Taking a;On The Coldest Night;Long Stroll

[bandit]

Caynce shivered slightly, dipping his hand into the fountain despite the fact it was freezing. The coldness of the water, combined with the temperature in the air, made his thin, sickeningly pale fingers numb from the feel of it, and yet he didn't seem to understand what was happening. Caynce didn't seem to know he shouldn't be doing this kind of thing, especially at night. Light gray orbs blinked into the never ending night, the blackness surrounding the small boy. Sixteen and a half and yet short for his age, one of the many reasons he was constantly ridiculed and harassed, yet always seemed to inspire pity from the most unlikely people. Lifting up the sleeve of his jacket, he pushed his hand in more until his entire arm was submerged under the icy cold water, and he waited, just waited for it to get colder so he could know how it felt.

If someone saw him doing this, he guessed, they'd encourage him so he would get hurt. Or maybe they'd take advantage of his weight and size and push him in, letting him sit there in the incredibly cold water until he froze to death. Or maybe they'd take a picture and show it to everyone at school so they'd have another reason to pick on him and made sure he felt he was nothing above that of dirt. So that they would make sure he knew he meant nothing to them, that they wanted him to die, to be gone from this world and then go to Hell to be damned for all eternity. But he only wished he would die. He was thinking like this for more selfish reasons than he'd let onto. Caynce believed he needed to be gone from this cruel, merciless world. He had no mother, had no father, he had never heard of the innocent fairy tales where there's a princess who marries a prince, and they live happily ever after.

But he knew about the Devil, he knew about drugs and sex and about teachers getting so high they had no idea what was going on around them. And why? Because he grew up knowing these things by heart. His mother, he always thought, liked him. At least 'liked' him, which is as close as he got to being loved. She cared for him, she made sure he got what he needed to survive, but she didn't love him. You could, after all, care without loving, but you couldn't love without caring. And that's what had happened between him and the woman he had been able to call a 'mother', but after she discovered his power, to suck the color out of things, she abandoned him. It's not like he could have attacked anyone, not like he could have killed someone. Just because he could make those black and white movies a reality he lost the one person he had thought would always be there for him. The one person who would walk in when the rest of the world walked out.

But he was wrong, and now he felt foolish for thinking like that to even begin with. Now he felt it was a waste of time, all those years of being alive, of breathing and learning, when he could have just ceased to exist. Of course, now he had a family, but they weren't there when this all happened. The poor boy couldn't stand to be touched in any way, the feeling just freaked him out like crazy, but his family said it would be alright. They told him to just forget about it, pretend it never happened. How was he supposed to forget the first eight years of his life? How was he supposed to forget the prostitutes, the doctor, the crumbs his mother was able to put on the table for him? Was he just supposed to pretend that he was born in an orphanage, with no mother or father he knew of? Was he supposed to pretend life was a wonderful thing and that he should enjoy it, when he's wished for his breath to be his last countless time? Caynce couldn't do it, he just wasn't capable.

Suddenly, he pulled his arm out of the fountain, and glanced up at the sky. The stars shone brightly, pure and white and worry-free. And he envied them to no end because of it. All they ever did was sit in the sky and watch everyone deal with their problems and their life, because they had nothing better to do than to shine and twinkle, just like that. Caynce looked away, his gray orbs shimmering as though he were about to cry, because of all the pain that he had been thinking about. Putting down his sleeve and ignoring the fact it stuck to his wet skin, he sat down on one of the benches and buried his face in his hands, the newly formed tears slipping away from his eyes and sliding down his face as he cried, but made no sound. His mouth wasn't even moving, he just closed his eyes, kept his head in his buried, and wept for all the people he knew, for all his sins, and for the fact he was still alive.

[Arlaye]

A slight breeze washed over the gardens. It was ever so gentle, yet it harshened the night chill.
'Cold air is like cold water: they flow the same, down into gaps and crevices...' The breeze died away, making the chill a little more bearable. All the quiet noises of the night could be heard, and if you listened carefully, there was the gentle constant splash of water. A fountain. This why Arlaye was in a maze in the late evening; hoping to find this stupid fountain so she could get out of the stupid maze without wasting more time. Because what was the point of getting lost in the stupid maze if you never found the stupid fountain? Never mind the fact that more time was being wasted...
Arlaye wasn't really aware of what she was doing; just plodding along, finding all the dead ends and false exits and always turning left. 'Like that stupid screensaver...' she thought to herself. 'Haha. I'm a screensaver...' she thought again, still amused. Distracted by these rather daft thoughts, she took a moment to realise that she wasn't walking on the stone path anymore, but on some carefully planted flowers. The path ended some yards behind her, and reappeared on the other side of this large, open space... 'Oh. There's the fountain!'
The cold breeze could be felt more without the close shelter of the maze. She was unaware of her own shivering; too entranced by the falling water. Not bothering to think that there could be someone nearby, she stepped straight in and disappeared - melting into the water, where that stupid breeze couldn't be felt.

[bandit]

Caynce, hearing an unknown sound, looked up, revealing his tear stained face. Quickly wiping away the liquid tracks they had left on him, his gray eyes widened noticibly as he glanced around, left and right, afraid of the possibly he might be being watched without knowing it, yet he was completely aware of his surroundings, so being seen but unable to see had a slim chance of actually becoming a reality. The boy blinked once more into the darkness, allowing his eyes to adjust the lack of light once more, and was soon able to make out the dim shapes of bushes and tree, even a few plants. Squinting his eyes and hoping he didn't need glasses, the boy strained his eyes to find the sillohoutte of a human being, but succeded only in finding none.

Knowing he wasn't being watched, but that he wasn't alone, caused violent chills to run up and down his spine, not only from fear but also from cold. In fact, most of the chills resulted just from being slightly wet and cold at the same time. Hugging him thin body, Caynce brought his knees up to his chest, keeping himself on the bench and desperatly praying that nothing would happen to him. A second ago he wanted to die, and now he regretted ever wanting it. Maybe it was because he did want to die, but he didn't want to die a slow, painful death, because it would hurt too much, and with everything he had to deal with on a daily basis, pain was not a neccessity or a current want at the moment.

Then he heard a tiny splash. Caynce wrapped his arms around his knees, removing them from his body, and whimpered like a child, all out of fear. He knew that it, whatever gender it happened to be, was bigger, stronger, and less scared of him than he was of the thing lurking in the dark, or in the water for that matter. And that last one he could pretty much guess was a fact. It was more of a fact than the other two attributes were, and he knew so very painfully inside he shouldn't have come here tonight. He shouldn't have come here at all, or better yet, he never should have even found out about this damned place, crawling with monsters from his nightmares.

But he had anyway. As to why, it was very simple and obvious if you had been there when it happened. Caynce couldn't sleep for a very long time. He'd awaken every fifteen or twenty minutes because of nightmares or because he just couldn't find any possible way to sleep. It was hard, and it only made everything worse, because he never drank or ate enough either. This was due to the fact when he young and still living with his mother, she could only give him a little bit of what he needed, and eventually just got used to not getting a sufficent amount of food and water into his system. Now he had to break that habit, and he had to get better sleep or he'd probably just pass out. Though it was something to consider, because then he'd finally be able to get some sleep if he fell into a coma.

Shaking his head and squeezing his eyes shut, the boy hated himself for coming here because he couldn't sleep, but watched the fountain with extreme caution.

[Arlaye]

Arlaye's awareness consisted of vibrations. Without eyes, ears or corresponding senses, you became overwhelmingly sensitive to anything that moved. And everything moved: wind, animals, trees, machines, people. All announced their presence with the slightest of tremors - which to Arlaye, became a tumultuous roar.
She had gradually learned to decipher the roar. With much practice over several years, she gained a sense of 'sight'. Not as good as having real eyes, but better than being blind as well as deaf and dumb.
The fountain produced a constant, low rumble accompanied by the light splashing of water. Arlaye tuned it out and concentrated on the other vibrations in the water. No effort was needed to ignore the city traffic; that could be heard anywhere in Cassis. But there was another gentle movement - a single bump, then stillness. What was it?
Overwhelmed by curiosity, she silently regained her human form and peeked out over the rim of the fountain. A person?!
Ducking back down, she made rather more of a splash than she meant to. She grimaced, shaking her head. It wasn't that she didn't like people, she was just shocked at how often she managed to completely ignore them. But what could she do now? Jump out of the fountain and say hi? She'd probably scare them away.
Hooking her fingers over the rim of the fountain, she slowly rose up until she could see them. She couldn't tell if they were friendly, mean or if they even saw her. Gulping, she plastered a grin on her face and raised two fingers in the universal sign of 'peace'.

[bandit]

As something, probably the monster the poor boy had been thinking about the whole time, showed it's head above the rim of the fountain, Caynce let out a girlish 'eep!' and fell back off the bench, hitting the floor headfirst. It looked more painful than it looked, but he made it seemed less painful by the way he was acting, because as soon as his head collided with the surface of the ground, he crawled up on his knees and pushed himself back, away from the fountain with full on fear overwhelming his heart. His entire body was trembling, and couldn't recall being so freaked out in his whole life, except for maybe when he discovered his power or perhaps some time at school when his teacher was high.

But this was definitely going in the book as one of those unforgettable and uncherishable memories he had. Yep, right into the book with all the rest. Hearing the splash, he jumped slightly, eyes growing so large they took up most of his face, and it took him a few seconds to calm down, or, in this case, to go back to being scared, not on the edge of hyperventilating like he was only moments ago. Now the only thing in his world was the fountain, and whatever was in it. Caynce prepared himself for the worst. Being eaten, skinnned alive, sliced in half, something incredibly gruesome, something he knew he couldn't stomach if he saw it in a movie, and due to this fact he knew it would probably be his death, since he had such terrible luck. Fate just wasn't on this boy's side tonight.

As the creature, he still hadn't figured out the sex, looked over the fountain, he was able to hold back a shrill scream, or one that would seem to belong to a female, though at this time he couldn't possibly care less about how he looked or sounded, only wondering what was lurking in that fountain. But, to his extradinary relief, when it gave him the 'peace' sign, he calmed down a little bit, his breathing returning back to a normal rate. Blinking, he saw it now had a smile on it's face, and 'it' looked like...a she. Caynce crawled a little bit forward, deciding she hopefully wouldn't hurt him...much. He stopped when he reached the bench and sat himself on it, examining the girl with a careful eye, hoping he hadn't assumed the wrong thing.

"H-hello?"

[Arlaye]

Eyes widening, Arlaye winced as the person fell. They disappeared from her sight for a moment, hidden behind the bench. It seemed as though they'd gotten a fright - her fault? Probably...
Her two fingers drooping, she craned her neck to see if they were alright.
Watching carefully, she gave a sigh of relief (mostly just glad that she hadn't sent some senior citizen into hip-replacement surgery). For the person seemed young, like a teenager or maybe a really tall child. In the end it was the voice that gave it away: he was a boy.
"Uh, hi," she replied, wondering how she managed to get herself into such awkward situations. Little wonder she had a reputation for being weird. Who else would swim in a fountain at night?
"Um, sorry, I didn't notice you there..." she added after a shivering pause, grinning apologetically. She was awfully cold after being underwater, and although she could dry herself off with little effort, she didn't want to freak him out. More. Especially in case he was non-gifted.
"...yeah, I realise this night swimming must seem a tad strange, um," she continued awkwardly, gulping. She couldn't think of anything halfway intelligent to say, so trailed off with a tentative shrug. Maybe it would have been better if she'd just scared him away completely; now she just felt like a freak...