Chapter Nine - Lost

Normal POV

It was so, so dark. As though swallowed whole by a monstrous beast, the borders of his world had ceased to exist and he was trapped in the void. Any light that permeated was distant and moving ever further away.

It was strange, he thought. Amongst this all-consuming, confining blackness, the only colors that reached him were two faraway stars. One hung closer than the other, but he seemed to be pulling away from them. Though he had never liked the colors they shone with - gold and red - he welcomed any change from the abysmal monotony that surrounded him, suffocating his spirit.

Something here wasn't right. He was distantly aware of that, at times, but the darkness could be comforting, even as it restricted him. Whenever he tried to reach out to one of those distant stars, a terrible sense of weakness and pain would wash over him, until recoiling to the void was no longer something he dreaded. Even if the sense of wrongness plagued him, it was peaceful, and there was nothing to feel.

Yet, the longer he remained in this place, the stronger the insistence in his mind that this was unnatural. That there was more than this, more for him to live for. That someone needed him. He couldn't remember who, except for the flash of a smile, and the color red. Red like blood, but far colder than what he expected.

The panic in his chest would flare sometimes, pushing him to reach for the edge of this realm. This time, there was an extra desperation that he couldn't shake no matter what he tried. The golden star pulsed, and he struggled, reaching towards it. The glow was blinding, but something inside him insisted he fight, just a little further-

Warmth engulfed his shaking hand, a blurry face taking shape to his eyes. He was overcome with a terrible pain, but the desperation had yet to abate. What was happening? Was this the golden star he had felt so drawn to?

"Oh, Giovanni. Brother, I feared that I had lost you this time." Brother? Foggy memories and a growing alarm spread through his mind.

"...Lena?" Her blurred face creased into the smile that has been fixed in his memory, though tears ran freely down her face. Despair stabbed his heart as he realized how much strength it took to brush the wetness from her cheeks. She turned into his palm, holding it to her tenderly, as though he would break.

"Do not push yourself. You are very weak, dearest." Worry saturated her tone, and he fleetingly realized that his jaw has been tight, bearing against the pain bursting through his body. "Do not give up, I beg of you. We are going to fix this, Giovanni. We have already sent the hunter to look for her."

Cold began to seep through his limbs, though he knows not why. Pain followed, along with a distant tug from the void. The star, still distant, quivered in his mind's eye. "What…?"

Lena's eyes closed against more tears, opening to fix him with reassured determination. "Gabriel will return. And when he brings her back, you will recover." Brief warmth rested upon his forehead as his sister's lips lingered for a moment, searing his clammy skin.

"Catalina will save you, brother. She will fix this." He was falling, falling back into the darkness, away from the fear and pain, the bitterness on his tongue. As blackness swallowed him again, the red star glowed.

Hello. It's been quite a long time, hasn't it?

This story was on hold for much longer than I had intended. For that, I'm sorry. I hope that this short chapter will help make up a bit for the long wait. I'm actually quite pleased with the way it turned out - I had previously been envisioning a different turn to the story at this point, but now? It didn't feel right. So, here we are, with a new chapter that diverts from the original path I laid down.

Sometimes things get away from you. Like time. Sometimes they stay away from you.

But I digress. It's been a long wait, and I have a chapter to build further off of. One I'm pleased with, no less. I may end up revising the rest of the story, since I haven't touched it in a while. I have no promises of schedules for updating, or even guarantees that another update won't be months away. I hope you'll forgive me.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter nonetheless. See you next time.

AT