Crystal Dinaia
Elder
Genil Resident
The First of 12
GOD
Has an e-bun
in the oven.
Posts: 705
(7/1/07 4:39 pm)
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Take a Breath and Softly Say Goodbye
01/01/001
“Cameron, if we’ve talked about this once, we’ve talked about it a million times. I can’t find it in me to argue with you anymore about this stupid subject. I don’t want kids! I don’t fucking want them, okay? I’ve got a career to think about. I’m finally getting in good with the firm and he’s thinking of moving me up to a position that will one day become a partner. Can’t you see how important this is to me?”
“If no one remembers your name when you’re dead, have you really lived life Crys?”
“Don’t go all philosophical-psychological on me, Cameron Jacob Dinaia. I’ve taken my fair share of psych classes in the past eight years. Eight years of my life Cam! I can’t throw that away and just go on maternity leave for nine months. In nine months they’ll have moved Johnson up and you know I can’t stand Johnson.”
“You wouldn’t even have to go on maternity leave. I could stay home with a baby? I just signed with Marvel and the comic is going to be huge. I’d do anything! Hell, I’d spit a kid out of the tip of my--”
“Don’t be crass.”
“You never think one day in the future do you? All you care about is what makes you feel satisfied now and anything else just isn’t a possibility, don’t you care about what I want?”
“I live in the present - today is the day that matters. Hell, who cares about tomorrow? I might die in my sleep tonight but at least I’ll have finished what needed to be done today instead of drawing stick figures and dreaming about tomorrow to make the day go by faster!”
“That was harsh Crystal.”
“Some things need to be harsh. Listen, I’ve got a meeting in ten minutes and then I’ll be headed home. Just.. Can we just drop this whole conversation when I get there?”
“A meeting this late? What on earth is going on--”
“Gotta go.” Click. Crystal’s office was silent in the aftermath of the words that had just echoed off its walls through the safety of a plastic coated phone cord. Even a few miles hadn’t softened the bitter battle that had been waged six months ago between the criminal defense attorney and her husband, but she didn’t intend to let it bring her to tears tonight. It had been so long since the last time she cried, she wondered if she had it in her to even show emotion anymore. She blamed it on her parents, their tight lipped relationship had don’t little to show her that people could actually love each other and talk about their problems. Instead, they kept it all inside and let the happy family façade live on. Picking up the phone, she held down the button that usually hung it up for a moment, the dial tone stopping immediately. Releasing it brought the long, loud tone back and she began to dial her mother and father’s phone number, knowing that they’d be in by nine o’clock at night. After all, what did they do now-a-days anyway? Their nights of drinks with the girls and beers with the boys were long gone and she didn’t know of any charity balls they’d have to be making an appearance at. Retirement had left them well off and they were living it slowly and surely, but that didn’t matter to Crystal really. She’d make her own fortune in the next few years, at least after she was out from under the grunt work of case loads and had finally made partner. There was always a hitch in the plan though she thought as she felt like throwing up. Loading her briefcase, she left the office and the door clicked shut, locking automatically.
The attorney’s heels clicked like the keys of a typewriter as she exited the empty building, saying goodnight to the security officer at the counter in the lobby pertly. Though everyone else had headed home, she’d stayed, staring at the files on her desk hoping that organizing them would some how put her life back in to order Every night was a battle at home, Cameron nearly on his knees begging her for the chance to be a father and her denying him every step of the way. Parenthood just wasn’t in the picture for the corporate ladder rising woman though she knew it would make him more than happy. A sigh escaped her mouth as she approached her car. Unlocking the cherry red sedan, she slipped into the comfort of her leather seats and began to rummage through her bag with one hand, locking the doors with the other. Bringing out a pair of black rimmed reading glasses, she slipped them on and they immediately moved down her nose, as always. Tendrils of red hair had fallen out of the bun she tried to keep them arranged in during the day and moved along her cheeks softly, tickling her annoyingly. After she had put the glasses on, she rummaged again and pulled out five boxes, each containing a different type of pregnancy test. As she removed the tests that she had used earlier in the day, she still couldn’t quite get over the fact that they had all been positive. Maybe they were all just wrong? That had to be it. As nausea washed over her, she knew that she was only trying to fool herself. Tonight’s fight with Cameron had started during lunch time when he called her, never giving up his mantra. Only, this time, Crystal was fiercely angry about something he couldn’t understand and something she wouldn’t flat out tell him. There was a different hiss to her voice, venomous but defeated. While her husband had wondered if she’d given in and intended to tell him that they could make plans for a child, the woman knew that she was already pregnant and that she’d already missed one period. Crystal wasn’t quite sure when exactly it had happened, but she knew it had and the thought almost disgusted her. He’d won even though she’d been on birth control. Sometimes, God was a funny-ass bastard.
The key turned in the ignition of her car and the air conditioner turned on full blast, the air smelling stale and mechanical. It cooled quickly and she then put her car into reverse and drove through the parking lot a little too fast. The car handled well though and when she was angry, she tended to have a lead foot without even realizing it. Home was only a few miles away, they lived in a small, quiet neighbor out of the city. Not many cops frequented the highway home and then again, she was Crystal Jameson-Dinaia, her daddy’s name could get her out of a speeding ticket, no questions asked. Not many people questioned a former Supreme Court judge about his daughter’s driving habits. With a small smirk, she pressed the accelerator down a little more as a peal of thunder shook the Interstate she was driving on. As she took the exit ramp that led her neighborhood, raindrops began to splatter against her windshield and she let out a frustrated sigh, flicking on her wipers at the same time the cell phone in the seat beside her began to ring.
As a random symphony played out of her phone, she flipped it open and answered it, perhaps a bit snappily. “Yes, my liege?” Chewing on her lip out of habit, she squinted at the road as the rain grew harder, one of those freak summer storms the South was famous for.
“I was just going to ask what you wanted for dinner, I was thinking about going to that Greek restaurant down the road. They’ve got some great chicken primavera there and I--”
“Cameron honestly, you’re a grown man. You don’t have to explain yourself to me. Just pick somewhere for dinner, anywhere, I don’t care! I don’t plan on eating much if anything tonight. My stomach’s not feeling the best right now.”
“Morning sickness?”
“No asshole, it’s the middle of the night. Don’t start this again, I swear to God. Oh Jesus, the road is washed out up here by--- Oh shit--”
Crackle. Click. Crystal dropped the phone as a semi came over the yellow line on the two lane highway. Panic consumed her body as the truck driver attempted to keep control of himself, but the trailer swung sideways, her car crushing into the back wheels before being pushed off the road and in turn, the embankment below it. The road had possessed no shoulders, merely road, three inches, and then a drop off of about ten foot into a heavily wooded area. As the car teetered on the edge, it flipped -once, twice, she lost count - and Crystal was flung from her seat, her head hitting the top of the ceiling harshly as she was flung around inside the metal deathtrap like a rag doll in the washer. She tried to cry out, but everything simply hurt too bad for her to even scream. The feeling of her own blood running down her forehead terrified her as the car came to a halt and she was thrown once again against the steering wheel. Feeling blood drip over her eyelid, she closed her eye quickly and moaned. She coughed spastically and it felt like her lungs couldn’t inflate fully. They felt heavy, actually, all of her felt heavy. She managed to open the door as another car skidded to a halt, narrowly missing the twisted log-truck in the road itself. The world spun, suddenly, as several people in cars began to get out. Immediately, she heard a man’s low curse as he approached her car, then a yell for an ambulance. It didn’t matter though, she was going to be absolutely fine. The accident hadn’t been that bad, had it? She couldn’t tell, the pain had numbed her so thoroughly that she felt like she couldn’t possibly be hurt that badly. The man was just panicking, she told herself as her head lolled over. She just really needed to sleep, she was just so tired. The day must have really taken it out of her. Closing her eyes, she opened them slowly and tried to smile reassuringly as the man knelt beside her and took her hand. Such a gentleman... she thought, not knowing that he wouldn’t move her because she was critically injured, perhaps fatally.
The man holding her hand was just coming home from the bar, another woman’s perfume on his shirt and a smudge of lipstick on his collar. “I… ! Someone.. Someone just call an ambulance. I don’t.. I don’t know what to do, honey. I… Our Father which art in Heaven…” The man was shaking as Crystal tried to give him a funny look. Silly Bible-thumpers, praying about anything and everything. The only reason I can’t move right is because my legs are probably broken.. That’s all, she thought as he spoke. A nonbeliever of forty-five years began to shake, his hand grasping a the fingers of a woman who was bleeding profusely. “H-h-hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.” Crystal brushed him aside, thinking of other things, knowing that Cameron was calling her phone time and time again as it vibrated on the floorboard. The man beside her had forgotten the middle part of a prayer than he’d repeated over and over as a child, so he merely skipped it, whispering, “And.. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass upon us.. Where is the AMBULANCE--?”
His voice cracked as someone pushed him aside roughly, grabbing his shoulder in what felt like a death grip or maybe iron. Cameron Dinaia dropped to his knees beside the car, pale and white despite his natural tan. Crystal turned her head slightly as the soft pressure on her fingers moved away and she smiled slightly, her face losing light by the second. Even the famous Crystal smile wasn’t enough to make her beautiful right now. Blood poured from a scalp wound and coated the right side of her head, trickling down the past her ear toward her clothing. Drawing in a shallow breath she stared at Cameron, watching the fear in his eyes as he examined her. He asked nothing, only gritted his teeth as tears formed in his eyes and pulled her from the car, settling her in his lap. Supporting her head with his arm, he held her like one would a small child. It was only then that she realized that she felt no pain for a reason. The world around her was fading around the corners and for a moment, she wanted to scream out and cling onto this life with all that she was. Yet, all she could feel around her was him, was Cameron. The warmth that he provided curled protectively around her body heated her when she felt the most cold and with that, she hung on for a few more minutes, merely basking in all that he was, all that he would be. Tears filled her eyes, not for herself, but for him and the coming days in his life. Crystal knew that she was dying now, her body becoming less and less of an issue as her husband whispered requests she knew she couldn’t meet. She knew she couldn’t hang on even though he asked, in fact, her breath was so short now that she barely knew when she was inhaling. He begged her to just last, just for a few minutes more until the ambulance got there and she smiled softly against him, promised that she would. He didn’t need to know that she couldn’t now, if anything, she could give him these last moments of her life freely as she had promised to give him each and every day six years ago. A few tears rolled down her cheeks as he leaned back and held her so that he could see her face and so that she could see his.
“For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” The man praying would go home to his wife tonight and beg her to forgive him, would look upon the faces of his sleeping children and sob like he had never before. His daughter was a redhead and for a moment, he had seen her face on the dying woman’s. The man would make things right where he had never seen a reason to before because he’d seen the face of death and knew that time now had an end. After all, it was coming to a screeching halt for someone so young even as the prayer passed through his lips.
Crystal had never found Cameron so handsome as she saw him just then, raindrops in his hair like angel’s tears. It was hard to form a smile now, but she did anyway, her energy growing even lower. She wanted to apologize for what she had said but she knew that time was growing thin, though it seemed to stretch on longer than she could have imagined now. Seconds felt like small lifetimes and she was so thankful that he was here, she could have thought of no place better to die than in the arms of the man she loved. The woman’s eyes closed for a long breath and Cameron shook her, almost too hard before she opened them again. Her eyes focused on his for a long moment and she could see eternity in them, something that transcended time all together. For a brief second she thought she could see secrets to the mysteries of the universe there, but then again, it could have merely been her brain starting to shut down in rapid fires of nerves and other essentials breaking down. Breathing deeply, she took what she knew would be one of her last breaths and spoke, her voice came in a whisper though it had been yelling at him only a half an hour before. “My baby…” He was so damned beautiful, at that exact moment, at that exact instant as tears began to pour from his eyes. She understood why ghosts came back to haunt their families, why some couldn’t let go. She would always know that she was his and he was hers, but for his sake, for her sake, for the world’s sake, she let go. “I love you…” Crystal Dinaia faded from the world, from the arms of her husband with three final words whispered between lovers.
“Cameron would you turn the damned light off already? Cameron?” Crystal rolled over and thought for a moment that the mattress felt like it was soaked in water as her hand reached out she touched something that felt slick and wet. Immediately, her body jolted and she opened her eyes to realize that she was in a large clearing covered with thick grass and wild flowers. The sunlight was harsh, making her blink rapidly as she raised a cautious hand to her head. No blood..? Blood?! The memories rushed into her mind, splitting it open like shards of glass. She screamed, suddenly as she remembered the sound of squealing tires and burning rubber. It felt as if the present and the past were mixing all into one and she scrambled to ease her thoughts, to make sense of everything that had happened. The woman could remember herself dying, all of the energy and oxygen leaving her body in flashes of darkness and tiny bits of color. She’d suffocated as her lungs had filled with blood, crushed and pierced by the broken ribs in her body. Knowing this as an absolute made this entire situation terrifying, she knew she had died in the arms of her husband and hadn’t felt fear as she knew it was ending. Now, fear was all she felt. She could handle dying, but this experience that was happening at this precise moment was something she couldn’t handle. Where was she? What.. What was this place? Her bright blue eyes were crazed as she stood wobbly and tried to see anything at all. The land was jagged, shelves of rock covered with forests and patches of grass. It seemed unpolluted, fresh and clean and she breathed in air that couldn’t have possibly had a bit of car exhaust in it. The sky above her was a vivid blue, white clouds sailing around it happily in the soft wind, blowing at just the right speed with only a nip of winter in it. Even though there seemed to be nothing but beauty around her, she felt like sobbing because she could only see one thing. Loneliness. There wasn’t another human soul around her, no families camping, no sound of a highway far away. The idea terrified her beyond all belief.
Crystal felt her own body, touching her ribcage and searching for the smallest amount of pain. She held both arms out in front of her and searched for the river of blood that had consumed her right shoulder. Nothing. It was as if her body had been healed perfectly and the alien nature of it scared her. Her flesh was perfectly smooth, porcelain in nature, creamy and unblemished. Her hands felt her face, the sharpness of her jawbone and random facial features with a fury. Everything was in place and tears came to her eyes, making the sockets ache. She could feel pain. Crystal screamed again, wanting to hear something other than the sound of gurgling water nearby. Air was ripped from her body in gasps as she tried to rise to her feet but was unsteady on the pair of heels on her feet. She tore them off, and stood, feeling the ground trying to move beneath her. The desire to run and run and run until she found something other than herself over took her but she couldn’t find the gumption to move more than an inch. It was only then that she realized this must be hell. The Bible that had stayed beside her bedside until high school had gotten it all wrong, there wasn’t fireballs and a horned demon that laughed maniacally in the background. No, no. There was simply nothing but miles and miles of landscape in a world with no other inhabitants.
The attorney began to shake, her entire body shuddering as the wind whipped around her in a sudden spree, tearing bits of her hair out of the bun on the back of her head. It fell quickly, unable to withstand the wind and soon, her long hair had blown over her face. Tears trekked down her cheeks and tiny fragments of hair stuck to the streams as she hung her head. She knew she would never see Cameron again and she would never get the chance to tell him that they were going to be parents. Never again would she fight with her mother about the right to wear white shoes after Labor day. Her father would never tell her that in order to succeed she needed to be ruthless. In less than ten minutes, her life had been completely torn from her hands and there was nothing she could do about it, and now, nothing she could understand about where she was.
She was still dressed in the charcoal grey business suit she’d put on the morning before her death, the sleeves of it reaching just below her elbows in a three-quarter length style. Beneath the jacket, a cream colored camisole covered the bit of cleavage that might have showed if she hadn’t included it, a bit of lace against her skin making her ensemble feminine in a world that catered to men’s business fashions. The skirt was straight, reaching her knees and clinging to her thin hips. She couldn’t move from the spot she had just risen from and as the sobs that wracked her body became harder, she merely crumbled into a heap on the ground, her long body stretched out on her side. Crystal curled her knees closer to her body and wrapped her arms around them, assuming the fetal position in the middle of the green glen. The wind blew around her as whimpers escaped her lips and faded into her surroundings. Lost, alone, destroyed, Crystal Dinaia greeted her new world with a flurry of tears and shaking sobs. Little did she know, this world wasn’t her own personal hell, but rather, a second chance at the life that had been ripped from her clutches. This place wasn’t like the other world she had come from, nor any of the worlds any of the others would come from. It was different in ways they couldn’t imagine and soon would be the meshing of millions of times and places. Creatures from all aspects of life, some from worlds deemed imaginary would soon find themselves in this new place, torn from their own time and place like pages from a book.
For now, the wind howled and joined with the mourning sobs of the woman, of Crystal Dinaia, the first of the twelve to arrive at this very place. Golden bands surrounded something deep within the ground, keeping it there, bound for the safety of all of those involved. If released too early, the world would never truly get its start, but would kill itself off with greed rising higher than the ability of those in White to protect it. It would rise in the future, reveal itself to a full Council of those it trusted, and peace would consume the entire world until the end. How? was a question that couldn’t be answered. The gears of fate were fully wound now and soon they would snap into action, bringing lives crashing together in this world. Those who had died unfairly or had something left to do in life would be brought here, regardless of their race or home world. Together, they would form this world, the world of second chances and they would live through times of war and ages of peace. There would be times of great celebration and lows of deep mourning, but without the highs and lows, the optimum good would never be discovered. Without devastating sadness no one would ever know the meaning of true happiness. This world would be a haven for those deserving of it, but then again, didn’t everyone deserve at least one second chance?
"The white city fell without her. Peace revolved around her, but when the mother left her children, they destroyed one another... She'll never forget that she left--she'll wear the chains of the martyr as she pulls the world's weight behind her, still thinking she's not doing enough." Morrigan Aensland
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