No ownership at all.
Finally!!!!!!!!!! I'm baaaaaaaack!!!! So very sry it took so long but as you know (if u read the last post that is) that i've had writers block, dreadful thing. This feels sorta like a comeback from the last one. Anyways it feels good to be able to make more stories. Don't 4get to review, tell me how u feel about it. If u hated it write it in a review, i don't mind, i might get some inspiration from it... anyhoo thx 4 reading. :}
Rashel and Quinn: Hope
The gentle, night breeze blew at Rashel's already messy hair, destroying any chances she had of looking decent.
It was dark out tonight; the moon wasn't out yet, and the flickering gas lights barley gave Rashel enough illumination to see her own hands much less the street she was on. Looking around at the inky blackness of her surroundings, Rashel couldn't help the overcoming sense of déjà vu that hit her. How many times has she, not Rashel Jordan but Rashel The Cat, reveled at the sight of a moonless night? How many times has she welcomed the concealing shadows? The shadows that helped her drag down so many of her blood-sucking victims?
A cheerless laugh escaped her lips, those days were over now and it did her no good reminiscing about them. What was the use? Rashel The Cat was done. Finished. Never to return again. And good riddance too. Rashel thought. Her past was just that, the past. And all she had now was the present.
Rashel followed the hard, concrete path to an empty park just south of Circle Daybreak facilities. She wasn't a "Wild Power" so she could come and go as she pleased, provided she told someone what she was up to. Today however, Rashel didn't tell anyone what she was doing. She simply had an impulse to go outside, to just relax and not think about the impending end of the world if only for a little while. That was approximately three hours ago.
She'd been walking and walking, not really having a destination in mind. But at least she stayed close to headquarters, she wasn't that stupid. And besides, she was waiting for someone. Rashel had settled down on a vacant park bench, hoping that she could extend her temporary vacation and just… be.
A massive tree towered over her from up front, its branches intertwining with each other creating a canopy of leaves directly above Rashel's head. Rashel found herself staring upward, making out intricate designs from the complex web of branches. She had never stopped to admire nature before, funny how she could start when the end of the world was near. No. That there was the reason she was out here in the first place. She had to stop thinking about that, she had to let herself relax, and this may be her last chance to do that.
Rashel continued staring at the tree. She began to work her way down, from the whispering leaves to the tangled branches, taking in every little detail she could. Finally, her probing eyes reached the trunk, tracing the faint lines of bark. Pretty soon she began to see shapes appear in the lines, almost as if she were drawing with her eyes. She could see circles and triangles. Squares and rectangles and octagons, all kinds of shapes. Before long she could spot more distinguished features in the wood. She could make out a heart-shaped oval and inside it were some finely chiseled features, almost like a face... a familiar face…
Rashel could practically see the blond fluff of hair on top of the oval and, if she concentrated hard enough, she could also recognize a pair of cornflower-blue eyes staring right at her, almost painfully…
"Daphne…" she whispered.
As she said it the picture seemed to morph into something— no, someone else. When it was done the face wasn't Daphne's at all. This one had a pudgy face, maybe a child. But it looked too knowing for a child, too lonely and too… too isolated.
Timmy.
She didn't say it out loud this time, but the trunk still seemed to morph into someone else's appearance. This time it was Nyala but, instead of the warm, sensible girl she knew now, Rashel saw the betrayed and frightened look back on her face. That look had disappeared almost a year ago. And then it was her very own mother, then her Sensei, the image kept changing and changing, Rashel could barely keep up. But it was always into someone she knew, or had known, always someone she had loved. And it hurt to see them, so much. Why?
Because all the images brought along a sense of doom in them.
Torture, agony, pain, grief, terror and, worst of all, hopelessness. Those were the most dominant expressions on each of them. Every. Single. One. It was too much for Rashel, her pain she can handle; concussions, broken limbs, drowning. Those were all easy for her, but this?
She couldn't stand it.
The icons had stopped changing. One by one each of the pictures reappeared, side-by-side. They seemed to be making a portrait, just for her. A tableau of all her loved ones being engulfed by wretched despair. Rashel could no longer see the beautiful, enchanting landscape that was Mother Nature. All she could see know was a still, dark, and depressing night, holding its very breath for the destruction that was to come. Because that was what the vignette was about, of that she was sure. Rashel was seeing what was to come when everything was lost, when everything will end. When the Apocalypse had begun.
One more look at the tree was enough to break down her barriers, enough to cause searing hot wetness to fall from her cheeks. And Rashel Jordan just sat there, feeling the eyes of a thousand tormented eyes on her, perhaps they were pitying her. She certainly looked like one to be pitied.
It could have been eons until she got a hold of herself, but as she did she noticed a movement somewhere to her right. Immediately her mind switched gears, going from helpless victim to a defensive stance. The silhouette moved closer, black on black. And then she waited.
"I thought I'd find you here."
The voice startled her. It shouldn't have though, if she had paid enough attention she could have easily seen the silky black hair and the equally fathomless eyes. But the biggest give away was the thrumming silver cord, heading directly to the mysterious man in black. God, I'm an idiot.
Her voice was still hoarse from crying so all she could say was: "You're late."
Quinn shrugged. "Sorry, I got held up." His eyes raked over her once and then widened in concern, the moon still wasn't out but he was a vampire, night-vision was one of the perks of being one you see, so obviously he could see how horrible she looked.
"What happened?" he asked. His voice was so tender, so gentle, Rashel was surprised at the vicious reputation he had. "Are you all right? Rashel speak to me."
She just shook her head as he sat down beside her. "Rashel? What's the matter? The Daybreakers are going to worry, we don't have much time—"
"Time." Rashel spat. "Time is exactly the problem." Her body seemed to crumple in on itself, and soon enough she was in her soulmates arms, crying even harder than before.
"We're running out, John." She sobbed. "We don't have much time. The apocalypse—" her breathing hitched up an octave and Rashel felt Quinn's shoulders tense. "The apocalypse is al—almost here. John... John what are what we going to do?"
Quinn had let his breath out slowly, his arms around her waist were still a bit tense but his face was expressionless, from what Rashel could see. Obviously he was trying to think up an answer for her question.
Slowly, he turned his face away, to stare at the moon. "Nothing."
Rashel doubled back, shocked. "What?"
"Nothing." He said turning back. "We can't do anything, Rashel. And you know that."
"No I do not!" she yelled. Her misery was forgotten, only to be replaced by a sudden need to do something worthwhile, anything. She knew she was being reckless, but at this point, what did she care?
"The world is going to end and you don't want to do anything?"
He didn't respond, actually he showed no signs of having to hear her at all. Rashel was getting sick.
"I can't believe it." She whispered, too enraged to shout. "You don't even care."
Quinn seemed to hear that. "You really think that?"
"Yes, I really do."
"Then what do you suppose we do? Neither of us are a "Wild Power", we may be able to stand a chance against a dragon, but we don't have the 'blue fire' to save the world." He shrugged indifferently, but a mocking smile lit up his face. "Face it, we're screwed."
Rashel smiled, just a little bit, Quinn always had a dark humor. It seemed to ease the tension a bit.
She sighed, not with frustration, but with resignation. "So, we do… nothing."
"No, not nothing." Quinn's arms eased around Rashel, and she welcomed the support. It seemed to shield her from the worries of the world, if only for a little while. "There is one thing we can do."
"And what's that?"
"Hope."
One word. He gave her a one-word answer. But that one word made all the difference. All at once her anxiety eased, her tensed shoulders relaxed, and the gnawing in her chest receded. Rashel hadn't realized she was holding her breath until her lungs ached. She exhaled slowly, deliberately, and then turned back to face Quinn head-on.
"You're right." This stirred up her memory somewhat. A memory of her and John on a boat, speeding away to an unknown future... Well, they had made quite a lot of progress since then, that was unmistakable, but they still had a long way to go. And it sure wasn't going to be easy.
"All we could do is hope." She said.
"That's about right, yes." He flashed another one of his sarcastic grins. "Are you all better now?"
Rashel gave one more glance behind her shoulder at the colossal tree that started all of this. It took most of her imagination but she spotted the faces again. But this time there was a difference. You think Rashel had used her creativity to alter the faces to seem like they're happy, right? Well, you're wrong.
Rashel wasn't really the creative type.
They were all still very gruesome to look at; some were more gruesome than she remembered. Nothing had changed there. But Rashel had changed. She had found her courage to face the bleak future head on now, and that's all that matters. Rahel had known from the very beginning that the future was going to be dangerous for her. She had also known that the world was never the way you want it to seem, no matter how much you want the world to be happy and wonderful and… and perfect, that's never the case. And it never will be.
But it didn't matter. She won't give up hope and she never will. Hope is the only thing that keeps most of the human race going, even in times of anger and despair. There's never an excuse for giving up, everyone has to try as long as there's hope. If Rashel died sometime soon, she'd die knowing that.
"Rashel?" Rashel looked back at Quinn. She had almost forgotten his question.
"Are you all better now?" he asked again.
Rashel gazed over his shoulder this time. Dawn had come and the sun was starting to rise. The start of a new day. Rashel thought. How apt. She returned her focus to her partner, her other-half, her soulmate.
"As a matter of fact, yes." She beamed up at him and he grinned back "Yes, I really am."
After Note: what'd u guys think? REVIEW! the concept for the story just came to me when i was reading something about the eonomy, how we couldn't afford to lose hope now... And i thought it'd be good to raise awareness on that, right? I mean it's like the same thing except that Rashel and the others are dealing with the destruction of the universe and stuff... yeah... well i'm also working on a Rashel fanfic. on my other story Night World Origins wen i'm done with it u can go check it out and review. Oh well, i'll stop bugging u now, thx 4 reading! :)