Reika knelt in the position that she had been in when she had originally lowered herself to Tatsuya's side, her dark eyes staring blankly after him and the DA members who assisted him in returning to his room. Her fingers curled, bunching up the skirt of her nightgown. It wasn't as though she had wanted this. When she had originally created this world, it was so that those who had lived unfair lives or died of untimely and unfair circumstances could spend their time doing whatever they wanted with little to no consequences. True, they viewed it as a purgatory or their own little Hell, but the actual point of The Afterlife was to give them the chance to live the lives that they had wished to live. Each time He snatched out their chances as early as birth, she had grown to hold a deep sorrow in her heart, which increased with each miserable life. Not only had she made it for herself, but for the young people who had had no chance at a beautiful life. In The Afterlife, they could not die completely or age, and they would rarely change at all. Instead, their minds and maturity could grow, allowing for them to lead prosperous 'lives', so to speak. Once the teenagers had reached their peak of their minds and maturity and were ready to accept their deaths, she would instead move them to a place that was similar to the plane of the living. It was an exact replica of Earth, only with NPC's just as The Afterlife held student body-wise. One was able to get a career and live the life that they had wished for, and not only did they graduate to this plane with the people that they had spent The Afterlife with, but they would also have the ability to meet the people who had been there far longer than they.
It was a simple concept, and yet this first group of young people had blown it into a completely different view.
A wet droplet landed on Reika's cheek. Her hand lifted, her fingers lightly pressing to the water, and when they came away damp, she simply stared at them. In an instant the sky had opened up, pouring out its anger and sorrow just as she so wished to do. Instead, the sky did it for her, immediately drenching her.
~'.'~'.'~'.'~'.'~'.'~'.'~'.'~'.'~'.'~
For the next few months, Reika went about her daily tasks. She was not forced to leave her room - all of the Death's Alliance members had almost completely forgotten her change. The only people that had heard the news of her being the creator of the land that they were held in were Tatsuya and Angel. Instead, while Tatsuya remained locked and depressed in his room, retreating from society, Reika slowly climbed the ladders of success within DA. She climbed up to second in command and took the leadership of DA over during Tatsuya's absence. Angel had made only three appearances within the time that Tatsuya was gone, and each of the three were successfully handled by Reika and her small team of elite. They did, of course, use each member of DA to their advantage. However, the elite five consisted of; Reika, who was, of course, the leader; Talon, who was an expert at swordsmanship; Marcos, the expert on guns; Claudia, their lead archer and the younger sister of Talon; and finally Elden, their head of hand-to-hand combat.
Biting into an apple, Reika chewed carefully, her eyes slowly moving over the land that she could view from her perch on the roof of the building that housed a majority of Death's Alliance's members. Perhaps she could add a town into The Afterlife so that they teenagers put in it wouldn't grow so bored and hostile ...
Frowning, she chucked the apple core over the side of the roof and shook her head, her long ponytail flopping over her shoulder. No, that would be considered bribery.
After moving over to the edge of the roof and easily swinging herself back into her room, she landed softly on the floor and snatched up a jacket. It was nearly one, which meant that she was due to head the weekly DA meeting. The muffled sound of footsteps outside her door caused her to pause when they stopped, but once they began to move again, she shrugged it off and adjusted her jacket, sliding on her black boots immediately after.
It was only when she had left her room and walked a few doors down the hallway that she noticed Tatsuya's door was open, and despite the wave of emotions that assaulted her, she gulped in a cleansing breath and slowed as she passed it. What she saw inside was an extremely disheveled Tatsuya collapsed on his bed, his back rising and falling with each breath he drew in. The tears that glistened on his cheeks were heart-wrenching, and before she knew what she was doing, she had reached the side of his bed, her hand reaching out and a single finger brushing the stray tears away.
"I never ... Wanted to see you cry," she whispered, her throat throbbing with emotion. "I only ... I only wished to see you happy ... After what happened when you and I were still alive ... I couldn't forgive myself ... And when they made me into ... Into this ... And I created this place ... I only wanted to see you smile ..." Blinking back tears from her aching eyes, she bit her cheek, stifling a sniffle. Her hands nimbly grabbed the blanket that was shoved at the bottom of his bed and she quickly drew it up and over him. She went still in her position, her watering eyes holding onto his face, and after several moments, she bent and dropped a ghost of a kiss onto his forehead, her hand brushing some of his stray hair back from his face. "I'm so sorry, Tatsuya ... I'm so sorry ... For everything ... And for your hatred of me ..."
With that, she straightened and ducked from the room, quietly shutting the door behind her. Instead of heading directly to the meeting, she strode outside, nodding at the Alliance members that she passed and forcing back her tears all the way. It wasn't until she reached the stream that she allowed the tears to escape and trickle down her cheeks in slow rivers of pain.
"My, my ... I always did enjoy seeing women cry ... It was something about their appearance that held an innocent, sexual appeal ..." A purring voice slithered from the shadows, causing her skin to crawl. Reika didn't bother to even turn to look at him, but instead focused on the water before her.
"What do you want, Angelo?"
"Why, the same thing as you, dear sister! Eternal joy and happiness! Whatever could I possibly want other than that?" he smirked, his arms cast out by his sides innocently.
Still not turning, Reika answered with a monotonous voice, "Death. Despair. Anger. Hatred. Betrayal. Lies. War. That's how it has always been with you, Angelo, and both you and I know this."
He simply chuckled and moved over, slinging his arm in an annoyingly carefree way across her shoulders. His finger moved out to touch her chin, turning her face towards his. "You seemed to have forgotten a few. Money. Power. Women. Sex," he chuckled, his lips lightly brushing across hers. Immediately she jerked away from his grasp, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand in disgust. He laughed, shoving his hands nonchalantly in his pockets. "It's no use resisting, Daimonas. You will come to me eventually, but whether it is by your own free will or not is your choice. I am simply playing nicely right now and biding my time, allowing you the freedom that you so desire. But it will not last. You know that we are destined, little princess."
Reika tossed him a scowl, her eyes darkening with hatred. "Destiny is never fully written. There are streams that separate from Destiny in which one is allowed to stray, in order to make their own path!"
With only a laugh in response, [url=http://wallpapersinhq.com/images/big/alvaro_garay-1479141.jpg]Angel[url] disappeared in a flash of light, leaving her steaming with anger and sorrow. Turning back to the stream, she kicked a rock and sent it sailing into the water. It wasn't satisfying in the least and did not rid her of any of her tumultuous emotions, but instead caused her to boil even further.
"Pig-headed, stubborn, piece of shit, dick-faced, son of a bitch ...!"
"... Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?"
Whipping around, Reika's eyes darted until they found Talon, who stood only a few feet away and in the shadows, leaning calmly back against the cliff-side wall, his ever-present sword resting point-down at his side. He pushed away from the wall, uncrossing his arms and gripping the hilt of his weapon, easily swinging it up and onto his shoulder. As he approached her, she felt her shoulders tighten, her fists clench, and her teeth grind together. But instead of attacking her, he simply dropped his free hand onto one of her shoulders, his eyes boring into her own.
"You know ... It's okay ... To cry ... Every once in a while ... Allowing yourself to bear all of this weight ... All on your own ... It isn't healthy ... We won't judge you ... And we won't think any little of you ... After all, we are all simply human beings, whose emotions are strung high and stretched far. So it's okay ... To cry. It's okay ... To feel."
Before she realized what had happened, her lower lip had begun to tremble, tears had welled up in her eyes, and she had let out a soft sob and flung herself into Talon's arms, who simply held her in a similar way to how a brother or a father would hold a distraught sister or daughter.
