They wouldn't believe you

Disclaimer: Um, is it necessary to go through this every time? I put a disclaimer at the start of this story, disclaiming the Nosgothian parts of it, so in theory shouldn't that apply to the whole thing? Hmm. Oh well, just in case... If its Nothgothian, I don't own it, if it's a reference to any other copyrighted dohickey, I don't own that either. I am making no profit from this and don't intend to either. This is purely for fun...and practice...and for the chance to share at least one of the many, many, fanfictions in my head with other people who might enjoy it...yeah...ok, ok so pride is a factor in there too, but hay what artist, writer, whatever, isn't guilty of that? ;)

EN: By the way, this is meant to be set in England, simply because I live there and therefor it is much easer to write about things in the UK than in the USA, for example. If all goes according to plan then the location should be changing later, but I want to do a bit of research first :)

A huge thanks to my wonderful reviewers, it was a mega moral lift to get such a good response first time esp considering that Kain and Raziel didn't make an appearance till the last couple of paragraphs lol

Chapter 2: Questions

Brianne knew that voice and it wasn't Terri.

Kain… It can't be. It's a dream. It's just a dream.

"No, this is not a dream, child, I assure you this is very real. Open your eyes, I know you are awake."

She heard his voice but quite frankly didn't want to; if she could hear him than either he really was, well, real or, she was completely and utterly mad. But there was something about his voice, something that took a moment for her to cotton on to. The tone of his voice was gentle, reassuring even. And that was a tone that he had NEVER used in the games. So it was not out of obedience to him, but out of sheer curiosity that she opened her eyes.

He was there, sitting on the edge of her bed, which she was currently lying on. She stared at him not all that differently to how she was staring at him earlier, bug eyes, slack jaw and all.

"If you scream I will knock you unconscious again. We really aren't in the position to be drawing attention to ourselves so soon, so if you are going to talk I suggest you keep your voice down." He was still quite calm, still gentle despite the warning, if a little ironic. And wonders will never cease... She thought numbly.

He really was very, very intimidating to look at in the flesh, especially when he was sitting so close to her. Why, and how, was he here?

'They,' she corrected herself as a slight noise and movement at the door caused her to whip her head round to look.

She flinched. She could hardly believe it. If Kain was intimidating and frightening to look at than Raziel was little short of heart stopping-ly terrifying to behold. And if the initial shock didn't get you than morbid curiosity would, Brianne realised. Her eyes were drawn, as though against her will, to those things that the mind, and her stomach, would rather not see or know, not in real life where you eat and sleep, were your friends and family are and your future lay.

It was his eyes that ensnared her first, their unearthly glow drawing her like a beacon and held her gaze until her discomfort, and the tension that seemed to build the longer their eyes were locked, forced her to look away. But she didn't simply stop looking at him as she would have liked and hoped but instead her eyes continued their involuntary exploration past his face and over his body where the evidence of his descent through the abyss screamed of the pain he had endured from across the room. Her eyes glanced over his arms and legs where most, if not all, of his skin had been burned away leaving exposed muscle and sinew and were it not for the unusual colour, that sight alone might have been enough to turn her stomach. She noticed the way his old clan banner was draped around his face, the way it didn't fully hide the loss of his jaw and the strange, almost flattened shape to his skull because of it and the way it seemed to lengthen his neck. Her eyes glanced down again to exposed and protruding ribs and down further to the nothingness of his midriff, 'how on earth does his body support him? There can't be enough there to hold him up, can there?'

She glanced back up at his face again and her breath caught in her throat. The expression in his eyes; pain, humiliation, sorrow… it was like a slap to the face for her and by her sharp intake of breath he probably knew it too. A small part of her mind that was not already overcome with shock wondered why he had allowed her to look at him like that. Why had he not interrupted her if he hated it so much? Why did he hate it so much, and show it? He was the one who turned his head first, breaking the eye lock.

Suddenly just being there in the same room as them was too overwhelming for Brianne, too surreal and confusing and she needed out. Eyes beginning to water from the intensity and range of emotions coursing through her she scrambled up from the bed, her movements anything but graceful, and since Raziel was quite effectively blocking the door to the corridor she headed strait for the bathroom, stuttering an apology to him en route.

It was all so surreal, unreal. Brianne felt like she was drifting along in a sea of confused emotion for a while, her mind split in two. The logical, social, the part of her mind that was influenced by culture, the rational, had retreated into the background like a frighted animal from a forest fire, not gone, just distant. Her instinctual mind that ruled survival, the irrational and, interestingly, the emotional, had been pushed to the fore. She had never felt so high strung in her life.

It seemed like she had been in the bathroom for nearly an hour now. The tears had stopped though her eyes were still red and slightly puffy. She was surprised that neither of them had tried to stop her as she fled the room, more so when they had simply left her to it and not disturbed her since she had locked the bathroom door behind her. Brianne had not heard the door to the main room so she presumed that they were still there, 'not that they necessarily needed to use the door to get out' she thought, remembering their in-game abilities. She knew that she couldn't hide in the bathroom forever; that would be silly, aside from simply impractical. But the memory of seeing them in her room- their harsh, predatory features- brought sharply into focus within her mind exactly what they were and what they were capable of.

'Oh gods, what will happen when either of them needs to feed?' The thought chilled her to the very bone and she seriously considered staying in the bathroom and simply hoping they would go away. 'But what would that accomplish?' she though as she glanced at the door. Considering the kind of things those two were smashing their way through in the games the bathroom door might as well have been made of cardboard. Not a particularly comforting idea. Actually, a near panic inducing one, all things considering. 'Calm down Brianne, calm down. If you panic now it might get you killed. No don't think about it! No gory pictures, no, no, no! Be logical, they haven't hurt you yet and have left you alone in here to calm down.' More images of Kain and Raziel flashed through her head. The feral gold of Kain's eyes as he looked down at her when she woke up after fainting, the flash of wicked fangs as he talked, fangs meant for killing- for killing people, humans, like me. 'Stop it! That's not helping!' She brought her head down into her hands, a fresh wave of tears threatening.

Forcibly bringing that train of thought to a halt was like trying to push a car up a hill. Blinking back tears, she remembering her earlier encounter with them before she fled. Had they shown any hostility towards her? No. Quite the opposite. They had been patient and kind with her, relatively speaking, even Raziel during her inconsiderate and really rather rude inspection of him earlier. Where was the tyrannical vampire king and the vengeful soul stealing wraith that was portrayed in the games? Not that she was complaining considering the really very vulnerable position she was in at the moment, but… What the hell was going on!

Tired of hiding and needing answers she got up from her perch on the toilet lid and went to the sink to wash her face clear of tears. One thing that national geographic had taught her about dealing with predators that could feasiblely consider you lunch was never show weakness wile at the same time not to provoke them. She was well aware that it was probably too late for that but hay, better late than never. Besides, all they had seen of her was a dumb struck girl who had, in only a couple of hours, fainted, stared at them like they were some kind of never seen before mutant monsters on display in a zoo then run away and hid in the bathroom like a six-year-old. What a great first impression.

Looking in the mirror her reflection stared back at her, and what a sorry sight it was. Wildly unruly, frizzy hair stuck out at the most bizarre angles, like someone had stuck a scrunched up mass of hay to her head. Her eyes were indeed red and puffy as she had thought, the only good side being that the red from her tears made the green show up brighter, the only time her eyes really did look green and not grey. As for the rest of her face... slightly clammy looking skin, tear tracks, flushed... all in all, a mess. Turing on the cold water taps she scrubbed her face with the flannel, clearing away the evidence of her distress and the usual remains of sleep as best she could, attempting to clear her mind as well. Then grabbing the brush she ran it through her wild hair, attempting to force some semblance of control over it, hissing when she came across the frequent knots. Eventually discarding the brush she plated her hair into a braid that reached just to the bottom of her shoulder blades, scowling when even when she was done it still looked as wild as ever. Her hands where still trembling slightly as she ran them over her t-shirt and baggy trousers, trying to smooth out some of the creases. Looking at her reflection again she saw something much closer to the image she usually presented to world at large; neat(ish), fairly sensible looking, but with her ever frizzy hair she looked like a cross between a librarian and one of those pictures of girls working in the fields in the dark ages. Odd combination, not ugly but she was no model either. Brianne was just thankful she didn't need glasses, yet, that would well in truly set the 'librarian' stereotype in stone.

Finally deeming herself presentable or at least as presentable as possible in her pyjamas and no make up, she turned the lock on the door and, steeling herself, stepped somewhat hesitantly into the main room.

The first thing, or rather the first person, she saw was Raziel who was standing next to the window by her bed, hidden from the outside by the curtain. She still had to fight the impulse to cringe and was immensely grateful that she succeeded. Glancing away she immediately spotted Kain who had taken up Raziels former post, propping up the door out of the room. By the look of them she wouldn't have been surprised if they had just been talking, what about she had no idea. Leaning against the door frame to the bathroom, desperate to break the uncomfortable silence in the room she blurted out the first and most obvious in a long line of questions that were buzzing around her head.

"Why are you here?" She cringed inwardly at the rushed and too high pitched sound of her voice.

"You tell us." Was Kains cool, calm reply. Yet another awkward silence followed in which Brianne fought not to fidget until the next question made itself known.

"How did you know my name?" Kain smirked at this, but strangely enough it was not nasty or even unpleasant, his eyes were almost warm, or as close to warm as he could get. Brianne was having a tougher time reading Raziels expression but briefly, at least, she thought she saw a ghost of a smile in his eyes. "Well?" She prompted after nether of them said anything after awhile.

Raziel replied "Your name was written in one of the books that go with your… games." Her eyes darted towards him as he indicated the legacy of kain games that had been rearranged on the shelf next to the playstation 2; it was the first time she had heard him speak outside of the games and she could not help the small smile that graced her face, both at what he said and the sound of his voice which was, in her opinion, like an audio version of strawberries and milk chocolate, especially when he spoke in such soft tones.

'Wait a second, they have seen my- their, games?' This worried and disturbed her more than just a little. Although there was nothing in his voice or body language to suggest any bad response to it, finding out that your life, your troubles and pain were just a game to someone else was not something you just shrug your shoulders at. She would probably freak out big time if she ever discovered that her life was just entertainment to other people, and her life was nothing compared to theirs. Brianne frowned, "You have seen them, the games? You know what they are about?"

"Hard not to. To both questions."

"And that doesn't bother you?"

"Speaking for myself, not really. Not now." ''not now', What does he mean by that?' She wasn't sure she wanted to know.

"Kain?"

He shrugged "Does it matter?" His voice was as calm as it had always been thus far, though as he said it he was looking at Raziel not Brianne, his eyes strangely intense.

Slightly confused Brianne said "I think it does. Why shouldn't it?"

Kain's eyes flickered to her, "Alright. It does disturb me but not as much as you may think. The realities of our two worlds, though obviously linked, are still separate and unique. The possibilities contained within alternate dimensions are boundless and you seem to live in a world of windows. That humans can look into key events in my life does not trouble me much either; in Nosgoth I had long accepted that individuals could look into my life as though opening a book, given the means, I have done so myself. It is the... casualness, that irks me most, that the events be reduced simple entertainment, a mere game. That bothers me." He said, folding his arms across his broad chest, scowling slightly at said games.

"I don't see why," Raziel interjected smoothly, "You yourself have described the events of our world as a game in the past, that we are all just pawns with no say in the corse of our lives. Indeed, to the Wheel, our world probably is little more than a play field." As he spoke, Brianne could almost feel the hatred for the 'Elder God' coming off him in waves.

"At lest in Nosgoth our 'game' is worth something," Kain snapped back at him, his voice taking on much harsher tones that anyone who has ever played the Legacy of Kain games would recognise; it sent cold shivers down Brianne's spine hearing it live. "It is our world, our lives, our destiny, and that is what is at stake if we should lose. That-" he gestures sharply at the games, "-that is nothing. Worthless." Raziel turned to look back out the window not agreeing or disagreeing with Kain, keeping his thoughts to himself. Brianne sympathised with both of them but was saddened by Raziels now cynical view of his own world. Then a thought occurred to her from the cowering depths of her mind and she frowned, and said,

"But how did you know they belonged to me?"

"There was no one else staying in this room and they were covered in your scent." Kain replied calmly. Raziel glanced back at him from his spot by the window but only briefly.

"Oh." She didn't know what else to say to that. It made sense. Looking between the two her eyes came to rest on Kain, not only because it simply was a look easer to deal with looking at him than Raziel (something she couldn't help feeling a little guilty about) but also because there was something about him that seemed a little off, like there was something missing. It took as couple of seconds of her openly staring at him before it clicked. No Reaver. Brianne didn't know weather this was a good thing or not, only time would tell, unfortunately.

Brianne looked back at the games, they were set back on the shelves so only the spines were showing. "Did you do that? Put them back on the shelf?"

"Yes. We thought it would be wise seeing how much they distressed you." Kain said "Considering their subject it seemed plausible that whatever it was about them that caused such a violent reaction was linked to our arrival. I doubt it would be normal for them to induce such panic."

"Not to mention that if you reacted in such a way, there was no reason to think that the other people of your world would be any different. Better for all of us if we kept all trace of our presence reduced to a minimum, at least for now." Raziel added, turning back to face Brianne. "What was it about them that caused you to react the way you did? What changed?"

She looked between them slowly then back to the games. Stepping over to the shelf, she sat down in front of it with her back to Kain and Raziel for the first time since her retreat to the bathroom, staring at the row of games blankly. The titles displayed on their sides glared almost accusingly back at her.

Blood Omen, Soal Reaver, Blood Omen 2, Soal Reaver 2 and Defiance. All there, the entire collection thus far.

Gingerly she reached out and ran her fingers along them slowly. To her this was still the most eery and spine chilling of everything that had happened so far. The dreams she could have dismissed as simply the products of an over active mind too hocked on a supposed fantasy and the drowsy, trance like state of the day and night before could have been down to a temporary illness or something she had eaten. Even the presence of Kain and Raziel in the flesh was not as down right spooky as this. They were beyond the realms of the normal world as she knew it, thus a fair sized chunk of her mind had simply shied away from them, giving itself time to adjust perhaps. But the games had been there before this had all happened, they had been part of her life and had not changed in all that time and were never meant to change. But they had. Reality itself had warped around them to remove a vital element and transport it into her life, turning her world on its head. Her life had changed, and so had they.

Finally her hand settled on Soal Reaver 2, the game she had been playing the previous day when all this had started. She pulled it out from amongst its siblings and turned it over in her hands so she could see the cover.

Turning round so she was facing Kain and Raziel she held up the game, "There was a picture of Raziel on the cover, perched on the pillars in front of the moon." She turned it round, "And here, there were pictures on the back. Kain was shown here as well." She opened the box and pulled out the book. "And on the cover of the book it's the same. The background and the props remain but not the subject." She began flicking through the book. "All throughout it's the same. Every image of you, of both of you, has been erased but everything else is untouched." She put the book back in its box and put the box back on the shelf, sill very uncomfortable. "The others are no different. You are gone from all of them." She folded her hands in her lap, staring at them, her knuckles where white as she kept shifting her grip.

"And here we are." Kain sighed, bringing his hand to his temple. There was silence for a moment in which Raziel stepped forward to sit next to Brianne and pull a game off the shelf, Defiance incidently, and turned it round in his hands, just looking at it. Brianne tensed at having him so near and had to force herself to stay put and not back away from him. Very gently, considering the power in his hands and how poorly suited they were for the job, he pried open the box.

"How does it work?"

"Hmm?"

"It's a game isn't it? How do you play?"

"You- You really want to know?" She spluttered, rather stupidly. "Well, um, the game itself is on the disk. That's the round thing..." Brianne spent the next ten minuets explaining as much she could about how the games worked and how to play them culminating in her starting up the Soul Reaver 2 game again, as it was already in the machine and Brianne couldn't be bothered with such strenuous activities as changing a disk at the moment.

"I wonder if the game itself is affected in the same way the box and book are." Raziel wondered aloud as the PS2 started up.

"We'll soon find out." Kain said. He hadn't moved from next to the door.

Brianne didn't say anything. As the startup menu loaded she began to enter the bonus materials code but faltered as she did a double take at the screen. Fancy broken pillars, nice yellowish glow, no Raziel. Defiantly not limited to physical images then, the digital ones were fair game too. Still, an idea came into her mind so she entered the bonus materials' code anyway and went straight to the extras. Switching through the different menus, she loaded up the character concept art for Raziel. Interestingly the earlier concepts, the ones that looked least like the 'real' Raziel, as she now thought of him, were still there while the final concepts and promotional art had gone. But perhaps the most freakish thing were the ones in between, the ones that while recognisable were just not quite right. They were faded. The more similar the character was to the final the more transparent it was, sometimes with a particular emphasis on a specific feature if it was particularly close.

It was exactly the same with the concept art for Kain, not that Brianne expected it to be any different. So as it turned out the game, or at least its start menu and bonus features, was in exactly the same state as its box and book. Although at this point Brianne really did not feel like testing this on the actual game itself, not yet. There was no reason to think it would not have changed in the same way as everything else but after so many major, earth shattering events in one morning she thought this one could be left until later. When Raziel asked about why she would not play she said as much to him and she was thankful when he left it at that.

She shut the game down and was about to put it back on the shelf when she thought about Terri. She would be expecting to play again before she left later and Brianne did not like the idea of her finding the games in this state. And she simply did not want to think about the possibility of Terri, or anyone else for that matter, walking in on Kain and Raziel as she had done.

Raziel noticed her pause and her worried face, "What is it?"

"I just don't want anyone else to see these. They may not respond as strongly as I did, but I doubt anything good would come of it."

"Could you hide them?" Kain said from behind her.

"I don't know if I should, it might be too obvious. But if I just leave them here someone will eventually see."

"Well, which would be worse?"

"Having someone find them. I think that would rase more questions than if they just disappeared." Brianne said with a touch of sarcasm, though there was not much energy in it. Scooping up all five games in her arms she carried them over to her bed and pulled out her travel bag. She stashed them away with the same care that she had originally packed them then took the entire bag into the bathroom and hid it in the cupboard beneath the sink.

As she closed the doors behind them it was as though a door closed inside her and she was suddenly exhausted, physically, emotionally, mentally exhausted. Sitting down in front of the sink she collapsed into herself, her head sinking into her hands in, among other things, absolute disbelief that it was still midmorning. Amazing how much can happen in such a short space of time.

The laughter came unbidden and unexpected, bubbling over with a will of its own from deep within her chest.

"Brianne?" Raziel was at the door, which she hadn't closed behind her anyway. 'Why is he here? Why does he look so concerned? For that matter, how can he look so concerned, emotionally, physically, how? AND WHAT ON EARTH, NOSGOTH OR ANYWHERE IN BETWEEN IS GOING ON?' The tears came as the laughter lessened but did not stop and her hands tightened their grip on her hair. She curled up into a tighter ball, burring her face into her lap, not wanting to see anymore and finally falling silent. She just wanted to shut it all out and pretend that the last twenty four hours had not happened, so she could relax. She felt like she had not slept at all last night but was just too high strung to rest now. Oh but she wanted too, she really did. Perhaps, she thought, if I just stay here and be quiet they will just leave me alone so I can have a nice nap...

Nope, apparently not. With surprising gentleness and dexterity a pair muscular arms that felt like they had been constructed from steel cables wrapped themselves around her and lifted her up, as she was, like she were no heaver than a small child. Another thing that had never happened to her before, at least not since she was a small child. He gently adjusted her in his arms into a more comfortable and more manageable position but Brianne still kept her eyes closed. For a while Raziel just seemed to stand there, holding her to his chest, which felt just as steely as his arms and his old clan banner did little to cushion it. 'What is he doing?'

After a few more moments he carried her into the other room but stoped before he reached her bed, tensing and turning to look at the main door were Brianne felt, rather than heard, Kain move. She was expecting one of them to say something but neither of them did. Then a helpful voice inside her head reminded her that Nosgothian vampires did not need to talk out loud to speak to one another. That was probably how Raziel could still communicate. Regardless, something was being said between the two that they did not want her to hear, and whatever it was Raziel did not like it.

After a very long pause Raziel started to move again and placed her gently on the bed, though he was still tense. Surprising her further he preceded to pull the covers up and over her and she felt a gentle touch through her hair. From the other side of the room however, she felt a raising of tension, a build up of power coming from were Kain stood. She heard Raziel bolt upright and the first stirring of power from him made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Still they said nothing, not out loud at any rate.

Eventually they both seemed to calm down and the prickly feeling that had filled the room like just before a lightning bolt struck, dissipated. Brianne, despite her frayed mind and exhaustion, could no more relax and rest through that than she could if she were huddled under a tall tree in the middle of an empty field through a thunder storm. She breathed a muffled sigh of relief.

For a while everything was quiet. Behind the illusionary safety of closed eyes Brianne's disbelief, her shock and her perception of how the world should be made war on everything that had happened since she had woken up. 'Come on, think about it, they cant be here. They are a physical impossibility, the things they do break at least half a dozen laws of physics, they can not be real... Did I even wake up this morning? Maybe I am in a coma, or at least unconscious. I was sick yesterday, the dizziness, the utter lack of any real concentration... I have lost it haven't I? Mom always says that I play that game too much. Im hallucinating, they are just figments of my imagination brought on by too much gaming and loneliness...

"We are going to give you some time alone for a while. We know you are struggling with this, with our presence here." She jumped when she heard Kain's voice by her ear. Kain. No, noo, you're not real, wake up Brianne, this can not be real... He stoped talking, and Brianne, through all the doubt and stress, felt the barest pressure, the slightest touch within her mind. Suddenly a three pronged hand gripped her face and forced her to look to her side. "Open your eyes." His voice commanded. She complied, she didn't think she had much choice, not when he used that tone of voice. He was startlingly close and Brianne's eyes bulged in their sockets. At the same time she felt that same prickly energy build back up again, this time from the end of the bed. "Such, feebleminded thoughts and delusions will get you nowhere Brianne. You will only make it harder for yourself and for us." He paused again, releasing his grip on her face and the prickly feeling emanating from the end of the bed, that seemed to have been holding at a steady level just short of an audio crackle, lessened. "We will return here at dusk. In the meantime I suggest you don't speak of this to anyone, not that they would believe you if you told them." he smirked, and this time there was nothing even remotely pleasant about it, "After all, we are just fictional characters from a game, are we not?" His tone mocked both Brianne and the games in one fell swoop. "Get some rest," he said, voice softer now, "Think about all that has happened and know that we are not here to hurt you." He pulled back and stood up, all predatory grace and power. "Try to relax, you may not get much chance to do so again for a while." Brianne watched as he brought his hands together as though holding an invisible ball, from which a bright white light erupted, engulfing him. When the glare cleared he was gone.

Brianne glanced towards the end of the bed were she knew Raziel was standing. He looked troubled. Brianne didn't say anything, just looked at him as he stared at her. What is he thinking? He turned his head slightly as though he had heard something before glancing back at her. Mabe its Kain telling him to get a move on. On cue he moved away from the end of her bed and to the window, pushing it open wide enough to climb through. He glanced outside quickly before turning back to Brianne.

"Keep this open for me." He said softly. Brianne nodded mutely in reply. He held her gaze a moment longer than he should have before he climbed quickly and silently out the window leaving her alone in her room.

TBC...

Well that went alright, don't ya think? This is shaping up to be a long, long story, even by my rabid fanfic devouring standards, and that's saying something lol... till next time