Immortal Dreams (Revised)

2: Promises

SEQUENCE 7

(Mathius' point of view)

"One more time, Alcina." I called out. Alcina was practicing a move I had been teaching her for a few days. I was sitting on the back stairs of my house that overlooked a small pond, watching her attempt it for hours. She was getting close every time, but wasn't quite able to do it. The thought for the move occurred to me a little over a month after Alcina first showed the ability to control light. I should have known it would happen. I could control fire due to my vampirism; it only made sense for Alcina to pick up a little something from it. It was strange, we were joking around together, and she made a comment about how jealous she was that I could make light out of my fire abilities, snapping her fingers as a joke, a light appeared at her fingertips. I remember her losing her mind over it for a minute. Oddly adorable, but I've been trying to teach her to use her abilities for a while now, I'm no master of my own ability, but I could at least teach her how to use the basics at will. 'A small tingle in your fingers means you're on the right track.' That's what I told her. Now she was here, trying to advance her way into the more advanced stuff. Of course when I say advanced I meant experimental.

The technique I was trying to get her to use was something like a cloak. I had the idea a while back that she could bend the light around her to essentially hide her from view. She'd almost managed to get it before, but she wasn't able to cover herself entirely. Alcina was stubborn though, and she was going to try until she got it. That's one thing I liked about her.

"Jesus this is harder than it looks!" Alcina screamed in frustration.

"Well, I don't know. You're making it look pretty hard." I commented.

"Shut up, I don't remember you being able to do anything like this. Besides, having your entire body being engulfed in 'a small tingle' feels way weirder than you think." Her eyes lit with a fiery glare, so red I could see it from where I was sitting over a dozen feet away. I couldn't help but blame myself for losing that beautiful azure. That crimson red never fit her anyway, and it certainly didn't fit the green and blue shirts she was always wearing.

I shut my mouth and let her focus, watching her lower her hands down over her body in a long breath, with the color fading out of her, and before long, there was nothing there but what seemed like a ripple in the air. I couldn't help but smile, even if it only lasted for a quick second.

"Did I do it?" she asked.

"You sure did. Great job. You got it with plenty of time for practice."

"It's tomorrow night... isn't it?" She asked, her voice turning solemn.

I cut the joking tone from my voice and stood up to comfort her. "Yeah... I'm sorry about this... we can always just not go, you know?"

Alcina quickly shook her head. "No... I have to be there. Even if they think I'm dead, I need them to feel like I'm still watching over them... you know?"

I took a deep breath, realizing how great it would feel to know Hesper and my parents were still out there somewhere, even though I knew they weren't. Hesper for one was probably trapped, wandering demonic planes with no objective. I killed her master afterall.

"Yeah... yeah I guess I get it." I crossed my arms. "You remember the plan, right?"

"Of course. I cloak us both, and we go in."

"You better keep practicing then." I told her, giving her a good pat on the shoulder and returning to my spot on the stairs.

The two of us arrived at the funeral parlor just in time. People were already there. I let the two of us in through the back door, as I still held the key since this was luckily the same place I happened to work. Together, Alcina and I snuck our way into the morgue where she practiced her cloak a few more times before taking a deep breath and looking me in the eyes. "Mathius, I don't know if I can do this. Attending my own funeral? It's a bit weird man..." she looked away for a second and held herself tightly.