Fan Fiction ❯ The Last Tear ❯ Part Ten ( Chapter 10 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Title: "The Last Tear"

Author: Antoinette Robins

Date: Friday June 27, 2003

Warnings: Warnings...Warnings...Warnings...OH! I KNOW! Confusion...again. It will be explained in later chapters (as everything else is)

And now, on with the show!

Part Ten

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Amarette bolted upright in her bed. She was covered in cold sweat and her face was red from crying. She was breathing heavily, almost gasping. Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, Amarette began to slow her breathing and calm down.

"What the hell was that?" she asked herself aloud as she wiped her wet and sticky face with her arm. She stood up, walking with slightly trembling steps towards the bathroom.

Once inside the bathroom she closed and locked the door behind her. Going over to the sink she washed her face. Turning off the water, Amarette stood there, staring at her reflection in the mirror.

"What was that?" she asked herself again. A freezing shiver rippled through Amarette's body. "A dream? It couldn't have been..." she bit her lip, attempting to remember whatever it had been that had terrified her. She was fine now, but she couldn't shake the nagging feeling that she was forgetting something important.

"Hey girl!" came the curt holler of one of the boys downstairs.

"What?" Amarette asked in a cracked yell.

"Food! Get down here!"

"`Get down here!'" Amarette mocked quietly. Looking in the mirror again, she decided that she'd ponder on her dream later.

Heading downstairs, Amarette brushed her long, thick, gold hair with a comb she had discovered in one of the bathroom drawers. She went directly to the music room, purposely avoiding the aromas and sounds coming from the brightly sunlit kitchen.

"Ohayou!" greeted Syth cheerfully, bouncing into the room and catching up to Amarette. "Don't you want some food?" he asked innocently, holding up a plate of what appeared to be cinnamon toast.

"Not from something or someone I don't believe in, sorry," Amarette said nonchalantly, combing her hair furiously.

"Aww~~~ come on! Food's good for you! Besides, this has sugar!" Syth tried again, not put out by Amarette's cold demeanor.

"No thanks, I need to cut down on things that would possibly cause me to hallucinate," she turned him down again.

Sin was sitting in the kitchen, munching on his own breakfast. When Syth came in with a cheery smile but a still full plate of toast, he swallowed his bite and asked, "So, how did it go?"

"She's insufferable," replied the little prince as he pushed the plate onto the table next to him and took a seat.

"I see," Sin continued to eat. After a while he noticed that Syth was still staring at him with a cheerful smile. "What?"

Syth pushed the plate towards his brother. "You go."

"No," Sin said simply, pushing the plate back to Syth.

Syth returned the plate to Sin. "You got her to come in last night, you can get her to eat."

Again the plate was passed back to Syth. "No."

"But, Aniki! If she doesn't eat, she'll starve. If she starves, she'll die. If she dies, we die!" Syth hissed logically, sliding the plate back to his brother.

"We don't know that for sure," responded Sin as he continued eating, not bothering with the plate of toast any more.

"Aniki!"

"What?"

"Aniki!"

"All right!" Sin conceded, taking up the plate and leaving the table. Over his shoulder he glared at his once again cheerfully smiling brother. "You owe me for this."

Amarette was sitting at the piano, softly playing a light song (the theme from "Gravitation" to be exact). Sin went over and stuck the plate in front of her face.

She stopped playing and stared, cross-eyed, at the toast before her nose. "Uhh..." she blinked.

"Eat it," Sin commanded.

Amarette turned to him with a frown. "Who the hell do you think you are?"

"I think I'm the 600,000 year old demon whom you're ever increasingly pissing off," responded the boy. "Eat."

Let's see, she thought to herself, do I ignore him and get myself killed? Or do I do as he wants and submit to an insane dream that will most likely kill me anyway? After a moment more of consideration, Amarette picked up one of the now cold pieces of toast and ate it.

"There," she said swallowing, "You happy now?"

Sin put the plate on the bench next to her. "Eat all of it and then bring the dish back into the kitchen," he directed. There was NO way he was going to wait on her hand and foot.

Getting up from the piano bench, Amarette overtook Sin, placing her empty plate on his head. Walking past him as he stumbled to catch the falling plate, she asked, "Is there anything to drink?"

Sin glared at her back, resisting the very strong urge to throw the porcelain dish at Amarette's golden-blonde head. "There's rat poison in one of the cupboards...mix it with bleach, then do me a favor and take a big sip," Sin responded with clenched teeth, following Amarette into the kitchen (still carrying her plate).

Amarette frowned mockingly. "No, that doesn't sound good. I was thinking of something more along the lines of orange juice...Oh, good morning," she greeted Syth with a genuine smile. Toying with the rude kid was fun.

"Morning!" chirped Syth cheerfully, seeing that his brother was successful in getting the girl to eat.

Meanwhile, Sin was pursing his lips while biting his tongue nearly to the point of bleeding. Why, why, WHY did it have to be him that had to get her to do things?

I can't wait until this is over, he thought, disposing of Amarette's dish in the sink. Unfortunately, the end appears to be far from near.

Shaking his head, Sin looked out of the kitchen window. The day was bright with a clear, cloudless sky. What were they supposed to do? What was the next step? Sin's thoughts were interrupted, however, with an answer to some of his questions.

Amarette had found no orange juice in the fridge, so she had settle for a large glass of water, and was now seating herself at the table with Syth. "I've got something to ask you guys about..." she said calmly, looking down at her drink.

Syth and Sin just stared at her. To Amarette, that was kind of creepy; both of their faces being identical, right down the slightly confused glint in their blue-silver eyes. Finally, Sin came over to the table and sat beside his brother.

Taking in a deep breath, Amarette sighed slowly. "I wanna start by reiterating that I still don't believe a word of what you've told me, okay?" she paused for the twins' syncopated nods of understanding. "But," she began again, "if I did, I would have a few questions. Yesterday you guys told me that whole jumbled and confusing story about God, and wars, and demons, etcetera. Then you told me about Lucifer's Tear and the City of Rain, right?" Amarette looked up questioningly, wondering if she had kept the facts straight in her head.

Syth and Sin were extremely tense. Was this going to lead where they thought it would? The boys nodded in unison to keep her talking.

"Well," another sigh, "What exactly is this `City of Rain' like?" asked Amarette. "Or do you not know?"

Syth looked to Sin. They were losing her, they could tell by her tone of voice.

"No," Sin answered quickly. "What is it that you have to ask us?"

"Chill out kid," Amarette warned the annoying boy in blue. "What I wanted to tell you about are these creepy ass dreams I've been having," she finished, looking back to her untouched water.

Amarette could almost see the giddy and joyful shock on the boys' faces. Watching the two was fun. They always did the exact same thing at the exact same time. Currently, the seemingly young boys were visibly gluing themselves to their seats, attempting to appear calm (and failing).

"What kind of dreams?' questioned Syth.

"The kind where you don't think you're dreaming until you wake up terrified, confused, feeling sick, and unable to remember what the hell made you feel like that," responded Amarette annoyed. These kids were just way too happy about this.

Hearing her description of her dream, they turned to each other. With a nod they excused themselves, leaving an extremely confused Amarette and her still untouched glass of water.

"Do you think it's happening?" Syth asked in an excited whisper once they were out of Amarette's hearing range.

"I hope so. It would certainly make our jobs much easier," Sin hissed back. "If she remembers everything of her own accord, then we could take her to the Black City and end this all."

Syth nodded. The prospect of actually not having to worry about everything was a very nice thing to think about. Then Syth's cheerful face fell. "But Aniki, there's one problem. If her dreams are memories, then she actually has to remember them, doesn't she?"

Sin looked back to the kitchen where Amarette was rummaging through the fridge, trying to listen to the boys while pretending not to.

"We'll just have to trust to the Will to see us through this," he said, heading back to Amarette.

"I hope you're right Aniki, I really hope you're right." Syth whispered after Sin in a sad tone that was unlike his normal self.

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And so the day passed slowly, Amarette and Sin at each other's throats, Syth calming Sin down, then cheering Amarette up with his carefree air. By sundown, Syth was cooking and whistling happily, Sin was in the library reading from a massive volume that was comically disproportionate to his tiny figure, and Amarette was exploring the upper level of the house (meaning snooping through every drawer or cabinet that she found and toying with anything interesting).

"Aniki! Amarette! Dinner!" Syth piped from the kitchen.

Amarette came bounding down the stairs, hoping to disturb Sin from his reading. Sin, however, was already in the kitchen helping his brother set the table. Joining the boys at the table, she sat a moment, faced with a minor dilemma.

All day she had been keeping to herself, with the exception of the bickering with Sin, and now she was preparing to sit down to dinner with theses kids. The same kids who days earlier had terrified her, the same kids who had made her doubt her sanity. Could she sit with them without abandoning her (supposedly) firm disbelief in them and their cause? Oh well, one meal couldn't hurt any, could it?

And truthfully the meal was quite pleasant, although strangely quiet. Once it was over Sin and Amarette actually fought over who got to do the dishes. In the end, Syth compromised that Amarette could wash and the boys would dry and put the dishes away. That went well until....

"Oops..." Amarette laughed as she accidentally doused Sin with a bowl of water. "Sorry," she said, putting a hand to her mouth in an attempt to keep herself from laughing.

The drenched demon prince glared at Amarette. "You did that on purpose!" he accused angrily.

Amarette couldn't help but giggle a little. "No I didn't. It was just luck..." she broke off in another snigger.

Syth also found this scene comical. He was sitting on the counter, doubled over in giggles and laughter.

Sin wasn't used to having people laugh at him. It was, what was that word? Humiliating. He appeared to calm down however, and returned to drying the dishes.

The others returned to their duties as well. That's when Amarette began to feel something dripping on her head. Looking up, her eyes widened when she saw a small dark cloud above her head. At that moment, the cloud burst and began pouring cold rain on Amarette's head.

Screaming in surprise, Amarette dropped the dish in her hand, letting it fall to the sink as she tried to jump away from the storm above her head. No such luck. The dark mass followed her all over the kitchen, sopping the linoleum floor with water.

Sin was now the one laughing, Holding the counter for support. The spectacle was one of hectic chaos and comedy.

"Turn it off!" Amarette yelled furiously at the calming boy.

However, at the sight of Amarette, soaked through and going red in the face with frustrated anger, Sin broke out into hysterical laughter again. Amarette's mood was not bettered when she noticed that not one, but two young voices were giggling and laughing at her.

That's when she turned to the sink and grabbed the faucet, which came out as a hose. Turning the water on high, she whipped around and blasted first Sin and then Syth with the tap.

"Take that!" she laughed, switching from one twin to the other, fully drenching them both.

Then Sin turned around and froze the water coming at him. This in turn also froze the rain that was coming down on Amarette.

"Truce?" Amarette suggested, feeling that her hands were more than slightly frozen to the tap.

Sin relaxed and blinked innocently. "What do you mean truce?" he asked. Then he grinned evilly, "I won." Before Amarette could respond, Sin turned to leave. "Come one Syth. Oh," he turned back to Amarette, still smiling. "Have fun cleaning up." And with that, the boys left Amarette, both laughing.

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"I hate kids," Amarette muttered to her 16-year-old self for about the thousandth time that night. She had just now finished the kitchen, including the floor. It wasn't as painful as working two jobs and going to school, but it was the most physical thing she had done for a few days.

Heading for the stairs, Amarette stopped when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. Turning her head to the music room, she waited for a few more minutes. There it was again. A shadowed figure, smaller than the griffin that was supposed to be keeping watch.

Then, out of nowhere, Amarette got a gut wrenching feeling of terror. It was coming from that figure. Slowly, the fear was joined with a sickening and piercing scream inside of her head.

"Stop it!" Amarette cried, running into the music room and swinging shut the glass doors, locking them just as the shadow figure came to them again.

The screaming and fear were only growing now. Tears were now flowing down Amarette's cheeks as she put her hands over her ears in an attempt to shut out the noise.

Looking up, she saw directly in front of her that the library doors were still open.

"No!" screamed the terrified girl as she raced across the floor and shut the doors, but not before the shadowed figure had put an arm inside.

The arm split from its body with disturbing ease. The screaming in Amarette's head reached its peak as the shadow exploded, leaving behind a shimmering entity.

Amarette put her hands to her ears yet again. It wasn't screaming anymore, this shining thing, it was crying. The terror was becoming sorrow, causing Amarette's heart to ache.

Sinking down against the glass doors, Amarette began to sob. The shimmering entity outside lingered next to her on the opposite side of the glass.

"Go away," Amarette begged through her tears. "I can't help you. Leave me alone, please..." she continued to sob, half in her own fear, half in the sorrow of this other thing.

Slowly, Amarette noticed that not one tear was falling from her face. She wasn't really crying. But the silvery, shimmering thing on the other side of the glass was growing brighter.

Looking at it fully, Amarette saw that it was transparent and liquidy, like water. Looking even more closely, she saw that everything was like the thing outside. Watery, see-through, nothing was real. Amarette looked back to the being outside.

She saw her reflection in the glassy surface. The fear and sorrow were still eating away at her insides, and yet nothing was coming from her eyes, no tears. Reaching up to feel her cheek, Amarette watched her reflection as her own hand went right into her face as if she, too, were liquid.

Pulling her hand from her face, Amarette closed her eyes tight. She put her hands out in front of her, and slowly opened her eyes.

Amarette stared at her hands in disbelief. They were shimmering red, like watered-down blood. Her arms were the same. Everything in the room, herself included, wasn't real. They were all just a trick, something for the eye to look at.

Closing her eyes in denial, Amarette screamed, "Why are you doing this to me!?"

"Because you don't belong here," came a wispy, sexless voice.

Amarette's attention snapped back the shimmering being that was now inside of the glass. The liquid mass had taken a human-like shape and was slowly approaching her.

"You belong at home," it said, reaching out and touching Amarette's cheek tenderly. "You belong with us. You are one of us." And then the liquid being gently kissed the girl, cowering and trembling before it.

Amarette was immobilized by her fear and shock. She knew what this thing was suddenly. She knew what everything was now. It was very clear to her, what she had to do.

"Come home now," it said to her. "We're in danger, and the balance is hanging by a thread. Come home and save us." Having said what it had come to say, the liquid entity disappeared, and with it, Amarette's consciousness.

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