WARNING!! -- this is old, and while recently updated with minor edits and the last of the chapters i never put up back in the day, it shall never be updated...enjoy it anyways!
...since a lot of you seem to keep doing so o-o ...
- Created By itsumademo
Chapter Four
The Catalyst
Chapter Four
I slowly pulled the threads stitched into an old white blanket spread over my grandmother’s bed. The nervous tears I made in the now slightly damaged bedding helped ease the anxious flutters from my last encounter with The Immortal. Even now, a good two hours later, I could still clearly see his hard black eyes glaring at me with anger and disgust.
“I don’t understand what I did wrong…”my sudden voice in the wide room sounded foreign and abrupt to my ears, especially with the long hours of relative silence. As I shifted position to better satisfy my comfort, clumped strands of my long black hair fell past my shoulder and pooled around my hands where I continuously fiddled with the loosened fibers. “I wonder why he got so upset.” I turned my head in thought while tumultuously picking at the cloth.
“Because he’s got a pole up his ass.” A sudden sarcastic male voice broke into my personal conversation with myself.
I looked up quickly with surprise, recoiling on the bed until I was sitting up straight, facing the intruder. He was leaning casually against the edge of the open balcony doors, a smirk gracing his features.
“Who the hell are you?” I furrowed my brow and watched him closely, in wait for his answer.
He shrugged slightly and pulled off the wall to head toward the bed with hands held up as he sighed. “Questions, questions. What’s wrong with being a mystery?” He peeked at me from beneath closed eyes and grinned while dropping his arms, crossing them against his chest.
“I suppose I prefer knowing who the perpetrator is beforehand.” I mirrored his movements, in some way demonstrating that I was playing along.
“Perpetrator? What makes you think I’ve come to do something that my incriminate me?”
“You snuck in, how would I know what you’re thinking?” I raised my brow with a mischievous smile tugging at my lips.
“Valid points.” He nodded to me, similar to a gesture of gentlemanly defeat.
I released my arms and, against my natural instincts, crawled toward the man, though I kept enough distance in order to move back if necessary. I looked up at his lowered face and noticed his still smirking lips below nearly closed eyes. “So, who are you then?” I cocked my head while still gradually edging closer to the man in anticipation.
Nothing happened for several minutes. I opened my mouth to speak again and in an abrupt flash the man grabbed my hand, pulled me off the bed and let me land directly on his lips. My eyes were open wide; his strong hold around my waist edged me closer, while his other hand cradled my face along the jawline. I must have been about a foot or so off the ground.
My brain was not really working correctly and so I felt my body take matters into its own…well, hands. His eyes opened and looked at mine, I couldn’t make out a single expression in those exquisitely bold violet colors. Suddenly I saw my fist come hurling towards the man’s cheek; when the skin, muscle, and bone collided with his face my lips and body were freed as the victim of my blow nearly lost balance from the surprise and dropped me to the floor.
“What in the hell do you think you were doing!?” I glared angrily at his hidden face.
However, instead of whatever it was I had been expecting him to do, I heard a quiet, clear laugh erupt from his slightly hunched posture. “You are fiery, aren’t you?” He turned up to face me, still smirking, without any mark or drop of blood on his face.
I grimaced in confusion, noticing a sharp, growing throb of pain in my knuckles. “I really should have kept on with those kickboxing classes.” I whispered to myself, while examining my quickly bruising hand for any breaks.
“Kick boxing?”
I looked up, quickly noticing the perverted stranger staring at me with puzzlement in his features. I realized I had yet again spoken my thoughts. “Oh, um, it’s a sport…a type of fighting practice, I guess.” I shrugged as nonchalantly as I could manage.
“Fighting? You?”
True, I wasn’t really much of an actual fighter. I had started many things, only to move on quickly afterward. Uncertain of where this situation was heading I opted to stretch the truth, just a bit. “Yes, actually. I enjoy many sports; kickboxing, rock climbing, horseback riding, swimming; lots of things.” My voice ticked off several of the activities I had participated in, although my thoughts were already beginning to wander a bit off track. Mumbling, “Grandmother took me everywhere with her, anything interesting and unique.” I smiled longingly at the thoughts.
“Ah yes. And how is dear Guinn?”
I focused my drifting attention back on the man, leading me to notice how close he was to me. I took a step back, hitting the bed with my leg before I stopped. “What makes you think Guinn is my grandmother?”
“I can see it in your face. You look similar and yet not at all…there is just something new and different about you, it’s there, in your eyes.” He reached his hand out to me but I pulled away, nearly falling backward onto the bed. “Hmm…regardless, I welcome you my flaming beauty, I am Caleb.” He moved back a step and bowed low before me.
“Uh…thanks, um, I’m Jade.”
“May I ask you something, Jade?”
I leaned back more with my balance being secured by my hold on the bedpost beside me. “Sure, what is it?”
I watched cautiously as Caleb’s hand slid along the wooden post, his eyes watching mine. He suddenly grasped my steadying hand tightly against the timber, “How much do you really know about this place?”
“Uh…o-only what my grandmother’s told me…what’re you doing?” I mumbled anxiously, finding it hard to predict Caleb’s movements.
I managed to release my hand, but was instantly shoved back and pinned down on the bed with Caleb securely holding my wrists. We looked at each other for a few seconds; he was very handsome, with soft masculine features and coiffed yet messy black hair framed his face. He moved closer to me and opened his mouth to speak.
“There were some things Guinn never knew…” he came even closer, his cheek down beside my own. I could feel his hot breath on my neck, and, despite the peculiarity of the situation, I found myself to be blushing fiercely. My quickening pulse I sensed in places I had never noticed before as his whisper continued “…there were secrets we Immortals never revealed.” The soft brush of his lips sent my body into hot shivers.
“Wait…” I exhaled quietly “…we? We Immortals? You’re Immortal?”
Caleb pulled away from my neck to look into my face. The exciting moments now left and part of me was excessively pissed at myself for halting its progress. I continued gazing into his seemingly endless violet eyes while I waited for his answer. Instead, he leaned down and lightly pressed his lips to mine, flaring my hormones again. As he slowly backed off the bed I found myself following, not wanting to break our gentle bond.
Caleb moved back from me and grinned “If you ever need me, call my name and I’ll come.” He bowed once more with a glint in his bright eyes.
“T-thank you…” I whispered, though I quickly regained my senses “…but you’re still a creepy pervert.”
He laughed and then stepped toward the open balcony doors.
“Wait!” I inadvertently spoke to him just as he was about to leap from the railing. “I uhh…can I, um, if I call for you…will you allow me to ask questions?”
“It all depends on the question.” He grinned a convoluted farewell and leapt from his perch.
I gasped quickly from his sudden departure and ran over to the rails to look for him. I thought I may have seen him slip beneath a tree but it was so dark I couldn’t really tell whether it was or wasn’t even anything at all.
“Caleb?” I heard the strange echo of my voice flow out over the trees.
“Yes.” He asked calmly from behind me.
“Oh my gosh,” I turned around to find him smirking as he did before with his hands on his hips.
“I’m gone for hardly ten seconds and already you miss me?”
“No,” I turned my head in denial, “I don’t even know you…” With the slightest bit of embarrassment in my tone, “I was just testing.”
“Didn’t think I meant what I said, huh?” He quirked his brow at me and crossed his arms.
“Listen, I’m sorry for being skeptical, but I’m just not used to you guys yet…this is all very weird for me.”
“You guys?” Caleb scoffed, “don’t compare me to that man.”
“The Immortal?” my brow furrowed. “Why not? He isn’t that bad really, a little mysterious perhaps, but not bad.”
“That all depends on one’s definition of bad. Even still, whether he be bad or not, he most certainly isn’t someone I would leave a young woman with.”
“Oh no … no, he’s not like that… I mean you are, but he isn’t. Definitely not. No.” I shook my head several times.
“No, he’ll bore you to death!” his hands gestured into the air. “He hasn’t been company to even the dust in this crappy tower for the last few centuries!” Caleb shouted with irritation, rolling his eyes and continuing to fling his hands about.
“He’s not that boring, I think he simply needs to work on not being…I don’t know..passively annoying.”
Caleb stopped his over the top antics, “Passively annoying?”
“Yes, he is always teasing me slyly, hiding behind his stoic face, like I don’t notice it when he does. And one time I swear he laughed at me.” I rolled my eyes.
Caleb didn’t respond, he looked as though he were staring into space.
“Caleb?” my hand reached out, but I stopped it quickly.
“That bastard!”
“What?!”
“That ass, how dare he! Not after everything, no way in hell!” Caleb ran past me and leapt off the balcony.
I spun around in confusion, trying to follow where exactly the conversation had gone and why Caleb was suddenly pissed at The Immortal. Or, well, more pissed. Leaning over the railing I was barely able to make out the figure of him protesting loudly and walking in a circle.
“CALEB?” I shouted out to him, but from the way the shape continued to pace I assumed he hadn’t heard my call. For a brief moment I saw the glow of his violet eyes before he ran into the darkness of the dense Talen forest.
I watched for a little while longer but I never saw anything more, so I went back into the room and closed the two doors behind me. Once I had both shut, I noticed for the first time that the wooden carvings sporadically placed on the glass didn’t match against each other’s opposite reflection. Instead they made some odd design….somewhat like the symbols in grandmother’s book. I walked over to the still opened text and started flipping through the pages in a quite possibly ill attempt at finding the meaning.
I leafed through every page and image, taking a cursory glance at each, but I couldn’t find anything that matched the sign formed by the double doors. With an almost unhappy realization, I knew that there was practically no way I would ever be able to figure out a single word in this book, at least not without the help of a certain person who seems to be invariably unpleased with the mere sight of the old grimoire. I dropped my head down onto the desk with a sigh; I had fallen faster than I realized and though I stayed down I could feel the bruise forming on my forehead.
“Ugh…I don’t want to ask him for help…I’m surprised he hasn’t already thrown me out!” I wrapped my arms around my head in irritation. “Damn it, damn it, damn it…there is no way I can learn any of this. I don’t know why grandmother ever thought I would be good at this. How can I hope to be a witch if I can’t even read the language! Plus even if I could read it, I wouldn’t be able to understand it.” I bit my lip harshly, but resigned myself to my fate.
With mental and physical exhaustion, I closed the book and went slowly over to the disheveled bed where I laid down with yet another weary sigh.
“Today has been the longest day of my entire life…I’m just so tired…” I rolled over onto my side, staring at the blank old wall ahead of me. I kept my eyes open for a long while, thinking over the bizarre bits of information I had gotten from Caleb. Everything about him and his words seemed to upset all grandmother had told me; I was more lost in this world than before.
I slid my eyelids shut and began drifting into the weightless feelings of sleep. Confused combinations of violet and black eyes swirled around in seas of silky onyx hair, drowning me with knotted lies. In my floating unconsciousness I pondered what to believe, my grandmother who raised me more than my own mother or a strange sensual pervert who suddenly appeared with strings of unanswered questions.
“…Caleb…”
Chapter Three
The Catalyst
Chapter Three
After two large inhales, the annoying, ticklish congestion of a sneeze erupted from my nose, which of course didn’t seem to faze the Immortal any as he continued to hunt around in a large open closet. I brushed my nose with my hand and looked back to the several boxes and small containers that lined a few shelves I had been asked to search. I lifted yet another box and wrinkled my nose at it. Dust. Every single object in the kitchen was covered in layers of thick, caked on dust. I ran a cloth I had found earlier across the front of the box, it was very difficult to figure out what anything was when all the food appeared to have come from various countries and various…who even knows… around the world both back home and here. I sniffed at its contents and coughed away from it, to avoid disturbing the dust again, and with irritation shoved the box back in-between its companions.
I examined a few more cans and with great disgust tossed them aside and turned to face the man still passively digging through the closet behind me. “You have absolutely no food in this kitchen. I mean, I know you’re Immortal, but you still need to eat! What have you been living on all these years? The only thing that’s plentiful enough to sustain a full-grown man here is dust. Dust, dust, and more freaking dust!” I set my hands on my hips and waited for him to reply.
“Here.”
His stoic voice surprised me and immediately following a small, circular object was thrown at me. My hands barely caught the thing before it hit me.
“I found that fruit in the pantry, that’s all I have.”
“An apple? Who keeps one apple in a pantry yet can’t even keep bread or cereal or just something that lasts more than a few weeks? Peanut butter! That lasts forever. You don’t even have that.” As I spoke I checked the apple thoroughly to ensure there wasn’t any mold, or worms, or bruises, anything that would make this an unsavory meal. “Ha, meal.” I looked up and saw him staring at me strangely.
“What?”
“Nothing.” I shook my head and inwardly hit myself for not working on that annoying habit when grandmother had kept insisting to.
“Well, come on. There are a few fruit trees in the garden.”
My eyes opened wide. “Garden? You have a garden!”
He grinned slightly at my expression and headed out of the small kitchen. I hurriedly followed so that I would not become lost in the maze contained within the dark tower.
“Where could you even keep a garden? I walked the full span of the tower when I first came, and regardless, the land was completely barren at least 10 or 15 feet around this entire building. So there is no way you could be hiding one, not by shielding it from sight at least. Unless, perhaps, you have some way of pulling it to and from this dimension which is just silly…I mean, I hardly believe that this is even a whole other world.”
The Immortal chuckled quietly ahead of me, to which I scoffed louder than I intended in the blackness.
“You’re quite talkative, aren’t you?” His still surprisingly mild tone carried to my ears.
“No. Sometimes I just ramble. Grandmother would always tell me when, so that I would shut up.” I rolled my eyes at the thought but then became silent. I know I hadn’t been gone from home that long but my grandmother’s death was starting to weigh on me with every mention of her.
“Jade.”
The sound of my name on the man’s lips was foreign and jolted me from my internal trance. He had never called me by my name before now and, strangely, I found it comforting. “What?” I held up my hand to avoid running into his back again.
“We’re here.” He opened a wide but low door, flooding light into the darkness of the hall.
Behind the door was a huge greenhouse, incredibly bright in comparison to the rest of the building, which hurt my eyes for a moment or so.
“Wow. I can’t believe such a place exists in this tower. How is this possible?”
I looked to find the man but he was not beside or behind me. I glanced to the doorway where I noticed his outline; he had yet again declined to enter the light.
“Why do you avoid the sun? It can’t hurt you. Well it can.” I mentally snapped my filter shut before I began to ramble about the various issues with prolonged sun exposure.
I walked to him and saw a gentle glow from the whites of his eyes. “Come on.” I took hold of his wrist as I had done before and pulled him to the smooth stone path on the floor of the nursery.
He was more reluctant this time, but came forward anyway. He looked even paler in this light, however he didn’t stay in place long enough for me to continue observing his features. His feet lithely walked further along the path of well-placed bricks, after a few steps he stopped and turned his head slightly; I saw a glint in his black eye and began to follow him.
“So, how did you manage all this?” I sped up my pace so that I was close enough to hear his low answer, if he gave one.
“I didn’t. The entire greenhouse is capable of maintaining itself.”
“How can it do that? They’re plants…I mean, well organized and trimmed plants.”
I watched his face and waited curiously for a reason, his eyes lowered once in thought but he declined to respond. Despite my curiosity, I decided not to argue and attempt to pull it out of him, his downcast face seemed to repel me and so I stepped back and followed in silence the rest of the way.
“Look.”
I turned my head, following his outstretched arm and extended finger. Growing up to the top of the arching glass dome was an enormous apple tree; reflexively I began to slowly caress the lone apple I still held gently in my palm.
“This tree must be centuries old.” I walked up to the tree, being careful to avoid stepping on any of the smaller plants surrounding the path and placed my free hand against the rough bark covered trunk. My eyes slid shut as I stood beneath the shade and inhaled the sweet smelling nature air around me. “Immortal, do you know how old this tree is?”
I waited for a few moments but he didn’t answer, I couldn’t even recognize his slow breath on the air. I turned from the tree to look toward the path where I had last seen him, but he wasn’t there. I blinked several times in confusion and glanced around the area. “Immortal?” I mumbled.
I stumbled lightly as I headed toward the path and turned in the direction of the door and then back to where we had been heading. My brow furrowed in confusion and annoyance. “What kind of person leaves someone stranded in a greenhouse in a pitch black maze of a tower?” I whispered beneath my breath before finally deciding to head further into the multitude of colors.
There was myriad foliage in every direction, in every color possible with vining limbs or bold leaves branching all over the visible patches of faux earth. Some seemed to be concoctions bred there in the greenery and others were foreign plants that were nearly or definitely extinct back home. I had a difficult time resisting going to each plant and touching its exterior or marveling at its colorful beauty. Focusing on finding the Immortal was becoming more difficult every time I saw what had to be a dead species with all its abnormal coloring and design.
After a great deal of walking, I noticed that the stone bricks were becoming fewer and far between and soon my feet were touching lush green grass. I followed the carpet to an even larger tree, which broke from the glass and spread its ever-growing branches out over the exterior of the dome. My head craned itself in order to take in the entire canopy of green and yellow and orange shifting from a slight breeze drifting through the leaves from the outside.
I brought my gaze down and saw the Immortal standing before the huge expanse of life; it was difficult to tell his expression from his stoic stance. However I did notice that he had his hands in front of him, possibly holding something.
“Immortal?” I leaned forward a little in order to try and see what it was he held so close, but not disturb him by trying to pier over his shoulder, not that I could, since he was so tall.
His head shifted briefly in acknowledgment of my question.
I waited and he soon turned around, eyes closed and palms still cupped. His pace was steady and even; his feet stopped beside me and he looked down at my confused expression. He suddenly dropped an orange colored item in front of me, which I caught awkwardly, while still holding the apple he had handed me earlier. I shifted the object into my free hand and saw that it was a large, soft peach, lightly colored with a few leaves still attached to its stem.
“Um, thank you.”
He nodded and continued in the direction I had just come from. I looked back at the peach tree and gazed for a long while without really thinking of anything or anyone, I merely watched the leaves swirl around in the wind beyond the confines of the glass.
“If you linger, you’ll be left behind again.”
His sudden loud voice startled me out of my thoughtless reverie, causing me to nearly drop the fruit in my hands. “Pardon me.” I muttered somewhat sarcastically.
He exhaled what could have been an airy laugh and walked on, leaving me to catch up or be left in the continuous wilderness. I quickly jogged to follow him. His black hair swayed with his gentle gait and entertained me through the silent journey to the door of the greenhouse, although when he stopped at the threshold I nearly rammed my nose against his spine.
“Don’t nod off in the hall; my back won’t be visible to follow.”
I shook away my mesmerized expression and childishly stuck my tongue out behind his back. Once we stepped into the dark, I instinctively held the fruit closer to my chest while I watched the Immortal’s outline disappear as the greenery door shut and the light was extinguished.
I could hear my quiet breaths and the light taps of my feet on the wooden flooring, the hushed aura in the hall made me a little uncomfortable.
“Stairs.”
“What?” I stopped after hearing his voice ahead of me.
“We are at the stairs.”
“Oh.” I moved the peach into my other arm and then reached my hand out to find the banister. Instead I met his hand in the dark; he took hold of my limb gently and moved it to the smooth surface of the timber rail. I grasped it abruptly, he then released me and went on down. I cautiously groped my foot out ahead of me and let it fall, with the hope that a step would stop me. Luckily it did. I sighed in relief and continued easily down the stairs, but nearly fell forward once I had reached the floor in a sad attempt to find another step.
I searchingly listened for his minute breaths to figure out how close to me he was, but couldn’t hear anything. I took another cautious step forward until I saw the familiar red light glow around the Immortal’s hand against a wall. Quickly I headed over to him, stopping right as he opened the door to the room we had been in earlier, my grandmother’s old room. The pale orange of evening light flooded the hall as he opened the door and gentlemanly gestured for me to enter. I slowly walked into the center of the large room and then turned to face his familiar outline in the doorway.
“So, I’m staying in here then?”
“Yes, it would be most appropriate.”
“Alright,” I turned back to face the setting sun’s glow. “Goodnight, Immortal.”
No response came to me, and I assumed he had already left, likely closing the door without a sound beforehand. A small grin settled itself on my face.
I walked over to a sturdy, dark wood writing desk adjacent to the window and placed the two fruits on the chipped surface, making sure they wouldn’t topple over. Slowly I pulled the chair out from beneath the table and sat with a low sigh. “I have barely been awake that long today, but I still feel worn out.” I dropped my head onto the old top and wrapped my arms up into a pillow.
“Ow.” I lifted myself off the desk and looked down to see what had jabbed my stomach. A small curved handle protruding from a drawer had been knocked loose when I laid my head down and applied weight to the top. My hand rested upon the knob and gently pulled the drawer loose, revealing an ancient book and several scraps of paper, alongside a few aged pencils.
I slipped the hard covered text out from its container and placed it where I had once been resting. Archaic symbols, some of which were exactly akin to the ones covering the paper that decorated the walls of the room, spread themselves before me. I ran my palm across the coat, feeling every torn fabric edge and embossed character against my fingertips. The textile smelled similar to my grandmother; “she always had a lovely aroma…” a tear broke free of my eye and glided down my cheek, landing on the rough stitching of the book.
With one hand running along my face to catch the salt water of memories, the other took hold of the edge of the pages and opened the strange volume. Pages flipped and flew by, finally settling on a bookmarked section with a thin strip of paper in the crease. The words were small but at least they were in English. My finger underlined the handwritten text as I read.
“Frozen
Drops of red wishes,
Bits of existence yet none of flow,
No breath to have,
Glow of life,
Dance of strength pulsed with text,
Simple answers,
Glean complex regrets.”
I left my hand on the page as I thought of the poem grandmother had written into a spell. The words themselves were combined in such a way so that they were to create something, supposedly. I leaned back in the chair, pushing it up onto two legs while stabilizing myself with the elderly desk. “Ugh, I always hated literature classes. I don’t do analysis very well.”
I stood from my seat and walked away from the confounding text; instead, I decided to search the rest of the room. When I faced the door unintentionally I stopped in my tracks, noticing the stance of the Immortal past the threshold and glaring at the book I had just left.
“Immortal?” I cocked my head at his peculiar expression and stepped toward him in curiosity.
His hard black eyes kept away from me, continuing to force its anger at the area behind me. I held my hand out to him in a mere gesture of concern. “Immor—” he turned his face in my direction, stopping my words while looking at my outstretched limb with disgust. His eyes slid closed, swiftly turning from my view, and heading out of the room without a sound.
End
