Chapter One: Out Of The Ashes

Present Day Norway

"That will end our class today, make sure you complete the papers I handed out earlier," she told the class as she turned to face them. She had no accent like the rest of the staff or students who held an Eastern Norwegian accent. Unlike them, she spoke with a clear southern accent from Virginia which seemed to keep the attention of her students. The sound of the bell dismissing the teenage students rung loudly through the room followed by a sudden shuffle of papers and shoes on the floor. "Do not forget!" she yelled to them as she watched them file out of the room one by one. Once the last student was gone a man stepped into the room with his arms casually crossed.

"How is it, you give them homework and yet you are still their favorite?" He asked as he uncrossed his arms and walked nearer to her reaching out and tugging her hips towards him. She seemed to be caught off guard because the papers in her hands fell to the floor. "Its just not fair," he commented with a kiss on her lips. She giggled lightly as she pulled back, looking around the room scanning for any faces.

"Barlan, you know you cant do that while we're teaching," she whispered to him as she slid her hands up behind his neck. She let out a soft sigh and hung her head back somewhat from him, refusing another kiss.

"Well Elizabeth...I am just not sure if I can wait until we get home," he told her with a small grin. He was a well dressed man, tall and dark haired, his face was rugged and attractive, everything about him was almost perfect. Her first student walked into the room and cleared her throat to announce herself as she sat in the back of the room. Elizabeth quickly pulled back and pushed him away while she fixed her dress she was wearing.

"Hello Miss. Delaqu," she said to the girl as she walked behind her desk. "Mister Chanc I will speak with you later on that topic," she said politely to him. He chuckled slightly and nodded his head turning away to walk through the incoming rush of students. She knew everyone knew they were married but it always made her uncomfortable when they saw the two of them together while they were at work. She avoided showing too much affection and even went out of her way sometimes to not speak with him during school hours.

By the end of the day, she sat at her desk with a defeated sigh, her feet were sore from her new shoes she was breaking in and everything in general was starting to take a toll on her emotional well being. As she sat back watching the crowds outside disperse into the buses and return the readied minds of her students back to their homes she heard her husband enter the room.

"You realize one day someone might catch us kissing and you may die of embarrassment?" He smirked slightly as he pulled a chair up to her desk. He always loved to tease her about her moral sense of public displays of affection around her students. She rolled her eyes and looked over at him, tossing a pencil at his chest which he caught with ease. "Ouch," he said dramatically.

"We have to set good examples for them, they are at that age where they could become sexually active and we need to show them a relationship is more then that," she told him while she cleaned the desk up.

"Elizabeth, perhaps in the states your students were more promiscuous but here, we tend to have smarter children," he winked playfully as he crossed his legs casually and watched the empty hallway.

"You realize I have tutoring today, I wont be home until around six tonight," she reminded him as he turned his head.

"I entirely forgot, I suppose I will see you at home then," he got to his feet and leaned over the desk to catch her lips unexpectedly. The same girl from before that had seen them walked into the room and stood awkwardly. As Barlan pulled back he felt his face flush red for a moment seeing her there, "caught us twice in a day...I guess we are losing our secrecy," he joked to Elizabeth who stood up and ushered him away.

"Goodbye Mister Chanc," she told him shutting the door behind him as he left. "I am so sorry you had to see that Amelia," she apologized to the girl who laughed lightly.

"It is fine Mrs. Chanc, we all know you two are married, it's normal for a married couple to kiss at least, it doesn't bother me..or anyone," she assured her as the two of them walked over to the piano in the corner of the room. Amelia set down her bag and lifted up the cover to the keys to expose them, she ran her fingers over a few not letting any noise escape though.

"Well then, shall we begin?" Elizabeth asked as she sat down beside her and they began the lesson. She was already advanced so it was mostly Elizabeth correcting minor mistakes and giving her new material to practice at home. Near the end of the practice she hit the wrong key which Elizabeth tapped the paper which she did when Amelia made an error, and in that exact moment the sound of a crash outside rang in their ears. Amelia jumped in surprise and pulled her hands away from the keys entirely. Elizabeth got to her feet walking over to the window looking around for the source of the noise but there was nothing in her sight.

"Stay here, okay?" she said to Amelia as she grabbed her jacket off her chair and pulled it on to run towards the exit. A few other teachers had also made their way to the back side of the school where an immense amount of smoke clouded the air. Elizabeth shielded her eyes and mouth for a moment while she stepped near the building. "What happened?" she asked the woman beside her.

"No idea, we called the police and they told us to stay back," the woman said before heading back inside due to the smoke becoming thicker. Elizabeth had turned to follow suit as many did but something inside her told her to wait so she stood at the door in wait. A moment after everyone else had gone, a man emerged from the smoke. She instantly ran towards him to help whoever it was, he walked with a small gimp and seemed to have no clothes on but his skin was covered in the dirty soot.

"Oh my.." she whispered to herself as she offered her body to help him towards clean air. He was quite a bit taller then her, and his hair was covering his face so she could not make much out about him. Once out of the smoke she pulled her jacket off and handed it to him, looking away to the side after remembering he was not wearing anything. "The police should be here soon, and medics," she told him as she faced away completely. Her jacket was placed back on her shoulders which surprised her making her turn to face him. His eyes were visible through the dirty blond hair he pushed back, a piercing silver blue color staring down at her. She didn't even realize she was staring back until the sound of sirens reached her ears.

"Move aside miss," the medic said to her as he set down his bag and began to check over the man covered in the ash. Elizabeth stepped away until she was completely out of the way, her arms reaching up to put her jacket back on. The scene became very hectic very quickly, medics and police swarming the grounds and forcing all the teachers and students inside for their safety. Naturally the reporters showed up shortly after asking everyone for eye witness accounts, but Elizabeth went back to her class room shutting the door behind her and assuring Amelia everything would be alright. She stood by the window watching as the crowd got bigger and bigger by the minute while Amelia took the time to practice her keys. Hours went by before they cleared the scene and allowed everyone to leave, which by then everyone had grown tired and had no problem rushing out of there. Elizabeth said goodbye to Amelia and a few others as she sat in her car with a heavy sigh. The man had to have been taken to the hospital with how he looked, but she still had no idea what had caused the accident. Once everyone around her was gone, she got out of the car and passed through the warning tape they had up to see what was behind the school. From a distance it was just a large crater in the ground, and by time she was right upon it she could see not much more. The ground looked as if a comet with immense force had smashed directly into the ground leaving a hole the size of a car. She knelt down and touched the dirt as if something would change the scene but nothing of importance was there. The police most likely took any evidence with them, she laughed at herself under her breath and stood up thinking about all these things. She reached for her keys which she had put into her pocket but didn't feel them. She turned around to search the ground but was greeted by the man from before. This time he was cleaned and dressed at least but it made her stumble back in surprise, nearly falling into the pit. His reflexes grabbed her and tugged her back so quickly it took away her breath. He did not speak, just surveyed her entire being with his hand on her waist.

"Oh," she finally said snapping back to reality and clearing her throat. She carefully side stepped away from him to put some distance between them. "You're...you're okay?" she asked in disbelief as she glanced at the hole then to him. He looked completely different from before, his skin was so pale that in the sun it was almost translucent and his hair clean from the soot was a golden blond that fell over his ears. His eyes were the same though, just as bright and trance like as she stared at him without noticing what she was doing.

"Thank you for helping me Iris," he said to her, but when he called her by that name she raised an eye.

"Sorry if they told you that was my name but it's not. My name is Elizabeth, and of course you're welcome...but what...what on earth happened?" she asked him, he stepped towards her only slightly but she felt frozen in her spot to move.

"Iris, it is me..Aleister... you don't have to hide anymore," he said with a softness to his voice but it scared her when he reached out to touch her arm.

"Whoa hey there buddy, I am not Iris, I am Elizabeth and I am married!" she told him quickly as she took steps away and put her hands up, "did they release you from the hospital? I think you need to return," she nodded desperately as she felt the school coming closer and him getting farther away. She pulled her phone out ready to call the police back if he did not stop. He did not come any closer though, instead looked at her in confusion.

"Forgive me, you look so much like my friend Iris, I thought you were her," he reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded photo, "see?" He lifted it up, the creases indicated that this photo was pretty old and worn out. She hesitantly stepped just close enough to see the woman dressed in clothes from maybe the 1800s sitting posing for a photo. Remarkably it did resemble herself, it could certainly be said that she was her twin. Once he took it back and placed it back into his pocket she seemed to relax slightly.

"Very odd but I am not her...like I said, my name is Elizabeth..Elizabeth Chanc," she said figuring a formal introduction seemed in order as she reached her hand out. He stepped closer going for her hand but instead lifted her fingers up gently and kissed her skin. His lips were cold as ice even though he was not shivering. She was still holding her phone which began to ring, startling her. She felt like she had jumped so many times today which was unusual for her, but considering everything happening she accepted the jumpiness. She lifted the phone seeing it was Barlan calling her, she picked up the phone.

"Hey sorry, I am heading home, they had a few more questions for me since I helped..." she told him immediately, pausing to listen to him, "of course ill grab some on my way home, bye." she hit end and looked back up but the man who had called himself Aleister was gone from sight. How could he have moved that quickly, that quietly without her even realizing or noticing he was gone? She ran her fingers through her hair and inhaled deeply before heading to her car to drive home. By time she stopped at the store for the milk it was nearly eleven at night. She walked in and put the milk away, all the lights were off and it seemed that Barlan had already headed to bed. She sat for a while contemplating everything that had happened that day. It felt like days had gone by and not just hours but something about that man and his words, his eyes made her feel uneasy.

"Want to come to bed?" Barlan asked from the doorway, she looked over at him and smiled.

"Ill be up there in a few minutes," she told him with a nod as she reached down to slide the shoes off, finally feeling sweet relief from being able to feel her toes again. Barlan turned away and could be heard going up the stairs to their room. Her phone on the table lit up the room with a text message.

I need to see you again Elizabeth.