Alyssa greeted the delicate blend of orange and pink in the sun’s gentle descent with a charming smile, she pulled the car to aa stop by an old dirt road where ancient ruins dotted the luscious green grass. It wasn’t a tourist attraction because it was far less glamorous Acropolis of Athens or the parthenon but it still held beautiful nostalgic meaning for her. She swung the door open with haste and stepped out into the fresh, familiar scent of anemones and asphodels growing in the field around the town in colors ranging from a deep red to light pink and white petals. Alyssa felt the wind tug at her bare legs, she chose to dress more like the young girl she left behind the first time she died and in respect for her godly identity to the ancient Greeks she donned a white dress barely touching her knees.
She turned her gaze to Gavin’s with a lively touch to her hazel eyes and a tug of a happy grin on her ruby lips, “this used to be home you know. Ithlia, it’s not as small as it looks. Our house was on top of that hill”, her arm reached out to gesture to the low walls barely visible against the green landscape, “we were considered nobles back then. I was supposed to marry the rich asshole living right there”, another brief gesture to low walls signifying the old ruins barely even known in books and literature, “his ex poisoned me, first time I ever died. Horrible really, still, there are worse ways to die”. She leaned back against the soft blue paint coating the car, a nostalgic feeling washed over her while a small blush crept onto her cheeks. She never showed anyone the origin of who she was, it felt horribly vulnerable to break down her walls and bare her soul.
Eventually she grew the courage to meet his gaze, “I hope you brought good shoes, we’re walking from here”, Alyssa smiled brightly and pulled the sandals from her feet. The first few lives she was left trekking barefoot and naked anyway, it was almost impossible to imagine trekking to the caves with anything but her bare feet. Alyssa reached out, laced her fingers through Gavin’s and ventured through the long faded road that used to run straight through the bustling town of Ithlia. She spared her old home doused in ruins a brief glance before venturing into the mountainous landscape bulging out beyond the hill their house stood on.
The last rays of the sun bled through the rocky landscape and doused them in a dark orange hue, before long darkness spread over the horizon and Alyssa closed her eyes. She heard the soft lull of a river and she knew if they kept heading East they’d find the gaping hole into the earth where she was reborn with every death. She turned to Gavin for a second, “we’re almost there”. She pulled a flashlight from the backpack slung over her shoulder and illuminated the beautiful, albeit treacherous descent littered with boulders, cedar trees valued by the followers of Artemis and the hunt and grass so high it nearly crept under the hem of her dress.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it? I’ll never get tired of seeing this place”, she felt like a child lost in a dreamscape too wonderful to leave. Her dress looked eerily beautiful in the full moon’s rays as it doused the horizon in it’s wonderfully silver streaks of light. Alyssa pulled his hand eagerly towards the gaping hole etched into the cave, for a moment she thought her chest might close in on itself and her head might grew dull and numb from the anxiety flushing her system.
Alyssa felt horribly fearful of what might happen if Gavin’s feelings and intentions weren’t true, this was core of her soul and the route of her life force. She didn’t want to be betrayed after thousands of years being smarter than those around her. Alyssa had to force her fingers to stop shaking, she hoped he wouldn’t notice as she turned to face him.
“Everything that keeps me from dying, it all started in there. I don’t know how and I don’t know why but it’s the only reason I’m still standing here. No one even knows about these caves, I guess I’m lucky for it, still, I’m fairly certain it won’t last forever. Are you sure you want to see?”, she felt her gaze bore into his wondering if he wasn’t bored with the dark trip down memories that existed long before he was even born.
Post by Gavin Sinclair on Jun 11, 2018 15:20:45 GMT
Gavin listened to her tales of history. He said very little. Mostly he walked with his hands tucked firmly into the pockets of his kakhi dockers pants. He had on a pair of brown loafers and a blue button up dress shirt. The sleeves were rolled up to the elbow. Around his neck he wore a curious tailismen. It was a crow's feather. Black and beautiful. It was laced through a piece of black cord. A gift from Ladainia. Gavin Sinclair was not a touchy sentimental man.
Not by any stretch of the imagination, but he was not an entirely heartless and cruel man. In his own way... He loved her. Maybe not the shinning brimming example of fatherhood most people conformed to, but they were different people. They were mutants. They lived the life a carnival folk and things were simply different. Gavin's chest heaved with a small sigh as he walked and listened. His thoughts on Ladainia and the great beyond. What happened after life for him and every other person on the planet who was not this vivacious goregous creature standing beside him. His thoughts turned to the morose as he realized it was all temporary.
No matter the happiness they find here it was all slowly crawling to it's ugly end. It frightened him. Gavin never thought much about his own mortality or the rules that lied within it. Not when he had nothing to live for other than a feigned daughter and some carnvial memories. Madison had been gone for a long time...
His will to live was waning on nothing more than simple revenge until she reemerged into his life. Now he was here with her in Greece. The birthplace of her ability and the cause of so much heartache and beauty. It was a delicate mix of good and bad. Beauty and chaos. Simplicity itself and the needlessly complex. Alyssa showed him of course memories of a childhood, and for once he looked up. She had seen many lifetimes but this was the first time she spoke of a childhood. His eyes sought hers in a needing way. He wanted to find clarity in those shimmering orbs of pure light.
He often wondered if she even remembered her childhood at all. Locked away behind years and centuries of lives lived at the expense of real happiness. Gavin smiled. Crouching down he grasped a handful of dirt as his hand waved around in the sand. He allowed the grains to slip through his fingers. It was all so fleeting. Gone in the blink of an eye. He supposed he should appreciate life more, but how could he think of anything except the possiblity of loosing her again. This trip brought up unexpected feelings for him. Things he never really considered. Fore perhaps he never really wanted to consider them.
Loosing Ladainia was painful. Surprisingly so. Loosing Alyssa again was not possible. He knew now she would come here to this cave as she walked towards it. Gavin could see the shore water crashing against the rocks at it's entrace. The massive opening looked jagged and dangerous and yet it called to him. He had to know what was inside. She asked if he truly wanted to see what was inside and he quietly nodded. "This isn't just the place of your rebirth.
This is you. We came to find you." His voice was soft. It had been a full weak since he lost Ladainia and Gavin Sinclaire was feeling more mortal than ever. He didn't like this feeling of weakness moving over him. Some small part of him wished there was a secret that lied in that cave that could give him immortality as well. So he could last through the ages by Alyssa's side. He would never have to leave her again.... If only. He stared at the cave with bright curious eyes and a touch of a smile on his face. "I'm ready let's go." He said simple and started his way across the rocks; taking her hand gently into his.
Alyssa nodded thoughtfully leading him over the rocky path that led into that damn cave she’d come to know so very well. One lifetime she didn’t leave, it was the time she died after losing a close friend so she starved herself inside the caves with nothing but an old stone bench tucked into the corner where she spent her time reading old tomes in the dim light of tall candles. One more death and she was back to her old self, well, with a more in depth understanding of several Shakespeare tragedies but still she lost the touch of depression when death dragged her to those rolling waters again and she never experienced that deep pit of despair again. Although, she had a dark suspicion losing Gavin would send her rolling right back to that unspeakable pain and anguish.
Seeing Ladainia die made her wonder how long she’d be able to live by Gavin’s side before she had to lose him to death’s clutches. Still, one lesson that rang true in all her lives was the useless pondering over things she couldn’t change, it didn’t bring anything but negativity that ruined the few good memories spread over each life. Instead she found herself smiling lightly as she slipped her touch from his warm palm and walked into the corner before flipping a lighter and watching the yellow hue of lanterns and candles illuminating the moisture dripping from the smooth cave walls.
“It’s not exactly pretty but it has a certain charm”, she dipped her feet into the water rolling over a gradual slope, her eyes closed at the happy touch of the warmth. Outside the water was freezing but something about the geographical caverns below them heated up the water running into the cave. It was bliss and wonderful and it left her feeling more relaxed after that first gasp of air when life breathed into her lungs again.
Alyssa breathed a long exhale before reaching into the stone chest tucked into the corner, the lid was heavy and old but it still worked. She dug an ornate dagger from it’s depths with garnets lining the hilt in jagged lines, the blade itself was sharper than any weapon she’d ever wielded. It came all the way from Egypt, a gift from Cleopatra at the first war they conquered. Alyssa gestured her open palm towards Gavin, inviting him closer.
Alyssa waited until she could feel the heat coming from his skin, hear the soft thud of his heartbeat and see the honesty in his gaze. “I'm not sure why this is the place I keep waking up in but I have an idea, back in the 1600’s, a museum dug up old letters from our town and one of them was from my mother to her mother. Could’ve been fucking anywhere but she gave birth to me here. Fucking ironic if you ask me but it's the only connection i had to the caves before I started dyingt”, she swallowed a nervous lump in her throat and pushed the hilt into Gavin’s hand.
“Would you do it? For me?”, Alyssa watched him closely. In some way it might have been unfair to ask him to kill her but it was hard doing it herself, even for an immortal. She’d done it a fair share of times, a few dozen times when she was a pirate imprisoned by the navy forces, once or twice in a barren desert and that one time in Gavin’s carnival.
Alyssa leaned closer with a sly smile etched on her ruby tinted lips, “besides, I’m pretty much naked when I get back”. She followed the words with a lighthearted chuckle and a pressd a sensual kiss to his lips. Alyssa looked down at the dress she wore with a frown, “I almost forgot” she carefully tucked her polished nail under the straps over her shoulders, pulled them over her skin and stepped out of the silky material before tossing it onto the stone bench.
She straightened her shoulders basking in the cold breeze filtering through the open cave, she faced Gavin baring not only her skin but her entire existence. This was the most private part of herself that no one knew, not to the extent she was willing to share with him. Her lips tilted into a reassuring smile as she met his gaze and waited the gentle touch of the blade to her chest.
Post by Gavin Sinclair on Jun 12, 2018 20:39:51 GMT
It was all fun and intersting until the but of the blade was pressed into his sweaty palm. He honestly had no idea this was going to happen. Sure she said she wanted to show him her birth, but he thought she meant metaphorically. The place where it all happened. He swallowed hard and his mind thought of Ladainia. Loosing her and the hole that it created. Tiny as it was, it was still a hole that pierced his heart. He thought about his presence here. What if it interupted the ritual.
And when he killed her she just died. She didn't breathe the life of a thousand lives, but instead coughed up her final one on the rocky shores of a long forgotten cave? Gavin looked nervous. "I....Uh..." She pressed the blade more firmly in his hand and forced him to take it. He wasn't sure about this. He couldn't bare the thought of loosing her for good, though if that was the case he would happily turn the blade on himself and follow her to the great afterlife.
It was Romeo and Juliet only without the drama. He gripped the handle fimrly and listened to the splashing sounds of water hitting the rocks somewhere inside the cave. Light bounced and reflected off the water and cast light patterns on his face. "You're sure?" Gavin asked. He trusted her and he gasped as she dropped her gown. All questions seemed to be less important now. He was going to take her life for the third time. For the third time in their twisted tragic history she was going to die and he found it odd that it was going to be by his own fault all three of those times.
Gavin stabbed her, aiming for her heart by missing only slightly. She gasped and he craddled her as she fell. He watched her life leave her and then she turned to dust, just like before. For the longest time there was nothing. Only black powder stains on his hands and the crashing of waves on the rocks. What had he done?!?!? Why did he agree to something so foolish? He had her back he didn't care how, it wasn't importnat the reason how it only mattered that she was his once more.
Why did curiosity and intrigue outweight common sense and damndable pride. "ALYSSA!" He cried out.... He got no answer aside from the dull echo of his own voice rining out in the cave and taunting his torment. He waited there by the rocks, staring at the waves gently crashing and wondering how long this would take. Near seconds after she was gone he was already getting worried.
“absolutely”, Alyssa’s eyes glazed over in absolute confidence and faith in the man standing in front of her. She felt the sharp press of the blade into her skin and then the painful tug of a dagger ripping through her chest cavity, she could feel the slight hesitation in the weapon’s touch but she could see it more clearly in his eyes. A gasp rattled her lips and she half expected the painful impact on the rocky shore but she smiled softly, a painful lick of blood touching her lips and then she felt the clingy grasp of death pull her into a pure unconsciousness.
Everything disappeared into a black abyss of absolute nothingness, in time flashes of her old live wrecked her mind. Images of her old personal, old faces she loved and hated and core events that riddled history since the day she set foot on this earth. She saw Gavin again, the same set of memories that reminded her of that one time she used Maddison’s name. that one time she was someone else entirely, someone shoved into the recesses of her mind where an entire life lived and breathed away from her subconscious.
The images grew intense, light flooded her system and she felt the soft touch of water touch her body. Deep inside that cave the waters held nothing at one second and the entire body of a blonde immortal the next. She felt her heart beating against her ribs almost painfully, there was a dull tug of her name drifting to her senses and she felt a rough tug like some unseen force shoved her back to the world of the living.
Alyssa shoved her bare body out of the water with a loud, piercing gasp. Her breaths came out ragged and uneven, everything was still a blur wrapped in a foggy vision. She saw the rough shape on the rocks, she had to believe it was Gavin. Events from the last life she lived were always crystal clear in her mind, other lives were jumbles of joy, wrath and agony but every word and every action in her last life was clear as day. She could remember the nostalgic walk through Ithlia, the hesitation in her latest death and the man she loved cradling her dying form.
She wasn’t ever sure what happened to her old body but she saw no one else besides her and Gavin, she assumed the body she donned simply vanished in preparation for a rebirth. Her fingers reached out to find Gavin, her flesh was sensitive to the soft breeze blowing through the cave and she needed an anchor for the shake in her finger tips. There was a painful hiss following the undeniable tear in her skin as another scar signed her spine, another life lived and lost.
“See, nothing to worry about”, even then she smirked confidently up at Gavin with a playful tone and slap to his shoulder. She craned her stiff neck for a few seconds trying to reintegrate the new body into the realm of reality. She wasn’t even sure where she went in between the last and the latest but she was glad to be back with him.
Post by Gavin Sinclair on Jun 14, 2018 0:45:27 GMT
Gavin felt the subtle touch of paranoia for the longest of moments. It seemed to drag on for hours, though it was only minutes without her. He began to sob. A broken and hopeless man. Suddenly there was a touch on his shoulder. He looked up and the tears almost dried instantly. "M.. Alyssa." He nearly called her by the previous name. Gavin smiled and pulled her into a hug. The waves and currents crashed over the rocks of the shore. It was a silent prayer to his deepest fears. Gavin's heart was still racing. He didn't want to go through that again. He was glad that he had experienced it, as terrifying as it was, but he was done. He absolutely done with seeing the woman he loved feeling lifeless.
It was a pain you shouldn't have to go through once in a perfect world, but he had seen it three times. Gavin's mind and heart couldn't take the burden a single time more. Gavin dropped the knife. It felt like literal poison in his hands. He didn't even want to look at the blood stained tip. The shore swallowed up the knife. The water claiming the deadly talisman of his love's undoing. He started to stumble. Gavin felt a crashing wave of dizziness crashing over him. "I need some air." He said. He felt the pushing threat of bile against his slender throat.
Gavin stumbled again. His hand pressed against the uneven rock of the wall of her birth. His mind a buzz with the possibilities of her ability. It was if this cave was a womb and she was reborn here again and again. The pain she must've seen dying those many times. Suddenly images in his mind flashed of her being killed. He saw the night she was shot stab in mind like a brutal image he couldn't force out.
He saw her bloody image in his trailer as he stabbed her with a broken bit of wine bottle. The blood and ink splashing his face in a violent retort. He saw her collapse against the rocky flow of her cave womb and fade from his memory once again. He envisioned her death in a thousand horrible ways and none of it did anything to ease his troubled mind. The world around him spinning and twirling on a sickening display of death and rebirth. He threw up in the cave.
Gavin's bile was licked away by the splashing tide. It cleaned away any trace of his unease as the gentle waves took the mess. Gavin stumbled out of the cave and onto the sandy beach by the cave. His hair wet and matted with sweat. Sticking to his forehead. He fell in the sand. Perspiration caused sand to stick to the side of his face. He turned and looked back at his vision of beauty.
She stood at the entrance of the cave. "Sorry." He said lightly. "I just saw you die a thousand times." He didn't want to see it again. He couldn't witness it again. She had showed him the grace of her ability, but the thought of her waking up here alone and scared was much for him to deal with in the moment.
She felt comfort in the warmth of his hug, for the first time she didn’t have to wake up to the lonely darkness of the damp caves and while it was the ultimate bliss she knew when he was gone she’d have to be alone again. It was almost enough to bring her to tears for the first time in ages, she chose not to think of it though and opted to shove the thoughts of agony and despair to a pit she wouldn’t have to face until the day he no longer shared this reality with her. While she appreciated sharing an intimate part of her soul with him she never wanted to put him through that again, it was too much to ask of a ingle soul and she herself couldn’t bear the thought of seeing the worry in his eyes as life left her in the embrace of yet another death.
She heard the splash of the knife before the waves washed it into the depths of the dark waters and buried the means of her latest death. Alyssa always adored the dagger until she saw the crimson stain of her own life tainting it’s blade. She could feel the stumble in his steps, the gaps in his balance and she tried to hold onto his shoulders with her wrinkled palms. She didn’t hesitate to step aside so he’d get the air he so desired, she felt the heavy weight of guilt burden her shoulders at the sight of his vomit staining the watery cave floors.
Alyssa followed after him, stopping for a moment to dig an old robe from the chest before picking up the pace to catch up. She hung the soft touch of satin over her shoulders just as she met the sight of his stumble into the sandy beach welcoming the gaping hole into the earth. Alyssa didn’t hesitate to drop the full weight of her figure into the sand, it relentlessly clung to her knees and palms. Regardless, she reached up to touch his cheek with the warm skin of her palm.
“You’ll never see it again”, the promise hung in the air like the storm clouds eagerly collecting in the grey skies above. She laced her fingers through his with a beautiful smile tainting her pale lips, she had to cut her hair again. She looked like the perfect reflection of the woman who died all that time ago in Greece. Long golden hair touching her back in graceful waves, she didn’t bear the grace and poise an immortal would in the soft touch of the satin coating her skin.
“Come on, it’s gonna rain soon”, she pulled on his palm and led him back into the caves with a solemn look etched over her features. Alyssa reached over for the candles piled in the corner, lit a few in various nooks and crannies and turned to face him in the golden rays of small flickering flames.
“This is me Gavin, this is why I became and lost Madison. The curse that protects me but made me lose my own child, our child. There’s nothing more to it, I die, I wake up, every single time. What I gain, I lose, no exceptions. I’m sorry that I’m not the same person you knew but now you know everything there is to know about me, give or take a few decades”, she laughed softly near the end stepping closer to him with that same golden hue to her hazel eyes blazing true in the golden flickers of the candle light.
“I know it’s a lot to take in but if there’s a man strong enough to understand, it’s you”, she slipped her slender fingers, void of the same deep pink polish it donned before she died, behind his neck and leaned closer. “Are you sure you still want this? Want me?”, she was hoping he’d say yes and absolutely fearing he’d deem her too much effort and run off. He wasn’t the type but he wasn’t the same Gavin she knew from the memories Madison offered her just as she was a different soul with the same core ideals that made her who she was.
Post by Gavin Sinclair on Jun 15, 2018 21:42:49 GMT
Gavin could live a thousand lives, like Alyssa and not see as much pain and loss as he did in those few terrifying moments. He coughed and caught his breathe as she led him back deeper into the cave. Into the sanctuary of her rebirth. It was a special place to her. It was an oddly intimate place. Gavin still had specs of the leftover contents of his stomach on his lips. He smiled at her. Unaware of what stained his face.
"This is you. This is all I ever wanted. You're not Madison. I know you're not, and that's fine. Madison was just a tiny piece of what makes you. I fell in love with a tiny piece of your soul. I'm overwhelmed by the entire package. It's more than I deserve." He said honestly. "But I've never been more sure of anything else in my life. I gave you this ring because I believed in us." Gavin said gripping her finger's lightly.
Even though they were inside the cave, a light breeze reached them and whipped Gavin's hair around his face. Alyssa's hair fluttered over her shoulder. A few blond strands obscuring her vision until she wiped away the strands in her eyes. "Try and keep me away. i dare you." He challenged. Gavin's smile was growing wider by the second. He thought he had lost her again. For got this time. If he had he would have likely followed her to the great beyond and never looked back but as they stood there....
Basking in the calm crashing splashes of wet memories and sandy forgotten pain Gavin touched the warmth of her cheek. His fingers danced and kissed their way across a small scar at the side of her neck. A story from a life before perhaps. There was another small, barely noticable scar just under her lower lip. A slightly deep indincation from where the wound had healed over time. Hundreds of years ago maybe.
She had so many memories that he could never share with her. He had so many reasons to think this was foolish, but he didn't care. Gavin's fingers whispered under the soft point of her chin and as his fingers came away from her skin; there was magic in his hand. Soft light dancing particles and glowing embers. He released a swarm of of fireflies. Each painstakingly tattooed onto his skin.
He rolled back his sleeve to reveal that his arm had been bled dripped clean of ink. The only ink of his arm was that of the fireflies and there were millions of them living and breathing in his skin. He allowed them to float into the air and drift out of the cave. Their luminous collor shining and sparkling and reflecting off the water in the cave. The sky had turned to a deep purple from the time they spent in the cave. Gavin smiled and watched as Alyssa took a few steps to admire the majestic wonder of the beautiful creatures.
He stood behind he with a broad grin. Ink dripped off his other hand. A jingle and a clink as what he had hidden below his sleeve came to life. It was a diamond neckless. An exact copy of Some fancy famous jewel from the heart of some dusty old museum. Gavin stepped forward while she was lost in a trance of beauty and awe. He slipped his inkly creation around her neck with a soft whisper in her ear. "I'm yours til the end of time. If i die. I will find you. If I have to fight my way across the river styx and journey out of the land of the dead. I will always....find you." As he spoke his fingers clasped the neckless around her neck. She was the prettiest shiniest thing in this sea of beauty outside the place of her creation.
Alyssa felt an inferno of absolute euphoria light up in the recess of her soul, it drove an everlasting smile onto her ruby tinted lips. The words that left his mouth tasted sweeter than every poem she ever read, left a lingering sense of purpose driving her eyes to light up like they never have before. She honestly never loved a single person as much as she loved him, to some degree she still loved the child she lost purely out of nostalgic instincts. She looked down to the ring in absolute shock, every life she lived she was stripped of everything that made that version of herself different from the hoards of personas who lived and died. The ring, she’d forgotten about it in the heat of the moment, she reached out to rub a soft finger over the delicate item in awe. It stunned her, more so even than her love for Gavin.
She felt her eyes well up in tears, she laughed softly and incredulously at his loving challenge and reached up to wipe the salty trail down her cheek onto the back of her palm. “I haven’t cried in 80 years”, it felt impossibly beautiful to mark the bare honesty of her soul with the soft tug of tear drops staining her cheek. She couldn’t move her gaze, her feet were anchored to the cool rocky floor of the cave while she basked in the warmth radiating off his skin.
She felt her lips drop open at the striking beauty of fireflies fluttering to life from the ink littering his skin in a beautiful tapestry. Her fingers reached out to dance between the glowing little creatures, she felt as if she was seeing the world through new eyes, like nothing else in that given second could be more beautiful than the glowing visage he spoiled her with. She followed them as they lit up the mouth of the cave, the sandy beach just outside felt almost surreal, like it climbed straight out of a fairytale and basked her sight in absolute striking beauty.
Her fingers reached up to feel the jeweled necklace he slipped around her neck, she closed her eyes to immerse her soul in that single, stunning moment she’d remember for all the centuries still to come. The words he spoke left her skin crawling with goosebumps and electrical delight, she never thought after all this time shackled to reality through recurrent rebirth she’d still be blessed with the raw delight birthed from true and utter love.
Her fingers reached over her shoulders to caress the warm skin of his hands before turning to face him, she felt her lips light up in a perfect smile wrinkled with traces of awe. She reached up to cup his cheek, she wasn’t worried about the future anymore, she only cared about thriving in the present, by his side. Alyssa placed a tender kiss on his lips, leaned back to set her forehead against his and whispered the words that echoed through her soul and drove her feet forward until there was barely even space between them.
“I will never leave you again, this life and the next, I am yours”, she felt the accent of her first life bleed into the words before she regained her composure. “We’ll rule the world together Gavin, You and I”, she reached down to untie the knot keeping the satin robe keeping her figure cloaked in a soft touch. She allowed the robe to fall down the length of her skin until she stood in front of him bare, like the naked truth of her soul she brought him to witness.
“I’m yours Gavin, always”, she pressed her figure against his chest with sensual fingers sliding up and over his shoulders, “In every way imaginable”. She didn’t hesitate to press her lips against his with more passion than she ever embraced a man, wielded a weapon or greeted the impulse of life.
