a beautiful lie -- open }

[Zacharius]

Perched on the branch of a tree, the Raven Mocker peered tiredly at the group of students mingling down below, their pathetic laughter reaching his ears. Bit and pieces of their conversation could be heard, all five of the fledglings blissfully unaware of the monster that lurked above.

”Did you hear, did you hear?!”

“What? No? What’s happened?”

“Ellie and Jack are going out!”

“Oh my Goddess, are you serious?!”

Zacharius rolled his eyes, weary of this unimportant teenage drama. Every week, there was some sort of shocking event that occurred amongst the fools; the newest oddity that they could all tear apart with their gossip. He stood with a practised balance, his great wings spreading to their fullest width, about to fly.

“But I thought May was getting with him?”

He faltered.

May?

“Aren’t May and Ellie friends?”

“Exactly! Ellie went behind her back!”

“That’s so bitchy!”

He jumped down with grace, landing in front of the group, only to be welcomed with gasps, and even one small shriek of surprise, and then silence. With a superiority that no one could quite match -- with the exception of his father – he glared at them all behind black orbs, eyes narrowed with hate.

And yet, his heart was thumping so eagerly, so happily.

And all because of a name.

Zack took a step forward, watching with amusement as the fledglings all mirrored his action, taking a step back as one. Spreading his wings to intimidate them, he locked his eyes with a girl who he assumed had informed them all with the news; she had that look of content about her that he had seen so many times. That look, which screamed, ‘I knew something you didn’t; I knew before you’; he hated that look.

”Which May, do you speak of?” He murmured, his voice full of power and arrogance. The girl blanched, obviously not expecting such a question. She took a few seconds to digest the words, before smirking in a somewhat triumphant manner -- one that he did not like. ”Say please.” She teased; face defiant, one hand on her hip, her posture screaming attitude. Her friends giggled nervously, hardly believing what was happening.

He cocked a brow.

With a speed of an immortal, he curled his hand around the girl’s neck, before twisting to slam her against the wall, smiling in satisfaction as he heard the distinct sound of skull hitting brick.

The girl’s eyes rolled back, but with a sharp slap, they snapped back, wide with fear. He smiled, pleasantly. ”Please.” She flinched, as if he’d slapped her again, before stuttering, ”W-Withers. M-May Withers. Fifth former.” She was trembling under his touch; he wrapped his fingers in a tighter embrace against her neck and she squeaked in surprise. He hadn’t cut off her air supply (yet), but it was still uncomfortable. Zack continued to stare, processing the information.

She wasn’t Mayumi.

Why was he so disappointed? Why was he feeling anything, because of that, inferior fledgling?

He was confused; he didn’t understand. He couldn’t cope with this -- with not knowing. He turned to the emotion he knew most, the only emotion he could deal with. Anger.

If possible, his eyes grew darker, his fingers squeezed tighter, and he watched, as the girl’s eyes bulged, as she began to struggle to escape. He wondered if he should kill this life. It wasn’t anything important. No one would miss her, except for, perhaps, the small group of friends that lingered at the back. He smirked a little at a thought. Throughout all this time, none of them had stepped up to help.

This girl, had no one.

But if she died, then so did they.

He moved his hands in position, taking comfort in the fact that he could so easily snap her neck without much effort at all. He loosened his hold, wanting the girl to be very much alive as he stole her life away from her.

But he couldn’t do it.

No, it wasn’t that he couldn’t; it was that he didn’t want to.

Surprised, he let go, watching as she collapsed in a coughing heap onto the floor. Turning, he glared at her friends; if they even deserved to be called that. ”Go on. Help her.” It wasn’t a suggestion; it was an order. One that they all recognized.

Bending his knees he jumped into the air, his wings spreading to send him flying upwards, before twisting to sit onto the top of the wall. He watched with a blank expression as the group hurriedly carried the barely conscious girl to what he assumed would be the infirmary.

It was then that he ran a hand frustrated threw his hair, a frown scarred onto his features. He knew what had just happened. He knew why he hadn’t killed the girl. With a sudden fury, he slammed a fist down onto the wall, ignoring the shocking pain that shot up his arm.

The Raven Mocker had grown weak.

[Crissatha Pandora]

Cris had seen it all.

Well actually no, no, that had been a lie.

She had seen some of it. And had watched without caring much. It took far more than something like this to make her care more. Why? Seriously, did you even have to guess why? For the same reason that she had been hiding out in Lux’s room for the past week and a half. For the same reason that she winced and freaked out whenever she had to be alone for too long for the past week and a half. For the same reason that she didn’t really speak much currently, still. Everyone seemed to think she would snap out of it. And she would.

Eventually.

On her own damn time.

That idea made her smirk ever so slightly, but it was a pale impression of her usual smirk. It was…blank. Lacking her usual sarcasm and wit that managed to usually shine out around the ice wall that she put up around herself. Now all she had really was the ice. The ice in her eyes, the ice in her movements, the ice in everything that she said and did. It was like she was frozen from the inside out. And it would be a very apt comparison.

Ice Bitch indeed.

She was dressed for the chill, not for the cold. She didn’t feel the cold much anymore. How could she, she was dead. Dead people who magically managed to walk around and talk and act like they weren’t dead weren’t given the priviledge of feeling more than a slight smidge of the temperatures around them. They got little bits here or there, but nothing that would make her shiver in what she was wearing. She was perfectly fine in her denim jacket, with Lux’s black dress shirt underneath because she refused to go back to her room to get any of her own things. She was lucky she had brought these jeans to Lux’s at some point. Though they didn’t fit exactly right and were held up with one of his belts.

Maybe that was why she had ditched them in his room.

Her hair had finally gotten the added shock of color back, and it was purple this time. She had done it herself because Lux couldn’t understand why she was always dying colors into her hair and possibly ruining it forever. But that was because he had an unhealthy obsession with hair. Not that it didn’t pay off for him. She couldn’t count on two hands the amount of girls he had gotten based off of his hair alone. SO she wasn’t going to dock what worked for him.

But he had had to go to class today, something that she was still avoiding, and being alone in his room had not had any appeal to her. She had instead decided to leave the safety of his room, after pacing for a while and finally coming to that odd little conclusion, and go out for a walk. Just a walk. Nothing could hurt her if she just kept to herself and went for a walk, headphones in, and keeping her head down.

The headphones were why she had not heard a word of what had gone on when she had finally gotten to the East wall where she had originally planned to crash down against the wall and relax for a little while. She had planned to slowly get herself used to being outside and around other people again so she wouldn’t feel so pathetic. That plan had obviously gone out the window, but hey, what did it matter. She had seen something interesting, if you asked her it was interesting at least.

Not that anyone seemed to be saying much, so saying she saw it all kind of encompassed the whole thing. She stayed back, out of sight, and she wasn’t very noticeable lately without her attitude to make her seem to draw attention to herself. She was more like a blank slate that was easier to ignore and, with her current attitude, she liked that to be quite honest.

Maybe she should punch things. Hadn’t that been the advice she had given to Li forever ago about feeling less helpless? Fuck she should learn to take her own advice. Not that she actually would, but it would probably be a good idea eventually to at least try.

She didn’t say anything when the girls rushed past her to get the one girl who had gotten injured to the infirmary, she had merely paused her music, not even bothering to take the headphones out of her ear in order to do so. She watched the Raven Mocker move, and fly up to the top of the wall. He seemed frustrated, and she wondered why he had let the girl go. It didn’t seem to be raven mocker nature to let go of a prey like that. And she wondered if she cared enough. He seemed angry.

She didn’t even go closer, which was odd for Cris who was usually so confrontational. No, instead she simply looked up at the raven mocker, with ice in her eyes and devoid of all of her usual sarcastic expression. And she arched a brow, that was all. She arched a sarcastic and questioning brow that, to an outsider, may look like she was calling him weak or questioning his motives for letting her go. Without an expression besides for the arched brow, it was hard to tell.

Fuck.

Cris didn’t even know what she was doing.

Words: 954
Muse: Good...ish?
Comments: Sorry this is so beyond bizzare of a post.

[Zacharius]

He didn't notice her; not at first.

I guess he was too entranced by the other girl. The idea that she could bring some news of May -- his May -- had wrapped itself suffocatingly around his heart and mind in a tight embrace, black strings of hope slicing through all thoughts of logic.

The news; the news that the May they spoke of was not his had been both a blessing and a curse.

A blessing: Mayumi had not fallen in love with another boy.

A curse: ever since that time in the clearing, Mayumi had ceased to nothing in his ears, and eyes.

Only in his heart, did she loom.

Zacharius noticed her when he let go of the girl -- a movement carried through by the wind alerting his senses. She was good at staying invisible; he'd give her that. But the Raven Mocker was better at finding his prey.

Except -- except it wasn't like that; not any more. He didn't feel that burn of want in his core, the heat of lust dancing across his middle when he saw others. He just wasn't interested -- not since then. Not since her. The great immortal flew to the wall, watching with mild disgust as the group of friends scurried away. It was only then, that he turned to face the girl.

She was defiant; he could tell from the way she stood. Her sleek black hair, accompanied with streaks of purple screamed that she was rebellious, that she had no problem showing what she felt. Her hair, the way she walked, the way she dressed; it was all a way of showing her emotions. Zack stared, a hundred things flickering through his mind at once. It was supposedly cold, yet she hadn't dressed for the weather. She was one of the undead.

But the way her shoulders hunched; her eyes clouded yet forcibly sharp. She was hurt, but still strong. He cocked his head to the side.

There was a part of this girl that he didn't understand.

They both said nothing; silence filling in any need for conversation. Slowly, as if deliberately, the girl lifted a brow, as if mocking the way he had let the previous cluster of girls go. He watched with slight fascination at how she remained so perfectly still, yet that one action revealed so much.

Too much, perhaps.

She could have been sarcastic, mocking. Or she could have been merely questioning, an interested fledgling. Or she could have been something else; the possibilities grew the more he thought about it.

The Mocker stood, pausing a little, considering how to answer. After a few seconds of silence, he spread his wings and jumped down, landing in a graceful step onto the ground a few feet away from the fledgling. Taking a step forward, he tilted his head forward; an arrogant move. He kept his wings unfurled; intimidation.

But somehow, he knew that it wouldn't work on this one.

She was different; he could see it in her eyes. She wasn't afraid.

Or perhaps, it was because he had grown weak.

It could've been either.

Slowly, just as carefully as she had been, he mirrored her action, lifting one brow questioningly, eyeing down her smaller frame from his greater height. He paused, debating whether to speak.

Really, Zack didn't know why he bothered wasting his time repeatedly on fledglings. They were a waste of space; nothing to take notice of. He knew this; he lived by this. So why had it all changed?

He closed his eyes; he knew the answer. It was because of her. Somehow, she changed everything, but had changed nothing. She was his all, but she meant nothing to him. Because she was nothing. He broke his stillness, his features crumbling into an angry frown; she was nothing. Nothing.

Mayumi Tsubasa was a fledgling. He, a Raven Mocker. The two were never to mix.

She was nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

Zack glared at the girl before him, suddenly furious. "What do you want, fledgling." He snarled, his voice low and rough. His posture was offensive; a predator on a hunt.

All he needed was his prey.

[Crissatha Pandora]

Cris’s mind did not work the same way it usually did. The same snappy way that came along with quick comebacks, often sarcasm, and a sort of wry wit that just screamed Cris at anyone. They didn’t even have to know her well. They just had to hear about her to know that she gave off comments like that like no other.

But right now it was practically frozen.

Right now she felt like everything took a lot of work. From pushing herself to leave Lux’s room, to even taking a simple shower, to respoinding to people. Everything just seemed to take more effort than she felt like she was even capable of. Even with the violet in her hair, even with a wardrobe that was almost her own, even in Lux’s capable hands, she still felt like a pale imitation of herself. Like she was doomed to never remember the woman that she had made herself into after she had died.

It was sad. What was sadder was the fact that she kept thinking about this lately. It was this never ending loop of worry that she would never be whole again. This current over and over again that she wasn’t whole, that she never would be whole. That she was doomed to be forever cracked. She knew that wasn’t true. She had let boys in before and they had done far worse than…than… he had done. Take Oliver for example, he had killed her. That was far worse.

She shuddered to even remember him.

No, there were far worse than him. Bt that wasn’t the point in the end. The point was that she had loved him and she hadn’t loved the others. SO she hurt this bad because she missed what she once had, what he had thrown in her face without much care one way or the other about it. It was like he was mocking her in a way, to toss in her face all her love. She would never love again.

In an effort to do something that didn’t include sitting in Lux’s room alone, she had pushed herself to go outside and go for a walk, not bothered in the slightest by the budding cold that was everywhere in this place. It was nearly Christmas after all. Oh how she hated that holiday, but that was besides the point as well. And she had come to the East wall, where she had come across a Mocker.

She watched him let a girl go when usually she knew that most Mockers had a habit of not letting go of prey once they found it. And being that, on top of everything else that she had lost lately—her mind, her sense of self, her personality—apparently she had also lost her sense of self preservation. Because even though she knew that he was obviously mad after what he had done to that other girl, despite letting her go free, she didn’t scurry on away or anything of the sort.

No, instead she challenged him. It hadn’t been intentional, honestly. It was probably from being so built into her that she didn’t even realize that she did it anymore. It was the most natural reaction to her to simple raise an eyebrow at people and let it be that. The thing was, without her sarcasm to go along with it, it was almost unreadable to tell what she meant by the raise of the brow. It was simply a movement that could mean a maddening amount of things. All in a movement. She would call herself skilled if she was herself anymore. As it was, she didn’t notice.

She simply let the silence spread between them.

Like she had been thinking earlier, it was too much work to speak lately. So she simply didn’t bother to speak at all.

The silence stretched on, with neither one moving, until he broke the spell. He stood and then spread his wings. And took off the wall to get closer to her. He kept the wings unfurled and she wondered what he was trying to prove. She had taken on his father before and managed to get away. She snorted involuntarily at the thought. She had kicked his father in the face. The thought came unbidden from the recesses of her mind, the reaction something that she oculdn’t help and didn’t care what he thought about.

And then it all changed.

Suddenly he went from being arrogant but also seeming like he didn’t wish to care. To being actually mad. She hadn’t moved, had barely spoken if you even wanted to call her involuntary snort speaking, and hadn’t done anything to agitate him. SO it was inhis own head. He was torturing himself. Welcome to her club.

She shook her head and looked back at him, blank as always. She supposed she should be afraid. Try to bargain or something like that to get away after being close to an angry Mocker. But honestly, she didn’t care about much anymore, she was simply blank. She looked right back at him. He asked what she wanted. And she simply shrugged. Like she said, she didn’t speak much. But just this once, she let herself, in a very blank voice, answer him. ”Nothing” she said, arching her brow again. Lets see how mister angry bird handled that one.

[Zacharius]

The girl shook her head, her face still, infuriatingly blank.

Zacharius snarled his question, expecting some sort of stifle of emotion; but still, the girl did not flinch. Instead, the girl shrugged, before answering in an equally empty voice: "Nothing."

He didn't want to admit it, but he was intrigued.

Day after day, the Raven Mocker was plagued with looks of fear, taunts, screams--even May feared him. But this one? Nothing.

Where was the panic? The jolt of fear in her eyes? The shivering, the tears, the anger? How was she doing this? Being so calm, and unafraid. He leaned closer, wanting a better look.

She was closed off; you could tell straight away form her guarded expression, and if not that, those blue eyes that screamed of ice. She, strangely, and ever so slightly--ever so slightly--reminded him of himself. Wasn't he the same? Cold, and closed off. Even from his father.

The immortal had never met someone who had such a reaction (or, rather, a lack of one), and he tilted his head, trying to make something out of it.

With one swift movement, he draped his arms onto her shoulders, leaning forward so that his face was just before hers. Black orbs peered into light blue, his head tilted as if he was leaning in for a kiss. But he had no such intentions; he had other things on his mind.

His handsome features, amusingly, were contorted into one of light confusion--he didn't bother to try and hide it. Everything he did, she would (or wouldn't, according to how you looked at it) react to; and each one, he was sure, would be interesting.

The edge of his lips twisted to form a small smirk, his eyes staring straight into hers. "Nothing? I don't quite believe you." He smirked once more, although it wasn't natural. He was playing his games again--once that he used to enjoy, to a certain extent.

But now, it all seemed pointless.

And yet, he still played.

Such was the life of a Raven Mocker.

His hands hung in the air behind the girl's back, his back hunched slightly over to tower over the girl. He pressed his forehead lightly against hers--to a stranger walking by, the scene could've almost been mistake for one of love--if only the girl was smiling, and the boy, too. "Why did you not help, little girl?" He murmured, whispering the words into her ear, "why did you watch, and do nothing?"

He didn't really want to know; he wasn't interested in the minds of fledglings, after all.

But a game was a game, and Zack wasn't one to do things half-assed.

After a moment's silence, the Mocker let her go, letting his arms slide back down to his sides, and straightening his back into his original posture: arrogant, and powerful. He continued to stare at her, his features expressionless.

"Your name."

It wasn't a question; he wasn't asking. It was an order, and the Mocker expected to be obeyed, as he always did. But, he couldn't help wondering whether she would surprise him yet again with her strange, empty attitude.

It was certainly possible.

---

NOTES: omg, sorry. i tried. Dx

[Crissatha Pandora]

Her voice felt horribly blank and hollow even to herself.

It seemed like it was nothing, just a bit of fluff. She wondered why she had bothered to even speak or voice anything at all. It just seemed like it fell flat. She should have left it to the nonverbal communication because at least then she could pretend that she actually gave half of a shit about anything that she responded to.

Either way, she couldn’t bring herself to summon up an emotion. Even with the raven mocker right here, right up close and personal. Even when he snapped in anger, even when she knew that he might hurt her just because she was there and he was having an internal frustration that was making him angry, she could not bring herself to care or summon up the proper emotion to even beg for him not to hurt her. Not that she would have even if she was normal. If she had been normal she would have snapped at him, gotten defensive, threatened to hurt him. But she didn’t bother with anything like that. She simply told him nothing.

She watched her reaction to him register on his face. He seemed entirely confused. What, was this not the normal reaction that he found himself faced with? That made two of them. She was not entirely sure what she was doing here, after all. She was just being blank. She should go back to Lux’s room, curl up in his bed and wait for him to return like she had been doing for days on end. She couldn’t bring herself to do that either though, part of her that she thought had been lost to her rebelled at the idea of hiding away for one more day.

She was iced off, walled up, nothing was getting through that wall of ice.

And then he proved her wrong.

In a swift movement, so quick and fluid that she hadn’t seen it coming until his arms were on her shoulders. One shoulder sent a slight jolt of pain, and she winced a little at being touched, flinching back from the mocker getting so close to her. He tilted his head towards her and she looked back up at him, her eyes icy even if she was practically rolling with the need to get away now. That wasn’t an emotion, however, that was an instinct…something that red fledglings could always count on to be in the back of their minds. She didn’t want someone to be close again.

And she didn’t like the way his face was so close to hers.

She didn’t like how it felt to be borderline romantic.

His look still screamed confusion, and now, so did hers. It was more of a slight hint, a nudging of the emotion at the edge of her walls, but it existed. She looked back at him. Her confusion, however, was about why he was suddenly so close to her. He spoke, saying that he didn’t believe her. She arched her brow again, slightly, wondering if he could see the movement when he was so very close to her. Why would he not believe her? She had said nothing because she wanted nothing. Not from him anyway. She had just happened across here and had chosen not to leave. But there was nothing that she wanted from him specifically. She wanted things, of course she did, just not in this context. The jumble of useless thoughts tumbled about her mind and she let them, not feeling as precise and ordered as she once had.

She wondered why he was doing this. But she wouldn’t’ ask. Why did he have to get in her space? Why did he have to get so close to her?

And then he tilted his head towards hers, touching her skin to skin. Her affinity roiled and she saw him through the sight of her affinity for a moment, he was suddenly covered in a dark gray and black aura. There were spots of lighter gray here or there. But it hurt her heart to be looking at that. And it made her stomach roll that he was touching her.

Get away! She was practically screaming in her head, but not an emotion, not a thought flickered onto her face. She closed her eyes against seeing him through the gaze of her affinity, sickened by all those dark spots. She could never keep out Raven Mockers or Immortals. She saw them whether she wanted to or not, despite how she usually could keep out everything. She really just wanted him away

He whispered to her, and the move seemed so intimate but distinctly not that she couldn’t help but feel a full body shudder wrack through her. ”Not my business” she replied with her dead and blank voice when he asked her a question. She wanted him away from her now. Now. Now. She didn’t like him being so close to her.

Her eyes slid back open and another shudder wracked her body, this time in relief, when he let go of her and moved away from touching her. She looked up at him with her icy, icy blue eyes. He demanded to know her name. She quirked her brow once more, but again it seemed to be a pale impression of the usual expression being that it held no emotion to it. It was just a movement. ”No” she said simply, refusing to give him her name.

[Zacharius]

She shuddered. ”Not my business.” Still dead, still blank; still empty.

He watched, eyes narrowed with suspicion, as he registered her blunt reply, all the while wondering how to answer to it. Should he let it go, or pursue?

Black glanced sharply into her eyes, jaw set and steady.

Pursue.

"I do believe," he began, "that by staying to watch--" he reached out a confident hand, arrogant fingers brushing onyx strands away from the girl's face, the movement surprisingly gentle "--you've made it your business." Carefully, ever so carefully, he trailed a finger down the line of her jaw, stopping at the nape of her neck, hard eyes forever trained into icy blue.

Zacharius murmured his words, with a soft urgency that most women heard--if they were lucky--when facing the man that they loved. He, the Raven Mocker, had never been in such a situation, but he possessed the skills, learnt of course, from his father.

Skills, that the immortal now used in front of this fledgling.

He didn't expect her to co-operate, to react. He wasn't simple minded, like the rest; he knew things, that others did not. He saw things, that others missed.

Her very few reactions: that wince, the flinch, the shudder. She was a woman in pain.

And this, Zack knew so very well.

"So, little fledgling--" he whispered, his lips tantalizingly close to her own, "--try again." He smirked, the edge of his lips pulling up.

He asked her her name, and she reacted to his expectations--that quirk of the brow, so telling yet guarded, and then, that short, emotionless voice: "No."

It wasn't a surprise. He'd been expecting it. But the rejection, reminded him of another, that hit much closer to his immortal heart.

A sheen of crimson fury clouded his vision, and the hand that had been stroking the girl--almost lovingly--turned brutal, twisting his fingers into the strands in a shocking embrace, a firm hold. Expressionless, he yanked the girl's head back, his own looming above.

Zack's voice, unlike before, hardened, words coming out in an almost growl. "Answer correctly." He, like her, betrayed no emotion. Voice cold, mouth set, eyes blank; he was a man without a soul. He pulled harder (reminding her for the last time who was in charge), before letting go, shoving the fledgling away as if she was nothing but trash--which she was.

He eyed her with humourless amusement, brow cocked in question. "You know, what I'm capable of, fledgling. Do not anger me."

And he meant every word.

---

NOTES: OMFG. I. HAVE. FAILED. YOU. OMG I'M SO SORRY. SO, SO SORRY. THIS POST IS SO SHORT, AND SO FULL OF CRAP, AND SO DISGUSTING. BRB. I MUST GO COMMIT. -CRYCRYCRY-

[Crissatha Pandora]

It was the combination of harsh and soft that made her confused and curious all at the same time. He had smashed a girl to the wall and then touched her delicately and got close to her so intimately. There was something wrong with the fact that he could go between these two things so easily. No one should be able to do that. Dangerous. It reminded her of something that had happened in her past, with most of her boys, which made her shiver again to think of it. Her boys. She really needed to stop taking any boys. They always tried to kill her in the end.

She told him that it wasn’t her business when he got so close to her and asked her. She did not like people in her space. And if she had been herself, she would have not reacted well at all to someone being so close in her personal bubble, especially not a mocker. In fact, had she been herself, she would have snapped already, said something bitchy and kicked his shin or flipped him off and walked off or something. But she wasn’t herself. She was a pale imitation.

She did not approve of how he touched her then, how he spoke. It was too familiar. It was too close to what she had just lost.

He brushed her hair from her face, touched her softly and delicately, but she could not close her eyes against her affinity this time. She wouldn’t . She was still a red and part of her demanded she nto break the eye contact she held with him, not allow herself to be weaker or less dominant in this contest of wills, even if hers was broken. So she delt with the dark swirling masses of impurity that floated in the corners of her vision as she looked back at him and tried not to let the intimacy scare her off.

She spoke then, again, in her dead sounding voice that she hated to listen to and wondered dimly would it could possibly sound like to outsider ears. She wished he would stop saying things that required her to speak to answer. She would much rather shrug and leave. ”I disagree” she said simply. He thought she made it her business, Cris believed that she had just stopped to watch. There was nothing about that that seemed to make it her business to her.

She did close her eyes when he whispered so close to her lips that she could feel his breath, and found herself holding her own, which she could do because she was technically dead. She could do it for a short while anyway, longer than anyone who couldn’t die could anyway. She did not answer him this time, simply held entirely still and waited for him to pull away. Someone so close was slowly unnerving her, reminding her of things that she did not want to have right now. She didn’t want anything.

She wanted to freeze.

Some days she still wanted to die.

Though that was being melodramatic, wasn’t it?

She frowned slightly, a little tug of the lips.

He asked her name, she refused him. She knew that he wouldn’t like it, but she refused to give in. Inside herself she still was Cris, somewhere deep inside. It made appearances again from time to time, but mostly she appeared to be blank and dead.

He grabbed her hair. She hadn’t been expecting it and shrieked a little, a short little burst that was due mostly to surprise rather than pain. She hadn’t been expecting it, though she figured she would have been. The real her would never admit to any of this, and would never let herself shriek like that. She would have been more cautious and she would have never let a Raven mocker close enough to grab her like that if she could help it. This Cris was a broken and shattered version who made stupid mistakes.

He told her to answer correctly and then let go, but shoved her as well. She took a step back before bracing herself to avoid falling, her gymnastics training paired with red instincts kicking in. She looked at him, noting the hardening of his tone and demeanor, but it didn’t change at all how she reacted to him. This was what she expected from Mockers. She expected them to be like this. Merciless, cruel, unforgiving and quick to hurt. She was on more familiar territory with this. This she could handle.

With a spark of defiance once more, she spoke. ”I do not need to give you my name” she said, not caring if she made him angry. She made everyone angry. How would this be anything new?

[Zacharius]

She was making it difficult for herself; hurling herself into danger, and she didn't even care.

”I disagree.”

Zacharius, wings unfurled, eyes black, let out a small sigh when she refused to answer his question. Her silence fed his anger, and it seemed that his anger fed her silence. They were at an impasse.

"Little fledgling catch your tongue?" He cooed acidly, a sharpness in his words that wasn't hard to catch.

He wanted her to react.

He wanted her to feel, because he, did not.

And Zacharius would not allow for him, a Raven Mocker, to have any similarities with a fledgling.

"Weak little thing, are you not?" He sneered, flicking her cheek with enough force for it to hurt. "No wonder Kalona took over so easily; musn't be too hard, when they're all as pathetic as you."

But through all the wishing, the hoping; he knew she wouldn't react, because, like him, she was dead.

Just because you were alive, didn't mean you were living; you could live, but without a heart, without a soul, you were dead. Emotionless.

Zacharius had neither of the two.

And the girl, he could see, was on the same track.

But perhaps it wasn't too late for her; perhaps whatever it was that hurt her -- heartbreak, betrayal, a loss -- could be fixed, and she'd loose the darkness.

The Raven Mocker curled his wings into his back, confused as to why he ca -- no, not cared, never cared. Confused, as to why he was even giving this fledgling the time of day.

What had Mayumi done to him?

To his surprise, she shrieked when he pulled her hair -- for some reason triggering that feeling in his core again -- and he had to fight the urge to instantly let go. After a few moments, he shoved her away, not wanting the girl near him anymore. He'd had enough of his game.

He glanced at her, and for a second, their eyes locked; black cold and unforgiving, blue, still dead -- but was that relief he could see? Relief for familiarity, for his actions?

Zack's eyes narrowed; she wanted him to be violent, to be merciless, to be a Raven Mocker.

She wanted what everyone imagined, what everyone thought, judged, without a second's thought.

The thought angered the immortal, but for tonight, for the dead girl, he'd deliver.

”I do not need to give you my name,” she spat, defiance colouring her voice -- something that wasn't quite there before. It suited her, the defiance. It belonged there.

Zack, tired of it all, locked eyes with her once more; black eyes burning with promises of death. "I think you do, little fledgling," he whispered, each word bringing new assurances of what he could, and would do. "Because I am the son of the immortal who rules this school; your fragile little life. Tell me, or I'll find out your name myself, and others with it."

The end came out in a harsh hiss, the threat hardly hidden.

She wanted the fury of a Raven Mocker, and so she got one:

Anger him, and he'd bring death knocking at her -- and her friends -- door.

---

NOTES: LOL OK ZACK CALM DOWN THERE'S A GOOD CHICK.

[Crissatha Pandora]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, border-radius: 1em; -moz-border-radius: 1em; background-image:url(http://www.assault.it/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/tile2_3.jpg), width: 400px; height: 400px;] No Vacancy Baby, I want you to Hate me cause no one can save me... His anger made it easier to predict him, easier to know that he was going to snap and get mad, even while it made him harder to predict because who could predict anger? It was a more familiar feeling to have him be mad at her though, it was easier for her to deal with than the weird intimacy that he had shown her before this. She didn’t like that. That hit too close to home. It hurt too much. The only person who could be intimate with her right now, touch her like that, was Lux. And that was just because he was Lux. He kept her safe, he made sure she was alright. It was only because he wasn’t with her that she was in this mess because he would have made sure she never wandered towards a mocker like this while she was like this. She should go back to his room and be back with her CHii and her Lux, where things made a lot more sense and she could at least pretend that she knew how to deal with the world anymore. His anger made it easier to be silent. Even though it obviously made him more angry, she preferred to be silent. She didn’t want to hear her own voice, her voice sounded like everything that she currently was: dead and unfeeling. She didn’t want any more of a reminder of what she had managed to become over a stupid boy who had hurt her. So not speaking was in her agenda for today, whether he liked it or not. She didn’t much care that it made him mad, she knew that she probably should, but she just didn’t seem to be able to summon up that emotion or the need to run away like she probably would have if she was smart. But as people had pointed out to her recently, she obviously was not smart at all. He growled at her, snapped and spoke of her silence, but it didn’t cause her to speak. Nothing could cause her to speak if she didn’t want to right now. Funny, once upon the time she always had a sarcastic comment, now she wasn’t sure she could if she tried. He snapped, once more, but she expected it and she liked when she expected things. It was different than sitting here wondering what would happen next because that was more dangerous than the anger honestly. Anger she knew. He called her weak but it didn’t upset her, it didn’t make her angry. Right now she was, somewhere deep inside, mad at herself. She agreed with him, she was weak. He flicked her cheek and she winced a little. He was still too close honestly. A part of her answered his next statement. ”Awwww, you’re a daddy’s boy too, how cute, all proud of how your papa took over a school? How sweet”

[/i] but those words never left her mouth.

Had she been herself she would have happily spat them in his face and not cared about the consequences. But right now, that seemed impossible.

She just shrugged instead.

It was easier.

It was easier just not to care. So she didn’t.

It was pathetic but she couldn’t seem to bring herself to snap out of it. She had tried too for a while, but it was just…too hard to bother too much. It hurt too much when she tried. Trying brought the pain back, staying numb meant she didn’t have to deal with anything except for the occasional disapproving look that she got from time to time when she actually managed to leave Lux’s room, and of course Lux’s worry. That she felt bad about more than anything else but she just couldn’t bring herself to care.

He pulled her hair and she shrieked, not expecting that, but that sparked a little bit of feeling in her, just a little bit. Something you would hav eto be looking to find in her. She had a little bit in her words when she spoke too, something she hadn’t expected after the constant dead tone she had been using before this.

He threatened to find out her name and her friends’ names and hurt them. That made her pause a moment. Her friends probably hated her after the way she had run off without telling anyone, and to make it worse because she had been absent she hadn’t been able to help any of them when they had been taken captive, when she would have clearly noticed had she been around that they had been taken from her vantage point in the DJ booth. She should have been there, they probably hated her for that. Not that she helped things by then disappearing into Lux’s room and not coming out.

All the same, they didn’t deserve to get hurt because of her again. She frowned slightly, just slightly, not liking that she was going to give in. ”Crissatha” she said simply. Crissatha. Not Cris. She didn’t feel like Cris right now.

[/div]

Just a damn little freak

MUSE: okay WORDS: 912 COMMENTS: I made this templaaaate haha....also, don't know why she seems to blame herself for them getting taken. It's weird.
Credit: Creation goes to Reesa! Lyrics go to SumoCyco with Danger!

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