The Silence Between

  "My apologies for the delay. An opportunity arose that I couldn't ignore, and I…"

  A form appeared through the hazy, shifting depths. Too enthralled to step away, Charlie could only stare as the shifting lights coalesced into the form of an imposing but regal man, his features tired, pale, with violet eyes and styled silver-blonde hair. He was close enough to touch. Their eyes locked, and for one heartbeat she felt something pass between them, something electric and thrilling and incredibly intimate. Then reality set in, and those gemstone eyes narrowed, burned with what she could only assume was anger.

  Ghost's fists clenched and an almost unnoticeable tremble passed thought his body. Those smoldering eyes shot to Griff.

  "Why have you brought her here?"

  VI

  Ignis fumbled with his lighter, desperately trying to coax a flame out of the last few drops of butane. All he wanted was a cigarette, and this fucking piece of—

  There it went.

  He took a long drag and leaned against the tree he was taking shelter under, letting the smoke fill his lungs and settle his nerves. A laundry list of changes from his editor was waiting for him in his email when he returned home. Changes they wanted him to implement immediately because—according to them—the recent turn in story direction didn't seem to fit the overall plot. Always fun when someone who knows nothing about what went on inside his own head thought they knew the story better than him. Oh, and they wanted it turned around in forty-eight hours.

  It's not like I can just flick a light switch, Daniel. I have to redraft and redraw entire pages. Scenery, characters, clothing, and weapons. Fucking idiot…

  Whatever. He was going to look for another editor anyway. The one he'd had his eye on was on vacation for the next two weeks, but he knew she'd be more than happy to work for him once she returned. She wasn't as completely inept and single-minded as Daniel was. In fact, she loved his original draft of this season—one filled with more magic and twists than was current.

  So needless to say, he set to work immediately after reading the email. It was close to seven by the time he finally dropped his pen and pushed himself away. Nothing was right. Everything he came up with was just pure garbage. He felt a migraine forming, his wrist hurt, and he couldn't focus.

  Then Gabby decided to show up at the worse moment, knowing full well he would be working, bursting into his room to bitch about her father doing…something. He honestly couldn’t remember. All he could think at the time was 'go the fuck away'. Funnily enough, the signals got mixed up somewhere in his head and the words left his mouth. All he remembered was Gabby leaving in a pissy mood.

  Again, whatever. He grudgingly accepted the fact that not everyone could understand what was going on these days. But despite it all, he made it very clear to everyone not to bother him when he’s sleeping or working. He still needed to work, and those were the only two times he asked for privacy. Yet he couldn’t even have that. Everyone just did whatever the fuck they wanted because no one gives a shit if they’re inconveniencing him.

  It was bad enough he had to deal with a literal fantasy story come to life. Charlie was the daughter of some ancient bloodline with seemingly everything out to get her. And Griff? Griff was just…something else now. Everything seemed to go from zero to a thousand in no time flat.

  Reiem? Gods? Time travel? And then there was the Ocroti.

  Ignis closed his eyes and exhaled. His hometown flashed into his mind—what little he could remember of it, that is. Lori was really the only one who knew anything about it. She always did her best to give him a happy life, away from the nightmares he'd never grown out of despite telling her he had. She was literally the only person who showed him that level of consideration and love, the only one who never questioned his odd quirks and attempts to hide what he knew would be seen as 'odd' or 'strange'.

  And she cared so much about a little boy she'd only just met that she'd rearrange her life to welcome him into it. One of the many reasons why, despite his best efforts, he found himself increasingly attached to her, and to the place she'd brought him and called 'home'.

  With a sigh, Ignis rubbed out his cigarette on the bark of the tree and tossed it into the little bucket he kept hidden in the bushes nearby. His mom knew he smoked, but if she knew he was keeping a makeshift ashtray in the yard she’d be pissed. At least he wasn’t flicking them into the lake.

  Flipping up his hood to keep the rain out, he had just stepped out from under the tree when he saw something on the other side of the lake. He looked up, squinting to see through the rain, and saw that it was a pale beam of light coming from near the quarry. His first instinct was to ignore it, shove it to the back of his mind as just another odd occurrence that came about because of the whole Guardian mess. He turned away and started to walk home when a stabbing pain burst behind his eyes—an image of a purple eye etched in frost.

  "Going so soon?"

  "What…the hell?"

  A voice rang out inside his own head…and it sounded just like his own.

  "I believe it's time we had a talk, you and I."

  "And just who are you?"

  "Names matter little. Think of me as a monster haunted by a future I failed to save."

  Ignis kept silent at that, allowed a temporary reprieve from the pain. He wasn't stupid, though. He had an idea who it was—Ghost, the man Griff claimed to have worked with. But why—and how—was he talking to him?

  "You have failed before, but through suffering, you will grow strong. Isn't that what you want?"

  Failed? Whatever this was, he knew it wasn’t some sudden mental breakdown. Yeah, he failed—blamed that night entirely on himself because he just couldn't keep a fucking eye on Charlie. But Griff knew about it…he knew all of it. And he'd fucked up just as bad. He wanted to be stronger. Erde knew he wanted nothing more than to keep everyone safe, but how?

  He wasn’t strong enough to deal with that kind of devastation again. That's why he'd been so distant and forceful, why he wished Charlie would have just stayed in the city where she was safe from…

  Another headache hit him, this time it made him almost falter and fall to his knees. He saw a gigantic humanoid figure bound in chains, with blood weeping from a single, bright blue eye. This time the pain stayed with him. Around him the downpour intensified, and good thing, for it drowned out his grunts of agony as a splitting pain threatened to crack open his skull.

  "Of course. You are too weak to save anyone. Not even your own mother."

  "Get out of my head!" More pain. "Stop calling me weak!"

  "Then prove you are not."

  "Why should I listen to you!? You don't know a goddamn thing."

  A harsh bark of a laugh rang through his mind. "If only you knew. Fate is not to be taken lightly, boy."

  "Screw fate! It's my life! I don't want to hear that bullshit anymore! You, the Ocroti, my mother, and even Lori! I'm sick of this!"

  The feelings of pain lessened but it still didn’t stop the voice from replying, its tone now harshened by disappointment.

  "You desire an outcome, but you are not ready to face the truth or take action to create it."

  "You don't even live in the same world as us!"

  Lightning crackled and the air sizzled around him. Through the flashes, his mind could just barely make out a familiar shape. Something invisible but still there as the raindrops pelted down upon it. With another flash, the form solidified and then vanished at the crack of thunder.

  "Fine, then. You want to stand back and do nothing? You want to watch her die again? Or better yet, how about you pull the trigger yourself? Then you get to live with knowing that you had every opportunity to make a change but did nothing due to your apprehension and penchant for blind stubbornness."

  Ghost's words hit him like a fist to the gut.

  "Then tell me what I need to do!" he screamed into the crash of thunder. Through the haze of white within his mind, he could almost make out a face. "I don't know fucking know! Nothi
ng makes sense!"

  "Then stop cowering behind this wall of apathy and pessimism and anger! Allow yourself to be vulnerable! Accept what it is you know you have to do! You think she knows any better than you? She doubts herself at every step, yet still she marches on, facing Fate and convincing it to lend her its strength. But determination is nothing without the support of those she cares for."

  Ignis fell silent for a moment. A moment without pain. A moment without sight. A moment of pure clarity at the thought that one single mistake—one tiny, little, insignificant fuck-up—could rip it all apart.

  "Whether you like it or not, everyone has a duty to fulfill—either as Guardian, Shield, Trusted…or otherwise. Charlie has a long road ahead of her, and she wants to walk it not alone, but with her friends by her side. All of them."

  Drawing in a shuddering breath, Ignis bows his head. "I'd do anything to keep her safe."

  Another crack of thunder.

  "I know you will."

  ‡ † ‡

  The better part of an hour passed with Reiem asking questions and Ghost answering them to the best of his ability. There was so much being said that Charlie just couldn't follow. All sound faded into a hum in the back of her mind, and she found herself staring, fascinated by the eyes of a ghost of futures lost. He was nothing like she'd imagined but was familiar to her all the same. Those eyes were something she remembered from that terrible day, how they glittered like dark amethysts.

  Every now and then they'd flick to her, lingering only for a fraction of a second before quickly darting back. The anger in his eyes was obvious. But there was something else there, too. Something that made her stomach twist up into a knot. She couldn't define it—sorrow, maybe? Whatever it was, it was dark and painful, and made her want to either call him out on it or leave the cave and never look at him again.

  Except she couldn't do either. Instead, all she could muster was a weak half-smile before dropping her gaze to the floor and walking away. This was between him and Reiem. And it was something that everyone needed—the precious information only Ghost could offer, filling in the blanks where Griff's efforts fell short.

  "Hey, you okay?"

  Griff's whisper seemed almost painfully loud as it poked through the static fuzz in her mind. Her head snapped up.

  "Huh?"

  "I asked if you're okay. You don't look so good."

  Charlie pressed her lips together. "Just a lot to take in, that's all." A half-truth, but it seemed to work. Griff knit his brow together and gave a weak smile as he patted her shoulder.

  Ghost had been pacing as he spoke, but he now stood still before the spot where Reiem stood. Or 'leaned' was a more apt term—while the coughing had stopped, he'd grown even paler, leaning his thin frame against the far leune statue. The blonde made a noise before hardening his gaze and turning to pace again.

  "How long have you been sick?"

  "Almost three days."

  "You're weak," Ghost stated coldly. "I suspect you've been coughing up blood as well?"

  Reiem raised his eyebrows. "Yes."

  Ghost glared, then looked away. "This is far too early…"

  "I do not have Artaxia, if that's what you're thinking."

  He held the immortal's stare for a moment, defiant glare against defiant glare, until he finally seemed convinced.

  "Then do you know what is causing it?"

  "I do," Reiem stated flatly. "Dying takes quite the toll on a man, even with divine intervention."

  Those gemstone eyes shot back to him. Ghost seemed to be considering what to say when he looked to Griff with a genuine light of astonishment in his gaze.

  "Loire worked? It…actually worked? Griff?"

  "Yep," he replied, popping the sound of the 'p'. "I didn't know what the hell I was gonna do if he didn't wake back up…"

  "Amazing," Ghost said in a small, bitter laugh. "All other efforts failed, but a last moment idea from an old ruin is what finally worked."

  "Wait, what do you mean 'last moment'?"

  For reasons she didn't quite understand, his words caused a pit to form in Charlie's stomach. She knew it was Griff's plan to have her bound to Loire—and to Reiem—in an attempt to save her life. He'd explained as much, but not exactly how or where he got the idea. For the first time, she realized just how desperate they had both been to prevent—or, in this case, undo—her repeated deaths.

  "What about the guy who stabbed me?" she asked, turning her churning, unvetted memories back to that night. "He was with you guys, wasn't he?"

  Ghost laughed once, humorlessly. Though he spoke, he refused to look at her. "He's of no concern. His motives were uncovered, and he has been dealt with."

  "Motives?" Charlie said, disbelief clear in her voice. "I don't even know who he was. Unless he's been watching me somehow, that hardly makes a clear motive for killing a child he was sent to protect."

  "Mm, well, 'divine intervention' can account for many things."

  Charlie almost wished he would look at her so he could see the complete confusion written all over her face.

  "Divine intervention? What are you talking about?"

  The smirk disappeared from his face, but he kept his gaze away. It took her longer than it probably should have, but eventually it became evident what had led him to that conclusion. Her gaze shot to Griff and he looked just as shocked as she did, like he'd come to his own personal revelation. Whatever it was—and Charlie would be demanding answers later—he only made a disgruntled noise before crossing his arms and looking to the ground.

  A coughing fit from Reiem caused them both to turn their attention to him. He shook violently as he tried—and failed—to quell them.

  "Look, man," Griff began slowly. "As much as I'd like to continue this little reunion, we gotta get this guy some rest. And I gotta figure out just…what we need to do."

  "There is much too different in this timeline," Ghost sighed, and rubbed at his eyes. He brought his feet together, placing his fist over his heart as he bent his spine in an elegant bow. "Seek me out should the need arise, Griff. I will do what I can."

  "Yeah, sure. Thanks, man."

  As if allowing himself one final glance, Ghost turned his eyes to Charlie. They lingered, with that undiscernible glimmer of sorrow. With a slight shake of his head, he tapped the mirror, and vanished into the brief haze that swept across its surface.

  After another minute of silence, Reiem's coughing resumed. Charlie wasn't sure what to think, but she pushed it aside for another time. Her friend needed her, and she couldn't help with her own mind all twisted up and full of fluff.

  "That's it," Griff said. He'd positioned himself on one side of the immortal, with one of his arms draped over his shoulder, and his own wrapped about the man's thin waist. "Easy now, buddy. Great. Let's go."

  But try as she might, as they left the cave, one lingering thought wouldn't leave.

  "Griff?"

  "Yeah?"

  She knew that this conversation was a mistake. If she was smart, she’d just shut up and drop it. But, as usual, her mouth didn’t care what her brain wanted.

  "Why did he look at me like that?"

  Griff's eyes darkened as he sighed and shifted Reiem's weight against him.

  "He loved you."

  With that he walked away, leaving Charlie with her thoughts.

  Her head turned back automatically to the silent, empty mirror. But in spite of everything, in spite of the dark and twisting path she knew stretched out ahead of her, in spite of everything that had come to light and all that still remained in shadow, she felt her heart lift at the thought that she didn't have to face it alone.

  To be continued in...

  Ephemeral Reverie #2

  Curse of the Mind

 

 

 
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