Authors note: I got a phase. I call it me creativity phase. In this phase I update all my neglected stories and try to write longer (meaning more than 4 pages) chapters. Do I suceed? Tell me in a review! Dedication needed: Well, why not for meta capricorn, my newest and somehow most devoted fan (at least concerning Snape-related stories)! Oh and I got one new character involved: Vivianne (you know, the high-priestess from the Mists of Avalon) and she is owned by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
"Go!" she said the words, even if they hurt her. Even when she knew, that their leaving meant, that she would have to be alone again.
"Are you sure?" Susanne softly inquired. Momo just looked at her, knowing that she had to let her new found friends go. "I thinks she is quite certainly sure, Susanne" the count told her.
Susanne nodded. "We will try to find and contact as many relatives as we can find. It will be the new objective of our lives." She told Momo in her most convincing voice.
Suddenly she enveloped the small girl in a tight, motherly embrace. Momo, who had never had a mother, was astonished at how natural and good that feeling was. "Take care of yourself. And when you have saved them, do not forget about your own good, find your own peace too." Susanne softly stroked her unruly black hair.
The count was a much less personal being, he stiffly shook her right hand. Then he seemed to hesitate, before he spit out a quick "Thank you". Momo knew its worth and smiled still.
She watched as the pair embraced and disappeared. "Good luck" she whispered.
"Hello Momo!" David certainly had the ability to appear out of the nothingness, part of being the keeper, she guessed. She did not reply, being aware of the way he kept watching her. "I hope it works" she finally broke the silence. David smiled sligthly. "I do too. But if anyone can find their relatives, it is those two."
"Do you know everything that goes on here?" it was comforting in one way, but oddly unnerving in another. "I can" he replied vaguely, "if I choose too."
"So, do you like watching the souls through your little cristal ball?" the girl asked. "At times, but only some of them." He cryptically answered.
"And do you like watching me?" Momo wondered why she had asked that. But she had noticed that he was a teenage boy, that his sad smile was in a way beautiful, that he was kind and caring and even handsome. And those thoughts surprised her. Despite her age, she had never felt something that went beyond friendship. It was the first fluttering of butterflies in her stomach. "I do" was his short but meaningful reply.
A slight tinge of red rose up her round cheeks. "I have informed all of them, that there will be a meeting, one requiring attendance. I thought you might have certain things to tell them. Of course not all of them will come, but it gives you a chance to get to know others." He hesitated. "I did not ask you before, but is that fine with you?"
So this would finally be the moment, when she would see and get to know most of the others. A frightening thought, but also the reason she had come here for. "I am looking forward to it" And her answer was totally honest.
Of course the endless grey fog in the middle of the nothingness, was not the best place for a social gathering. And also the large, hard, cold rocks were not the ideal chairs and tables. But it had to do.
David and Momo were already seated very uncomfortably, when the first ones came.
Or maybe "came" was not the right word. "You stole something that belongs to me" Jack Bristow told her, while he had his gun pointed at her neck.
"Not so charming, Mr Bristow." A woman she had not seen before spoke in a demanding voice. Her long blue dress gave her the appearance of a priestess. Black hair fell over her shoulders, commanding blue eyes, but the lines on her face, told about her true age.
"You should never underestimate the magic and power of a woman" she spoke with the resounding voice of a feminist.
"What a memorable sentence" at least Momo knew that silent, silky whipser out of the black, billowing robes. "Although I sincerely doubt your knowledge of magic." He insulted her.
"The power of woman is often the cruel knowledge of how to break a mans heart"
"Oh how pitiful you are." Snape sneered "and that is what is called a …musketeer." In his voice the title had no meaning whatsoever.
"Please my Lady and Gentlemen" David, the polite host, bid them welcome "calm and sit down." He gestured towards the edgy rocks. Snape scolded but took place. Mr Bristow had taken the photograph, before Momo had noticed it.
"First I might introduce all of you to Momo."
"Mr Severus Snape" the adressed sneered "Professor Snape" David smiled and Momo got the idea that the childish part of him actually liked teasing the dark, brooding man.
"Agent Jonathan Bristow" the grey clad businessman watched her with his emotionless eyes, but she could see how safely he had stored away the photograph of his daughter in his breast pocket.
"Vivianne" the woman nodded "She is the high-priestess of Avalon" David explained in a sort of awe. "Was!" Snape scoffed. The woman gave him a glare that almost matched his, concerning icyness.
"And Athos, a famous musketeer" David continued unimpressed. "Thanks for the overcoat" Momo said. "You can keep it" he told her generously.
"This amazing girl" Momo could not help blushing at Davids praise "has already managed to free 3 lost souls." That was not totally true. "Was that fanatic Inspector one of them?" Snape wanted to know. "Yes" David said, even if it was he who had managed to convince Javert to leave. Snape looked somhow relieved.
"Two of them have promised to tell every relative or friend of all of you, that they can find. And they will convince them to come and save you. Or you can make it easier for them. You can decide to go back down there. Or you can decide to move on. It is your decision alone."
"You are right" Vivianne intervened and stood up. "I would rather be a spirit in my beloved Avalon, the dear hills and the wonderful sea, than the shell of a person in this grey fog." She disappeared.
David, who was looking at the spot, where the priestess had stood moments earlier, returned to face the others. "She made the right decision, you know. She has found her peace. And all of you can, if you want to" somehow he seemed tired. He did not care for being the keeper of the realm any longer. He longed to be just a normal boy, who was in the process of growing up and discovering himself.
And Athos thought about the young musketeers. He might have lost his adoptive son, had been forced to kill his own wife, been watching his three best friends die. But there was a new generation of young men out there, who wanted to serve their king, defend their land and live and fight for their ideals. And he could try to teach those young eager hands to fight. And he disappeared, only his embroidered cloak remained on Momos shoulders. He decided to live.
And Jack Bristow once more thought of his daughter, his young beautiful daughter, that had cruelly been taken from him in the bloom of her life. No father should have to bury his daughter. It was supposed to be the other way around. He hated this kind of existance, sitting on a stone with only her picture to remind him of the only person whom he had truly loved and who had not turned to betray him. And with his last wish: to see his daughter again, he disappeared. He had chosen death.
Only the three of them were left now. It had all happened so fast. But only Momo, David Copperfield and Severus Snape were still caught in the realm.
Momo walked over to Snape and sadly looked at him. "Why did you not disappear as the others all could and did?" she asked in a childish naiveity.
And unexpectedly he looked at her, those dark unreadable set of coals fixed on her. "There is no reason to go back." He seemed so bitter. "Only the devil would be glad to welcome me." Momo unconsciously drew back at his cold voice. "Now go!" he demanded.
He meant for them to leave. "But we can not…simply let you stay here alone" Momo sincerely meant it. "I am used to it."
Did he mean the endless fog? The cold, hard, edgy stones in your way? Or the loneliness? The seclusion? The knowledge that he was the only other being? That there was noone and nothing else?
"No" finally David had said something, as he stood up and positioned himself quite close to Momo. "If you are to stay here, then we will to." The sentence had a finality in it, that denied his young age. But there was an undoubted sadness to his words. All he wanted was to take Momo by the hand and walk out of this haunted place.
Authors note: So? I know, more happenings than in all of the last 10 chapters. I got the sudden urge to finish this story. In order to do that I simply need one other chapter and many of your reviews. And the terrific idea concerning my end, that I just had