Chapter 25
Dear lovers of blades,
It's getting harder and harder to come up with those opening things. Well, anyway, everyone is saying that they're expecting a big reunion, and I'll try, but don't get your hopes up. Ezio DID sorta walk in on her making out with Desmond, and, well, not even Ezio can get over stuff like that easily.
Most sincerely,
AF
P.S. This song made me cry like a baby, and I NEVER cry. Ever. I swear if you listen to it and read this you will too. :')
Song: A Dustland Fairytale, The Killers
"…I hear the bell don't ring; I hear the bell don't ring!
I hear the good girls die. Now Cinderella, don't you go to sleep,
It's such a pity form of refuge. Now don't you know the kingdom's
Under siege, and everybody needs you! Is there still magic
In the midnight sun, or did you leave it back in '61?"
[DOS's have ended]
We landed roughly in something that was a curious shade of pink and squeaked oddly. Shudders ran through my body from the aftershock of falling out of the building. My first sensation was of utter agony. The bandages around my wrists, arms and thigh were dotted with fresh blood splotches. The second sensation that reached me was of crippling, mind-wrenching, heartbreaking sadness. My heart began to slow down to its regular rate, and I realized my chest was shaking from quiet, dry sobs racking through my body. My hand brushed something soft and cloth-like, and my hand tightened into a fist, pulling the cloth closer to my body and hugging it like a stuffed animal. Finally the tears came, flowing down my face and soaking into the cloth and the neckline on my shirt. I hiccupped violently, my shoulders jerking hard enough to make me wince. The hand that wasn't clutching onto the cloth was gripping my hair, right at the artificially red tips. I felt like tearing it out. I decided then and there that when I got home I was dying my hair jet black. My hands dragged more and more of the cloth towards me, and I realized that one side of it was dark brown, while the other white. At last I yanked the source of the cloth towards me, and I didn't even care that it was a certain Assassin's shoulder I was now hugging. After several minutes, I managed to choke out several words.
"E-Ezio . . ." I hiccupped. "W-where's Leah?"
A hand touched the side of my face, and I flinched away, almost against my will. The hand disappeared. "She will be waiting for us around the corner. We should go; she will be expecting us soon."
The cloth of his cape was pulled away from me suddenly, and I found myself yearning for it, if only for the simple need for wanting something to hold onto as I cried. I felt a shift in weight in the pink, squeaky stuff we were sitting in, and for a fleeting moment I wondered why we were in packing peanuts, before I figured that there was really no better modern version of the hay bale or wheelbarrow of rose petals then good old packing peanuts. My stomach twisted, and I decided that for now, the word "good" was not part of my vocabulary.
For a few more precious moments I lay in the peanuts, not wanting to move. It felt like something inside of me had been ripped out, something very close to my aorta. After a few more minutes, two large, warm hands dipped into the packing peanuts and pulled me out gently, and a rhythm picked up as I felt Ezio begin walking. I curled into a tight ball, my bandaged wounds searing in pain now that I wasn't cushioned by the Styrofoam.
The world moved in slow motion. I saw buildings moving lazily past, and cars strolling along the roads. Every step of Ezio's boot seemed to take minutes. The tears on my cheeks seemed to move at a snail's pace. It took my mind a while to realize that the building Abstergo was transferred to was only a few miles from my house. The thought fully formed in my mind as Ezio reached my car, Leah situated worriedly at the wheel. I saw the faded form of Emily in the passenger seat, looking just as panicked.
At the sight of us approaching, Leah leapt from the vehicle and bolted toward us, horror clear on her face. Regret washed through me like a cold wave, regret that I had to injure myself to accomplish Sixteen's timeline. No. My timeline.
"Anna, oh my god—" Her eyes raked up and down my sliced and bandaged arms and leg. "What happened!" The sound of her voice cut through the air like a blade.
I was about to answer, but Ezio jumped in for me. "There were complications." He said shortly. I gritted my teeth and tried not to roll my eyes. Complications. Great. Now Leah probably thought that Vidic and all his happy little Templar friends were going to come rushing after us. And maybe they were, who knew.
Leah began walking back to the car, not stopping telling me that I was going to get killed, and I had her worried sick, and that it was already the end of September and Mary-Alice's wedding was in May and that was when I started to register panic. My sister's wedding . . . it was so much closer than I had thought. Time melted into a meaningless blur in Abstergo. I had known at least three months had passed, but it still shocked me to come to terms with the reality of it.
Ezio lowered me into the backseat of the car, and I faintly heard the gentle purr of my car starting. Emily turned in her seat and smiled at me, but there was irritation and worry behind her eyes as well. I tried to push the Guilt Worm out of my mind, because now it wasn't just guilt for . . . well, for the Desmond situation. It was guilt from the decisions I was forced to make in Abstergo.
The car began to rumble down the road, and I sighed shakily and laid back in the backseat, only to realize with a sharp start that Ezio was sitting where I had just tried to lie down. I began to sit up when the Assassin gently put his arms around my waist, so I was forced to lean up against his shoulder. My body went rigid, and small chills ran up and down my neck. But despite my rather confusing uncomfortable-ness, I commanded my mind to sleep, and before too long I slipped away.
[…]
I woke up only when we arrived at my house. Ezio was carrying me to the door, and I blinked lazily, trying to get my bearings. Oh, I need to scan the eye thingy to get in. I cracked a sleepy eye open and the scanner beeped. Ezio opened the door and carefully set me down on the couch next to the door. Before he could even close the door, I found myself tumbling off the couch and onto my soft white carpeting. My hands clenched into the soft familiarity, and for the umpteenth time in the past three months, tears were rolling down my cheeks and into the carpet. Something wet touched my forehead, and I looked up to see none other than Gladstone peering curiously at me with his saggy eyes.
With a cry, I threw my arms around his little bulldog neck and kissed the top of his head. "Oh, Gladstone, at least you're alive." I wept. Hard, racking sobs shook my body, sobs that told a story and represented a lifetime of hurt. Sobs that were not just my own tears, but the tears of Akilina as she gave birth to her child, and the tears of Desmond as he watched me disappear out a window, and the tears of Lucy in those days when she thought Desmond was beyond her reach. Tears that did not always need to be shed to be heard.
Arms fell around me; arms that I realized belonged to Ezio. I wept harder. It was terrible and beautiful, being back to my house . . . for days in Abstergo I had thought that I was never going to come home, was never going to see my sister get married. And now I could. I could go on, I could continue . . . but deep down, I knew it would never be the same. Like the gashes on my arms, some scars just would never heal.
I let Gladstone climb affectionately into my lap, and I curled up on my carpet, the pup lying across my arms. For a moment before I went to sleep, the question crossed my mind: no one could get into my house, they would need my eyes. So where was Ezio staying for three months? As soon as the question crossed my mind, I dismissed it. It didn't matter. And I didn't care.
Eventually, Sleep slipped its velvet claws around me, and I was gone.
[…]
Blood, everywhere. On the walls, on the floor, on me. White sheets stained red. The world was crying red. My mouth opened in a soundless scream. Turning, I saw the door open, and Ezio and Desmond stood there, side by side. Ezio was holding something pulsing and bloody. Peering closer, another scream ripped itself from my throat as I realized what it was. It was a human heart. His eyes glowed a blinding golden, and I turned away, as it became hard to look at him. Instead my gaze fell to Desmond, and it seemed as though my cries would never end. On the left side of his chest, there was a huge, gaping hole, right where his heart should have been.
I was drowned in blood as my world was consumed in fire.
[…]
I jolted awake with a scream. Sunshine shone cheerily through my windows, but I felt anything but. Cold sweat coated my body, and violent shivers were making my hands unsteady. It felt like I should be crying, but no tears came out. Maybe I was all out. So I just sat there, shaking and breathing raggedly. Something shifted next to me, and it hit me that I had woken Ezio up. His hand found mine, and I felt his lips brush the back of mine.
"Buongiorno, bella." He said murmured. I flinched away, and one of my nails scratched the side of his face on accident. There was utter silence. I lowered my hand back down to Ezio's face, but stopped just before I made contact. No. Not yet.
Sighing, I stood up shakily. "Come on," I whispered, my voice apparently not yet up to the challenge of talking at a regular volume. "I'll make scrambled eggs."
I began limping to the kitchen, absentmindedly wondering where I had put my black hair dye.