Chapter III: Anywhere But Home

FD: This chapter was inspired by the hit song by Evanescence, Missing, which is really good. If you people want to hear it, it is on their new cd, Anywhere but Home, with remixes of their songs from concerts and a few new ones. I know, I sound like an advertiser. Oh, well. Peace.


Standing before Alara was an enormous building that brought fear and hatred into her heart. The abbey. She always hated this place. After what it did to Tala and her brother. They were never the same after they arrived there. Her brother starting acting differently towards her, shunning her out. Once even, he even called her a wench. That hurt a lot. Tala then became darker and emotionless. Yet she still had that way of putting a smile on his face.

She hated looking up at the building now more than ever. This place…this horrible, death-threatening place…was once her home. She choked on her memories of here. She hadn't stayed there long. Only when her mother left both her and her brother. She was left in the care of Boris who was taking care of Tala. Alara always hated him. She ran away to her old home from there after spending one week in the horrible asylum, which was what she called it. A lot of weird people in there, and she was not thinking about the kids.

As she looked up at it, she heard voices approaching. Two. Both of them familiar. Quickly, she turned and backed up into one of the pillars of the building. Taking a deep breath, cold surrounded her body, then a cramping pain, and then she was numb. She had infused herself with the pillar. And as she did so, her gray eyes scanned the area, and she felt her chest suddenly stop as a boy with red hair walked by, accompanied by another boy with light hair and serious eyes. Tala and Bryan.

Tala then suddenly shivered and looked her direction. He couldn't have spotted her. She was invisible now. She was using her powers to hide. He couldn't see her. He stared her way for a moment. She hoped he wouldn't approach the pillar, because if he did, it would be harder for her to contain herself. She shut her eyes tightly and then felt wind. Cool, calming. Then she wanted it to get violent. To blow someone in the other direction.

"Hey! What the hell!" yelled a voice. She opened her eyes to see Tala and Bryan running in the opposite direction, the wind pushing into the violently, their hair astray. She did it.

She closed her eyes and felt her body tilt forward, falling into the cool air around her. She opened her eyes and she unfused herself with the building and recovered her posture. Stretching out her black skirt and black sweater over her black nylons, she smiled cheerfully up at the trees in front of her. They were her only shelter when she was at the abbey.

In fact, it was because of the abbey that she had died. It was because of Boris. And Voltaire. They caused her death. But she didn't remember how she died. All she remembered was the fight with Tala, running back home, and then, nothing. Nothing but blackness. Like as if it was erased. One moment she was in her home, the next she was laying in a field of white and there was her first sight of Gabriel, leaning over her. He never aged, so he looked the exact same as he does now.

Alara moved away from the abbey and towards the trees, so as not to look at the place of nightmares. If Tala were here, she would probably be joking around about it. But under these conditions, she couldn't let him.


The coffee shop was dark and descolent. Tala and Bryan would sometimes skip lessons and come here just to listen to the Goths recite poems and songs, and sometimes comedians came in and told jokes during the day. Bryan and Tala had no opinion about this place, but they took advantage for the bar stand in the restaurant. Most people thought they were over eighteen, so Tala and Bryan just allowed them to think whatever they wanted.

Right now, they had just walked in and found the place crowded. There was a poster over the front door of a blond woman performing. Tala snickered at the poster because the wench looked like a wannabe Pamela Anderson. She was probably just as dumb, too. Bryan groaned as the restaurant was now suffocated with bratty children and mothers, and some turned-on bastards for the wench to perform. Tala walked out for a bit while Bryan had to get a drink to calm his nerves.

As he approached the bar, he noticed a girl that looked just a little older than he did by the bar, sipping at a small glass of what looked like rose red wine. The girl's long black hair was pulled back in a flowing ponytail, her silver eyes tracing the stage behind the bar as the blond tried to get everyone's attention, not just the guys'. She wore a black sweater over a black skirt with black nylons and boots. She seemed familiar from somewhere.

Suddenly, she noticed his stare, and a breaking gasp tore from her mouth. She looked at him, her eyes trembling slightly. Now he recognized her.

"ALARA?" he yelled. She quickly covered his mouth with both her hands, silencing him.

"Bryan, don't, please!" she begged. He pulled her hands off him. He couldn't believe it. Six years. Six solid years. And all this time she was alive.

"Alara, what happened? How are you alive? Where have you been? God, look at you!" Bryan said, stepping back. She was scared now.

"Bryan, please, I can't explain right now. Just tell me this. Is Tala with you?" she asked.

"Tala? Yeah, he's outside. You have to come on! He'll be so pleased to see you!" Bryan said, grabbing her wrist, but with an amazing strength, she got loose and pulled him aside. She pulled him into a corner, anger and frustration glaring at him.

"Bryan, I can't let Tala see me! In fact, he can't know I'm here! Do you understand? If he does, I won't be able to come back! You have to keep this a secret!" she demanded. Suddenly, Bryan was angered. He pushed her back up against the wall.

"And why should I? Tala's my friend! You don't hide secrets from friends! But I guess you know nothing about that, huh?" Bryan scolded.

"Bryan, you have to listen to me, okay. I was dead. I'm serious. Would I lie to you?" she asked. "But the, I got a second chance. I can come back to life, but there's a cost. Tala can't see me, or even know of me. Otherwise, I'll have to go back, and I won't be able to come back, ever."

Bryan looked at skeptically, but then, from the look in her eyes, he gave in.

"Please, Bryan, you have to keep this a secret. Between us, Bryan. Between brother and sister," she begged. Bryan was taken aback by this. They had never made any promises before when they were little. In fact, they never got along. But now, she was expecting him to keep this major secret from his best friend. And she was using that brother-sister line. This was real. It was serious.

Taking a reluctant sigh, Bryan nodded, and a smile crossed her face. Bryan at first thought she was going to hug him, but didn't. She just lowered eyes and whispered, "Thanks, little brother." Then she turned and ran out the back of the restaurant.


After regaining his cold demeanor, Bryan rejoined Tala out in the front and the two of them headed to the park to train. Watching them in the shadows, a young angel-goddess sighed unhappily. Her best friend had to never know she was alive. And she could never be seen again by him or her brother, Bryan. And she couldn't return home again. Because now, her home would no longer be a home, but a world of memories that will entrap her within them.

So as she watched them disappear, she wondered where she could go now. She had to find someplace, someone to turn to. She had to go somewhere. Anywhere. Anywhere but home.


FD: That's all for now. Thanks to Tiky and the other readers of this fic, I'm actually starting to pay more attention to it. There's a lot of Christianity in it here, but it's based on heaven and hell, and what roll does Lucifer play. I haven't figured it all out, so you'll have to bear with me. But if you like, review. I'll try to update soon. Peace!