When The Shadows Seperate

The pain in her head melted away with the lingering fog, and Alina stared at the man watching her silently, her mouth whispering the name that had been on the tip of her tongue since the day she had set foot into her childhood home, "Claec…?"

She was falling, drowning in pools of wine as she struggled to break the surface, memory after memory hitting her in violent waves as if a dam had broken inside her. She remembered the bright colored field behind her house, running through the knee-high grass tendrils to catch a sapphire coated butterfly to show Claec. She remembered sitting on her bed beside the brunette, her eager hands shyly showing Claec an old dust covered book before reading the male his favorite part from the text, her tongue heavy with foreign words. "You have a… an interesting taste in novels. They’re hard to read, but I’m going to get better at them, promise!" She recalled her determination to keep reading with him, so happy to find another bookworm since Alec hated them.

She looked down in a daze, heart pumping in her ears so loudly.

Blood was spread on her hands, and across her lips to splotch onto her sallow cheek, but she didn't know whose blood it was. As if hallucinating, she could clearly see the memory all over again. She had brought her hand up to touch the sticky substance coating her lips, but the blood smeared into long trails of chocolate and pale, china-glass hands gently scrubbed the remnants away. She leaned back, soon discovering she was sitting against someone's lap, a gentle hum lingering in her ears. "Did you like it?" A giddy feeling had aroused from deep inside her chest, that voice mingling with her heartbeat. "That was my favorite brand of chocolate when I was no bigger than you are now."

A loud squeak from a wooden chair hit the air when Alina plopped down into the seat beside Claec at her kitchen table, short and stubby legs hanging a few inches off the ground. "What's your favorite flower?" Alina had asked the minute she was sure the two of them were alone.

"Roses, red ones. They remind me of home." Claec's gentle hand had reached over to pet through her overflowing and untamed brown locks, and those warm eyes landed on her again, "What is your favorite flower, lil miss?"

She had hesitated. "I like…" She bit her lip, trying to think, but only one answer came to mind, "roses."

Claec had liked those best, and roses reminded her of…

Warm eyes.

An amused chuckle hit her ears, "Red ones?"

"No."

The lie escaped her mouth without a hitch.

SCRATCH.

Flesh, tight and damp with beads of frustration, caved in beneath the force of blunt edges as Alina's nails dug into her temples. Pulsing warmth thrummed under the pressure and she let out a noise similar to a pained moan. How much of it was true? It was if a whole part of her life had suddenly come unveiled, and she struggled with the concept of it. Could she believe what she was recalling so suddenly? She wondered silently as dull fingernails dug in further, reaching for every scattered memory. The pain had receded, but confusion was coursing through her veins in icy bolts. And another feeling…that rolled in waves beneath the former…

A feeling so inescapable, it made grown men fall upon their knees.

The potent poison known as fear.

Alina's hand fell to the floor, pressing urgently against the surface.

None of that had made any sense. She didn't know the person that had taken hold of her memories. No one had ever mentioned him. He didn't exist.

The bottle tipped, to splash over every memory with acidic venom.

"Have you seen your imaginary friend lately?"

"You used to have one when you were little, you used to call him, Calea—no, Claec or some damn priss name like that."

Alina's gaze hardened at the floor, not even knowing when her head had dropped to face that direction. Claec had been referred to as a figment of her imagination. There were no photos of him. He hadn't lived with them; he hadn't been noticed by anyone but her. So how did she remember the warmth of those arms? How could she recall how they would lift her up so she could pick out a book from the top shelf of the bookcase? Why did she remember… liking him?

Just what the hell was she remembering?

"Miss. Croix." A rich, velvety, voice cooed from beside her ear, and broad shoulders stiffened in shock. The forgotten presence was seeping into her bones. Peering over from the corner of her eyes, cocoa globes widened significantly. Right next to her, was the man in the forefront of her mind, clad in black. A large black trench coat crumpled against the floor, and long charcoal legs bent as the man kneeled next to her on one knee, sharp and rather alluring features inches from her own. He was much more attractive than her child eyes had recalled. Stunning, even, like a character in her modestly heavy books. Instantly, she was overly aware of his presence. Chiseled, porcelain and strong edges of deep red eyes that clashed with hers.

And yet, the man didn't really seem to be there.

It was like his skin was alive; shifting subtly with each passing second, a complexion so pale it almost appeared transparent. If she leaned any closer, she would be able to pinpoint the smoky swirl of her couch that was blended in with the colors of the male's flesh. Where was he? Her fingers twitched to life. The first instinct she had was to run her hands over that moving flesh to see if it was real or not.

Smooth skin had greeted her fingers, and Claec leaned into her touch, slowly, but surely. With a look of bemusement on his features. "Claec…you're too pretty to be a boy."

"I am entirely sure that I am a man, Ali. Though, you, young one, shouldn’t randomly touch people’s faces. It would be dangerous, not everyone has kind intentions."

“O-oh, I’m sorry. I just know you’d never hurt me…”

Claec’s eyes had been so wide when she looked back up at him, and she didn’t know why.

Alina clenched her fist, keeping the urge at bay.

Her name fell like liquid water from the stranger's—No, Claec's—lips again, and this time Alina actually registered the sound. Closing her mouth that had parted without her knowledge, the brown headed youth regained her composure. Or what she could of it, given the circumstances.

Eyes laced with boiling lava squinted a bit in an emotion Alina couldn't identify, and something weightlessly heavy was placed on her shoulder. Alina shot a glance at the hand before she was immediately backing away with a rustle of cloth. Then, she was staring down at the man still on the ground, glaring at her in a warning to back off.

“…I…” She couldn’t form a sentence, but her stance said everything.

Stay away.

But the warning was washed away with a simple, foreign question. "What are you thinking about?"

'This man didn't exist.'

Alina blinked and wine seemed to flash a brighter shade. There was a moment of silence, before the girl said the only thing she could rationally think of.

'And yet, here he was… ten years later. Not having aged a single day.'

"I'm completely insane."

Then a door was slamming shut, leaving behind the heavy cloth of silence to blanket the home. Because in two swift movements, Alina was all but out the door in a brisk jog that left her face flushed, and Claec was left to stare at the space the female had just been. A slight fraction of his eyes going wide before they were shielded behind dark bangs.

Claec gave an amused smirk, pulling the bangs upwards with slender digits, tugging at the strands in a combing gesture. He released the silk tresses, rising to his full height, and his body faded as the strands greeted his forehead. A lone bat hovering in the window sill, while the rest speckled away into nothing.

The bat was…amused.

To say the least.

Alina didn't stop running until her could  legs could pump no longer, her knees feeling uncharacteristically shaky as she slowed down into a sluggish trot. The shoes on her feet, sneakers or boots, she didn't even remember, feeling like bricks when she came to a complete stop. A chill sending ice down her spine, the frozen substance travelling further to wrap around her legs like chains. And chains can make a person into a prisoner of the mind and body.

Breathing in, the wind slapped hard against the bridge of her nose, shoulders tight and restricted with tension as they curled inward.

The street she had travelled was barren of life, not another soul being sent adrift the entire time her feet met the pavement. Not a passing car in sight, no buzzes of technology, just silence. The feeling she had been trying to escape came back tenfold.

Breathing out, a drop of disdain sprinkled her cheek as she slumped against the bark of a tree. Curvy legs pulling upward to drop the whirl winded body into a crouch, a storm approaching behind a pair of eyes glued to the ground.

The process repeated, but Alina didn't feel like she was breathing at all.

‘What do I do now…?’

Bringing numb fingertips to brush over her throat, the frazzled girl fluttered her eyes shut to embrace the darkness of her mind, forcing her ears to listen to the silent whispers the gusts of wind offered. A stray leaf bumbling up to tangle with her messy bangs when light invaded her pupils once more.

That feeling…

Claec…. Verlice.

"Claecy!"

The name itself resounded in her chest like the toll of a bell, and for the life of her, she just couldn't fathom why she had just abandoned her own home. The memories of that man were still fresh and raw, bristling and unsettled between her thoughts. But that didn't cause her legs to switch to auto-pilot, nor did it cause her to act reckless enough to leave without proper attire. In those fragmented pieces, every word passed between them had held sincerity and trust, creditability that everything they said to each other was completely unguarded. A bond she had never held with anyone but Alec when he had been alive. For someone to have been that close to her…

It was terrifying.

A shiver wracked Alina's body when the crisp bite of the quickly changing weather broke past the barrier of her flimsy shirt, allowing goose bumps to bloom in its wake. If it was Claec who had spoken to her, the one she herself had been searching for during the weeks of walking on egg shells across her home, and if he had been the same person as that Claec.

The same person who she had spent hours on end with… with no difference between now and then…

Thunder rolled in the distance, and as Alina rested her shattered skull into the cradle of her arms, the clouds, suddenly dark and foreboding broke apart. The storm had begun to form, and it was too late to turn back the clock. Rain coated the air and the storm raged on.

Confusion mingling with labored breaths.

If that was her childhood friend like her memories wanted him to believe.

Why had she been so frightened by that presence?

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The door was pushed open without the need of the familiar jingle of keys, two shoes damp from the fat drops of water pounding into the earth outside coming to a stop right inside the doorway. Cotton, heavy and molded to her frame, flashed bright as a bolt of lightning cut across the sky. Alina quickly toed her shoes off at the entrance, a droplet of water bleeding down from her bangs to invade his lashes. The shirt sticky and stuck to her modest breasts when her arms came up to cradle her body from view.

Glancing from left to right around the vacant living room, Alina's fleshy lips pushed and rubbed together in irritation when she couldn't spot even a lingering sign of Claec’s presence. The man's customary chill absent. A sign she may very well have blown her chances at getting answers by running away from her unwarranted guest. Not that any sane individual would have reacted any different, but in retrospect Alina was highly ashamed of her reaction, more so than she was comfortable admitting.

Pulling at the end of her shirt, the young adult tugged it over her aching shoulders to greet the couch with a wet flop, a grimace flashing across her face as the cold bit into her exposed chest peeking out from her black bra. She tried to not feel vulnerable as she changed. Without bothering to remove the sopping article of clothing from its resting place, Alina began heading towards the bathroom, taking each step at a leisure pace. A flick of the wrist, and the light switch was being upturned. Artificial light flooded the bathroom to showcase a girl standing before a mirror, her body hunched inward as she leaned over the sink. Pale hands gripping the edge of the porcelain sink, while cold liquid evaporated off the back of her bowed neck. Soon, Alina was splashing luke warm water across her cheekbones. Trying to gain some heat back into her system.

A sigh cut through the watching walls, as a chill, both unwelcomed yet anticipated, raced down the length of her spine.

Instinctively she grabbed a towel to partially cover her bra.

"… I know you're there." Alina finally broke the silence, bringing her free hand away from her face. She straightened her shoulders and lifted her head to stare straight ahead into the depths of the mirror. Reflected back at her from within the glass was a pair of gleaming garnet orbs, piercing forward from the entryway, a body long and slender, propped against the doorway.

The man in the mirror offered her a mocking smile in turn. "So, you finally decided to return home. I was beginning to think you had left for good."

The urge to flinch was a strong one, but Alina merely narrowed her gaze, and held the other's stare from the object at her disposal. Somehow, Claec was easier to face this way. Maybe it was because he wasn't invading her personal space, or perhaps it was just because she couldn't pinpoint the transparent tint to Claec's flesh in his reflection. Whatever it was, she preferred this distance.

"I'm not going to run away from my own home." Alina replied in a curt tone, ignoring the fact she had indeed done that very thing earlier.

When she received no response, Alina allowed her mouth to fall open again. "Listen, I don't know who you are or what you are, but …"

We need to talk? I need answers? I want to interrogate you? There were way too many ways to phrase her desires at that moment.

Bringing a hand back to her face in irritation, Alina preoccupied her hand by twisting the knob of the sink to shut off the steady stream of water. The sound of the drain gulping the remaining droplets of water echoing between them before Alina was pivoting her body, thick lashes sliding down more to lock onto the form leaning passively by the door. As she half-expected, she saw the flesh move once again, as if it wasn't really there.

Unnatural.

Alina once again resisted the urge to touch the other's face, for the second time that night.

She settled on her next words carefully. "I have some questions to ask you, and you're going to give me some answers."

A breath of amusement, condescending yet lined with another component Alina couldn't pinpoint fell over her ears when Claec's back was pulled away from the doorway to rise to its full height. She suddenly felt very exposed with her minimal dress, and suddenly very, very, short. Had he always been so damn tall?

"You've grown up to be very demanding, it would seem." Claec acknowledged, before glancing down at her with shadowed orbs. "Pity, you were such a precious child."

"Since when did you become so demanding Ali-bear! You were such a cute child! Where did I go wrong?" Dylan had whined, like he always did when she spoke lately.

Alina's eyes widened in surprise, but Claec didn't seem to pay her any mind, as he stepped out of the bathroom and into the hallway, casting her a look from over his shoulder.

"Lead the way, Miss. Interrogator."

Brushing off any form of discomfort the male's words had unwittingly caused, Alina pressed her lips together fully in aggravation. Pushing and grinding her teeth before they pulled away from each other to settle into a light frown. The nerve of this prick was enough to overcome any abiding fear. Quickly hand drying the few locks of her hair that had persistently stayed damp, Alina shot the tall male a scowl, before stepping out after him. Then she silently made to brush her way past the other, but the other stopped her with a subtle shake of his head.

"What?" Alina demanded, impatient and more than ready to get the conversation over with. Or finally relent to taking meds, whichever came first.

Cool, calm, and collected eyes met their polar opposite. "You may want to put on a shirt. I don't believe you'd like to be half-naked around someone whom you do not know, am I correct? Besides, it’s odd seeing someone I used to view as a child in such a way."

Immediately her face turned pink.

“Though, you’re certainly not a child anymore. I can see that much.”

"…" This guy, ghost, thing, pissed her off. "Don’t even say anything else." Not looking the brunette in the eye, Alina all but growled before yanking a spare shirt off the back of the bathroom door—left there prior on one of her lazier days—and throwing it over her head. The actions, sloppy and rushed, was her way of telling Claec to piss off.

 But at least the man ( could he even be called that?) had the decency to not comment on her aggressive actions or on the suspicious shade of pink that had invaded the tips of ears as well.

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When they had gotten downstairs, Claec barely had time to make himself comfortable before Alina began shooting questions at him. Yet Claec would be lying if he said he was expecting the first question to leave Alina's mouth to be…

"Pardon?"

Alina flashed him an annoyed flicker of her eyes before her tone dropped a pretty octave. "Are you dead?"

Claec wasn't sure if he was amused, provoked, or simply indifferent to how utterly blunt Alina was. Trailing his gaze over the female he had been watching from afar for weeks, he watched silently as she shifted subconsciously beneath his gaze. Of all notions… Claec sucked in the sigh that had almost fluttered from the tip of his tongue, to instead cross his legs and resume leaning back into the black couch nestled securely around his form.

"It depends on your point of view, whether I am dead or not." Claec supplied instead, as expressive, indignant orbs zeroed in on him, only to harden seconds later. Claec idly wondered what it would take to melt the ice from those eyes. What it would take to break that wall surrounding this new, yet familiar, Alina Croix. His chin came to rest on his hand, hair cradling the sides of vision. It was hard to hold onto his anger when she looked at him like that.

"Elaborate." Another demand, not a question.

A pull of his lips, and Claec found himself eluding the question. "Tell me, if I told you I was anything other than the answer you desire, would you believe me? If I wasn't a spirit, but I haven't aged, what would you make of that?" He asked, watching as the question seemed to startle the young girl. Alina's expression remaining unchanged, but the girl's flawless skin had turned a shade paler. Sallow, touchable. It was odd, not seeing her with chubby cheeks and bright lively eyes.

Claec wasn’t sure how to feel about it, yet.

Alina finally settled on raising a brow at him. "…I'm not playing games with you, Claec. Just answer the question."

And the anticipated reaction had come back with no errors.

Slender digits reached out to brush across the strings of a woven pillow decorating the couch, Claec's touch focused entirely on the texture of the silk. The brush of silk, close, but entirely unfelt. A teaser of what could be.

The smile on his face melted into an imitation of its previous luster. "Never doubt the human mind and its ability of self-delusion. The mind will only believe what it wants to, even if signs point it in the blaringly obvious direction."

The brunette across from him remained silent at his words, those fragile looking fingers curling in to form a fist. Fingers that once held his hand so tightly. Claec tilted his head to watch those same fingers twitch in frustration.

How could hands appear so breakable? The anger he had forgotten in the elation at her finally remembering him, crept back in. A sick desire to fill her on how long he had been suffering, being snuffed out in favor of diplomacy.

"So until you scale that dilemma, let's just say at the moment that I am fairly dead."

How could he have been vexed by such a simple creation?

"Alright." Alina replied, after a moment. The suspicion was still heavy in her stance, in the way her pulse kept fluctuating. Then Alina crossed her arms across her ample chest, her chocolate gaze becoming hidden from his sight. "If I can’t understand yet then…how long have you been here?"

His hand fell away from the pillow, at long last. "Longer than you have, I assure you. This time and the last."

The girl's chin tipped down into a nod, and he traced the outline of her jaw with imaginary touches. Observing the way her jaw shifted when she was thinking, and how she seemed to unconsciously lick her lips whenever she swallowed in frustration. The sound of the liquid in her throat sliding down that smooth neck pulsed in his ears. If it had been any closer, Claec was surprised to find himself thinking he would have mapped the flesh out with his lips. Claiming what had ran away from him twice now.

Yes, those thoughts were entirely new to him when it came to the person in front of him.

Perhaps, he had simply been alone too long?

His thoughts fell away with the brush of leather against denim.

Wordlessly, he regarded the way Alina had begun to bounce her leg.

"Do you remember…" Alina started, only to have her mouth become sealed into a straight line. Suddenly she had her head turned to the side, a tick to her brow when Claec caught the sound of her teeth grinding together. "Forget it. You're not leaving are you?"

Now that caught his attention. Staring outright at Alina as the young adult changed the subject, Claec pondered those words that had escaped her lips. Does he remember what? Did he remember her and their shared past or could she have possibly been hinting at the blood that had soaked this house? The conflict behind that cold face gave him enough answers. It was with a private deduction, that his voice snaked out to give his first sincere answer since the night had begun. "I'm afraid I don't have a choice at the moment."

Leaving wasn’t an option.

The air around them came to a standstill. Alina's breath falling short at the edge of her throat, failing to leave her body.

Claec was half-expecting the other to stand up and start cussing. To demand he left, to throw a tantrum, or to even run out the house again. Yet none of the following happened, instead, Alina let out a proper breath and nodded her head.

"Fine. Then I have two conditions or I'll personally find some way to get rid of you."

Anger, tight and potent, seized his chest at the threat, but he merely tipped his head in the direction of the girl who was spitting on the ground he walked on with her vicious gaze.

"One, stop messing with my shit." As if the emphasis her point, Alina pointed to one of the many objects he honestly had taken a liking to this week, before continuing on to the next rule. "And two, stay as you are now."

Blinking in surprise, a hint of a smirk crossed Claec's lips, which caused Alina's face to take on a permanent shadow of frustration. "Does it unnerve you that you cannot see me if I do not wish you to?"

"No."

The smirk grew wider, but he left it at that. Another trait Alina had retained…she was still a horrible liar.

Standing from the seat he had occupied for far too long, Claec slipped from his spot to instead tower over the girl. When the female had leaned back to shoot him a glare, he brought his hand to the girl’s chin, entertained with how she shrunk into herself like a startled kitten, bearing its baby teeth. "I can abide by those rules. However, do not think I am someone you can order around blindly, Ali."

"Let go of me you—" The fingers curled around Alina's jaw increased in pressure, and Alina let out a noise of anger, which ebbed away into a sound of confusion when his eyes seemed to flash crimson.

What…?

The word was mouthed on parted lips, and Claec loosened his grip.

"You are no longer a child who is ignorant of her actions."

Dropping his head into the crook of Alina's neck, Claec listened to the strong chorus of blood from the cords stretched for his viewing pleasure. Just before whispering into the soft flesh. "So therefore I have a rule myself…"

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Ba-bump.

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              Ba-bump.

Alina's body burned like a furnace, but she didn't budge an inch. Not when the rule was whispered. Not when she realized her chest was bond by a tight pressure. Not even when Claec's body was suddenly moving away from her own. The heat sticking to where he was before like a heavy blanket.

The sound, akin to flapping wings, lingering in her ear when the entity gracefully leaned down to grab the pillow from behind her back. The girl remained frozen to the spot, her body tense and rigid when the support that had been behind her was removed,  her eyes clashing with heavily Claec's.

"I shall take the spare bedroom to spare you the trouble. I'll leave you to your thoughts."

The steps creaked, but not any louder than the final whisper of the night.

"Goodnight, Alina."

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As Alina lay in her bed, staring at the ceiling with childhood laughter ringing in her ears, all she could do was replay Claec's condition over and over inside her head. The heated breath that had floated over her ear to hook its claws in when that simple sentence had been spoken.

The irrational fear of an unplaced memory nagging at the back of your mind, spiders crawling over your arms in warning, while a soft longing pounded in your chest, whispering maybe it'd be okay to forget. A contradictory feeling that had invaded her mind at the moment it was uttered.

Turning over to bury hwe face into the nearest pillow, Alina's breath clouded out to stroke the cold air of her room. Cotton, fluffy and indented with past use, suffocated her senses. She felt so, so, drained.

She needed to get some sleep.

Forcing her breaths to even out, Alina pushed her body closer to her mattress, her hand coiling around the resin rose that had resided on her bedside table just before she had crawled into bed. The feel of the chilled glass beneath her skin lulling her to sleep, left there to be forgotten.

"So therefore I have a rule myself… Don't pretend you don't remember who I am."