Liz let the locket twirl on the end of the chain, the silver picking up glints of sunlight. "So you think this could be Seren's?"
"It was in a tree near the Evans' house," Maka offered as she watched the shine with the inkling of a longing pulling at the back of her heart. I feel like that every time I touch it or look at it. Whoever it belongs to, they're calling to me. A strong, determined ghost pulling me in.
"A willow?" Patty was flipping through the book again, honing in on the picture she'd glanced at a million times despite the horror of it.
Maka tried to avoid the grainy grey of the blood, focusing on the roots that had become Seren's final pillow. She traced a line along the bark, studying the way the trunk bowed to create that alcove that seemed made for an Evans, young or old. Somehow it looked larger, a cavernous maw ready to swallow in the body before it. Is it to bring her to rest or…?
"Have you opened it?" Liz interrupted the wandering of Maka's thoughts.
She blinked out of her trance. "Oh, no… I guess I assumed it'd be stuck, but-"
Before Maka could finish, Patty was snatching the dangling finery as her other hand slipped a pocket knife from its hiding place. It was a lightning-fast shimmy before the clamshell opened. "Yes!" Her wild cheer of victory was accompanied by the Vanna White presentation of the opened treasure.
I can't breathe! Maka clutched at the dip of her tank top as if it would jump-start a heart that had frozen at the bitter wind of woe that had filled the room.
Any warmth from Maka was gone as a desperate hand squeezed her heart with a disembodied plea screaming in her ears, Please!
"Maka?" Liz's hand on her shoulder jolted her somewhere closer to reality.
"Close it," Maka whispered weakly as that melancholy fist closed around her throat.
Patty instantly snapped the metal shut, eyes worriedly focused on Maka.
Air came back to the room, but Maka still pulled it in thinly. Her hand fell away from her chest, limbs tingling as lifeless blood stuck in her veins. This is like… Viv. How hard Viv pulled me to the water. Does that mean I'm not completely in control?
"Maka?" Liz repeated, but this came as more of an order than a question. "You're as white as a sheet."
"And you're sweating like you've run ten miles," Patty added as she stepped closer, boxing Maka into the couch.
"Don't try to make up some excuse," Liz threatened as she took a quick seat next to Maka, deep blue eyes scrutinizing.
Cold sweat adorned her forehead as Maka ran a hand over her brow, trying to eke that soothing warmth into her skin before the words came from her mouth. "I found out more about my grandmother."
"Maka, cut the history out for a second," Liz lashed back. "That's not what matters- are you sick? Did something happen?"
Maka shook her head slowly. "I'm trying to tell you: I found out more about my grandmother." She flicked searching eyes between the sisters, watching the way both women's faces constricted in worry and confusion. Will Nana Rung be right? If I tell them, what looks will I get? Will they laugh? Will they turn me away? If they do…
Soul flashed over her mind and for a moment, the anxiety faltered as he seemed to whisper somewhere behind her, I'm just followin' your lead.
"You were wrong," Maka brought the strength back to her voice as she glanced back at Liz. "They both weren't named Suzume. It was Suzume first, then her daughter Asuka, then Wren, and then me. Rossignols, all of us."
"Alright…" Liz snapped a look at Patty before settling on Maka again.
"Which means," Maka paused to pull in breath, "I've been seeing things- doing things that I can't necessarily explain. It… it's insane." She hated the plea that had become but she swallowed the bitterness of it just as she pushed away the possibility of tears. "I don't expect either of you to accept that, but… when you opened that locket, I could hear whoever that was yelling for me, needing me."
Patty looked at the trinket in her palm, weighing it as if that determined the truth. "They can do that?" Her head was tilting thoughtfully as her attention flitted back to Maka.
Maka glanced at Liz, seeing her lips pressed into a thin line as she stared at her sister. There was no movement from the older girl and Maka finally followed the attention back to the younger sister. "I don't know. I know I've been feeling something every time I look at that locket, but as soon as you opened it-"
"I'm sorry we told you any of this," Liz sighed out with a rough finality as she grabbed the book from Maka's lap and slapped it shut.
Maka hand tried for her arm but suddenly Liz was out of her reach, launching to her feet. "It's not-"
"Maka," Liz snapped before pressing the book into Patty's fumbling grip. "Listen, whatever this bullshit has put into your head, forget about it."
"Liz-" her sister started.
"I need to-" Liz's voice was cut by her quick exit from the room, a door slamming somewhere further down in the trailer.
Maka worried her fingers away in her lap.
Patty blew out a long, low whistle before she plopped down on the couch next to Maka.
"I'm so sorry, I-"
"No." The easy wave of her hand shooed away Maka's apology. "Liz is…" She tilted her head as if her sister were still across the room for examination. "She's not mad at you or anything. It's just weird. The two of us? To them we're trash." Patty motioned around the trailer. While it was certainly neat, tidy, it still carried the weight of the name with it. "Compiling those histories- it's kinda like a burn-book, right? We give the rich a real look at their families- show them they're not as fancy and perfect as they think. But you… I think Liz kind of regrets doing this to you, bringing up that story since it's obvious that it's hurting you."
"Patty, it's not-" Maka trimmed the words off her tongue. Technically, I can't say it isn't hurting, but… "It's not something I regret knowing. I don't want to be just some mistress of Songbird Mansion. I think I'd honestly rather be a Rossignol."
"Huh," Patty chuckled out. "You know where that puts you, right?"
"At the bottom," Maka answered with a laugh. "But if that's where you are, where Kilik is, and if it really only matters to people like Clara-"
"What about Soul?" Patty chirped.
The corner of her lip threatened to curl into a smile but she managed to keep at least some flatness. "I think he made his choice."
Maka remembered Liz's slow thawing; a process that took the rest of the afternoon and at least a few clips.
Remembered getting home in time to meet Spirit on his way out for the night.
Remembered getting up the stairs to hide the locket away in the drawer that was now becoming a tiny mausoleum of memories.
Then maybe a fog drifted in or a blankness blanketed her brain. Maybe something like a wing folded over her vision until she was under the soft, glowing greenery of the tree. A hand with the most tender pressure smoothed under Maka's chin while another slid from her waist to her breast, settling on her beating heart. While her brain bucked, the body underneath the hands did not. Instead, a wistful sigh along with a voice that was decidedly not hers uttered, "I heard something today."
"What's that?" A strangely familiar throaty whisper hummed next to her ear before lips brushed the lobe.
"That you're getting married." It wasn't meek, just a bleak absolute that was launched out into the drifting shadows that were coming into Maka's view in the periphery.
In the silence, Maka tried to pool her thoughts. I'm here, but this isn't me. This isn't my body, my voice, but-
"I am." Maka was now entirely sure it was Soul's voice, and when the head whose eyes she was borrowing turned, she was positive it was, save again for the pitch-black hair that stood scruffily on his scalp rather than the stark white. It was the same red eyes, burning with a tumultuous mix of emotions she couldn't even begin to untangle. Rhys- which means I must be Seren. It's the two of them. Seren must have called to me, pulled me in but without me knowing or controlling it. Now the body seemed to agree with Maka, attempting to pull away but those fingers, strong despite the delicate look of them, latched with the instant message of never letting go.
"Let me go," the voice trembled out the opposite of those hands and Maka felt the burn of saltwater on the cheeks that weren't hers.
"Why?" The stare was still brilliant, but the voice was easy as a breeze.
"Why?" Incredulity spat back as the woman's shoulders try to tear away.
"Why should I let go of my future wife?" Came purring back as Rhys forced her chin so that there was no getting away, only his face in her view. "I'm not marrying anyone else."
"Liar," quivered weakly but still saturated in desperation.
"I've already told my mother," he brushed his lips temptingly over hers. "I know they all say Cassandra's to be my bride but it's you, only you, Seren. I wouldn't…" The hand over her heart drifted down and Maka watched the way it caught the dress against her skin, pulling it taut to show the start of a swell. "I wouldn't leave you and I'd never leave our son." Sobs started from a mouth trying to stubbornly press them back and the man chuckled. "Always a crybaby, Seren, darling, love…" he murmured off into sweet nothings as he dotted kisses over her cheeks and finally her mouth, stealing breaths to fuel more loving admonishments.
Maka wanted to settle into the warmth of those hands, the passion that she could taste through a mouth that most definitely wasn't hers but it was tainted in its theft. As hands touched her neck again Maka felt the metal press into her chest and with eyes finally separating from the moment, she realized the locket was there, clasped around the neck of this woman rather than hidden in the crevice of the tree.
It's hers, from him. A token of their love. Maka could feel the skin-warmed silver between her fingers but knew it was somewhere else, she was somewhere else, and she wasn't the only eyes. The lovers didn't notice, entangled in promises underneath a tree with bowers enough to hide them, or so at least that was the appearance those inky branches offered. Maka could see differently now, the shadow waiting at the edge just to their right, another set of ears and eyes to tear apart the moment between the two as she finally unlatched from Seren. It wasn't a blackness in vision but it was as if Maka could taste it, the horrible hatred slipping through the leaves like smoke.
She's showing me the moment her fate was sealed. Is this- is this a lie he fed her or is this the truth? She wanted to pull it from Seren but her lips were occupied with the gentle caress of the Soul lookalike. All I know is that it's not safe- you're not safe here! As that seering hand tucked into her dress, another pleasant touch that begged Maka to melt into it, she felt an icy one hit her shoulder.
"Ms. Albarn?" It was the same face she'd just been kissing except now outlined by white hair and wearing worried eyebrows. "What-"
No matter what the anxious question was it stopped immediately as Maka jutted forward, throwing her arms around his neck. "Something happened to them! Something- someone-!"
"You were having a dream, Ms. Albarn." Though his voice came with unsteady dips there was soothing floating underneath while hesitant hands hovered, barely touching her shoulder blades. "You must've fallen asleep in the tree… did Reggie leave you here?"
Maka's heart still pounded out the desperate plea, her mouth snapped shut tightly on the fear. Someone hurt them, and she loved him- he loved her. That wasn't a lie, that was a real promise. I feel it. She choked out a sob as the reality of it lingered, constricting her heart as that woman, that ghostly memory seemed to still whisper to her.
"Ms. Albarn…" his flustered voice came again but now his hands settled with surety, grasping at her shoulders and pulling her away to display a teasing smile. "Crybabyin' again."
… crybaby, Seren, darling, love… echoed in her mind.
"You loved her," Maka murmured, the words not feeling entirely hers. "You had black hair and you were going to marry her…"
"Now I know you were dreaming," Soul let out a scolding scoff. "I've never had black hair and I've no intention of marrying anyone. You're talkin' 'bout my grandfather, aren't you?" Her hand was refusing his move any further, clutching into the sleeve of his t-shirt so tightly that they started to suck the humor out of him. "So you didn't fall asleep. You were walkin' again? I thought I tol' you to get me."
Maka's eyes flitted down, drawing shameful lines over her toes that were covered in dirt. "This time… this time I didn't know I was doing it."
"You mean like the first few?" Soul murmured.
The tears continued to bubble from her eyes without any option of stopping. "Seren… she wanted me to know so badly. To see them."
"Her and Rhys?" he prodded softly. "About the curse? About what he did to her?"
"It wasn't," Maka urged back as she tucked her head towards his chest, letting her forehead rest against his beating heart. "He loved her. She loved him. It wasn't like that. It can't be like that."
Soul placed a hand at the crown of her head, swooping it down over her hair for good measure as she sucked in trembling breaths. His mind was reaching for soothing and could only latch on to the hopeful tease, "Not good sense to go barefoot around here. Thought you were a Northern girl, anyway." He squeezed at her shoulder before letting the hand drift down her arm to her hand. "Tol' you before: only country girls leave the house without shoes, Ms. Albarn. Come on, I'll see you home." He stood and her arm outstretched, fingers in his but body not budging. "You can walk, can't you?"
She went to throw a hand over her eyes to cover the new wash of tears but her fingers were already too tightly clenched around a hard lump in her palm. Sobs not abated and her vision still blurred, she opened her fist to find the locket, its fine filigree offering no twinkle in the low light of the tree's overhang.
Soul cleared his throat, "I'll carry you if you need. Had lots of practice with Reggie. What's your preference? Over the shoulder or piggy-back?"
"Could you just-" Maka pulled her hand again and this time he released, finally allowing for her to cover her eyes, to hide the shameful view of herself. "Be mean to me, please, just for a second." Because it feels like I love you… I know it's her- Seren, and Rhys, who just looked so much like you but… it's almost like I love you so much it hurts.
"Would be against my promise," he sighed as he settled back down on his haunches. "Reggie made me swear I'd be nice to you."
Maka let out a wet laugh as her shoulders trembled.
"So?"
Maka slid her fingers away from her eyes to look at him, "So?"
"Shoulder or piggy-back. Last time I ask before I choose." He stood again, hand reaching out. "Stand up, let's get movin'. I still haven't exactly found Reggie."
"Found him?" All of the worry for herself, the memory, the locket was shed almost instantly. "You mean you can't find him and you've been standing here-"
"He snuck out this morning," Soul cut her off with a laugh. "Pretty sure to see you. Came here first and then was on my way to your house. I bet he's waiting on your back stoop." Maka clasped his hand, letting Soul pull her to standing. As soon as she was on her feet he turned, stooping slightly. "Let's go, Ms. Albarn." He sounded nothing more than bored and exasperated, with half a grin peeking over his shoulder.
The logistics weren't beyond her- there had been a time when this was Blake's prime mode of giving and receiving transportation- but for someone always so closed off, it seemed impossible that he was offering this much touching. "I can walk…"
"Can and should are two different things," he muttered as his hand waved her on.
She took a step, getting close enough to put her hands on his shoulders, feeling the muscles flex under them as if waiting for a blow. He still hates it when I touch him. I know he agreed to it, he said it was alright, but- before she could drift off into a sigh, he was hefting her onto his back, leaving her breathless for a moment. The hands were the same as the dream, fine in finger but with a grip that promised security. A flash of colorful warmth hit her cheeks at the thought, the way it hadn't been her thighs but a tempting drift over her front that was now pressed against the heat of his back.
"Awful quiet." He threw out the comment as a mutter, but the worry was fraying the words at the edges.
"No one's carried me like this since I was a kid," Maka murmured. Except her hand moved with that lingering wish from the dream, drawing a line across his collarbone so her arm could wrap around his neck, pulling her closer than she ever meant to be.
"Tryin' to choke me?" There was no exaggeration needed, the pitch of his voice spelling out his loss of air. Soul hadn't been in that mirage, but it was as if all of it was leaching from her touch, heating him more than the sun they'd now moved into and feeding that strange need in his chest. Because while he had flinched at the contact, it wasn't a lightning strike of pain, but instead surprise. It was becoming undeniably obvious each time they touched: she fit. Maka's skin next to his wasn't alien or something that had to be processed, but closer to the feeling of finally being free of dizzying vertigo, as if the world had been righted.
"I guess I shouldn't." Her mumble was half in a dream. "I forgot to ask, Soul. I'm sorry."
Air came thinly to his lungs again as he wished that statement could fall under his stomping feet to be left behind. "Like I said, if I offer, that's enough."
"I'm sorry this has to be your reason." Because I always have to be in trouble for you to touch me.
His feet slowed to a stop and even though Maka expected him to take this opportunity to drop her, it was as if his hands tightened. "Tol' you: I made my choice." A fuzzy mixture of terror and exhilaration hit him as her head tucked closer to his shoulder. While she'd done nothing more than rest her forehead on her own arm, Soul was crazed by the way her breath felt that close to him.
"I'm sorry."
"Not sure what for," he murmured back. "Need to go see Stein?"
"No, just home, please."
He picked up speed again, bringing them close enough to the house that Reggie from his perch on the stoop finally noticed them and instantly popped to his feet. "Reginald Desjardins Evans," Soul snapped once he was sure the boy was in earshot, watching as the tiny feet planted in fear. "Where the hell did you get off to this morning?"
"Well…" Reggie let that trail off.
"Well, what?" Soul muttered back grumpily as he tramped past Reggie and kept towards the house.
"I went to the tree," Reggie started but his voice stopped as Soul did.
He furrowed his eyes at his nephew before icy scolding slipped into his voice, "So you saw Ms. Albarn in there and left her, Reggie?"
"Soul, don't," Maka murmured.
"I didn't leave her!" Reggie professed with such a gush that Soul couldn't keep the surprise from his face. "She was talking to somebody and it sounded private. I heard when I walked up and I didn't even go into the tree. So I thought if I came back here, Ms. Albarn would too, once she was done."
Every last ounce of energy was exerted to avoid caring about that statement, a blank look of something close to skepticism hitting his face. "We'll talk about this later, Reggie."
"Are you mad?" he cried as he dug a hand into Soul's pant leg.
"No," Soul spat. "Jus'- later, Reggie. Let's get Ms. Albarn settled."
Reggie was tugging on him with a forlorn curl to his lip. "But-"
"Maka!"
Her head shot up at her name, and dismay washed over her as the voice attached to the image of Spirit flying out the backdoor and down the stairs. "Put me down," Maka murmured.
"Ms. Albarn-" Soul started to protest but Maka wriggled, forcing the loss of his grip on one of her legs and making the other follow.
She slid down his back, just catching her nightgown from staying stuck to him but not quick enough to stop it from spurring Spirit's wrath. "What the hell are you doing outside like that?"
"Papa, stop." Maka moved out in front, her hands already up as a barrier between the picture she knew her father was painting behind her.
Soul crouched down, taking Reggie by the shoulders so he could lean in close to his ear, "Looks like Papa's angry and the last thing I want you to hear is his yellin'. I'm not mad, I love you, and don't worry; I'll protect Ms. Albarn." He stood quickly, giving Reggie's hair a ruffle for good measure, "Get a move on." Reggie listened to the order but Soul didn't watch him go, turning apathetic eyes back towards father and daughter.
"You were out all night, Maka," Spirit hissed.
"And I'm a grown woman!" Maka spat back at him but instantly brought a hand to her forehead in irritated agony, "but that's not even what happened and I don't know why I'm even trying-"
"Wasn't like that," Soul's grumble behind her still came with booming authority. "Reggie'd gone missin' and I asked Ms. Albarn to help me."
Spirit incredulously narrowed his eyes as Soul, tossing a derisive laugh in his direction. "All night? And then why the hell was the kid here since early this morning?"
Soul shrugged, "Has a hell of an independent streak."
Spirit moved forward, hand read for accusation and lashing in Soul's direction when Maka slipped between them, a solid hand planting on Spirit's chest. "Don't you say another word to him. Please."
"He let a little kid wander around and you-"
"And you get father of the year?" Maka spat.
The words hit Spirit so hard he wheeled a step back.
"Don't put on a show for him," Maka scoffed. "I'm surprised you actually knew I was gone all night. When's the last time you've actually spent all night in this house?" She took a step forward in the grass, pressing Spirit back and leaving Soul to bite his tongue behind her. "I bet you didn't even know I was gone until Reggie showed up looking for me. It's a great act you're putting on, Papa, but that's all it is- acting!"
The accusation brought only the chatter of cicadas as Spirit's face withered into helplessness.
"How I come home- when I come home is none of your business." Maka turned away from him, only letting her voice barely fluttered over her shoulder. "Now will you please go back in the house and I will talk to you when I get inside."
"Maka," Spirit sighed out with final desperation.
"Don't think she wants to say it again," Soul grunted.
Just as Maka was about to admonish Soul, her hand coming up to plant a push in his sternum, Spirit's voice cracked behind her, "You stay the hell out of this especially since we both know if she knew what you really were she'd never even take a second look at you."
Soul's eyebrows furrowed, only tangling worse as Maka's hand did tap at his chest, resting over his heartbeat. "Don't," she whispered.
He chewed on his tongue to follow her order.
That hadn't reached Spirit since the next vitriolic wave came with renewed force. "Because she sure as hell doesn't appreciate married men who can't be faithful- even if they're only almost married."
Maka couldn't stop her fingers from clenching into Soul's shirt, the dream in the tree suddenly hitting her again with its vicious melancholy. You're getting married. She held her breath, waiting for his muteness to break and when it didn't her eyes slowly slid up to a stony face. Empty red eyes ticked to hers, blinking with a coldness she couldn't process with all that desperate, ghostly love fluttering in her head and heart. Maka fought to push the words from her throat, "Go inside the house, Papa."
As soon as the shuffling started, Soul's chest finally rose under her hand, air sucked slowly through his nose before he released the low words, "If you go inside-"
Maka pulled her fingers away from the fire. "It's not an if. Just… tell Reggie I'm sorry." The emotional vertigo was raging in her as she turned, trying to put distance between his constant stirring of the past. That wasn't him touching you. You're not her, so stop feeling like this. Stop aching like it matters. He has nothing to say about it because he doesn't owe you an explanation.
"Ms. Albarn," croaked from his throat, and while she wanted to deny it, his voice had the power to cement her feet. "If…"
Maka turned with an embarrassing swiftness only to find that same dull look in his eyes. "If what?"
"Tonight, if Reggie wants to call you, that'd be alright?" The dishonesty of those words left a sour taste, poisoning his tongue. If I want to call you. If I want to hear your voice.
Her fingers clutched into the fabric of her nightgown, pulling it at the seams. "No." She forced her eyes away from his and started the walk back to the house. "I want to be alone tonight."