Author's Note: Well, I'm back. Didja'll miss me? -koff- Yeah, new word. "Didja'll." I'm in a very strange mood right now, so we'll see how this chapter turns out... although, by the time I finish it, 'twill be much later... and I probably won't be in such a weird mood anymore. That could be a good thing, y'know. -grin-
I'm working now. I'm one of only two assistant coaches for our team. -beams- I feel so special! But, now that I'm working, I won't have as much free time to just randomly sit down and start writing. Sad—I know, but... I'm making money! Har.
Haha! Good news! I put Clementine through the Mary Sue Litmus Test, and she scored -6 points! -is very happy- No Mary Sues here!
Well, mateys—on with the chapter!
Note: I now have beaten my prior record of reviews! I have 34 reviews now! And there was much rejoicing! -gives reviewers cookies and hugs- I could never do this without you guys!
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Disclaimer: If I owned Alice 19th, do you think that I would be writing this? Ha!
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Chapter VII: As the Sand Runs Out
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Clementine lingered in half-consciousness for a while. Everything was fuzzy, but she could barely make out an hourglass floating in the distance. Three other identical hourglasses appeared, and she could see the sand falling through their glass necks. ...were there people inside the hourglasses?
There was the faint sound of screaming in the distance. Clementine felt herself waking up slowly... responding to the sound of the yelling. Suddenly, a loud crashing sound split the air. One of the hourglasses had broken. With a gasp, Clem sprang upright.
She was back in her bed, and the sun was shining from behind the heavy draperies over the window. It seemed to be around the middle of the day, and Clementine was surprised that she had slept for so long. Plus, the fact that she was still extremely tired only added questions. "...what was I doing last night...?"
Strangely enough, she couldn't remember anything about the night before. "I... I went to bed... and I couldn't sleep... there... there were wolves... and..." Wincing, she held a hand to her head; she suddenly had a throbbing headache. "...I can't remember..."
It was unusual for Clementine to forget such recent events. "Maybe... maybe I fell asleep and had a dream... I normally confuse dreams with reality... and I normally can't remember them... yeah, that must be what happened. I have been having a lot of weird dreams... so... it makes a lot of sense."
Thoroughly convinced that she had merely dreamt the night before, Clem got out of bed and stretched—ready to face the day. "I have got to work harder on mastering 'dana' today... it's so frustrating!"
Quickly slipping into some clothes, she made her way out of the room and down the hall. Voices were coming out of a room on her left—Eric's room. One of the voices was Frey's. Simply too curious to mind her gut-feeling of hesitancy, she edged near the door and listened.
Their voices were subdued, but Clem could easily define them as Eric and Frey's. The murmurs were almost unintelligible. The only words she could make out were "leaving," "Japan," and "Neo-masters." "...what the heck are they talking about...?"
Suddenly—and only for a moment—the dream of the hourglasses flashed before her eyes. Her eyes widened for a moment, then looked confused. "...huh... that was interesting... why think of that now?"
Footsteps were heard approaching the door, and Clementine—not wanting to be caught eavesdropping—took off running down the hall and ducked behind a corner. Letting out a relieved breath, she poked her head around the corner to see if Frey and Eric were coming that way. They were, so she rounded another corner and pressed herself against the wall. She wanted to hear what they had to say. Soon, Eric's voice could be heard floating down the hall.
"So, you shall be leaving tomorrow?"
"Yes... tomorrow. I haven't been to Japan yet... who knows? The Neo-masters could be there. Japan is a land of promise."
Eric laughed lightly. "True, true. You will find the Neo-masters soon enough—I'm sure of it."
"Hmm." Frey sounded distracted. "Eric... I have a request."
"Ask away."
"Could I... could I take someone with me?"
Clementine's heart leaped. "Does he want to take me with him...? I don't want him to leave... I don't want to stay here without him... but I guess I don't really have a choice if he doesn't take me with him. Maybe I could be allowed to visit home... just until he gets back. But wait—who else would he want to take with him? I'm probably the closest person to him... besides Eric... but Eric can't go with him. And even if he could, Frey would just ask him to go—not ask him if he could take someone with him. ...who else would he take...?"
Eric paused for a moment, then chuckled. "Of course you can."
"Thank you."
Clementine couldn't help but smile. "He wants to take me with him... I know it. Now I won't have to be left here alone! I really don't know what I would do... without him..."
Just as the thought crossed her mind, the image that she had seen at the window flashed before her eyes. This time, however, the vision expanded and ventured outside of the building and showed her the surroundings. Shops lined the streets, but everything was deserted. One thing was evident.
"That's... that's Japan...!"
The vision disappeared as quickly as it came, and Clementine realized that she had been holding her breath. Taking slow, deep breaths, she leaned back against the wall. "Frey... he's going to Japan... and..." Sliding into a sitting position, she buried her head in her hands. "Why am I believing these dreams...? Why? They can't be real... they just can't be... but, then, why do they feel so real? Why did the one with the river seem to come true? Why does everything just seem to be falling into place... like it was planned?"
Minutes slowly ticked by and Clem continued to sit against the wall. Her heart was pumping wildly and her mind was racing. "I... I don't believe in prophecies... and I definitely don't believe that I'm some kind of prophetess... I'm just freaking myself out! I must be... there is no logical way that my dreams could come true... there just isn't. I... I'm going to go... if Frey asks me, I'm going to go with him... just to prove that I'm fooling myself... to put my mind at ease..."
Picking herself up from the floor, Clem slowly started down the hall. She felt a bit light-headed, and she wobbled slightly as she walked.
"Walk much?"
Stopping—but not turning around—Clementine rolled her eyes. "No, it's my first time, and I'm trying to learn on my own."
Chuckling, Frey wrapped his arms around her waist from behind. Clem stiffened a bit at the gesture. "...what is he doing...?"
"Hey... what's wrong, Clem? You seem... slightly upset."
"Oh... um... I'm just a little tired... headache... you know..."
"Hmm..." He sounded unconvinced. Pulling away, he gently turned her around. "I have a question to ask you."
Looking up at him, she felt as if her heart leapt and sank at the same time. "Why does this feel so... familiar...?"
"I'm going off to Japan tomorrow. I need to continue my search for the Neo-Masters... and Japan is next on the list... I don't know how long I'll be there, and... I was wondering if y—"
"FREY! There you are!"
Startled, Frey spun around. Clementine blinked as she watched someone run up—apparently out of breath. The man—who they could now identify as Terje—stopped and leaned against the wall to catch his breath.
"Terje..." Frey was frowning. "What's wrong?"
"Your room... on... fire..."
Eyes widening, Frey sped down the hall. Clementine followed him—although she wasn't fast enough to keep up. She could smell smoke soon enough, and she knew that she couldn't go any further; the smoke would attack her lungs. Leaning against the wall—cloak protectively placed over her mouth and nose—she listened as Frey frantically shouted "dana" in the distance. After a while, the smoke died down and she continued down the hall. Uptight voices rose up to meet her ears.
"Didn't any of you try to put it out!" Frey's voice was easily recognizable.
"Of course we tried! But, for some reason, it wouldn't go out for us! Each time we used 'dana,' the flames became larger! We figured that maybe... just maybe... it would only work for you!"
"It's true, Frey. And we were right! It worked for you. We don't know what happened exactly... but this fire couldn't have come from a natural source. We sense Mara."
"But who would've wanted to set my room on fire? What could anyone possibly gain from setting my room on fire?"
"We... don't know, Frey."
Frey swore under his breath. "Fine... I'm going to try to salvage what I can..."
Clementine watched as the two men left the room. One thing struck her as odd. "...where's Eric? He's probably busy... but still... he normally rushes to Frey's proverbial 'rescue.'"
Frey's room was positively... charred, for the lack of a better word. There didn't seem to be a thing that the fire didn't touch. Frey tried to remain impassive, but Clem could read the frustration and anger in his eyes. "Frey..."
He closed his eyes, let out a deep breath, and then forced a shaky smile. "It's okay, Clem... I didn't have anything of great value, anyways..."
"Yeah, but... it was your stuff... and now everything's burnt..." Biting her lip, she looked around the room. "Wow... there isn't a thing that survived..."
Frey shook his head bitterly. "No. This definitely wasn't a natural fire."
"How do you know that for sure?"
"A natural fire sprouts from one source... but this fire seems to have started from many different sources... I don't even think that one person could have made a fire do this much damage in such a short time... unless, of course, they used the words."
"The... Maram?"
Frey's jaw tightened. "No. Not just the Maram. This person used both the Lotis and the Maram. 'Iru' must have been what started the flame... and then 'sura' must have been what made it burn with such rage... and that would explain why it wouldn't stop for anyone but me."
Clementine blinked—silent for a moment. "...someone can know the Lotis and the Maram at the same time...?"
"Yes..." Frey looked disgusted.
"Would... would it have been someone here? Someone at this branch?"
He shook his head rapidly. "I won't believe it. I know everyone here... we're all close... I don't believe that any of them could be any double agents. I can't."
Nodding slowly, Clem decided that it would probably be good to shut up for the moment. She trailed her fingers across what had been Frey's furniture, and what were now black lumps of damp, burnt wood. She jerked one of the drawers of his dresser open to see if anything inside had remained intact. There was nothing in the drawer besides a picture—which was lying upside down, edges a bit blackened.
Clementine glanced at Frey—making sure he wasn't really looking—then she removed the photo from the drawer and flipped it over. After just a moment of scrutinizing, her hazel eyes widened and she dropped the picture in alarm. "...oh my... that's..."
"...Clem..? What's wrong...?"
Snapping out of her frightened reverie, Clementine lifted her wide eyes to meet Frey's. "Who... who is that...? The woman... in the picture... who is it?"
Frey leaned down and picked up the picture—wincing inwardly. "Ida. She... she was my cousin."
"...was?"
His jaw tightened. "She died. Threw herself in a river... drowned."
Clementine's heart skipped a beat. "...a... a river... she threw herself in a river... that's the same girl... the same girl that I saw in my dream... in the river... the same girl that... that talked... I've never seen her before in my life... I never knew that she was real... something... something strange is going on... and I don't want to stick around long enough to find out... I have to get out of here... I have to!"
She jumped as she felt Frey gently grab her shoulders. "Clementine... tell me what's wrong. You look as if you've seen a ghost."
Shivering slightly, she hesitantly looked up at him. "...maybe I have..."
Confusion showed clearly in his eyes. "What are you talking about?"
"I... I'm sorry, Frey... I'm sorry... I can't stay... I can't stay here... I can't go with you to Japan... I'm going home... I can't take this anymore... I just can't...!" Tears started flowing freely from her eyes—she was on the edge of hysteria.
Frey blinked. He realized that she must have been eavesdropping on his conversation with Eric, but he didn't understand why she suddenly became hysterical. "Clem... Clem, please calm down... tell me what's wrong..."
She looked at him for a moment with tear-filled eyes, then she quickly tore herself away and ran as fast as she could. She could hear Frey yelling after her, but she didn't stop until she was far, far away. After slowly making her way back to her room, she shut the door and slumped against it—burying her head in her hands and letting loose the sobs she had worked so hard to suppress.
Everything seemed to swirl around in her head, and she found herself completely incapable of sorting out her thoughts. One thing she knew for sure—she had to get away. She had to get away soon... as soon as possible...
"I'm going home. I'm going home, and things are going to go back to normal. They will go back to normal. I know it..."
The thought comforted her a bit, and she leaned her head back against the door—closing her eyes. "Everything's going to be okay... I just have to believe it..."
—
Timidly peeking out from behind the window-coverings, Clementine watched as Frey packed his things into a car and drove off. His absence left her feeling cold and empty—a phenomenon that shocked and disturbed her. She had never been dependant on people before... or maybe she had always been dependant on others, and was never strong enough to face it...
Eric had accepted her urgent need to return home with surprise, but he had been gracious in granting her request. She was scheduled to leave in four days, and she couldn't wait... she felt that she would go mad if she had to spend one more night at the branch.
Tearing herself away from the window, she wandered around her room—feeling like the proverbial "phantom in a dream." Nothing seemed real to her anymore. Nothing even had an edge of reality. Yet she knew that she wasn't dreaming.
Frey had seemed heartbroken when she said that she was going home. "I don't understand... I have these blank spots in my memory... I just can't remember what happened during them... but... I feel that I'm missing something... something important... Frey seemed too... too attached... but I don't know—or can't remember—why..."
Her heart suddenly sank with regret. "I... I shouldn't have been so cold to him... he deserved better... whenever I got upset or hopeless... I pushed him away. All he wanted to do was comfort me... he wanted me by his side in Japan... but I can't... I wish I could... I'm just not strong enough for this..." She closed her eyes as a tear slowly slid down her cheek. "I'm sorry, Frey..."
—
The day had finally come—Clem was ready to go home. She was ecstatic for the first time in years. Excitement was practically bubbling out of her, and she earned her share of strange looks around the branch. "They've never seen my happy side—I'm sure it's quite a surprise!" she thought with a laugh.
At that point in time, she felt as if nothing could possibly go wrong. The sun was shining through the clouds, and the world was bright. Life finally seemed to be looking up. Or... maybe she just wanted to believe that things were looking up. "No! I can't think like that... I'm going home, and everything's going to go back to normal."
There was one thing that she couldn't fool herself about—she missed Frey. Her eyes began to tear up when she thought about him... and what happened. "I need to forget. This part of my life is over. I need to move on."
Her internal struggle went on for quite a while before she silenced it. "Maybe I should write him a letter... or something... just to let him know that I'm not angry with him... and that..." Sighing, she changed her train of thought. "I have to finish packing..."
In an hour or so, everything was packed, and Clementine was more than ready to leave. She carefully folded up her cloak and proceeded down the hall to return it to Eric. A small tremor shook through her as she knocked on his door; Eric still unnerved her. He opened the door a moment later and greeted her with a warm smile.
"Hello, Miss Clementine—is there something I can do for you?"
"Um, I just wanted to return this..." Her hands shook as she handed the cloak to him. "...why am I so afraid of him...?"
Looking a bit surprised, he took the cloak. "You can keep it if you wish, Miss Clementine. Think of it as a gift."
"Oh, thank you... but, no." She forced a strained smile. "I'd rather not. Besides, someone else can always use it..."
Eric nodded. "Alright, if you wish." He quickly glanced at the clock. "It's just about time for you to go to the airport. Better hurry if you wish to make it."
"Right... thanks..." She turned to walk away, but Eric called after her.
"Oh, wait! I quite forgot... there's a letter for you."
Turning around, Clem blinked. "...a letter?"
"Yes—it arrived earlier this morning." He handed it to her with a smile. "I'm very sorry I didn't give it to you sooner."
"Oh... that's alright..." Smiling a bit—out of courtesy—she tore the envelope open and opened the letter. Her eyes scanned over the letter quite quickly, but then—seeming not to believe its contents—she slowly read over it again. Countenance hardening, she stuffed the letter back inside the envelope. "You say this came this morning?"
"Yes... it did." Eric frowned a bit. "What's the matter?"
Without answering, Clementine carefully pulled out another piece of paper from the envelope. Her eyes widened—a look of utter disbelief stealing over her face. "...it wasn't a lie... it wasn't..."
The envelope fell from her hands, and Eric stooped down to pick it up. After reading the letter thoroughly, he looked back at Clem in alarm. "Oh Clementine... I'm so sorry..."
Tears were silently streaming down her face. She seemed frozen—not wanting to believe what was in the letter, but knowing that it was true. "It's true... it has to be true... that... the certificate couldn't have been forged... why would anyone forge something like that...? My mother... she's... dead. Our house is gone. Everything... everything I had to go back to... everything's gone..."
"Clementine..." Eric seemed to be at a loss for words.
Clementine's eyes hardened as she was brought back from her thoughts. She laughed a bit bitterly. "I should have known better than to believe in hope." Dropping her mother's death certificate, she turned and stalked back to her room—not feeling the need to cry or scream, but just feeling completely numb inside. A pair of amber eyes watched her retreat.
"She will be ours yet..."
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Author's Note: Wow. That chapter took FOREVER. Sorry, guys... -wince-
Okay, I now have a few questions for everyone reading this story: Do you think it's going to slow? Are there parts that are just plain dull? Do you think that it's down-right cheesy sometimes?
If you do, I would really like to know! I'm kind of floundering here, believe it or not... so... flame at will, if you so choose. -wink- I can never put myself in the mind-set of the reader with my stories, so... please, please, please let me know what you think.
Review Responses:
Helbaworshipper: Hehe, I'm glad you liked the romance! This chapter didn't really have any romance, but—don't worry—I'll get to that eventually!
Takame Kiriku: lol, well, you never know—I could switch things around on you. -wink- In the world of fan-fiction, you never know what to expect next! Er, or at least... I hope you don't... -koff-
Esse: -dies laughing- Dude... I should attempt to write an Alice 19th humor story... with Frey's jam and Nyozeka. I wonder how that would turn out... Yes, I was so sad when I read the last volume of Alice 19th! I couldn't believe that it was over! -sniff- So sad. Glad you liked the last chapter—hope you liked this one! Hehe, I try to be dedicated—I really do!
Arielle: -lol- Was that with the "Cute Guys" thread? I realized that I kind of sounded stupid. -koff- Oh well—we both have yet to completely master the English language. -wink- Haha, well I didn't UPDATE very "soon"... but at least I updated! Let me know what you thought of this chapter... and you have to read more Alice 19th when you get the chance. -emphatic nod-
Tanlaith: Yay!—a fellow hopeless romantic! I have been titled—very appropriately—"The Queen of Fluff." Yes. I love romance. Normally my stories are filled with so much romance that it's sickening. But I think I've grown out of that. -sweatdrop- I really, honestly, have no idea whatsoever when this story's going to end... I'll figure that out along the way... oh, no problem! I always love to help writers in need!
tsukikage: Hehe, well, the world may never know. -wink- Naw, all will be revealed in time. But I'm not giving anything away right now!