18th of February, 2012

CC

CC looked out of the window at the sky outside, before turning back and heading to the sofa. Holding a hand to his forehead, he leant back and thought. Thought about what it was that had got him this far. Was it really all worth it? Had he made the right choices? He guessed he probably hadn't, but in retrospect, if given the choice to change anything, he wouldn't. After all, if he did, he wouldn't be him any more, would he? Or would he?

The sound of the door slamming caused Caius to wake. He had fallen asleep on the sofa, waiting for his mum to come back home. He looked to the clock on the wall. She was four hours later than she had promised...

"Caius!" he heard her shout him, "You got dinner ready yet?" Caius jumped up, and rushed into the kitchen, grabbing her meal from the oven. He also grabbed a glass, and filled it with water, before taking it back into the living area, to where his mother was now sitting on the sofa.

"Here you go, mum," he said, handing her the plate, and she took it from him, wordlessly tucking into it, as she always did. When she didn't spit it out, Caius knew that it was edible and so began to retreat to his room.

She was drunk, as usuall. But at least she was in a good mood tonight. He couldn't stand it when she came home angry - she would usually take it out on him. When she came home depressed, she would just cry until she fell asleep. The worst, though, was when she came home with a guy. Then he had to just plug in his headphones, and try and forget everything. Then, he'd have to wake up earlier than usuall, make twice the amount of breakfast, and leave before either of them woke up. He always stuck to the same, simple breakfast - eggs on toast - so that he didn't screw it up.

He experimented more when he made his mothers dinner, but this didn't always work out very well. He never tasted the food, because whenever he did, it just caused him to throw up. As a result, he never knew if what he cooked tasted any good or not. If it didn't, his mum was not happy, and would flip out at him.

He didn't really understand it, but for as long as he could remember, he had never eaten anything. The doctors didn't seem to understand either, especially since it had never really seemed to affect him in anyway, except that he seemed to age slower than the others his age. He was 14, but was physically no more than 7. There were a couple of kids in his class who picked on him for that, but he tried not to let them bring him down.

Caius hated school. Although only two of his classmates picked on him, he didn't really have many friends. It wasn't just the people, though. he had no interest in anything he was being taught, and his teachers knew it - he turned up to classes late, refused to do his homework, and never listened in class. Although he made point of doing as he was told if it had nothing to do with learning.

The only thing he wanted to learn was music. It was the only lesson he ever focused in. In his spare time, he would go to the band room and try out the various instruments, gradually learning as many of them as he could. One day, he'd get enough money to own his own instrument... That is, if he found the time to get a part time job...

CC smiled to himself. His mum may of had some serious problems, but as a kid, he hadn't cared. He had loved her more than anyone, regardless of how she behaved. Though whether she had been much help in getting him into his career was debatable. But then... If she had raised him any other way, he wouldn't of been the same person, with the same goals. He would probably never considered dedicating himself to music if he had a different childhood.

"TAKE IT BACK!!" Caius found himself lunging forward at the Valanu, not caring about who saw. He always picked on Caius, and usually, Caius ignored it, prefering to keep a reasonable amount of peace between the two of them, but he couldn't take that lying down. No one could insult his mother like that and get away with it.

The two off them fell to the floor, and Caius just hit in any direction, with his only goal that of causing as much pain as possible. He could hear people shouting, but the sounds were distant and unimpotant to him, what they were shouting he didn't actually know. He just hit and kicked and punched for all he was worth.

Lights flared infront of his eyes, but he ignored them and carried on. His vision had pretty much blurred, and he couldn't really see anything anyway. He was literally blind with fury.

A hand on Caius' shoulder roughly pulled him back to his feet, before he felt his arms restrained by someone larger and stronger than him. He was breathing heavily, teeth clenched, as he blinked back into focus. The first thing he saw was the Valanu, Jack, being taken away by the school nurse, his nose all bloody. Caius grinned. That'll teach him to open his big mouth.

Caius relaxed his arms, and so the preson restraining him released his arms, "Well, Caius. I think you better come with me."

Turning around, Caius looked up at who it was that had dragged him up. Oh crap... It was his teacher. The older Saklarian began to head inside the school, beckoning for Caius to follow him. With a sigh, he did so, looking at the floor and kicking at the ground as he walked.

The teacher lead Caius into a class room, and sat at the desk, indicating for Caius to stand in front of it. He did so, a scowel set upon his face.

"Caius. Do you have something to say for yourself?" The teacher leant forward on the desk, his hands clasped in front of him in thought.

Caius didn't answer. He just stared at the older man, the scowel set on his face, but amusement sparkling in his eyes.

"Caius! What happened? Granted you aren't the best student, and you know that, but you've never been violent before!"

Caius just shrugged, and looked down at the ground, "He insulted my family..."

"Ah..." The teacher nodded understandingly. He knew from experiance that sometimes it could be hard to take it lightly when the ones you cared about were being attacked - verbally or physically, "But was it really necessary to attack him like that? Sometimes ignoring someone is a better way to deal with conflict."

"But, Sir! I always ignore him, but he always winds me up!!" his head shot up, a little anger showing in his eyes. Did he really think that Caius didn't know that?! He hated having to be nasty to people, but sometimes they wouldn't let you treat them in any other way.

The teacher paused thoughtfully, "I see... Do you know why? Have you tried talking to him about it?"

"Talking to him?!" Caius shouted, slaming his hand on the teachers desk, "He's so arrogant and big headed he'd laugh before I even started talking!!" His vision blurred again slightly with his anger, and everything seemed to turn a fiery red, "He picks on me because I'm smaller than him! Because I'm not as big as the other 12 year olds! Becuase he can!"

His eyes swam back to focus, though, as the teacher jumped up from his seat, and away from the table. But the red didn't go. In fact, it seemed to be coming from the table. He looked down, and saw flames surrounding his hands - but he couldn't feel them. He quickly pulled his hands from the table, but the flames followed, not leaving a trace on the table. He stood and stared at his hands for a moment or so, and quickly the flames melted away.

The teacher cleared his throat, "It appears you have come into your power. I'd rec omend learning to control that as soon as you can. It could get pretty dangerous if it gets out of control. I'll try and find someone to help you with that." He shook his head a little, and beant down to pick up some papers on the desk, "But back to our previous discussion. I know that whatever he said must have hurt you, but we can't tolerate that sort of behaviour. Detention with me, here after class."

"But, Sir-!" The bell signaling the start of his next lesson rang and interuppted him.

"This isn't up for negotiation, Caius. Now run along to your lesson."

CC held up his hand, and let its shine brightly, looking at the "flame" from all angles. To be honest, when the teacher did find someone to help him hone in on his powers, he'd been pretty excited about it. However, once he'd discovered that it wasn't actually fire, he sort of lost interest in his lessons. Still, he kept to the lessons, and quickly learned how to make some pretty cool effects, even if they couldn't really do that much.

He chuckled silently to himself. That Valanu had been a bit of a peice of work. Still, it was kind of his fault that he had hated CC so much. But in all fairness, he'd been too young to really understand what he had been doing, probably about 5 or 6. They'd been neighbors, and best friends, always playing together when they had the chance, which was usually when CC's mum had been out.

"DIE ZOMBIE!" Caius was tackled to the ground from behind, and he felt his face go straight into the grass. Spitting the dirt from his mouth, he looked up as his friend careered off laughing maniacly.

Caius stood as Jack ducked behind a tree, and he grinned to himself wickedly. He crept forward, stepping as silently as he could, getting closer and closer to the tree.

With a wild cry, he lept around the tree, and onto Jack, knocking him to the floor in much the same way he had been knocked down earlier. Caius laughed triumphantly, as Jack let out a cry of, "NOOO!" They rolled around on the floor for a bit, with Jack trying to escape the 'zombie' Caius, but although Caius was much smaller than his friend, he managed to keep him from escaping. He managed to pin Jack to the ground, and smiled at him a lop-sided grin, "Now to change YOU into a zombie minion!"

Now, he thought to himself, how do you actually go about turning someone into a zombie minion... Caius looked Jack up and down. There didn't really seem to be much he could do, so he absent mindedly waved his hands over his friend, playing with the lines that seemed to radiate from every living thing he saw. For some reason, this seemed to provoke a reaction from his friend. Assuming that he was just playing along, Caius continued, making as big a reaction as he could from Jack.

Only when Jacks reaction seemed to get less frantic, did Caius begin to think that maybe, just maybe, he was somehow affecting him by playing with his lines.

"Jack... Ar-are you okay?" he asked nervously, lowering his hands and looking cautiously down at him. He was shaking, so Caius pulled himself off of him, and sat on the ground next to him, as Jack tried to push himself upright.

"Wha-wha-what di-did you d-do to me?"

"I'm sorry! I-I don't know what happened!" Caius reached out to try and help him, but Jack pushed him away.

"N-no! Get away from me you, you FREAK!" Jack managed to stumble up, and tried to run towards the direction of his house.

Too scared to follow, Caius sat there for a moment, watching his friend run, and a worried tear rolling down his cheek. What the heck had he done? When Jack was no longer in his sight, he shakily stood up, and walked back towards home.

Reaching the floor that his and Jacks flats were located, he took a deep breath as he worked up the courage to knock on Jacks door. When he eventually did, and there was no reply, he knocked again and called, "Jack? Are you okay?"

Again, no reply.

"Jack?"

"Just go away! You're a freak, so just leave me alone!"

"But...But, Jack!"

"GO!"

Caius reluctantly pulled himself from the door, and headed down to his own flat. Jack obviously didn't want to talk to him, and he had a few things he needed to do before his mother came home. Hopefully he'd have calmed down tomorrow. One thing was for sure, he would never play with those lines again.

CC still felt guilty about that. But it helped him learn that he had to be a lot more careful. Over time, he realised that those lines were something to do with souls, as well as that they were what fed him, and gave him his energy. As long as he reguarly visited the park, he didn't feel hungry, or tempted to try and eat the way everyone else did.

He had began to understand himself more clearly, though, at that meeting. It had been a pretty strange event to him at the time. But it cleared up a lot to him, what he was, why he was, and even helped him figure out who he was and what he wanted to become.

Caius opened his eyes as he felt a shadow fall across him, blocking the rays of the sun from him. He was a young man, now about 34 or so, but he still seemed to have that glow of youth about him that he had seemed to retain his whole life. He had been sunbathing in the park, where he often spent time when he felt deprived of energy.

Blinking up at the silohette, he figured it was a man, with long hair past his shoulders, practically level with his hips. The figure spoke.

"Caius?"

Pushing himself up to his elbows, Caius pulled a quizical face at him, "Yeah. Who are you? And how d'you know me?"

"All in good time. I would like to talk to you, preferably somewhere we won't be overheard."

As the man spoke, Caius had stood up, scratching his head confusedly. He now looked at him properly. He had quite dark skin, at least, in comparison to his own, and he was not wearing a shirt, showing what appeared to be tattoos over his body. Caius looked at the man sceptically.

"Well, we can always go back to my place. I still live with my mum, but she won't be back for a long while yet."

The man seemed to find that acceptable, and so the two of them proceed there. There wasn't very far to go, and within a short time, Caius was settling himself down on the sofa. The man introduced himself as Muhuotujinshui, or Shui, and explained why he was there. He, as was Caius, was a member of a species known as Memitim - all male, that fed on dying souls, and practically unlimited lifespans. The problem, as he put it, was that the Charon, the so-called 'leader' of the memitim species, seemed determined to keep them hidden, not allowing their existence to be known by just anyone, only those who were closely involved with them.

Shui, though, seemed to be of an opposing ideal. Under the guide of a fellow Memitim known as Jericho, he, as well as others, wanted to allow their kind to florish in the universe, be free and reach their full potentials.

"Granted, sometimes things can get... a little crazy. Out of hand maybe. But we have the right to be recognised the same as any other species, do we not? The right to be who we are, without having to hide or cower from others?"

Caius looked at him deep in thought, as Shui paused to allow for a reaction. And Caius couldn't help but to think he agreed. He had grown up his whole life, different to everyone, forced to try and fit in in a society that didn't understand him. He had barely even understood himself. If this "Charon" didn't insist on keeping secrets, maybe he could of had a better life growing up, he wouldn't of made some of the stupid mistakes he had. He could feel resentment for this man he had never met before developing inside of him.

"So, what do you want me to do?" Caius asked, breaking the silence that had been growing as he thought.

"Choose. Which side would you rather be on? One that hides itself away? Or one that will use any means necessary to find the truth?"

His choice had not been a hard one. He had decided to join with Shui in following Jericho to reveal the truth to the universe. He eventually quit his job when he had enough money for transport for himself and his drumkit, deciding he would 'tour', playing with bands in clubs and bars for his money, staying in any nearby hotels for the night. He never once tried to hide who he was from others.

Yep. All things considered, there wasn't anything in his life that CC would change.