Demonic Cliffhanger
Neusuada: Wow. Lots of mad reviews. Sorry.
Ashe: When did Rumple mention his dead wife...?
Neusuada: Charming said that. We'll write that in so it's more obvious. Oh! We weren't mad, promise! We were just sad with writing the last chapter! More Fyre/Felix? It'll be a bit rough, and it'll have to be in the sequel, but I assure you, more of that is coming. Oh, and everything we've left unanswered or left alone in this, it was a set up for the sequel. Things like Fyre's alcohol problem, Sinner's Church, why Henry could hear Fyre's violin, who brought Vincent back, all of that stuff. Well, you learn one of those things in the beginning of this chapter.
Ashe: Okay, so! Enjoy this chapter! Sorry in advance! You know... This might be the last chapter... Let's see how long we can go. The beginning of this is a flashback from a few chapters ago, just in a different person's point of view.
Neusuada: Okay! We own nothing! Enjoy!
Light... That was the first thing he noticed. Bright, white light. Nothing else. Just...white. Everywhere.
"Hello...?"
Silence.
"Hello?!"
"Hello..."
The black haired boy spun around in the alabaster coloured void, coming face to face with a woman. She looked about eighteen or nineteen, he guessed, with straight, hay-coloured hair that hung down to her lower back. Her eyes greatly reminded him of Zavier's, the molten gold mixing beautifully with the earthy green. Her body was tall, lean, lithe, and just plain beautiful. She was covered by a white dress, her thin arms halfway covered by lace, while excess lace fell past her elbows. The bodice fit her beautifully, the small yet plunging V-neck neckline, as well as the flowing skirt, making the dress look a bit like a wedding dress. Well, for all he knew, it could have been. To go with the wedding theme this girl had, she also had a thick piece of lace wrapped around her neck, pearls and thin silver chains attached to the bottom. All in all... This woman was gorgeous.
"Who... Who are you?"
The woman smiled. "My name is Lennox. You don't know me. But I know you... Vincent."
"How?" Vincent asked. "How do you know me?"
"I watch. I'm always watching."
Vincent narrowed his eyes. "Well, don't. It's freaking me out."
The girl - Lennox - tilted her head. "What was that boy's name...? That boy you're always with, what was his name again...? Ryne? Ryne...Kayle? That was it, right? I would be nicer if I were you, Vincent. We wouldn't want anything to happen to him, would we...?"
The black haired boy paled. Well, more. "Please... Don't hurt him..."
"You'd let him do anything to you, wouldn't you...?"
"W... What?"
"You think he doesn't love you, right? That he doesn't even like you? That you're just his toy?"
Vincent looked down. Lennox smiled sadly.
"I see. Well, I'm sorry."
"Yeah, don't be."
Lennox shook her head, her hair falling gracefully over her slim shoulders. "No. I'm not sorry for that. I'm just sorry that you're going through all of that, and somehow this managed to happen to you still. I think the world should give you a break."
What? What was she talking about...? Wait... Where... Where were they exactly?
"What... What do you mean...?"
Lennox looked at him in sadness.
"Vincent... You're dead."
Vincent's eyes bulged. Dead...? That... That couldn't be right... How was he here now if he was dead? That just wasn't possible... It couldn't be... He was talking to this girl, wasn't he? Or did that mean she was dead, too...? Too... Ugh. Dead, too. He was dead... This just- It was just- It just- It- Yeah. Yeah... Okay. So this was happening. Okay. He wouldn't freak out. Nope. Nooope. Wouldn't... Wouldn't freak out... No freaking out here... None at all... Nope. None.
"...Oh. Okay. How am I dead...? Can you explain that? Please? Like, now? Please? Seriously? Like... Define 'dead' for me, because I might be thinking of something else."
"You're dead. As in, you were killed. By that pirate with a hook for a hand. He stabbed you in the stomach with his hook. Twice. Even if you did somehow manage to survive that, your stomach would be damaged beyond repair, and you'd die soon anyways."
"Oh. Lovely. So, uh... This 'dead' thing... Is it permanent...?"
Lennox smiled, and in one graceful move, the girl gently took hold of his left wrist, pressing his hand against her own stomach. On instinct, Vincent tried to pull his arm away, but Lennox held fast. Gently tugging him forward, the girl in the wedding dress gently pressed her hand against where his organs were apparently damaged. When Vincent went to question her, a sudden warmth in his abdomen stopped him. What was happening...?"
"Is it permanent?" Lennox asked, repeating what he had only just asked her. "No. No, it isn't. Not if you have someone like me who's willing to do something like this for you."
Everything looked fuzzy. Everything felt warm. The heat in his stomach didn't just feel warm anymore. It was burning. It felt like someone had just shoved a fire poker inside of him. Suddenly, he saw the white void around him start to fade away. He saw Lennox start to fade away.
"No... No, wait," he gasped. His eyelids felt like lead. He was so tired... So...so tired...
"Good luck, Vincent. I'm giving you one more chance..."
He couldn't stand it anymore. Vincent let his eyes close, only to blink them open a few seconds later. There was Ryne... Looking absolutely heartbroken. He was back... What did Lennox do...? She did something to his stomach... What was it...? Had she...saved him?
"R-Ryne...?"
Ryne pulled back, looking at him in shock and happiness. "Vincent!"
Vincent took in a wheezing breath, coughing lightly. Everything hurt... "You...can't get rid of me...that easily..."
Ryne put his ear against Vincent's chest, while Vincent breathed out in relief. He wasn't dead... The black haired boy closed his eyes, not knowing that he was the only one who heard the whisper in the air...
"One more chance..."
"Ryne...?"
"Vincent!"
Suddenly, the previously dead boy found himself being enveloped in a tight hug. Vincent coughed, feeling the fuzziness in his head subside and return all at the same time.
"Ryne... Le-let go..."
Ryne pulled back, gently rubbing his thumb over one of Vincent's thin, perfectly sculpted eyebrows. Another mark his parents had left on him, it seemed. "I was so scared, Vinnie..."
Vincent looked away. No, he wasn't scared... Ryne said that he didn't care about him, so that obviously meant that he really was just playing with him... He didn't know what to be mad about anymore. The fact that Ryne was pretending to care about him... Or the fact that he had been starting to believe it...
Ryne cocked his head to the side. "Vinnie?"
"Hm?" Vincent looked back at him. "Sorry. Lost in my own thoughts, I guess."
"No, it's alright! Getting lost in thought is good! It means you still have a living consciousness to get lost in!" Ryne said, a huge grin on his face. Fake, Vincent reminded himself. It wasn't real.
Vincent smiled back weakly, his eyes holding a look of forced happiness. "Yeah... I miss you, Ryne."
Ryne's smile faltered. "'Miss'?"
"Missed. I... I missed you."
The older boy smiled softly, gently kissing Vincent's forehead. "Get some rest. We have a long journey ahead."
"Wait, um... Before I do... Do you know anyone named Lennox?"
Ryne looked at the ceiling in thought. "Lennox... No, can't say I do. Why?"
"No reason."
"Obviously there's some reason."
"I'll... I'll tell you later. Okay?"
"Alright. Hm... Lennox. Pretty name. We'll have to name one of our kids that one day."
Not listening to the other boy, Vincent simply nodded. "Okay, Ryne. Sure."
"You weren't listening, were you?"
"Mm... Nope."
Ryne laughed, whispering something under his breath.
"What was that?"
"Oh, nothing. Sleep. I'll go tell Henry's family that you woke up."
As Ryne made to get up - Probably to go into a room where he faintly heard Henry saying something about how 'Peter can't leave! The water he drank will kill him!' and an older man saying 'Fine, fine, we'll give him a potion.' or something - a thin hand suddenly wrapped around his wrist.
"Don't. Stay. Please?"
Ryne smiled, settling back in his chair. "Alright. I'll stay."
With those words of fake sincerity and comfort still ringing in his mind, Vincent fell into a dreamless sleep.
"Oh... It's bigger now."
Felix looked down at the poisoned girl. "What?"
"Henry's book. It's...heavier. He lives a full...life."
"Good. That's good. But Fyre, you're dying now."
"Psh, no. I need my heart for this poison to kill me. Right now, it's just making me suffer in almost unbearable agony."
"Oh," Iyce said, walking over to a wooden chest in the corner of the room. Opening it, she pulled out a glowing heart. There was a rather large portion of it that was dark, Felix noticed. Though, not all of it, which was a good thing. Felix would have done something to stop her, but he suddenly found that his feet were frozen to the ground. Literally. Looking back at Fyre's heart, he noticed a streak of rainbow colour that pulsed with the glow.
"What's that rainbow bit?"
"Her love of yaoi," Iyce said, walking back over to them and roughly shoving Fyre's heart back inside her chest. The Book Seer gasped, her emotions suddenly becoming clearer. Fyre chuckled painfully.
"See? Now I'm dying."
Iyce rolled her eyes. "Can you hurry up and die already?"
Felix glared at her.
"Bay... Don't glare, it's not nice..." At Felix's questioning stare, Fyre spoke again. "Seer stuff works backwards, too."
"Ah. You're not mad that I didn't tell you?"
"Nah... But what ever happened...to Delta..?"
Felix averted his eyes to the cave wall. "He... He died."
A confused look made its way into Fyre's eyes. "But he-"
A coughing fit broke off her sentence.
"Fyre?" Felix said. "Fyre, breathe."
The girl took in a large breath, only to start coughing again. She brought a hand up to cover her mouth, only to pull it back at the feeling of something wet on her palm. Blood...
"Damn... I really am dying... This is just like that time...I almost burned Neverland down..."
"How...?"
"Did you know that Robbie Kay is a feminine emo guy? Well... He isn't. But he could totally rock that..."
"I agree."
Iyce and Felix stared at each other.
"You guys just totally spoke at the same time... Hey, maybe you two could end up falling in love after I'm dead. You never know. I mean, Iycie the ghost is draining my life anyways, so there's no chance for me. But you guys could make it work. You'd just need some couples therapy."
"Fyre, I think the poison's made its way to your brain."
"Heh... Yeah... No, wait, that's not possible. Is it...? Maybe you're right..."
"Caoilainn, why aren't you trying to save her?!"
Iyce shrugged. "Maybe because I'm the one who's killing her? Besides, it's not like I could stop it if I wanted to. It's going to kill her."
Felix looked at the girl he'd come to love in sorrow. Fyre gently touched his cheek. "It's alright. You'll be alright. You don't need me."
"I do need you, Fyre. Laisrén... Please..."
"Sorry. I can't really...do anything. Iycie, you're...already dead. Can't you...take the poison?"
"Yes, but since you've given me enough life to live, it would kill me again. Thus, making me a ghost. Again. And I'm not too keen on doing that."
"Oh. Okay. Sorry I asked."
"Mm."
"You know, Caoilainn... I tried to find you... After I left... As soon as I got here, I left to...find you..."
A small bit of emotion flashed in Iyce's eyes, but it left as soon as it came. "Yeah, well... It doesn't matter. You still left me behind."
"You have my...memories... You should...be able...to...see...why..."
"Fyre?" Felix asked, looking into her closing eyes. "Fyre?!"
Felix put his ear against her chest.
...Ba-thump...Ba-thump... Ba...thump...
"No... No, Fyre!"
Iyce watched the scene with pained eyes. This... This was supposed to feel good. Not... Not whatever this feeling was... Oh, Spirits... What had she done...?
Fyre gasped, trying desperately to breathe. The poison had blocked her airway... It wouldn't be long now... Suddenly, she paused. Who...? By the door of the cave stood two boys. They were blurry, but she could tell they were boys. One looked a year or two older than the other, while the younger one looked...terrified... The older one was tall, much taller than the younger, with pale skin and reddish brown hair. She couldn't see his eye colour, but it didn't matter. The younger boy had darker brown hair and the same dead-looking pale skin. Zander, maybe...? But... Who was the older boy...? The taller boy grabbed the younger by the arm, roughly trying to pull him somewhere. The younger boy (Probably Zander, she guessed) pulled out of the grasp, trying to run away. They looked like they were in slow motion and underwater...
"Let me go! I'm sorry!" Zander yelled.
"You're a murderer... Murderers come with me..."
Well, then. Fyre honestly doubted that the older boy was the Devil, but if someone had to be, the boy was at the top of the list.
"Just let me stay here for a little while longer! I need to guide them to him! He's still alive! He needs my help!"
The other boy put his hands up in surrender. "Fine... But we're going to be watching you. And when that's over, you're coming with us. So is she."
Then the boy pointed to Iyce. Eh...? Oh, right. She was dead. But... She was alive now, right? Suddenly, Iyce fell to her knees.
"I'm sorry! I thought this would make everything right! I thought this was what I wanted! But it isn't! And now I can't fix it!"
Fyre turned her attention away from the boys (Who had vanished) to focus on her distraught sister. "It's okay, Iycie. It'll...be...o...kay..."
"Hey!" Felix shouted at her. "No dying!"
"Heh... Sorry..."
Iyce stroked her sister's silver hair. "I wish I could do something..."
"Look...into my...memor...ies... Do it... Now."
"W-when?"
"When I...left...you."
Nodding shakily, Iyce closed her eyes, doing as she was told, and delving deep through the happy memories and the painful times that she herself had caused. Emotion after emotion rushed through her, almost all of the sadness caused during the times Fyre was thinking of her... Finally, she had traveled back far enough to find the memory Fyre was talking about. Listening to Fyre's... Laisrén's thoughts in the scene, a tear rolled down Iyce's cheek, her sister's words ringing in her mind.
'She'd be safe.'
Iyce opened her eyes. "You did it...for me?"
"In hindsight... Not my...best idea..."
"No! You... You were right to leave. I should have seen it. I'm so sorry..."
Fyre tried to answer, but her throat felt like it was full of thick water. Everything hurt... Everything was fuzzy... Everything had a black tinge around the edges... So... This was what it felt like to die... Heh... She almost felt sorry for her father... Almost.
"Please..." Felix whispered.
Not able to speak, Fyre gently touched the feather in his hair. The feathers that would finally fall out with her death...
"Those feathers..." Iyce suddenly said, her tone sad. Reaching up to her hair, she pulled two raven feathers into view. "I have them, too... So that I'd know exactly when you died... If one of us dies, all of ours will fall out. Sorry. I kind of hijacked your original magic."
Fyre simply nodded. Everything was getting darker... The pain was mind-numbing. And yet... It was slightly comforting... The gentle eyes she felt watching her... The Holy Spirit, maybe...? She hoped so... Fyre shifted her darkening gaze to the two worried faces looking at her.
"Love...you...both..." she choked out.
Suddenly, Iyce squeezed her eyes shut, her tears falling quickly.
"No!" she screamed, launching herself at her sister, and releasing a wave of magic.
"Hey!" Felix yelled, grabbing onto her arm to stop whatever she was doing.
Fyre's eyes widened. What was she trying to do?! A scream of pure pain echoed throughout the cave... And three sets of feathers fell to the ground... But...
Which one of them had died...?
Neusuada: I'm barely going to say anything for this author's note. Lennox's outfit is on my profile, she'll come in a bit more later, so will the person who was trying to take Zander away, no flames, and yeah.
Ashe: No flames! At all! Review!
Neusuada: Review!
