It was dark, and Erik was all alone.
There were no stars in the sky.
There were so many of them. They wouldn't listen to him. They took her away. Erik screamed. He cried. He reached out for his mother. But they wouldn't listen. They dragged him away, across the Wall.
The rain was icy cold. Chilling his very bones. The wind bit his soul, but he didn't care. He thrashed against his captors. But he was too young, too weak, too nothing. With all his might, he jerked both of his arms together –and pulled free. But his victory was short-lived. Strong hands caught him once again.
"Mamma!" He cried out, his voice broken.
"Erik!" His mother called out, from the other side of the iron. He saw it; the pain, the fear in her eyes. Unforgiving hands clutched her, unyielding and merciless. She didn't have a chance, and deep inside, Erik knew that.
"No!"
Ashy white wings sprung open, taking back his captors with surprise. Erik jumped, leaped, and ran towards his mother. But it was too late. The Gates were closing. His mother followed cue. Her grey wings pushed back her captors, but she was weak. Her feathers were feeble, just like her bony body.
She all but ran to the Gates, but she must've realized the truth by now. Thin fingers folded along the metal bars, and Erik covered her pale fingers with his own.
"Erik, it's alright," she said in his native language, and a tear rolled down her cheek. "It'll be alright."
"No!" Erik screamed, feeling so desperate and helpless. Please! Was there no one to help him? His vision went blurry with tears, but he wiped them off as the hands came back, pulling him away into the darkness.
He reached out again, rage and anger making him dizzy. "No!" He screamed again. He wouldn't let the Gates close. He had to do something. He had no hero in his story. He had no one in this whole world, but for his mother, and he wouldn't let them take her away. Please! Someone help him!
"Erik! I'm coming!" said a voice from the darkness, but Erik didn't listen. He concentrated on his mother and the closing Gates and the invisible hands. He had to do something.
He reached for the Gates. And then something unbelievable happened. Through his vision narrowed with rage and tears, he saw the metal sing out to him. The Gates moved an inch, and then another. His captors paused, shocked.
He saw his mother's eyes widen. Of course she had told him not to expose his powers. But it was too late now. He had no other option. He had to save her.
Please!
The metal in the Gates responded to his beckoning and moved. Just a few more inches, and he'd be able to go through. Suddenly, Erik felt something piercing his neck. He reached back, and pulled out a needle. They-they had given him a sedative! Erik realized as he started to feel dizzy.
No! He was so close. Please!
"You are good for nothing!" The voices chided.
"This is entirely your fault!"
"It's all because of you!"
"They caught her because of you, your carelessness, and you know it!"
The hands pulled him away again, and this time, Erik couldn't respond. No! He had to save her. Erik tried moving his arms, but his body wouldn't obey. Darkness swallowed his vision, and the last thing he saw was tears in his mother's eyes.
"It'll be alright, Erik," said a voice. The words were his mother's, but the tone wasn't, and that's all Erik knew.
It was dark, and Erik was all alone.
There was no sun in the sky.
Storm clouds had darkened the atmosphere. Erik was bleeding, but it didn't matter. The Worlds would soon erupt in a war, but Erik didn't care. The Elders would disown him, but he didn't give a damn! Nothing mattered.
Because the only friend he ever made, the only person in all the Worlds who mattered, lay wounded in his arms. And it was Erik's fault. Cerulean eyes looked up to him, pain and shock swirling in the electric orbs.
"You did this!" The owner of the electric blue eyes accused him. No! No! It was as if Erik's nightmares were coming back to life. The voices came back.
" It's your fault entirely; it's all because of you!" The taunting voices said to his mind.
"No, listen to me," Erik pleaded. "This is not how it will end. Please, listen to me, come with me, and everything will be alright." Erik felt helpless and desperate again. There was no one to help him. The only person who had tried, Erik cut off his wings. Literally. "You and I, we're brothers; we want the same thing." Erik tried to imply so many things in the subtext, hoping that the blue eyes would read his own sapphire eyes.
"No, my friend," blue eyes huffed. Then winched in pain, and Erik tried to meld the smaller body into his own. Anything to ease the pain. Undo what was done. But it only resulted in the wounded angel moving away. "We don't," the familiar voice declared, the words like poison to Erik's skin."We never wanted the same thing." And then the brunette turned away, eyes spilling all his pain in small cascades.
Erik heard something shatter in the distance; maybe it was his own crystalline heart.
Erik took that as goodbye. A lonely tear slipped down his face, but he swallowed back his pain, his heartbreak. After a long moment, he gently laid down the wounded angel, and stood, his body already yearning from the loss of contact. He pulled out his sword, Lucerna, glowing with a golden flame, and gently shoved it in the ground beside the wounded body.
Erik walked to the edge, feeling a certain gaze piercing his back. He didn't care for the Elders, the others. But he had his honor, and he decided to leave Paradise himself, before they got a chance to chide him.
All his fault.
He turned, glancing one last time into the ocean eyes. All he saw was pain and disbelief. Then he turned, and stepping forward, walking off the edge, embraced the Fall headfirst with his arms wide open.
At first, time slowed down, and Erik watched the colors fade from his life. It was as if he was outside his body, and he saw himself fall from the sky. His golden hair started blackening, as if the friction was painting him. His bright blue eyes faded to a dull grey before closing. He felt like a part of his soul, something important, bleaching away with the friction.
And then the fall gained momentum. Cold winds gushed by, sounds compiling into a single high pitched blur. Erik felt the friction burning him, pushing against him, threatening to dismantle him. His body ached, everything hurt, and a peculiar odor hit his nose. Something was burning.
His wings, the strongest set in all of Paradise, were burning with the fall. Erik looked back to Heaven, and saw blackened feathers gliding, leaving a trail behind his body. His body was on fire, his wings were on fire. But it didn't matter, his heart had already crumbled into ash.
Slowly, the darkness crept up, swallowing all the pain and aches. Erik knew it was a dream, again. But it wouldn't end. It all felt so real, as if it was happening again.
It was dark, and Erik was all alone.
"Not alone, my friend. You're not alone."
It was dark, and Erik was afraid.
But then the Gates opened, and light gushed in. Erik shielded his eyes with both of his hands. It was long since he felt this light on his skin, so serene and soothing. He cowered in the corner, suddenly a child again.
When he opened his eyes, there was a silhouette against the light. Erik didn't have to see the face to recognize the slender frame.
"Mamma!"
Eyes blurry with tears again, he stood and ran to his mother's waiting arms. The embrace felt so tangible, Erik tightened his hold, silently promising never to let go.
His mother pulled back, smiling through her tears. Then she took him by his hand, and Erik followed blindly. When his mother stopped, Erik walked around her to see where she had brought her.
It was her Temple, her private corner where she prayed to the Deity that gave them life. She let go of his hand, and Erik panicked. But then he saw her take a candle from the shrine and hand it to him.
Erik held the light, watching the flame dancing in the darkness.
"Erik," His mother's gentle voice interrupted his trance, and she motioned him to light the rest of the candles. Her smile was so carefree, as if nothing had happened. Erik smiled back, feeling light-hearted. He helped her light the rest of the room, with tears spilling down his face.
Erik was not afraid of the dark anymore. For there was no darkness to curse him.
"Not alone, love. Not alone." The voice was back; broken, but reassuring. Erik felt ghost touches against his temples, as if the wind was caressing his face and smoothing down his hair. The peaceful presence of his Guardian Angel was almost tangible. As if Erik had a hero in his life. Someone to save him. To mend him. An answer to his prayers.
He looked into the brown eyes of his mother, and for a moment, forgot all his troubles. "Not alone," he said out loud to her.
His heart calmed down, and this time, the darkness wasn't terrifying when it came. It was peaceful and serene. This time, sleep threw a merciful glance at him, and spared Erik of all nightmares. It wasn't cold. It wasn't lonely. It was as if another body was resting right next to him. Another heart beating right next to his. Breaths mingling and fingers entwined as candlelight slowly faded in the night, some eccentric darkling singing faraway, a song on serenity.
Skin against skin, and a misty fragrance suspended in the atmosphere. Blue eyes glowed in candlelight, beckoning out to Erik's silver ones. Hands caressed the candlelit skin, one body so pastel in comparison to the other tanned one. Erik fanned his long fingers against the edges of the pastel hipbones, suddenly feeling possessive. Wings casted long shadows on the wall, and feathers danced in the air, platinum white and charcoal black. Lips against lips, and Erik tasted the whole world on his tongue. Snowflakes and sugar and honey dew.
Fingers threaded in his hair and pulled, and all of a sudden, the urgency hit him. The lust. The want.
The need.
Pale legs wrapped around his waist and pulled him closer. Erik deepened the kiss, rolling his hips against the smaller frame. As his reward, a drawn out moan greeted his ears. Erik moved down to nip at the pale jaw.
"More," a voice whispered in his ears. A voice so familiar, urging him to hurry. More moaning and panting, inviting Erik to slide into the wet heat and bring them both the climax they desperately needed. The eager frame beneath his body moved up and rolled their erections together. Erik groaned, not wanting the pleasure to stop. This was so different than all the times he slept with others. Even the nymphs and sirens were not as pleasing. This was …as if these two bodies were made for each other –each touch eliciting sparks. The pleasure was raw and pure, like the sun and the moon. Like day and night. Like a dance of whisperers and listeners. Like the diamond ring around the eclipse. The perfect alignment of the three stars of Orion's belt.
Hands pulled his face back for a kiss, biting onto his lips to accelerate the action.
But Erik didn't want to hurry; he wanted to treasure every second. After all, it was everything we wanted for such a long time, he realized. But the broken voice that called out his name wanted otherwise.
"Erik," his Guardian Angel moaned, raw and open, and that's when Erik realized –it wasn't his dream anymore.
Grey eyes snapped open and Erik stared into an unfamiliar ceiling. He was panting and the covers were sticking to his sweaty body. Immediately, the familiar smell of snow and winter woods hit his nose. As his mind started processing everything, he heard a moan on his left. His eyes landed on the fingers clutching his bicep, and the soft locks of brown hair sprawled on his black, satin bed sheets. The muffled moon-light cast a silver lining on the sleeping figure.
Erik gently removed the hand from his arm, and felt a shiver travel down his spine from the contact. He sat up, analyzing the situation.
Charles was sitting on the ground, leaning onto Erik's bed. Even in the darkness, Erik could see the redness of his lips, like Charles had been chewing hard on them. He was sweating and breathing hard.
Erik felt his heart pick up pace again as his mind flooded with wrong thoughts. Thoughts that were, by the way, not of his own origin, at least not this time.
And then Charles moaned again, but this time he moaned Erik's name, so strung and desperate, that Erik felt his own libido rise a notch. Charles' grip on the sheets tightened, and he bit his lip in his sleep. Erik could only imagine what was Charles dreaming of, when Charles whispered, 'more, oh, Erik!'
Erik felt the animalistic urge to pull up Charles by the neck and kiss him right there, but something held him back. He just sat there, transfixed, watching Charles pant and moan his name.
After a few heart stopping moans, Charles whined, voice broken, his entire body shivering. Erik felt the tremors in his own body. Like thousands of paper lanterns released to the velvet night at the same time. Like two stars crashing together, the sparks annihilating within the brightness. Maybe it was because of the emotional roller-coaster he just went through in his dreams. Or maybe because he knew that, even if in his dreams, Erik was the one that cleaved Charles.
Erik recognized the musky smell as soon as it hit the air, when Charles climaxed. It made his mouth water. Almost immediately, Charles' eyes snapped open.
Time stood as still as a predator sensing his prey, and in the stillness, Erik could almost listen to what Charles was thinking.
"Erik!" Charles sat straight, but then his eyes moved down to his lap and widened.
Charles' smell had broken something inside Erik. Most probably his self-control. Eyes dark with lust and body scorching with the need to touch, Erik slowly inched towards Charles. Who had just spent himself, but Erik could smell his freshened arousal nonetheless.
"No, Erik, wait!" Charles said, backing away. "This isn't what you think it is!"
Erik didn't say anything, didn't feel like wasting his time with words. Like the predator, he moved towards the promise of a mouth-watering meal.
Raw and inviting and all of Erik's to take.
"Erik, I'm so sorry!" Charles said before de-materializing into thin air.