The Hunter

[Isolde]

Diane

I looked at Thomas as he stood there across from me. My hatred grew as I stared at his face. He was pretending not to know and it slammed into me with more force than even his sword could have.

I forced myself to hold back the tears as I said,"You know very well what I am talking about-Murderer!" I took another swing and he caught it easily with his sword again but I was beyond caring. This thing ended now!

"I loved you," I forced out as I swung again,"I let you go because I loved you so much. And how do you repay me?" The clash of my sword against his punctuated every word. "You....killed....them!"

I was close now, close enough to look him in the eye as our swords were locked. "I saw you...everyone gone..my mother...my father...my older brother Jacob..." A sob escaped me as I said,"Sara...God, she was only seven!"

Pulling back, I was breathing raggedly. I knew I was in no shape to fight-especially someone as strong as Thomas. I held my sword aloft. My hands trembling in rage as memories coursed through me.

"This ends now. Either I take down the murderer of my family or else you kill me here and now and end my torment. You owe me that much!"

 

[sex-maniac69]

Stryfe:


"Diane!,"I yelled and raced to her as she confronted thomas.Drawing my sword,"Before you can touch her,murderer,you have to go through me and you know you dont stand a chance," i warned him."We know about the girl,and if you wanna see no harm come to her this night ,Go"i said.I walked diane away.I slapped her.something i wouldnt usually do,but i was scared for her."Im sorry for that,but you gotta understand I cant see him shed your blood,"I said ,"If you die,my life is over,"I told her.I pulled her to me and started sobbing,"Please,dont do this diane," i whispered into her hair,but I know she heard me...

 

[Isolde]

Diane

I pulled away from Stryfe and looked at him quizzically. "What did you just say to Thomas?," I asked, my voice hollow,"Did you just threaten an innocent? My God, Stryfe! What have I done to you? You are becoming what I am trying to kill! I will not have innocent blood shed-no matter how much I hate him."

Stepping back, I confront Thomas again. "This is between you and me. And nothing interfers. Nothing!"

Seeing Stryfe make a move to interfer, I looked at him and signaled him to stop,"Nothing!"

 

[Angelus]

I looked at her in shock before I kicked out with my right foot; causing her to double over and fall to the ground, her sword falling just beyond her reach.

I walked up to her and brought my sword up then looked into her eyes which were filled with hatred and yet something else for me. I stood over her and said, "I did not kill your family. I tried to save them, how could you think that I would ever kill your family. I know that you loved me and when you left me I will admit that I was heartbroken but I would never do something as despicable as kill your entire family. I am not a monster."

I then placed the blade of my sword against her neck and said, "But if you want peace from your life of torment then seek the person that killed your family."

With those words I spun my sword around and slammed it onto her head, knocking her out. I then heard footsteps running towards me and ran deeper into the trees, leaving Diane laying there.

 

[sex-maniac69]

Stryfe:

i turned to chase him.But diane was more important.I scooped her up."Soon boy,Soon,"I muttered in thomas direction and took her home..

 

[Angelus]

When I saw that they were gone I raced through the trees until I came upon the fields where I had seen Stryfe and Diane talking to Samantha. When I got to the fields I looked around and then saw her, walked quickly over to her and shouted out, "What the hell have you been doing. Have you been leading them to me. Did you tell them where I live! Did you!"

 

[Isolde]

Diane

I came to with a pounding in my head and a blurred vision of Stryfe. The incidents of the day came flooding back to me and I screamed out my frustrations. Again I had faced him and again I had failed to kill or die and end this nightmare that was my life.

I screamed, Stryfe holding my down to the bed until I could no longer scream because I had lost my voice. I then proceeded to sob, heart wrenching sobs of pure sorrow.

Stryfe held me as my body shook with the force of my emotions. He had denied it-I knew he would. He had not killed me but that only proved that he wanted me to suffer even more knowing that he could have ended this then and there but deciding not to.

I felt my heart break anew and I sat there on the bed, sobbing into Stryfe's neck.

 

[sex-maniac69]

Stryfe:

"I wouldnt have hurt her you know,"I said.I held her and I started to sob....

 

[Isolde]

Diane

I pulled away and kissed him fully on the lips.
"Never, never bring an innocent into this. Promise me, Stryfe. This whole thing began because Thomas killed the innocence of my family and myself on that night. I do not want to turn you into what I hate so much."

"You must promise me this, Stryfe," I said, a pleading in my voice as I looked into his eyes,"I know that I have turned you into alot of things but never, never a killer of innocence."

I waited for his response and I heard a hollow quality to my words about Thomas. He had said that he did not kill my family but I could not be wrong. Not after all this time of chasing him and planning my revenge. He had to be lying to me-he was lying to me. I had to believe that.

 

[sex-maniac69]

Stryfe:

"I promise,just dont rush into those situations anymore," i said and pulled her to me again...

 

[Celestiale]

Samantha

I was bombarded with one shocking statement after another, and all I could do was stand there. First I am told that Thomas is a cold-blooded killer by a woman who was obviously telling me the truth! Then I witness the horrible sight of that same woman hoping to avenge her dead family, followed by an outraged madman accusing me of being a snitch and using words so harsh I had to stop and catch my breath! My hand was at my throat as I looked into his irrate eyes, my face pale, and I could not think to speak - the shock of what I had just witnessed was so great.

I swallowed hard...
looking away...
looking back into his eyes...
closing my eyes...
and finding him...

there...

Thomas...MY Thomas...my heart and soul. The air that I breathe...my life and my light...

For an instant he was there in my mind's eye, the same chiseled features, the same eyes...but radiating a peaceful happiness. There he stood before me, his hair a bit longer, laughing softly...his hand reaching out to touch my...

My eyes flew open and I gasped for air. Had I stopped breathing altogether?? The anger ebbed from Thomas and he reached to steady me, a look of concern upon his face. I felt the warmth of his arms around me, holding me, and began to sob. These visions were haunting, and I did not understand them. I did not see myself in them, it was as if I were peering through the eyes of someone else.

"I...I am truly sorry..." I said, my voice trembling.

I could not believe that this man was a murderer, every fiber of my being rebelled against the thought! Yet that woman was so sincere...SO heartbroken! Her eyes were haunted...

"I met those two just minutes before you came upon us. I said nothing to them of knowing you OR your whereabouts."

I tried to act snooty, but failed miserably, and buried my face in his shoulder.



[Edited by Celestiale on 01-21-2001 at 01:53 AM]

 

[Angelus]

As soon as I heard and felt her crying I knew that I had gotten the wrong impression and that what I had said was totally wrong. I held her close and said, "Don't cry. I was too harsh and I didn't mean to say what I did. I am truly sorry but when I saw you talking to those two I thought that you had betrayed me to them."

I then held her close and got the strangest feeling that I had done this once before and that she belonged close to me but I knew that that was impossible because I had only met Samantha the day before. But something about her was extremely familiar, like I had been searching for her my entire life but that couldn't be as the only person that I had been searching for was....

"Alexis."

 

[Celestiale]

I felt like a complete fool standing there sniffling in his arms. This was just so unlike me! I was never this fragile around ANYONE, yet around Thomas I seemed to fall to pieces so easily. I wiped roughly at my face and stepped away, trying not to look into his eyes for fear of experiencing another disturbing vision.

"Who were those people and why are they hunting you??" I questioned. "That woman told me that you murdered her entire family?!!"

I tried to keep my eyes on his body, but found it hard to see the truth without looking into his eyes...and I desperately needed to know the truth.

 

[Isolde]

Diane

I pushed away from Stryfe and looked up into his eyes. "Thomas said he didnt kill them but I saw him, Stryfe. I saw him with Sara in his arms as he came from the burning building. He was covered in blood! My family's blood. And he tried to kill me...you know. You found me after he was done."

I closed my eyes as memories I had tried to suppress flowed through me. Thomas with the body of my sister dangling from his arms. His face as I charged him with my knife and the feeling of the steel penetrating my flesh. The next thing I know, Stryfe's face was staring into mine as I awoke an immortal.

Getting up off the bed, I shrugged off Stryfe's protests. I had to get to Thomas again. I was now plauged by questions that only he could answer. I figured he owed me. And I could always kill him later.

 

[Angelus]

"I have never murdered anyone in my life. The only people that I have killed is people that have wanted to kill me. I will not destroy my honour by breaking it."

I looked at Samantha and found myself suddenly trying to calm down. She had only met me the day before and now she was accusing me of murder. I didn't know what to say that would sound like a threat to her. I looked at her and found that she looked at me like a lost lamb and needed a sheperd but I did not want or need that responsibility as I had to stop Stryfe and Diane. I then turned on my heels and walked away from her but I could not leave her like that, turned around again and said, "Look at me and tell me if I look like a murderer, search your soul. If you believe that I am a murderer then I will leave this field with you in it and think nothing more of you for as long as I live."

 

[Celestiale]

My temper flared into full blaze as I watched him walk away from me. How could he be so brusque towards me?! I was overwhelmed by all that had happened in such a short time and his cavalier attitude was just too much for my already bruised ego to bear. I glared at his back, willing my stare to bore holes through him, my expression unchanging as he stopped and turned to face me once again.

"Look at me and tell me if I look like a murderer, search your soul. If you believe that I am a murderer then I will leave this field with you in it and think nothing more of you for as long as I live." he spoke.

My gaze softened just a bit, I saw pain within his eyes...pain that ran quite deep. Tilting my head, my vision becoming hazy, I fell to my knees, closing my eyes.

"Thomas...my love...I blame you not...please do not despair..." I heard my own voice speak those words, saw him holding me...caressing my face, his tears falling to meet my own.

I opened my eyes to find him kneeling before me, steadying me once again.

"I think I may be going insane..."

 

[Celestiale]

Thomas helped me to rise and I knew that I would have to explain, but how do you tell someone you have just met that you can see pieces of his past whenever you look into his soulful eyes?!

"Please...is there someplace safe we can go to talk?" I implored.

He nodded, lifting his head as if to sense the air around us. "Yes, it is safe enough now to go to my home."

We walked for a bit in silence, each lost in our own private thoughts. Soon his home loomed before us and he led me inside, guiding me into the study I had found him sitting in the day before. He took a seat across from mine and waited patiently for me to begin...

"Can you tell me what the name 'Alexis' means to you?"

He looked at me in disbelief, then confusion, slowly followed by realization. I did not know what to think, and waited for him to answer.

[Edited by Celestiale on 01-23-2001 at 02:18 PM]

 

[Angelus]

I looked at her and couldn't believe what I had just heard, how did some woman that I had only met the day before know the name of my lost love.
"Where did you hear that name from. Did Diane tell you that name, tell me. I need to know."

I placed my head in my hands, was it possible. Had Alexis come back to me in the form of the young woman that was standing in front of me. I know that it sounded impossible but I had seen stranger things, the least of them being my own immortality. I looked up and said, "She was my wife. She was my soul mate until one night she was killed in a fire by a person that I had stopped earlier in a fight. I loved her so much that everyone else is but an imitation of her and I know that I will never find her again, that is what the name Alexis means to me."

Just then I heard footsteps and looked up, I had totally forgotten about Roger. I got to my feet and walked quickly into the kitchen where I saw that he was just getting to his own. He looked at me with a smile, "Thomas, do you have a spare bed in this house as I feel dead on my feet."
With a laugh I looked at him, "My spare room is at the top of the stairs, first door on the left."
"Thanks Thomas, I owe you one."
"Think nothing of it, just think of it as payment on all the ones that I owe you."

Without another word Roger walked up the stairs to the second floor of my home and I walked back into my study to see Samantha standing there, trying to figure out whether to leave or not.

 

[Celestiale]

I was in a daze when Thomas returned, wanting to escape...to run away and think this whole thing through before I said any more to him, but I could see in his eyes that he wished for me to continue. He took my hands and sat with me on the tastefully upholstered sofa, asking me softly to explain how I knew of Alexis.

"I did not know of her existence until just yesterday Thomas, and I do not understand what is happening to me..." I continued. "Did you hold your Alexis cradled in your arms before she perished? Did she say to you...'Thomas...my love...I blame you not...please do not despair...'?"

I watched him nod bewilderedly, and I continued as tears welled within my eyes. "We were going to have a child...our firstborn....." I trailed off, the realization of the memories that were now my own, stunning me into silence.

We...WE...it was me...I was there with him! My voice...my last words to him... I remember now, our life, our love...Thomas!!!

"Oh my Lord... Thomas...?" I searched his face...his eyes for recognition.

I reached for his arm, letting my fingers trace the scar that was there...the scar that I had helped create when I had sewn up what would have been a deadly wound to any mere mortal.

"Thomas...I do not know what to say..." I cried softly, wanting to throw my arms around him.

 

[Angelus]

I felt her cradled in my arms but I did not know what to say. Was it even possible, was my lost love- my Alexis now in my home in the form of the beautiful young woman sitting beside me. I looked into her eyes and recognized something in them, something that I had not seen in a very long time. It was Alexis, she had come back to me and I was so happy that I took her into my arms and embraced her.

"Oh god, you do have Alexis' spirit in you. I had a feeling that we had met before when I first saw you but I couldn't think of what it meant."

Samantha looked at me and said, "You have to know this now. I am not Alexis, my name is Samantha and even though I may carry the spirit of your lost love I am not her. I am a different person and will always be so."

I was so taken aback by the statement that I sat back and looked at her. She was definitely her own person and he respected that or he would risk losing her again and this time because he saw her as her as Alexis and not as Samantha.

 

[Celestiale]

I had not meant to speak so harshly, but the thought of losing myself to this other persona scared me immensely. Everytime I looked up into Thomas's eyes, another little piece of my memory came floating back to me. It was no longer sudden and scary, but the intensity of reliving them was still there.

I had never in my 18 years felt love the way that Alexis had felt it for Thomas. Maybe fate had been watching over me, holding me back until love, this intensely pure and beautiful, could be found once again. It did not matter as I let my heart fill with true love's sweet ache...

"Thomas...I....I need time to think... I need time to let these memories fill me...to remember who I was, and to let those memories and emotions intertwine with who I am now."

I rest my head against his chest, not wanting to leave him, but needing to be alone to think.

 

[Angelus]

"I don't want you to leave me, now that I have found you I don't want to lose you again but I understand that you have to come to terms with the emotions and memories that are flowing into you."

I took a step back and tried to hide the fact that there were tears rolling down my face. I wiped them away and looked at Samantha, "If you need some time to yourself then take my horse and go somewhere that you wish to go and take as much time as you need."

Samantha hugged me again and then told me that she would bring my horse back to me when she was finished with what she had to do. The two of us walked to the stable and after I put the saddle onto my horse I helped Samantha up and then stood there as she rode away.

 

[Celestiale]

I let the wind carry me away as I urged Thomas's horse into a full gallop. It was still daylight, but the air had cooled a bit and was just right for clearing my muddled mind. All of our memories together were impatiently waiting inside of me to discover again. I felt as if I were surrounded by an orchard of fruit and each piece was a memory just waiting to be picked and savored by me.

It just seems so vast...where do I begin?

"At the beginning, Samantha." I heard myself as Alexis, say.

Yes...the beginning...

I slowed the running steed and found a secluded place to dismount. I made myself comfortable in the grass beneath a flowering cherry tree, and reached deep within. I was on my way...a long journey ahead of me and I closed my eyes and began to discover who I really was.

 

[Angelus]

As soon as I saw that she had ridden away from me I turned and walked back into the house and into my study where I sat down on my couch and looked up at the ceiling. I had found Alexis only to lose her again and my heart was filled with happiness, joy and love as well as loneliness, fear and anxiety. It was if I were two different people- one wanting to go after her and one wanting to stay and wait for her.

I walked to where my sword sat and thought that the only way I could pass the time was to practice but as soon as I picked up the sword I realized that I wouldn't be able to as my heart wouldn't be in it. With a sigh I walked out of the study and back outside, sitting down on the chair that I had been sitting on earlier. I sat back down on it and closed my eyes once again, listening to the sounds around me.

 

[Isolde]

Diane

Getting up and grabbing my sword, I sheathed it before leaving the home. "I need some fresh air," I told Strife as I left.

Walking along, I tried to deal with the flashes of memory that had been brought on by my fight with Thomas. I could still see the house burning. Still smell the odor of flesh and wood searing. Still see the picture of Thomas holding my small sister in his arms as I approached my buring home.

The tears flowed as I found I could not control these memories. My heart ached and I shook with the violence of my feelings. I wanted to see my family's killer brought down I wanted his blood to adorn my sword.

Thomas had said that he was not the killer but I could not believe him. Dared not believe him. If I did than all of the years I had spent hating him had been for nothing and then what was I left with?

I noticed that I had come back to the field where I had found Thomas twice now. I wondered what brought me here once again but could not come up with an answer. Wanting to clear my frustrations and rage, I stopped in the middle of the field and unsheathed my sword. Standing still for a moment, I then went into a routine of practice swings and parrys-hoping to clear my mind.