Part two

Chapter one

~~*~~

She woke up in Vaughn's bed that night. Outside the window, you could see the glow of Earth and it's moon. Clarissa walked out onto the balcony, feeling a a cold breeze. She shivered slightly. She could see a torch lit, being carried through the forest. Clarissa followed the glow until it stopped, and the torch was blown out. The person is still in the middle of the forest. What are they doing? She watched the same spot for what seemed like forever, and finally decided to quit. Right about when Clarissa turned away, she saw something, white, large, cylinder shaped, extending towards the sky. Clarissa was shocked. Another portal? No, can't be. The portal didn't dissapear, but it came closer, and closer, and soon it was right in front of the balcony. Clarissa stared in awe at it, she couldn't beleive that someone opened a portal. No, only me and Vaughn can open them. Vaughn. The portal didn't close like it usually did. It just sat there, in front of Clarissa's eyes. Clarissa stepped back in surprise, someone had come out of the portal, and landed on the balcony. They came closer to Clarissa. She tried to back away, but something was holding her back.

"I've been waiting to do this for a long time," the figure said, then stabbed Clarissa in the stomach. Clarissa fell to the ground.

~~*~~

She woke up in Vaughn's bed that night. Outside the window, you could see the glow of Earth and it's moon. Clarissa walked out onto the balcony, feeling a a cold breeze. She shivered slightly. Clarissa put her hands on the balcony, feeling the cold touch of granite. Just then, Vaughn came into the room. What happened? She could feel the sweat on her forehead.

"Vaughn," she said, turning around.

He walked up to her, "What? Something wrong?" Clarissa was sweating and panicking even more.

"Yes, something is very wrong," she explained. Clarissa fainted.

~~*~~

"I've waited a long time to see you. I've waited a long time to kill you, that too," said the figure hovering over Clarissa body. (Not really hovering, just like walking around.) "Three hundred years I've waited for this moment. I thought that you'd be stronger. No, that was easy, maybe even too easy." Clarissa panted, trying to catch her breath. She put her hand over the wound, looking up at the figure.

"Victoria," Clarissa simply said.

"That's right, I was hoping you'd remember me. I was hoping that I'd have a good fight, too, but I guess not. See there's a problem here. I want to know what happened to you. Nice touch escaping from the other world and coming back to our old home, Charissma. Love the thing you did to that girl, what wa sher name? Oh, yes, Hitomi. I remeber how you brought her into this little gig, she wasn't a part of it. Oh, well, I guess I'll just have to go claim my victory." She walked away from Clarissa, the knife still in her hand.

"Vaughn!" Clarissa yelled.

~~*~~

"Vaughn!" Clarissa yelled again. She opened her eyes to the lights of the room. Vaughn rushed over to her.

"Clarissa, I'm here. What is it?" he asked. She gasped for breath.

"Victoria," was all she said.

"Whose Victoria? What happened, Clarissa?" he asked.

"Victoria, she's coming for you. She stabbed me. She came through the portal back here. Came back here after three hundred years," she explained.

"What do you mean by 'back'?"

"Back, back to Melaso. She came for me, and she's coming after you. It's Victoria," Clarissa explained.

"What really happened. Whose Victoria?"

"Victoria. She tried to kill me three hundred years ago. She tried to kill me."

"What really happened. You have a huge wound in your stomach, and you're telling me about someone named Victoria. Please, I want to know."

"She's Victoria! You're supposed to remember. Remember Victoria? Remember how it was three hundred years ago? Remember how it was here in Melaso?" Clarissa was asking questions that didn't make sense.

"Clarissa, how can I remember something that happened three hundred years ago? I wasn't even alive," he said sensably.

"Of course you wern't! She killed you after she killed me. She was my own sister, too!"

"Clarissa, I need to know what's happening!" Vaughn commanded.

"We were sisters, and she betrayed me, and you in Melaso, three hundred years ago. You have to beleive me Vaughn. She tried to kill me tonight. She came back, and she remembers better than I did. I was suppose to protect her, and she killed me. Vaughn, don't let her kill you." Clarissa sounded insane, but then she spasmed and went back to sleep.

~~*~~

"Vaughn!" Clarissa yelled again. She could feel the life being sucked out of her. Vaughn rushed through the doors.

"Clarissa? What happened?" he asked looking at Clarissa on the floor, with her hand to her stomach, blood dripping onto the floor.

"Vaughn, run, as far away as you can. She's after you and I can't let her find you," Clarissa commanded.

"No, I can't. Clarissa, I have to help you," he pleaded. Victoria came into the room.

"Too late, you can't save her now. Charissma's already dead, and she can't help you." Victoria ran over to Vaughn, revelaing her dagger at his throat, but she looked down, and saw something she didn't expect, Vaughn's sword went through her body, killing her instantly.

Vaughn rushed over to Clarissa, "She's dead, she's not after me anymore," but Clarissa was already dead. Vaughn was crying.

~~*~~

"Vaughn!" Clarissa yelled. Her eyes adjusted to the light of the room. Vaughn was still sitting next to her. "Vaughn, it's not true is it?" she asked.

He took her hand, "No, it's ok, it's just a nightmare."

"It was horrible, Vaughn. It felt almost ... real," she felt her stomach, the wound had healed, but there was a wound. "It was real. She killed me."

"Shhh," he comforted, "It's just a dream."

"How come I have the wound from the dream? How come?" she asked. Clarissa started to cry.

"Tell me about," he asked.

"Well, I woke up in my dream, and walked to the balcony and I saw this piller of light, and it came closer, and closer, and someone jumped out and stabbed me in the stomach. Then I woke up in your bed, and walked over to the balcony, and you came into the room and asked if anything was wrong and I said that there was. So I fainted and the dream came back. I knew her name, and......" She told the rest of the dream to Vaughn.

"It was a week ago when you said something was wrong, but everything's ok now," Vaughn assured. It was still night, though.

Clarissa nodded her head in reply, "No, wait, what happened, how come it's not ok? I had this three hundred year old Victoria chasing her sister Charissma, and I'm supposed to beleive it's just a dream?" she asked.

"It's ok," Vaughn assured, "It really is. I've been worried about you. You were waking up and then going back to sleep again. You almost died."

"No, I did die. But if I almost died then she didn't come, and I hope it was a dream," she hugged him, but was still crying, "I'm sorry. It's going to bug me for a long time what happened in this dream."

"Why don't you tell me, then?" he asked.

"Ok, I'll try, but I'm not even sure about the whole thing myself, I'm still trying to put pieces together. Here goes, well, from what I know, and what was extracted from my memory, Victoria and I were sisters five hundred years ago. I was the heir to the throne in Melaso and somehow you were there," she paused to recolloct her thoughts, "Oh, yeah, it was because you were getting married to me. That's why she was jealous. She'd always say, 'It's because of the look you two give each other,' but the only reason why we were getting married was because of the throne. I never knew that she'd kill me, it was all a plan. There's someone else I keep forgeting, and I can't remember them still."

"It's ok, you don't have to remember everything. It'll come back to you," he assured.

"That's what I'm afraid of. If I go back to sleep, something worse might happen, something that might be connected to this world and time," Clarissa thought for a second, "I want to see portraits. We always had portraits," she smiled getting up off the bed, signaling for Vaughn to come along. They walked with a candle down the hallway, inspecting the portraits from times past. "It's still earlier than these. I can't believe how long ago it was." She paused in front of a portrait resembling a girl with black hair, no not a girl, she looks about my age, though, Clarissa thought. "That's her, that's Victoria," she looked to her left, "and that's me, and if Victoria and Charissma are her, then the person I'm missing is....."

She looked to the right of her portrait, and was about to read the name when Vaughn said something, "Hitomi," he whispered. Clarissa was shocked.

"Hitomi? Are you sure. No, she has nothing to do with this," Clarissa was denying the truth. She looked at the picture again, but it was her. The portrait's face looked exactly like Hitomi's. Clarissa looked for other possible solution, but Hitomi was her sister.

"Hitomi is your older sister. Why wasn't she set to rule the throne?" he asked.

"She was supposed to rule, but Victoria killed her the night before your marrige," She explained.

"I don't get it. How come I was marrying you instead of her?" he asked.

"You weren't. At least not then. I saw the end of it and tried to help her, but there was nothing I could do. Victoria turned around and chased me out of the room. She still had the knife in her hand. She ran out of the castle because she was ashamed of what she did. Then you went into the room, and I came back to it, but she was already dead. You were about to kill yourself over her, but I stopped you. Said there was more ment to life than what was already played." Clarissa started to cry. Vaughn was speechless. She leaned up against the wall, dropping the candle, but luckly, since the floor was stone, it didn't cause a fire. The hall went black. Clarissa sunk to the cold stone floor still crying.

"You ok?" Vaughn asked.

"Yeah," she stopped crying, wiping off the tears still on her face. Her eyes adjusted to the light, but there really wasn't no need since someone was coming down the hallway, probably looking for them. Clarissa took a dagger from the sheath on her leg, standing back up. She held the tip of it, pointing it at the coming light about to throw it at the person. They came around the corner and she threw it at them. It was Tren! He caught the dagger an inch away from his face. Clarissa started to cry again, sitting on the stone again.

"What are you doing up so late?" he asked.

"Looking for evidence," Clarissa answered, wiping her face again. Tren slid the dagger on the floor to Clarissa. She picked it back up, putting it back in it's sheath.

"It's been a long time since you stayed this long. What happened? Heard you were dead," he asked.

"It's just a conflict with my past," Clarissa thought, Tren's royalty, too. Maybe I should tell him about it. "Tren, you ever here of these people?" She asked pointing to the portraits.

He walked up to them, studing them closely, "Yeah, we have a lot of books of those three sisters. Said it was some sort of foretelling. They don't talk about it much at the castle. Don't see why. You can see the books if you like."

"Well, I don't know. It's really late," Vaughn said.

Clarissa glared at him, "Yeah, we'd like to see the books."

"Tomorrow," Vaughn added.

"Ok, it's only three," Tren said. He walked back down the hall.

Clarissa slapped Vaughn.

Vaughn had a puzzled expression on his face, "What?"

"Right when we were getting somewhere. Vaughn! Why'd you have to put it off untill tomorrow? We'll probably never find the books now!" Clarissa stormed off to Vaughn's room. She layed down on the bed when Vaughn came in.

"Sorry, Charissma. I'm concerned about you. It is three in the morning, don't you think you should at least try to get some sleep?" Vaughn asked.

"It's ok, I understand," she confessed, "Did you just call me Charissma?"

"No, I don't think so," he answered.

She walked up to him, "You just called me Charissma. It doesn't matter though. Vaughn, I'm concerned about you. I mean it's not everyday that you find out that this person you like is the sister in a past life to your old girlfriend in a past life."

"Wait, I have to like you?" he asked.

"What? It's not obvious? You kissed me," she stated.

"I kissed you?" he laughed.

"Whatever. Anyway, something happened."

"You're going to read all day, then I suggest that you get some rest," he suggested.

Clarissa lost her confidence, "Yeah, uh, yeah, right." She layed back on the bed, putting her head back on the pillow. She shut her eyes.