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Post by James Adler on Jul 26, 2011 1:41:49 GMT -5
James strode behind Alice as she made her way across the grounds, for his part he either watched her or looked at the stars that dotted the sky.
These late night walks had become a common occurrence between the two for the most part, not that often conversed, or even recognized each other for that mater. Even when Alice would find herself otherwise preoccupied James had the compulsion to head out in the middle of the night to run around the grounds. It was definitely causing havoc on his sleep schedule, but at least he wasn't deliriously tired in the middle of the night anymore, no his sleep schedule was much more random now then anything. When he decided to sleep and when he decided to get up was all determined by his whim. If he was awake in the day he normally found himself in the danger room (assuming there were no students in there), or he was outside in the woods somewhere enjoying the sun while it still shone.
It was funny, he never considered himself to be much of an outcast type, but that apparently was what he was around here. Maybe it was his connection to Alice, maybe it was just his age, but for one reason or another he still hadn't gelled in with the rest of the school. Not that this really bothered him, he kind of found it refreshing to be honest, he quit worrying and just went with it, he would deal with things as they came.
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Post by alice on Jul 26, 2011 2:13:57 GMT -5
Alice rarely remembered James' presence now a days. She'd given up trying to convince him from coming long ago, and even conversed if he came up with the topics. Otherwise, she'd walk in silence with James trailing behind her like a puppy.
It was late tonight, later then Alice would usually let him follow her. There was usually a point, probably around one am, that Alice would force James to return to the school, for his own safety (She never told him that though). Sadly, the hour had come and gone, almost three in the morning now. She hadn't even realized how late it was, or the potential danger he was in, when she came to a halt, her whole body freezing up.
With Alice, there were several different ways the girl could lose control of her power. The first, powerful emotions, obviously. James had already seen the outcome of such an outburst, the girl wasn't even aware she lost control at those times. The second, could be something lulling her into a relaxed state, at which point the shadows leaped at the chance to take control, shoving her consciousness out of the drivers seat, so to speak, and leaving her dazed and confused. And third? She felt it coming, and an internal battle was waged, almost always ending with her own defeat, and the victor taking control.
Alice could feel it, the darkness pushing at her defenses, testing her resistance. It wasn't looking for the weakest point, just.... warning her. It wanted her to put up a fight, because it meant weakening her enough that she couldn't try to regain control. Even just that small amount of prodding was enough to leave the girl pasty white (well, pastier then usual.), with sweat forming on her forehead.
((>.< Couldn't resist!))
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Post by James Adler on Jul 26, 2011 2:36:00 GMT -5
James walked silently along, the stars were bright tonight. It was at times like these when he would play connect the dots (in quite a literal sense) to see what he could make out of them. The night was always a good time to be out because it provided a blank canvas on which James could paint whatever he wanted. Even he, with all his light bending prowess, could not hope to do the same sort of things during the day.
James refrained from doing anything though, he didn't want to upset Alice, or worse yet accidentally harm her, he was lucky enough that she let him near her to begin with...
Suddenly, Alice stopped, it didn't happen all that often, it was unusual for her, and anything unusual normally indicated some dramatic shift in her actual emotions. James raced to make up the majority of the distance between them, standing now only five feet away and ready to make up the rest at a moment's notice.
"Alice...are you alright?" she shivered slightly, not a good sign...
James stayed there unsure of what to do...his gut told him to go get her...his mind telling him to stay back...all he could do was wait for her response
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Post by alice on Jul 26, 2011 3:02:11 GMT -5
Alice hadn't move, her gaze unfocused and disoriented. She trembled a little, her skin a little paler as she felt the darkness poking at her defenses, as if mocking her feeble attempt to keep it out. It was hard to resist, the whispers lulling the girl into an almost dream like state.
Her trembling was almost violent as she seemed to collapse onto the grass, the girl balancing on the balls of her feet with her hands knotted in her hair. "...r...." She was trying to say something, probably to James, but the sound caught in her throat, cracking from the strain. Still, she tried again, forcing the single word out. ".... R-un...."
The process was slow, slower then what he'd seen before, when she could feel it coming. And she actually retained memories during these times, purely because she was fighting to stay in control... And usually the darkness humored her by letting her keep some control, just to torment her.
It was getting darker. Sure, it'd been dark before, but even the light from the stars was gone. Creatures formed in the darkness, monstrous shapes. Ready to strike and tear apart anyone who might be near. Sometimes, that could even be Alice herself...
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Post by James Adler on Jul 26, 2011 3:43:04 GMT -5
James watched her, his feet unsteady the hairs on the back of his neck on edge. He couldn't really think at this point, which was quite ironic considering the amount of time he had spent conjuring up each illusion and each scenario in order to 'scare her back to herself.' In essence the job was simple, especially for someone like him, surprise her, scare her, put her in some kind of false danger then everything would be fine. This was simple and there was a multitude of ways to do it, it was after all what he was good at.
But when the time came, that wasn't what he was thinking about, that wasn't what he was worried about. His body could only think about keeping her safe, so as she uttered her weak and frightened warning only one word popped into his mind.
"NO!" he said sprinting forward making up the rest of the distance and grasping her firmly in a hug from behind. "I'm not going to leave you alone...close your eyes" he whispered softly in her ear as he used what light he could get from the school to create a barrier around them being careful to stay far enough from her skin as to not harm her as he put his hand over her eyes just in case.
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Post by alice on Jul 26, 2011 13:08:52 GMT -5
Alice didn't know that James and Night had been 'brainstorming' ideas to keep her under control. Which was probably a good thing. If the girl knew he'd try to startle her to bring her back, the plan probably wouldn't work... All because she'd see it coming. Or, at least the shadow possessing her would.
When he held her, she thrashed, but that was to be expected. The darkness was taking hold, and being hugged wasn't something it welcomed. "Let go!" It was her voice... But he'd just know she wasn't the one speaking. The darkness outside the barrier of light started lashing out, trying to break through, to reach it's Mistress. You'd think the darkness was trying to protect her, which it actually was. This man was trying to calm her down, and they didn't want that. And when he covered her eyes, she fought to escape even harder.
Alice's thrashing was sporadic, the darkness still not having a firm hold over her. Every time she managed to regain some control, she'd tremble in his arms, trying to calm the darkness, but only seemed to confuse them even more. After a few seconds though, she'd return to fighting, the shadows back to their assault on the barrier...
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Post by James Adler on Jul 27, 2011 18:00:13 GMT -5
James clung to her tight, refusing to let her go as she struggled with the darkness. In all honesty he felt weak. With all this power there was nothing he could do for her. He couldn't stop the shadow's relentless attack on her, he couldn't protect her from pain, he could only be there for her and watch her suffering.
This was beyond frustrating for him, there were no words to describe it. All he could do was be there for her, and hope that his presence would help her pull through. If he tried he could wipe all the shadows out, hell maybe he could even make a new sun, but he had no power that would ultimately help her. She was stuck somewhere that James could never reach no matter how hard he tried, and all he could do was watch....all he could do was watch.
"Alice...I'm right here...your safe...there's no need to worry...I got you...and I'm not going to leave you no matter what happens."
The cycles of shivering and thrashing would most likely continue and to James it felt like it would never end.
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Post by alice on Jul 27, 2011 18:26:37 GMT -5
The darkness wasn't happy about his interfering. At all. It wanted to kill him, shred him, tear him to pieces, anything! But.... The light barrier kept it out. And with Alice fight back, it couldn't muster the power necessary to try and break the barrier. That didn't stop it from trying.
The longer he hung on, the weaker her thrashing became, as if the darkness was losing interest in fighting this light user. It wasn't that she was winning, so you couldn't consider this a victory. Instead, it was more like stalling. The darkness would just wait a little while before trying again. And by a while... it'd wait until James wasn't around. At least then it wouldn't have to worry about dealing with a light user who had, for some reason, attached himself to Alice.
Finally, Alice seemed to regain more control, trembling his in arms. Her eyes were still black, as if the darkness still deciding if it should give up for a time, or just wait until James least expected it. "Why... Why won't you just.. Listen...?" Why had he stayed? Why didn't he listen to her and run?
The darkness chose that moment to attack once more, hoping he'd drop his guard, thinking it'd retreated for now. All the shadows around the barrier crashed into the light with enough force to break through a brick wall.
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Post by James Adler on Jul 28, 2011 13:31:11 GMT -5
James just sat there and held her waiting for things to calm down her words simply drifting by him in the dark. Why did he focus on her so much? Why, was he so worried about her? it was something he hadn't really given much thought. He just did what came naturally to him. He told himself that he did what anyone would do...you see someone in trouble you help them...it was as simple as that. Why didn't he run? because it helped her? No not really...Because it helped save others? That made more sense...but again...it didn't really work...no one was around...there was no one to hurt...there was nothing to worry about...so why? why? Why did he care so much what others thought about her? Sure to have any student called a monster was a disgrace, and an insult of the ignorant, but why had he taken it so hard? The answer was clear, and it always had been. He just didn't want to see it, he didn't want to admit it. It made things complicated but it was true...
"Why... Why won't you just.. Listen...?"
James smiled, as he looked down at her, so sad, so afraid. The darkness shattered the barrier protecting them and like shards of glass the light went scattering in a multitude of different directions. "Why..?" The darkness barreled out for blood. "Because I'm a fool." The darkness reached him, and it seemed to screech in glee as it took delight in tearing through him inch by succulent inch. "Who loves you..."
Several threads of darkness had now pierced through him taking pleasure in the fact that his body was theirs for their amusement. Blood would splatter, blood would ooze from his every pour, and it would drain with it every source of light he could conjure to annoy them. It would drain the very light from his eyes...and then she would be theirs once again, no annoyances to get in their way. But, not before playing with him some more.
James felt heavy, and weak his eyelids drooped as his vision darkened. The threads of darkness began to reach through him toward her, their prize. This he could not have. Any light, any light at all would do, but there was none to be found. Darkness surrounded them, darkness engulfed them, shielding them within its cocoon. There was no light, save one small spec, the light within Alice's eye.
But it was enough, it had to be enough. Using that light he cut through the top of the darkness like a knife through cloth allowing the moon to shine through and protect them in their time of need.
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Post by alice on Jul 28, 2011 14:30:09 GMT -5
Who loves you…
Alice’s eyes were wide when she heard those three little words. As stereotypical as it was, everything was in slow motion, Alice in shock. He… loved her?
For those moments right after his confession, the girl couldn’t even muster the strength to try and stop the darkness. What did he mean….? The girl hadn’t known love her entire life… She didn’t’ even know what it was! And yet… He loved her? How? Why?
After those first few mind numbing moments of staring up at him, her mind finally seemed to catch up with reality. Finally she realized what the darkness was doing, what was happening to James. The girl actually…. Panicked? No, no, no!
She might not be able to feel sympathy for others, but the girl had an emotion to make up for it. Curiosity. If she felt she could learn something from the person, or they were interesting in some way, she’d do whatever it took to make sure they didn’t die until her curiosity was satisfied. Of course, it wasn’t sympathy, but it was about as close as the girl could get. And right now, her curiosity was screaming at the darkness for doing such a thing.
Her anger towards the darkness was so strong that it started to wither, cower in fear. Maybe that was why it was so easy for James to cut through the darkness. As quickly as the attack had started, it was over, everything returning to normal.
Alice stared at him with a gaze that really couldn’t sympathize. ”I don’t know what love is…” She paused for a moment. ”Promise me. You won’t die, so you can teach me.” It might be romantic, if you didn’t realize she really was serious. She didn’t want him to die solely so she could understand what this strange emotion he was feeling was.
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Post by James Adler on Jul 28, 2011 15:10:44 GMT -5
"If I died, that would mean you would be alone...and I don't want that.
James laid on the ground and smiled up at her. "Don't worry I'll be fine.' he whispered as blood began to seep from his body into the ground. James forced himself up a look of pain evident on his face as he stood. "I'll be here to teach you everything that you want to know." he continued his voice was still labored, but his injuries looked a lot better then they had first appeared. There were scraps and cuts a little bit of bleeding here and there, but for the most part it looked like he would pull through just fine without too much trouble. "There's nothing to worry about...let's just head inside before it gets light outside." James wheezed as he stumbled forward a bit.
"You managed to stop them...I'm glad..." The heavy breathing continued, it was the one thing he couldn't mask. In reality he was losing a lot of blood, and he was severely beaten, but he refused to put Alice through that....She had been through enough for the night.
When students got up the next morning they would see the blood soaked trail he had traveled without complaint. Simply knowing she was okay was enough to get him through,
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Post by alice on Jul 28, 2011 17:53:37 GMT -5
Alice wasn't sure what she was supposed to do. Was she supposed to help him? Let him be? What did normal people do in this situation? She almost reached out, to help him up, but she stopped herself, convinced that it wasn't the right thing to do at the time.
"You... You don't look fine..." He looked weak and labored. Why would he lie then? Finally though, as he stumbled, she reached out, unable to stop herself this time. She tried to steady him, at least a little. "I was angry at them. They don't come out if I'm angry at them." Them being the key word. Normally, the darkness loved her angry, it made her easier to manipulate. But when that wrath was aimed towards them? They stayed clear..
Alice helped him inside. Thankfully no one was around to see, or they might think the girl was trying to kill him... Finally though, they'd reached the infirmary... But she wouldn't enter. Instead, she left him at the door, huddling on the floor next to the door outside. She didn't want the nurse to know she'd been the one to do this... They'd make him stay away from her then.
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