Theft of Thine Heart
Chapter Twenty One
Soon enough it came time to leave the Empire. It almost felt like only the other day when they had arrived, the week of peace having been bliss for all concerned. Those from the Vatican had descended to the docks when a airship waited for them. While Esther bid goodbye to Ion, Seth, Abel and Rain were also saying their own goodbyes. The small girl jumped on Rain with a hug.
"So you won't stay with me?"
Rain shook her head lightly, "I might come back some time but for now...I have to stay with this idiot or he'll get himself killed," she smirked as Abel pulled a face.
Seeing that the siblings needed to talk together for a moment, she gave Seth a last hug.
"Don't be worrying about me, I can take care of myself."
"But I still will," Seth smiled sadly, "be careful, Rain. The Orden will be after you again soon enough."
With that Rain walked away from the docks and towards the airship just as a transmission reached her. Drawing to a stop, she tapped the earpiece into life curiously.
"Rain? Come in, Rain."
"Kate?" the blue haired woman held the ear piece to get a better reception.
"Oh! How are you, Rain?" the bubbly nun asked before she seemed to shake her head, "no, no, I have a message from Lady Caterina. Don't go back to Rome, head straight for Istavan."
"Istavan?"
"Yes, Father Nightroad and Sister Esther will know the place, you are to meet for a conference. You'll be met at the station, Kate-out."
Turning just as Abel and Esther appeared, the former looking somewhat agitated at something, she told them what Kate had just told her. Both looked surprised to her confusion.
"So...Istavan?" she asked.
"It's where I grew up," Esther informed her before telling her of how she had met Abel, and of course about Gyula Kadar.
By the end of her tale they were already on the ship heading out of the Empire and Rain was looking sadly out of the window.
"That poor man..."
"You can understand him?" Esther asked curiously, looking saddened after completing her story.
Rain slowly nodded, "I daresay my father would have done the same if he lost me and my mother, people assume that Methuselah are heartless but they're no different from humans, just like there are humans who are capable of monstrous acts," she sighed quietly to herself with a frown before realising she had been scowling, "...so we're going there for a conference?"
"Most likely to see what has happened after Gyula's reign," Abel offered an answer with a yawn.
Esther's stomach grumbled before shortly being followed by the echoing of Abel's and Rain's. The nun chuckled while Rain stood, holding up a purse of money.
"Where did you get that?" Abel looked at her with wide eyes before Esther glared.
"You didn't steal that did you?"
"No," Rain scoffed innocently but was inwardly smirking as she left to buy something to eat.
She wasn't about to mention the man she had spotted walking off the ship just as they walked on-board; a man with a pocket that jingled a little too loudly for her taste. It was nice to see that her Methuselah agility was helping her pickpocket skills. Stood in the food cart of the airship, Rain was eyeing up a slice of chocolate cake with strawberries when she felt Abel come up behind her.
"Let me guess, you have no money so you want me to get you something to eat," Rain smirked to herself just as his gloved hand fell onto her shoulder.
Turning with a frown, she looked back at him only to notice he was looking at her oddly, his goofball attitude gone from earlier. Clearly something was on his mind and it left a heavy feeling in her gut. He steered her into an empty compartment before he sighed, holding the door with his hand while his back remained to her for a moment.
"Rain, I...the other night..."
"It's okay Abel," he looked up shocked as she cut him off, her eyes were met his without flickering but they seemed to have hardened almost as if shielding herself from emotion, "I understand, it was stupid."
"No," he blinked, holding her shoulders with a sudden surge of panic, before gently cupping her cheek, "I don't regret it. Never. But...until I can forgive myself," he brushed several locks of hair from her eyes, "will you wait for me?"
Rain stared at him for a moment, meeting those beautiful eyes of his, no matter what he said it still sounded like that intense moment had been a one-off, a once in a lifetime event. That there would be no more and that she should save herself from further pain by cutting off those emotions now. And here he was asking for her to wait for him to forgive himself? How long would that be? He was immortal and she was not, she would eventually fade away even as a Methuselah. But she found herself slowly nodding. Why? If it had been any other man she knew she would have turned him down but she couldn't, not when she knew what she did about him. Not when she felt her heart hurting so much as he smiled sadly at her. She could say no words because she felt like she couldn't speak as her throat closed up. Kissing her forehead, his lips remained for a moment longer before he turned and quietly left.
"I'm sorry."
No doubt when she returned to their compartment he would be his usual goofy self. And she would be forced to be her usual self, picking on him for acting like an idiot. And she would hate it. Once she was sure she was alone she let herself slide to the floor, clutching at her chest as if in pain. She should have never let her heart get close to someone. Not when it hurt so much.
It took a while before she could compose herself enough to return. Esther appeared to have not noticed her absence as out of the ordinary, said nun merely looking up at her excitedly at the prospect of food.
"Don't eat it all at once," she teased as she tossed the nun a sandwich before throwing another at Abel.
He almost didn't catch the sandwich, juggling it in the air for a moment before grasping it firmly with a sigh of relief. Already she felt like she wished to be elsewhere. Rain took up her seat by the window once more and sighed quietly to herself, pulling at the high collar of her black shirt before settling down to close her eyes.
"Are you not eating Rain?" Esther asked innocently, pausing before she took a bite from the sandwich.
"I'm fine, just tired," said blue haired woman waved a hand idly.
Abel cast a sad glance her way, a look of apology in his eyes but she ignored it as she let sleep claim her.
The sound of scribbling pencils on paper echoed off the white washed walls around her. It was a sound of isolation away from the world but the girl didn't seem to mind. She was content to draw her pictures as she lay on her front, swinging her legs behind her back and humming quietly. She drew pictures of herself with her parents, she drew pictures of the people she had seen in the white hallways and she drew pictures of the places she had been. When she wasn't drawing, the young girl was reading from the various books that littered a nearby shelf in her room. From books of fantastical stories of mythical creatures to a time long past where technology had covered the world. Rain found them to be wonderful, losing herself into the pages and forgetting about the place she could never leave. Of course she could leave the room but the building itself was another thing entirely.
Hearing the door of her room click open, she tilted her head sideways to see who had come to visit, hoping it was perhaps her father or the mother she never got to see anymore. Instead there stood a man with long dark hair, dark eyes staring down at her blankly whilst framed by those long bangs of dark abyss. She thought he looked funny with his long hair like a girl.
"Come along, little Rain," he gestured out of the open door with a gloved hand, "Mein Herr wishes to see you today."
"Mein Herr?" Rain repeated curiously, wondering what one of those was.
Nevertheless she stood up, dusting off her long white dress that almost blended with the white walls, her long navy hair standing out from the lack of colour around the place. Her feet softly padded down the halls in her small shoes, almost skipping as she walked beside the man with girly hair.
They didn't pass anyone else in the hallways, sometimes she would see people who wore long white coats and looked at her funny, other times she saw tall men wrapped in dark cloaks with their faces covered. They were the ones who gave Rain a bad feeling. The dark clad man suddenly stopped to her surprise, opening a doorway she had never been allowed through before. With curiosity peeked, the young girl peered inside. The room was much darker than those she had been in before, almost pitch black but for dim lighting from a strange tank of glowing water. Computer screens flickered to one side of the wall. Rain didn't want to go inside, she wanted to go back. However as she tried to take a step back the dark haired man was stood there, pushing her forwards as the door closed swallowing her in darkness. Sudden movement in the water made her jump.
"Oh? Don't be so scared little one!" an airy voice floating through the darkness towards her as more water splashed with movement before the sound of a foot hitting the floor almost made her flinch, "you're perfectly safe here!"
Her wide eyes finally made out a man stepping out from the water tank, a towel wrapped around his thin body as he brushed back platinum blonde locks from his grinning face.
"Wh-Who are you?" Rain asked quietly, shuffling nervously on the spot as the man neared, still grinning broadly before he crouched down to her eye level.
"Oh me? I'm an angel from the stars," he winked at her before standing up tall once more, holding out a hand to her suddenly, "come with me a second! There's something I want to show you, I'm sure you're going to love it."
Unsure, she slowly reached out and took the offered hand. He felt cold and it made her shiver but the grip around her small hand was suddenly tight. Led through the darkened room, the strange man sat down in front of a computer. Rain squeaked as he suddenly picked her up, putting her on his knee before pointing to one of the computer screens in front of him.
"You see that? Those numbers and graphs," he asked excitedly with a gleam in his eyes, "that's you! Well, of course it's you in scientific form with all your chromosomes and DNA, but it's you definitely," he looked down at her with a grin, "a perfect mix of the species, aren't you just wonderful!"
Rain didn't know what to say only that she really wanted to go back to her room, not liking the darkness she was suddenly in nor the man who had taken her further into the room. The supposed angel from the stars appeared to pout at her.
"Aren't you impressed?"
"I-I don't know what it means," Rain replied sheepishly, looking down at her feet before a hand fell atop her head.
The man smiled down at her in a way that sent an innate sense of fear down her spine. Even though she was a child she understood this fear that she suddenly felt, much like a mouse did when faced with a cat. He tapped his chin in thought before his grin widened.
"Oh! I know then, I've got a way to show you what it means," before he clicked his fingers.
Rain's eyed widened as she was suddenly lifted off the man's knee by unseen hands. On instinct she started kicking her legs, struggling to free herself but the hands around her were like iron. The next thing she knew she was laid face down on a cold hard table, her arms and legs restrained to said table. Tears began to stream down the young girl's face as she shouted and screamed for them to let her go. Soft tutting made her freeze.
"Now, now that's not nice considering I'm about to give you a present," the eerie man chuckled lightly before a flash of silver caught the corner of her eye, "this way you will understand what you are and never forget, Six."
He had barely finished his words when he began to cut into her back. Rain screamed in pain, crying out for her father as crimson lines appeared across her back, staining her white dress and dyeing it red.
Rain's eyes snapped open. Her heart was racing in her chest so much so she felt like it would explode. Remaining still as if frozen from her nightmare, she looked around the darkened compartment to see night had fallen and her two travelling companions had fallen asleep in their seats. Esther resting against the window of the compartment and Abel almost on the floor. Seeing them calmed her somewhat but she couldn't get rid of the feeling of her back being carved open. Her back felt like it was burning just from the memory alone; a scar that had grown with her over the years, the symbol for 'six' carved into her like brand. Even now she had no idea what he had meant nor what the symbol meant, she just assumed he had been a sick and twisted man. No, she doubted that thing was human. Running a hand across her face as she tried to calm her heart, she stared out into the calm night sky knowing that sleep would not be returning to her that night.