Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Noblesse.
This was written for the 2016 Noblesse December Event hosted by Madame aZure! New prompt for each chapter - this one is "Soothe."
Six Worlds Down
Soothe
He wakes up in the ocean.
It is all encompassing, all boundless. The horizon is too far away from him, too distant, and it blends into the sky. There is cloudlessness and then there is this. His hands graze upon the surface he is lying on. Rough wood and chiselled edges, dry. A hand touches his and he curls his into a fist.
"Frankenstein."
Frankenstein is awake. The face that floats over him looks worried for a short moment, and then relaxes, smiling, smiling at him. There is the soft sound of water splashing, the gentle rock of their boat from side to side. Frankenstein unfurls his fist, weaving his fingers between Raizel's.
"Master," he says.
"Be careful," Raizel warns him.
Frankenstein blinks. "Pardon?"
Raizel squeezes his hand. "Be careful of the edge."
"The…edge?"
Frankenstein sits up fully and something rushes around him, the windless day replaced with another atmosphere as his hair is strewn over his face. The air feels thinner now. It feels like something has been driven out of him, and something else has come inside.
He's standing at the edge of a cliff, the sound of shipwrecks and capsizes, waves crashing upon rocks, booming below him. The ground feels like it's miles and miles away, the water, still close before his eyes.
Frankenstein is awake. Raizel has stopped holding hand, though he doesn't know when. Raizel walks to the very edge, so close to the end that soil dips under his weight and crumbles into the wind. Stones fall into the rolling sea. Frankenstein feels tense for a moment, confused. Then:
"Isn't it beautiful, Frankenstein?"
"Beautiful?"
Raizel nods at him earnestly. "The sunrise."
Frankenstein blinks. Perhaps the blue sky was never blue. The sky was gilded and fiery and alive in colour. Frankenstein goes to join him. "Yes, it's beautiful. Isn't it much better seeing the sunrise from here, up close, instead of from your window?"
Raizel brushes his hand against Frankenstein's, touching only for a moment. He looks up at him, a weary look on his face. Then Raizel smiles, a secretive something on his lips. He walks away.
Frankenstein's heart jolts in his chest; has he said something wrong? Should he say something—
Ah.
"Master, we can return if you miss the mansion."
"The mansion," Raizel murmurs, mulling the thought over. He shakes his head. "No." Raizel turns around fully, looking Frankenstein right in the eyes. "Beware the cold," he says.
The sun's rays soak into his back. Frankenstein takes a step forward towards Raizel. His weight shifts from the front foot back onto his back foot as ends of the cliff crumbles completely. Raizel doesn't look surprised when he watches Frankenstein disappear off the edge.
He's falling, suddenly, falling for too long and too slowly. It speeds up too abruptly.
Frankenstein is awake. He sucks in air, sucks in a cold draft that travels up his nose and melts snowflakes at the back of his oesophagus. Raizel hovers over him, sighing. He holds out a hand for him. Frankenstein takes it. He isn't surprised by Raizel's strength as he pulls him easily to his feet.
Raizel's hair is dappled with snow, most of it disappearing as it lands on his white blazer. Frankenstein gasps as he takes in his image. Quickly, he pulls off his winter coat, draping it over Raizel. "What about you?" Raizel asks, exasperated.
Frankenstein grins at him. "I'm not afraid of the cold."
They are walking on ice. Creaks and yawns and keening echoes below them like something underneath is ready to force it's way out. Raizel huffs, hot breath wafting out before them. "Lead the way."
"Yes, Master." Frankenstein thought it appropriate to bow. He takes a few steps over the ice, one slow foot over the other.
"Frankenstein?" Raizel asks.
"Yes?"
Raizel closes the coat around him tighter. "Will you tire of this soon?"
Frankenstein shakes his head before Raizel finishes. "Not with you," he says, sure of himself before he's sure of what Raizel was asking. "I may grow tired, but I will stay with you if you won't retire." Frankenstein gestures to the path he's tested.
Raizel smiles. He follows Frankenstein's footsteps on the ice. He takes two steps. On the third, a harsh, loud crack reverberates over the ice, causing vibrations to rock beneath his feet. Frankenstein looks up, terrified, before the ground gives away and he crashes into the water. He sinks, every part of him pierced with the cold, bubbles of air spilling out of him back to the surface. Raizel's figure is still visible through the thin ice. His back touches the lakebed.
The lakebed goes soft for a moment; he blinks and wonders why the world has inverted; his feet are on the ground. Frankenstein leans into the computer seat, fingers typing away at the screen.
Frankenstein is awake. Footsteps tap behind him as he's working. The smell of green tea permeates the room, beckoning him to stop. A hand touches his shoulder, causing Frankenstein to look back.
"You work diligently, Frankenstein. But, come. This is enough." Raizel picks up the porcelain cup he's bought in, pulls Frankenstein's saluting hand off his chest and presses it onto the cup. His cold hands warm up immediately.
"Thank you, My Lord," Frankenstein chuckles, taking a sip.
"It is enough, Frankenstein," Raizel repeats, and makes Frankenstein put down the cup.
"What is enough?" he asks after a moment, to be sure.
"It's enough."
His seat feels like it's rolling backwards, it feels like the ground has opened and swallowed him up whole, closed up the ceiling from where he's fallen and yet his feet are firmly planted on the ground.
"Master?" Frankenstein asks him, standing at his side as Raizel watches the fireplace. Watches the flames flicker and dance, captivated by it. Had Raizel asked him a question? He didn't remember. But wouldn't it be so rude of him not to answer? Raizel is watching the hearth. Frankenstein is awake. "Is there something I may do for you?" he asks.
Raizel cleaves his eyes from the fire to Frankenstein. "I…I…" he stutters, nails digging into the armrests of his chair.
"If it's in my power, Master, I will do it," Frankenstein says, walking up to him. "Command me."
Raizel seizes his hand, squeezing it, and brings it to his forehead. Frankenstein goes to one knee before his chair.
"Do not…" Raizel says, "…do not forget my name."
Frankenstein pulls back accidentally, breaking his hold on him. "Your…name?" he says, the words peculiar, peculiar. Everything so peculiar.
"Frankenstein."
It was Raizel's voice that had called him, so Frankenstein spun around to answer. But, Raizel is there — was there — right before him. Frankenstein turns back, but it's no longer the cosy room.
The smell of incense fumes and smoke fills the air. Long grass tickles his feet. He is barefoot, ends of his trousers rolled up and collar of his shirt open. There is Raizel, lain on the floor with his eyes closed. He too is barefoot, his cravat and blazer folded neatly next to him. Frankenstein looks down and suddenly he's looking at the grass wedged between his arms and legs, his body lying beside Raizel's. He leans his head on Raizel's shoulder, and Raizel lets him. Raizel says nothing.
Frankenstein is awake.
The slight sound of Raizel's breaths, in, out, in out, lull him.
He closes his eyes to sleep.
Pair of hands grab at his clothes, lifting him all the way up before he has a chance to open his eyes in reflex, but his reflex was too slow, too slow. It all seemed to slow, the hands dishevelling his clothes, wetting the part of the garments they held, making the ends of his collars tremble.
Frankenstein pulls back, bats the man away. "What are you doing?!" he shouts, confused.
It's changed again, something to do with the dark coloured walls and orderly hall, the bronze tables, hanging lights, paintings and mirrors lining the corridor down and red, red carpet. Like something slipping away into the cracks, and something else slipping in, quietly. Always so quietly.
The face before him focuses. It's Raizel's face, wet, pale — abnormally so — and fearful.
"My Lor…"
Raizel shakes his head, trying to breathe.
"Frankenstei…"
He tries to say it and is cut off unexpectedly. His mouth keeps moving but Frankenstein isn't hearing anything. He's deaf. It isn't just a tear-stained face; Raizel's hair, his clothes, were drenched, dripping water onto the red carpet, making his footsteps deepen the colour of it as he stumbles forward. He mouths words that seem to slow and distort, and Frankenstein can't concentrate, isn't sure what is happening.
Fra—
ken—
st—
"FRANKENSTEIN!" his voice booms down the hall, finally, suddenly.
Frankenstein catches Raizel as he curls over, head bobbing dangerously. "Don't…" Raizel says, hands struggling to get a hold of him, pulling on his suit and done-up bow. "Don't fall—"
"Master!"
They collapse on the floor, water soaking into Frankenstein's pristine clothes. Frankenstein is wide awake. The fog is lifted but nothing seems coherent. "What happened?! What's wrong?! Master!" he cries, voice breaking. Anger bubbles beneath the surface as his throat clenches and swallows. "Who did this to you?!"
Raizel shakes his head, shakes it hard, urgently. "Frankenstein, Frankenstein — heed my words. You—" He hacks and places a hand on his Frankenstein's shoulder in the right way.
Master, Frankenstein mouthed, and this time it is he that is mute. He moves to claw at his neck. Raizel clasps his wrist, stopping him.
"Do not fall asleep," Raizel warns. His hair looks almost grey in this light.
"I…I don't understand. I don't understand, Master—"
The unknown sheds away into nothing — a lack of time passing, or perhaps it had passed far too fast for him to realise. The weight of something — someone — leaves his fingers. He then feels weightless.
Frankenstein wakes up in the ocean.
It is all encompassing, all boundless. The horizon is too far away from him and it blends into the sky. When he woke, he felt like he had forgotten something momentous.
There are clouds in the sky, a few tufts dotted all the way into the distance. A soft wind ripples the water. The boat rocks from side to side as Frankenstein sits up. Raizel's finger's had intertwined with his, sometime during their row out into the open.
Raizel smiles at him, and sighs a little sadly. Frankenstein's heart heaves.
"Will this not bore you soon, Frankenstein?" he asks.
"No," Frankenstein replies immediately.
"Eventually, it will," Raizel says wistfully.
Frankenstein is awake. He presses Raizel's hand to his mouth. "Never, if it's with you."
!
