Give up the ghost
As my hands flew to my neck, I quickly jumped to my feet. The words "what th-" started to leave my lips only to turn to cries of pain. I hit something as I stood up, pain shooting in my head and back as I realized I was still in a small enclosed space. Failing to stand, I had fallen back down, smashing my head against the ground.
I took a moment to assess my situation. Pain in my head from two different wounds, pain in my back from landing on something hard, pain in my heart as recent memories came flying back... It all equaled to a huge pain in my ass.
But one pain wasn't there. My hands, still on my neck, felt no claws or even fingers as I had thought. My fingertips danced around, feeling for cuts, where they found none in the dark.
"Must be that Strigoi healing" My hands fell down by my sides and I began to get lost in thought, not caring about the potential danger that could be down here with me.
"Of course, that's what is." a females voice exclaimed. "Your magically awakened powers healed you and now there's absolutely no danger down here" while the tone was laced with sarcasm, it was clear and familiar, but who's I could not place.
Not moving from my position, directing my voice into the dark "Who's there? I'm not in the greatest of moods right now so if you could just show yourself that'd be great." I then realized how thirsty I was "Oh and if you have anything to drink that would be even better"
There was a pause. I focused on my hearing, trying to figure if I could hear movement or even some breathing.
" You know that's not going to happen. You're smarter than this, you've just got to put your mind to it" I couldn't tell where the voice had come from it was almost as if -
"'The voice came from inside my mind', yes my dear boy, that's exactly where it come from. I'm not really out THERE with you. I'm in HERE with you."
What? How was this possible? After losing my life, I've gained the ability to hear voices? Normally the only voices I had heard inside my head were my ego and when I thought about my aunt offering me up help.
"If you haven't figured it out, then I'm not going to tell you. You need to figure it out for yourself." This time there was no sarcasm in her words. Just a sullenness "I'll leave you alone to figure it out"
"Come on, you can't do that. You can't just show up out of nowhere and then leave me hanging like this"
"Someone had to wake you up Adrian." I heard, then back to nothing... I was all alone in the darkness, once again.
I slowly sat up, my head throbbing. Why did it hurt? Does sunlight do that Strigoi? Actually cause them pain? Wish I had thought to ask Dimitri more about his time as one. It would have helped having some first hand experience from someone.
Thinking about Dimitri, I felt pain once again. Dimitri... My thoughts ran through seeing him and Rose together. There was a muddle-ness to the thoughts of walking in on them, as that night played through my head again. As it pained me for a second, it quickly subsided. Gone was the pain almost as if it were a dream. Guess that's how Strigoi think of their previous life. Muddled and dark, a dreary picture pained on canvas.
Needs more color, i thought to myself and the voice residing in my head... that and needs more light. I began searching around, being careful not to cause anymore harm to myself.
After patting and crawling for less than a minute , I seemed to have found myself in what felt like a small closet but on its side. And the only other items I had were the clothes I was wearing.
I decided to do a second sweep when I felt a button above where my head was initially facing. As I pushed I heard a very loud click and a small cupboard door opened. As soon as a crack of light came in I was as panicked as I was blinded by light.
Fearing it was sunlight I tried to fling myself to the opposite wall, but it was too late. Light had landed on my head. Covering my head with my arms, desperately trying to protect myself, I screamed.
"No I don't want to die again!"
"Always so dramatic" I heard the woman mutter in my head. "Goodbye Adrian"
A couple seconds of silence had passed before I realized I was not burning alive. The light coming in wasn't going to kill me. It wasn't direct sunlight, or even natural sunlight. It was LED lighting.
Letting my eyes adjust, I saw the space I was in. The walls were painted a very deep matte black, almost as if to absorb any light in there. Pulling myself away from the back wall I did the stereotypical thing and went towards the light. If this doesn't go well, the last thing I did was live a stupid media troupe... I winced at the thought of being so... Basic.
As I pulled my body out I saw that I was in a room, not back outside where I had thought I came in from. Gazing at my surroundings one of the first things I saw was a mirror. I averted my eyes, not wanting to see how red they now were in my Strigoi state.
Continuing my investigation, I saw paintings and art supplies all around. I was in a small office with an open window. Peaking outside, the sun was just under the horizon, and I couldn't tell if it was rising or setting.
Stumbling over to close the curtains, I tripped over a canvas, falling. I ended up sprawled underneath the window, knocking over an easel and paint containers as I had gone down. One of the containers rolled back to the canvas that started this mess.
Looking at the canvas I saw that was only partially painted. An incomplete portrait of a flower bouquet was on it. Part of them had been painted yellow, and they had wavy petals with long curved bits.
"Oh those are-" the door then burst open. I turned my head right as the sun had crested over the horizon and illuminated the doorway. Shining brightly in neutral colors, was a young woman. She was in her mid 20s, with blond hair, brown eyes turned molten gold from the sun, and the same lily as the canvas tattooed on her cheek. She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
"Adrian!" She exclaimed, and hurried over to my side, avoiding the mess from my fall. "Can you hear me? Do you remember who I am?"
"Sydney." The name left my mouth as a natural reaction, said before I realized I knew exactly who she was. Then it all came back to me. Everything I had been experiencing the last few days. It wasnt real. I wasn't a Strigoi. I was in Maine with my family.
I had been weening off of my medication for a little bit. Taking a little break from it to see how I could handle spirit again. And it was going good, until it wasn't. There was an accident with Declan.
While we were at the beach on an overcast day, an undertow had swept him out into the ocean. Eddie was able to quickly get him back on shore and start CPR. In my panicked state I ended up using too much spirit too fast to heal him, and had passed out.
Declan was ok, Eddie ended up getting the water out of his lungs and I had... Well I didn't overreact, he was drowning. I just reacted too much. I hadn't touched that much spirit so quickly in a couple years. I had passed out, so while Sydney brought Declan to urgent care, Eddie brought me home.
I guess I had been talking while I was passed out. Freaking out about the sun and blood. So Eddie put me in the darkest room of our house.
I saw the mirror across from me, and my eyes were their normal color. "It didn't happen" I cried, relief in my voice and tears in my eyes "I'm not Strigoi... And I didn't loose myself in spirit." Holding me in her lap Sydney agreed with me. Hugging me, claiming me down.
"None of it happened, you're safe now. I'm sorry you had to go through that. It's over now, you're alive and safe. I love you" she then kissed me and I felt alive again. Happy to be here with her, the love of my life.
End.
Well everyone it's over. It's finally over. This is not where I had envisioned this story to go. So much time passed since I started, that Adrian's happy ending had already started and ended before I came back to this story. This story and this website is from a different time in my life.
Over 12 years has gone by for me. I didn't think I would come back to finish this. I was packing up my bookshelf, getting ready to move when I noticed I had a bookmark in the ruby circle. I had a few chapters left from the last time I reread it. So I finished it. And fell in love all over again. After being away from his world, I wanted more. And my mind wondered off wondering if we'd ever get more.
Somehow I ended up on fanfiction. I looked over my story's and I cringed. Highschool AJ's writing was wild. And cringe. But I felt it had potential. After reading I got to my cliffhanger and thought "wow that was fucking rude of me." So I came to the conclusion that I should wrap it up. I normally hate the whole "it was all a dream" bs, but if I wanted closure, I knew I had to go that route. Again, he had his happy ending. I don't want to take it away from him.
Adrian has always been my favorite character from the VA world. At the time I wanted his story to continue, but I didn't know it was about to. Less than a month after the first chapter of this FF came out we got bloodlines. I don't think I ended up reading it until after the Golden Lily came out. I honestly can't remember how that serries of events happened. But here we are... And yet again I want more from these characters. I don't think I'll write another FF. Unfortunately i don't have time anymore. If I start a new one I probably won't update it for another 10 years XD
Give up the ghost is song by the Amity Affliction. As per usual I named my chapter from a song title. I couldn't come up with one until I started this afterward, and it seemed to fit with me saying goodbye to fanfiction.
I have a couple people I want to thank. Richelle Mead obviously for creating these characters and this beautiful world.
YourDemonicAssassin, while you didn't write this chapter with me, you were there in the beginning. Because of this website I met you and you became one of my best friends, and still are. I'm so grateful I met you on here and in real life.
And last, anyone still reading this. It was cool to actually write something and have people read it.
So for one last time
Thank you,
S.