snow. Was she a bird? An angel?
Then, her hands came around his face, white sleeves flowing around her bare arms. Her hair sunk in and spread all over like wild-fire. The locks of ebony looked like thin seaweed under water.
This was definitely heaven, he would be with the woman that haunted his memories for 3 years of his life.
Her face looked worried, like she was going to cry. Strange, the longer he looked, the more he thought of Evan. They definitely could've passed for brother and sister. But Evan didn't have a sister.... maybe they were cousins.

He was so tired of kicking against the river and holding onto that little locket, he just closed his eyes and all went black.

All he felt now was the feeling of weightlessness.

"Ruprecht! Ruprecht!" he opened his eyes to the noise that was blasting right in his ears.

He snapped right up, "God!" He looked at himself, was he actually alive? He just couldn't believe it! He recounted what had just happened, first he saw Evan on the brdige, then he ran after him. Evan was screaming at him for something but then Karl fell into the river.
Then he saw Evangeline with wings.
He was sure that he drowned and died. He looked to the right of him, there sat Evan who was clutching his chest and staring with an angry face.

Both were speechless, not knowing what really to say right now. Karl went first, "What happened there?"

Evan sighed and from behind him, he pulled out Karl's hat.... which was surprisingly dry like a bone, "You fell in the river."

Okay, so that part he was right, he remembered that happening. But what really happened after? He looked around, he didn't recognize where he was. Heck, he could swear that he had never been in this part of the woods. They were at a clear field next to the river where the earth dipped into a slope into the water, with a large oak tree behind them. "Where are we?"

He looked up and all around, "I would say that we're halfway to the next town east."

"What?!"

Evan took another sigh and explained, "You fell into the water. Then I fished you out. But it seems that you floated all the way down here before I could catch up."

Karl nodded, that sounded logical. But as he took a look at Evan, he asked something, "How long was I unconscious for?"

Evan's eyes rolled to the back of his head, "You were out for.... about an hour or so."

"So, an hour ago, I was in the water?"

"Yes."

Karl pointed a cold wet finger at Evan, "Why are you dry?"

He looked down at his clothes, "What do you mean?"

Karl took off his wet jacket, the cold was getting to him in the crisp spring air. "You said that it took some time for you to catch up to me. So that means you must've been swimming. There is no way you could've gotten me without swimming because the river itself is far too side in any way for you to just stay on land and grab for me."
Evan was silent, like he didn't know how he could answer or explain himself.
"So, how is it that you're completely dry when you should be as wet as I am now?"

Evan looked nervous now, Karl was thinking up every single explanation that was logical that he might use, there were none. He cleared his throat, his fingers tapping on the green grass. Just then, Evan asked out, "What is this, Ruprecht?"
From under his sleeves, he pulled out the music box.
Karl made a grab for it, completely forgetting about his question. He couldn't help but think that asking about this was a distraction that Evan hoped would work and it did. He opened it up, the music played just as well as before and the chain wasn't rusted or had any dents. Thank god by some great miracle, it was not damaged.

"So, it's a music box?"
Karl looked up at him and held out the small trinket. He took a closer look, "Wow, it's so nice. Where did you get it? I've never seen anything like that around here before!"

Karl just couldn't believe how oblivious Evan was sometimes, "I made it for you."

A blush grew on Evan's face as he still looked at it, "Really? For me?" He gently and softly took it out of Karl's fingertips and put it around his neck, "You actually made this? I can't believe it."
He opened it back up again, the song started playing. "Fur Elise, right? I know that this song was composed by either Beethoven or Mozart, I just always forget which one."

He simply nodded, so Evan did know some stuff about music. Great, he would teach Evan more and more if he wanted to know. He couldn't take his eyes off of his expression, it was so puzzling. the look was like something a cat would use when it looked into a paper bag and had no idea what it should do with it. He remembered seeing one of his grandparents' cats play inside a paperbag. The memory of it made his laugh.

"What are you laughing at, Ruprecht?"

"Nothing." he answered between stifling laughs.

Suddenly, he asked once more, "Do you think we should head back to town?"

Karl reached into his wet pocket and pulled out his watch. It was ticking, but there was no knowledge whether or not it was the correct time. He supposed that he saw Evan close to 4 o' clock, he was supposedly out for an hour, throw in a few extra minutes for falling into the river and drifting downstream. And the walk back would be about an hour and a half to a full 2 hours. Okay, yeah.... walking back would be a great idea.
He got up and hung his jacket over his shoulder, "Great, just great."

There was a sad tone in his voice, "This is my fault, isn't it?"

Karl looked up at this boy.

"I just wanted to see you again and then you almost drown to death because of me."

He sighed, god, why was this boy so adorable?! He came closer to him and stroked his cheek, a blush grew on both their faces, "It's not your fault, Evan. I wanted to see you today too. It's just that I was hoping we could talk more and do much more. But now... we have to walk half a distance back to town and I bet we'll both be in trouble."

Evan smiled an awkward smile at him as he grabbed onto his arm and said, "Let's see the glass as half full instead of half empty, Ruprecht.... In a way; we can still spend some time together. We can always talk on the way back..." he looked up to the sky, "And I heard that it's supposed to be a very lovely night, with a full moon. So that won't be any loss at all, to me." He looked up to the sky, then to the path back to town,
"Yeah... You're right."

On the way back, they spent the entire time talking and laughing and joking, however the strange thing was that during their many conversations, not a single detail of Evan came up. The only thing he knew about this boy was that he was the cobblers' son and that he was as kind as an angel.
Either than that, nothing else. He felt so ignorant. He probably knew so much about him, but he didn't even know a single thing about Evan.

When they came to the square of the little town, Evan insisted that they parted there. Without any question, Kroenen agreed. He wondered why he was so eager to suddenly get away from him. When he entered the house in the dark of the night, his parents had been sitting patiently and anxiously at the door for him.

"Karl!" his mother cried out as she ran to him, embracing him. "Where were you? Why are you all wet?"

Sigh, his clothes still weren't dry! How long had he been honestly walking for? An hour? 2 hours? He looked at the owl clock over his mother's shoulder. Wow... he had been walking back for about 2 hours!
He took a deep breath. He was really going to have to think on his feet to tell his parents the truth, while still keeping out of trouble....

Holding the music box, Evan opened and closed the little music box to listen to the melody of Fur Elise.
Evan loved to hear it over and over again, but mostly because Karl had made it and given it to Evan.

Suddenly, Evan closed it shut and said out to the darkness, "I know you're out there. My memory may be the most terrible, but I never forget people like you...." Turning around to look all over, Evan spoke out again with a dead seriousness, "What are you doing here? The fires in the town? The incident at the bridge? If you keep this up, we'll both be discovered."

Then from behind, a large shadow broke through. Like black ink peeling away, a face of incredible beauty appeared through. The face was one of masculine adolescence, with a sort of adulted tinge to it. The spiky hair was scarlet red with black strands and locks that separated so perfectly and evenly and the face's eyes were also a crimson red colour with streaks of black in the iris, matching the hair so sublimely. It couldn't be told what it was that he was wearing. Seeing pitch black in night was difficult to tell. But what he wore to cover up his nakednes certainly did it's job. It covered him enough, but left room for his hands and wrists, his chest that was padded with muscles, but not too much that it was overbearing.
"My love." he spoke from the slinky shadows, "Am I that much of an unforgettable experience to you?"

Evan looked down and with a glaring gaze, looked at him straight in the eye, "You are disgusting, get out of this town."

He came out of the shadows completely, tangling his arms from Evan's back and whispering in a sultry voice in Evan's ear, "You say that, but you don't really mean it. Do you know how hard it was to find you again after that day in the bank with the stabbing, especially with your new disguise? I got in trouble so many times. Look at me, look at this young form, I'm not even matured yet. Just know it's because of you."

"I don't want to see you again, Bruce. You can die as many times as you want, I don't care. Why should I even care? You are sick... just like the rest of them." Evan spat, slapping away Bruce's hand that was just rubbing over Evan's lips so gently and teasingly.

Bruce retorted back in an outraged tone, "What? Are you angry because I sent that mortal into the river? Is that stupid human your pet?"

"He's not my pet.... he's my friend."

Then Bruce smiled devilishly, "Your friend, eh? Do you think he'll still be your friend... when he knows about you?"

"....Yes."

"You're going to die soon, do you think he'll be able to forgive you for throwing away your life like that?"

Now Evan wasn't sure on how to answer, anybody would be angry..... it was considered sin to just give up the urge to live and die, unless it was for the sacrifice for someone.
"He will understand, I'm sure of it."

"Forget about him.... oh, wait. You will when you die!"

Evan was trembling now, from fear and anger and outrage, "Are you just hear to taunt and mock me?" Evan suddenly bent over a bit from the shock and pain from a headache. A clenched hand rose up to massage the sore temple. Rising up and composing one's self, Evan stood stiff.

"Actually... I'm here to ask you again to join us.. it's a lot more fun, y'know." Bruce tilted his head and looked at Evan's eyes; a small red tint could already be seen flowering in the golden irises. "And it looks like you want to. Blood's boiling and I can see it clearly as fire."

Evan explained half-heartily, "I'm sure I've told you this before but-"

Bruce interrupted, "Yeah, too many times, but go ahead. It's hot to hear you talk."

Feeling disgusted, Evan struggled through the awful feeling to still explain the reason, "I know better for myself. I will never join you, you are horrible creatures, bringing people's souls into the darkness, guiding them into blasphemy! I won't have anything to do with that! It's too horrible. I'd rather die again and again, over and over, forget about my life and my memories than become like you!"

Bruce sighed, "Damn, you're so hot."

"How dare you?"
Evan drew back a hand to slap Bruce's horrible face, but immediately in a flash, he appeared and grasped Evan's hand tightly, "Listen, you are perhaps one of the most powerful in our kind, but you waste that power before it can even be developed - while it's just struggling to come out, dying for those mortals. They will all die one day, everyone of them will, fate and time decides it. But why do you even bother to try and prolong something like that?"

Evan sighed, Bruce was right. Evan had always known that. Though he and his kind was evil, they were right in in their own way of what they always told Evan about the choices and balances of Heaven and Hell. Still, Evan answered, "Because, their life has more value to me than my own."

Bruce sighed bitterly, but slowly he bent down closer to Evan's face, his lips parting to enter for an open-mouthed kiss. But before he could even get anywhere, a sharp radiance snapped him away.
"Argh! The Light!"

Evan stood smiling triumphantly, "You and your breed are not the only ones with powers."

Bruce stood up, "Well, I can see you're angry, so I'll be the mature one. But remember, we're always waiting for you. So... just call me and I'll come to get you."

"It won't happen."

"Whatever you say." He turned his back to Evan and from under his leather trench coat, a pair of devil wings that were shining like silk in the full moonlight opened up.
"One last thing." he said, still not looking at Evan. "The others told me to spread this on to everybody. You count as half, so I thought to tell you this too. A war is coming up.... soon."

That struck Evan's curiosity. War meant only one thing to Evan, Death. "When will it be?"

"I don't know, we're still talking about the date. We want this one to be a really big one. One that could end all wars.... a world war. Now, the only problem is what will be the quickest and surest way to start it." Evan could hear a small laugh escaping from Bruce, "I wonder how many of them will die this time?"

Evan knew who Bruce meant by the way he accented 'them'. Evan wondered as well as many would die again in a way, all would willingly die for the lives of mortals, but would their lives alone save enough? Save the right ones? Everyone wanted to live, but if should a war every occur, they would have to sacrifice a few lives, they would have to choose which one was worth saving, which one they could save, which lives were worth more than another's. Such a thing didn't just kill mortals, it tore at Evan's kind, Evan's breed. To watch as someone died, as someone was killed and being forced to stand aside was something horrible and almost unforgivable if you had to save them.
Evan whispered while gripping at the locket, "Good-bye, Bruce."

"Bye, love." he bidded adieu in a a romantic tone. Then he flew away into the night and disappeared into the shadows of the darkness.

Evan walked back to the shoe cobblers house, yes... Evan would die soon, the question was;
When would death and the time come?

Okay, so that was the second chapter. Just to tell you, the next chapter is still during this time, 1911 in Saxony. Please read and review. Don't forget to check out "Geminis & Aquarius" It's an Abe/OC/ Johann fanfic. There's even a poll for it.

Thank you!