Hey guys. Sorry that I vanished off of the face of the earth for a solid three weeks - the study abroad office needs a list of all the classes I need, plus signatures from the head of the department for each class I want to take, and that's due May 7th. It's like, omg what?! So that's what I've been doing. Running around campus, generally freaking out with very underappreciated and very uncooperative professors. Gah.
But anyway. I'm back! I have finals in two weeks though, so I might disappear again. Actually, scratch that - I'll totally disappear. Finals are going to kill me. My biology professor dumped off five more chapters on us to cover in two weeks... that's over two chapters a week, plus all the stuff we need to know for finals! It's like, biology screws me over every single day. I'm practically a biology whore. (Sorry for the language, but it made me laugh while reading about lytic and lysogenic cycles of viruses).
Anyway, want to hear my finals schedule? Sure you do, it'll make you feel better. I have five finals, two essays, and two presentations due in two weeks.
My fun days are over. But you enjoy chapter 41 :) (can you believe it's been that many?! Geezums!)
Astaroth's eyes were faint olive green, and her hair was a thick, golden blond that trailed down her spine. Her skin was pure white, a stark contrast against the black she wore, but the palms of her hands were gray.
Rin watched her with wary eyes as he took a seat across from her. Behind the door, he could hear the hammering of the armories, the distant roar of the volcano.
"What do you want?" he asked. There was an edge to his voice. He remembered all too well that day, so many days ago, where his life had changed, where he became Satan's son, where his true father died.
She had done that to him. If she hadn't possessed that boy, none of this would have happen. Astaroth had been the catalyst that started it all.
But he wasn't sure if he was sorry that it had happened. He left his old life behind and started a new one. He had made new friends, the very first. He had done things and seen things that no other boy his age had done, things that no other man had ever seen. He had saved lives. He had nearly ended others, but all of those moments now defined him. Every moment in the prisons chipped at his mold a little more, every long night he had endured bloodied, beaten, starving, and all of those moments combined contributed to him, himself, the Prince of Gehenna that was building a small army underneath the rule of Satan.
All of those moments made him Rin.
And he wasn't sure if that made him glad to be alive, or sad that it had to happen this way.
Astaroth leaned back in her chair. "I just had to see it for myself," she purred. "The child, whose I had nearly gouged out with a poker, rising up the ranks of Gehenna. I didn't believe it when I heard the rumors, honestly, but here you are . . . Okumura Rin." She leaned forward. "Tell me, how did you escape from there . . ."
Rin watched her as if he had been carved out of stone; expressionless, emotionless, his blue eyes deeper than the cold blue of frozen winter. He had aged years in a week, decades in a month.
The old him, the him that Astaroth had known, was dead.
"I'll think about telling you," he responded, his voice pleasant yet sharper than a blade, "if you tell me what you're doing in my - " Country? Castle? " . . . mountain?"
If Astaroth has heard his quick pause, she gave no indication. "Well, if you must know, little Prince," she replied, crossing her legs, "I told Satan to piss on himself during a little spat, and he threw me out. So, now I am . . . here," she continued with a shrug. "I didn't like the way he handled Xavier's death. He died by you, honorably, and then tossed aside like a damned soul in the end. We were lovers, once. Long enough to span a dozen humans lives, but for immortals, years are meaningless. It is the memories made that matter, and we had . . ." Astaroth suddenly smiled, revealing sharp canines, "many pleasant memories."
Rin resisted the urge to make a face, but he couldn't keep his eyebrow from twitching slightly. It wasn't enough that anyone noticed.
"So, you are here for revenge?" Rin slowly asked.
"Exactly," Astaroth grinned. "A rumor is floating around Gehenna. A rumor about you."
Rin's eyes darkened. "And?" he prompted.
"And," she said slowly, seductively, "is it true that you, Prince, want to kill Satan? To avenge your Daddy?"
Rin's temper flashed, only for a moment, but Astaroth saw the blue in his eyes brighten and his irises burn crimson before fading back to their normal color. "I have plenty of reasons to want Satan dead," he said calmly, leaning back in the chair. "Just like you."
Astaroth laughed at that. "Good answer," she said. "There's a human saying in Assaih, one that goes, The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Will you, Rin, be a friend to me?"
Another saying briefly passed through Rin's mind - Keep your friends close and enemies closer - and he stretched out his hand. "We'll welcome your assistance," he said. Astaroth took his hand, her grip firm, and they shook on their shared revenge.
. . .
Raziele's rosy eyes widened. "You can't be serious," he said, his expression one of disbelief.
Rin flicked his eyes to him. "I'm not," he said, then continued to pull off the thick jacket. "Astaroth is here to stay."
"But she's a Queen of Gehenna!" Raziele protested.
"And I'm a Prince." Rin managed to get the jacket off and carelessly threw it on the bed. The jacket was dark and embroidered with gold. Apparently it was supposed to give him an aura of power, but the only thing Rin felt when he wore the stupid thing was ridiculousness. Then he got on the floor to get his boots off. How many laces does a pair of shoes need? he griped as he started to undo them all.
Raziele sat on the bed, his expression troubled. "Yeah, you're royalty too, but you're . . . different. Not like the others."
"No surprise there," Rin replied, then nearly fell backward when he managed to pull the shoe off. "I - " he said, holding the boot up in victory before tossing it aside, " - wasn't born here."
Raziele scowled. "Yeah, but, I mean . . . Rin, she's a Queen! We have no proof that she won't stab us in the back!"
"She wouldn't do that," Rin stated, working on the other boot. Stupid laces were tied too tight. "If she was going to attack us, she would have done a full frontal assault on our borders."
"How do you know?" Raziele demanded.
"Because once she tried to stab out my eye with a red-hot poker," Rin replied dryly. "Trust me, I know." The boot suddenly slid off and Rin, unbalanced nearly fell over again. He glared at this boot before tossing it with the other.
Raziele blinked. "When was this?"
"Back on Assaih. When I was human," Rin added.
"Ah, human. Of course." Raziele nodded, as if he completely understood, but they both knew that he wasn't fooling anyone.
"Anyway, Raziele," Rin said, turning to look at his friend and attendant, "are you all right? You look . . . pale," he finished lamely.
Raziele stared at him for a moment, then shot him a crooked smile. "Honestly? I haven't been sleeping well lately. Weird dreams."
"About what?"
He turned off to the wall and stared into the distance. "Well . . ." he began slowly, "I'm in a place that's pure white. There's mist everyone and I can't see very well, but I can hear other people in the distance." He narrowed his eyes. "I - I'm lost in the white," he continued, "and I wander for hours. But then a woman finds me and takes my hand to lead me out, but I can never see her face. It's just . . . there's nothing there. She doesn't have a face."
Rin made a face. "That's creepy."
Raziele lightly chucked. "I know, right? But the thing is . . ." His gaze softened. "I feel like I've met her before. She kind of reminds me of . . ." his voice trailed off, and suddenly he turned to Rin, his face red and eyes narrowed in a glare. "You can't laugh," he told Rin.
"I won't - "
"You can't laugh," Raziele said again, and Rin help up his hands in mock surrender.
"I won't laugh," he promised.
Raziele glared at him for a moment longer before muttered, "She kind of reminds me of my mom."
Rin stared at him for a moment, then a smile began to grow at the corners of his lips. It was a rare smile, the first in too long. "Your mom?" he repeated.
Raziele glared at him some more. "It's stupid, I know," he muttered, turning away and running a nervous hand through his hair. "But, like, I don't know. It's the feeling."
"Uh - huh."
Raziele snapped his head back to Rin. "You promised you wouldn't laugh," he mumbled.
Rin raised his hands. "I'm not laughing," he swore. "I think that's really sweet." There was a teasing tone to his voice, and Raziele reached behind him to grab a pillow and, without warning threw it at Rin with a grin on his face.
It hit its target with deadly accuracy, and Rin toppled over with a pillow to the face. "That's not fair!" he shouted when Raziele burst out laughing.
"Then you should have dodged," Raziele declared, when Rin threw the pillow right back at him. It ricocheted off the top of his head and hit the wall. Now it was Rin's turn to laugh.
He hadn't laughed in so long, it almost hurt.
Unknown to Rin, Raziele watched him laugh with a satisfied smile on his face. He and Sophiel had been worried about Rin for a while now, and she had been the one to tell Raziele to make Rin smile again. She had missed his smile. And, honestly, so did he.
From the other side of the door, Sophiel smiled as well - the times she had smiled could be counted on one hand - before she darted back down the hall with her bucket, spirits high and hope soaring.
Sorry. Short chapter. Everything I want to do next will take too long, so this is all you're going to get for a couple weeks. Anyway, it was a perfect stop to end... it's eleven at night, and I still need to write an essay and work on a presentation!
Until next time, beautful people,
Rand0mSmil3z
- comments will be in the next update.