The Melancholy of Sebastien Huxley

XII | A Deal is a Deal

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Sebastien landed in the graveyard. He morphed out of his kludde form and hurried after the crystal. It landed on Clementine's grave, and as grief and sorrow filled Sebastien's heart, he kneeled on the wet soil.

          "Clementine?" he asked shakily, staring at the headstone-less grave.

          The crystal slowly sunk into the ground, and when it disappeared, Sebastien's heart started racing. The soil shivered, and beams of crimson light soaked out through it. An overwhelming burst of power abruptly shrouded the graveyard; it was so much that Sebastien struggled to breathe. It was unlike anything he'd felt.

          And then the thunder grew louder, and several forks of lightning hit the ground around the graveyard. As the ground shook, Sebastien stumbled to his feet, and he backed off just in time to avoid the blast of the fork of crimson lightning which struck Clementine's gave.

          Sebastien gawped at the grave, watching as the soil started crumbling. He wasn't sure what he was about to see, but his longing for Clementine urged him to move closer.

          So he did. He stepped towards the grave, and as the rain poured down, the soil turned to mud, and a hand slowly crept above the ground.

          He didn't even think about it. Sebastien reached into the mud and gripped the hand. The skin was warm and soft—it wasn't of something that was dead. So he pulled. He pulled with all his might, revealing an arm, a shoulder, and then the side of a face he'd longed to set his eyes on.

          "Clem!" he cried in relief, and once he helped Clementine pull the rest of his body from the mud, he dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around him.

          Clementine grunted in confusion, but he wrapped his muddy arms around him, too. "Sebastien?"

          Sebastien tightened his embrace around him, trying to hold his tears back. "You're really here," he breathed. He took a moment to inhale the boy's scent, just to be sure...and it really was Clementine.

          "What the hell happened?" Clementine asked him. "Why am I covered in dirt?"

          With an amused scoff, Sebastien leaned back out of their hug so that he could look at him. "You don't...remember?"

          Clementine stared at him. He made that face he always did when he was trying to work something out, and it didn't take him long to realize. "I...ran out of time."

          Sebastien nodded as he tried to clean the mud out of his blonde hair.

          "I..." he said, looking around. "I...died right here. How am I...." He frowned skeptically. "Sebastien, what did you do?"

          "I got you back," he said with a smile, placing his hand on the side of his face as his happiness increased with each passing moment. "You're here."

          Clementine looked around again, glanced down at himself, and then frowned at Sebastien. "But how? I died. I..." he paused and looked at his hands. They weren't covered in the black decay that his sickness once caused. "What's going on?"

          Sebastien moved his hand from the side of his face and placed it on his shoulder. "Don't freak out—"

          "You can't tell me to not freak out. That just makes me think that you've gone and done something stupid again—"

          "It wasn't stupid," he said with a pout. "I...found Lord Caedis."

          Clementine's confused expression thickened. "The Lord Caedis? Like...the one that we were doing a big celebratory ball thing for at school?"

          He nodded. "I went to the New World—I took Mavis and Mathew with me, just like you asked—and then I found Lord Caedis."

          It looked as though it took Clementine a moment to absorb all of that, and then he sighed at him. "You made a deal, didn't you?"

          "I did."

          "What did he make you do?"

          He hesitated. "It's...a long story. But all that matters is that I did what he asked...and he did what I asked."

          Clementine looked down at the mud. "What did he make you do, Sebastien?"

          With a quiet sigh, Sebastien looked away from his worried face and shrugged. "There was this creature that the humans created during the war to try and get an upper hand against the Caeleste. But it escaped and started making people sick. The thing with it was that it was astral, so Lord Caedis couldn't kill it unless I helped it gain a physical form. Now, Lord Caedis' people are out there somewhere hunting it down, and I'm here with you."

          But his explanation seemed to dismay Clementine. "You released some astral creature? Sebastien...do you have any idea what that could do? What if Caedis' people can't kill it? What if it's out there right now making more people sick?!" he exclaimed.

          Sebastien shook his head. "Clem, listen to me. It's Lord Caedis, okay? He'll handle it. It's got nothing to do with me anymore. We made a deal, and we both lived up to our ends. I just...I wanna get out of here now. I fucking hate this place. It's all death and spirits and shitty stuff reminding me of Aldergrove Academy."

          Clementine still looked worried. "Sebastien, I'm just...worried that this is all gonna come back down on you. You freed something evil."

          He exhaled and shook his head. "Technically, it was Lord Caedis. He made me do this to get you back. I didn't want to—I didn't even know what I was doing until it was over. But that's just it. It's over. Whatever happens with that now is up to Lord Caedis." He scowled sullenly and placed his hand on the side of Clementine's face. "I couldn't...I couldn't live without you, Clem. I had to do it."

          With a deep sigh, Clementine let up. He smiled a little and moved his hand to the side of Sebastien's face. "A part of me knew you'd do something crazy like this."

          Sebastien laughed quietly. But then he pressed his forehead against Clementine's. "I'd do anything for you."

          Clementine gazed into his eyes. "What do we do now? I didn't actually have a plan for after I died and came back alive," he said with a smirk.

          Amused, Sebastien caressed his hair. "Well, we can go back to Uzlia, and then we can work it out from there."

          He nodded. "That sounds like a plan to me."

          Sebastien smiled as he scooped Clementine up in his arms. Then, he carried him away from the place he once thought was where he'd last see him. He wasn't sure what their future looked like, but the very fact that he was now going to have one with him was enough to make Sebastien feel like everything would be okay. He didn't care that he was stuck serving Lord Caedis for the rest of his life. If it meant he got to be with Clementine, then he'd do whatever was asked of him.

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