#kasandre*

[ghoulluck]

Her dark curls fan out as she sinks further into the blood soaked Nile. Her mouth is abscessed with blood the spills out from in between her lips. Her brother’s bald head is matted with debris. Among the alligators, her eyes shine their same intense gold from the yellow moon above them. If they were animals to be tamed and owned, they would pledge no allegiance to no god.

[ghoulluck]

Paulina laid nude in a patch of sunlight. Navarro had been kind enough to apply oil to her skin and she glistened delicately as she tried to shift her body to no avail. In the oracle house, she could be free of the threat of death, but her body was still sick with lupus and she managed her symptoms as best she could.

When the sun shone into her eyes, they glowed like Amber gems and flickered somewhere between hazel and gold. Kasandre smiled as she brought the old goddess a new friend to keep her company while she was bed ridden. It was a cobalt tarantula, something Anubis had given her, but now she had one too many pets and Paulina needed a friend too.

She delicately laid the new companion on Paulina’s breast and watched as the animal curiously felt about the soft skin to try to figure out where it was. From the long golden brown waves of hair emerged a pink spider, a pretty contrast of the new friend and it crawled up from the depths of hair to greet it’s new brother. Paulina delicately handled the animal with care, letting them meet across her golden skin before letting them roam about freely.

She was confided to the bed. Not them.

Kasandre felt a sadness over take her as she watched the goddess’ eyes roam away from her new friends. Paulina was Gaia, in her purest form. Ill and yet always willing to give everything she could, everything that was left of her. The oracle gently helped her better half settle on her stomach and she seemed much happier to set her chin on her hands to watch out the window.

The oracle grinned herself as she felt a presence.

She deliberately touched on the other’s back, making Paulina shift as much as she could into the touch. Kasandre hummed softly as she took some of the therapeutic oil into her hands to spread it across the other’s back and legs. As much as Kasandre had loved the dark god that watched over them all, she would never be happy with him. It was a tragedy of Greek proportions. 

Sometimes the greatest thing to do was to let go. She had set Anubis free from her knowing fully they would both be happier if she was free. However, she had thoughts for what could make him content at least in his loneliness. She wanted to offer him a lonely diety. One who would love him as much as he had loved her.

The amber colored eyes peaked over a dark shoulder at the god before politely averting as golden hands squeezed the soft skin to emphasize the tenderness. Paulina gave a soft exhale as she let her eyes close and she tried to relax into the oracle’s experienced hands.

[ghoulluck]

Rough hands smoothed over angel’s shoulders. She could feel the distinct pads of calluses she had memorized, but could no longer recognize. She jarred immediately and pushed the feeling away. The children shifted around her as her feathers bristled. It had been only a dream or maybe a harmless memory. She laid down in the grass. Her wings spread out over them, pinching them in towards her protectively. 

Maxie was awake against a tree with a few children against her her. Her eyes were white and she looked out over the space blankly. mini curled up with a few of the children. She was asleep and had created almost like a little pot of hot pink sand. Lights flickered from maxie’s eyes, it washed the dark twilight sky in pretty colors like an artificial borealis. Somewhere, she knew baby and kasandre had made little hammocks to rock a few of the little spirits asleep. 

The original had a small baby rested against her breast. Angel had found the baby girl hidden in a heart of an empty tree. She had dark red hair and golden skin that was freckled like constellations in a night sky. The child faded in an out like it was being called and eventually the Oracle was left with nothing in her arms. The children of this realm did that. They’d fall asleep and they’d disappear sometimes.

[ghoulluck]

Paulina was pruning her roses cautiously. Kasandre watched the woman struggle to bend to pick up the pots of flowers. She could do nothing in her astral form. She came closer and the woman looked up at her with a smile. There was a brief grimace of pain and Kasandre felt the prick of a rose on her finger. She knelt before the woman in the wheel chair to clean the blood out of instinct. It wasn’t until she was wiping it away did she realize she felt solid. 

Paulina clasped her hand to get her attention as flowers began to sprout from the drop of her blood. She had done this on more then one occasion, although it never happened when she forced it. Kasandre admired the little seedling. She had always known in her heart Paulina was one of them, but now it was sure. “Do you see things?” The Spanish woman pressed her lips together to think. The older woman made a so so motion. She mostly dreamed things. 

Paulina’s powers were weak as they often were when the gift manifested very late in life. “Come with me.” Paulina looked at the otter who had become her only companion. She shook her head, they would return – so she hoped. “For the time being.” Their eyes met and Paulina had no energy to deny the request. 

Kasandre delicately corralled the pudgy companion and he chittered at her to return him to his favorite rock. Coté. She was asleep in bed, weak from the draw of blood and dreaming of her own personal demon. She set the animal back down and Paulina sighed softly when it ran into the house. It would be just her then.

[ghoulluck]

He hadn’t so much as thought about Paulina since Ryan had gotten out of the hopsital. He had fallen asleep on the couch with the girls during a movie when he dreamt about her. He didn’t usually have dreams. Mostly he just had nightmares. Old mistakes Ryan had suffered for. Regrets. Things of those nature that he could never forgive himself for. 

He dreamt about her, laying in the sun, naked and asleep against bodies with faces he didn’t recognize. Her face was against a woman’s back who somehow resembled her, although they didn’t look alike at all. When he woke up, he left a note for Ryan. She was asleep on the couch, her arm over bandit who was more then happy to be cuddled. Julien was awake, but when he tried to make her something to eat since she had been staring longingly at some bananas in the kitchen. she pushed him towards the door with strength he didn’t know she had. “Go!” She ushered and she practically slammed the door on his ass to get him out. 

He hadn’t so much as spoken to Paulina outside of work. He glanced at his watch. It was three in the morning. She had changed to the night shift after he had changed his to the early morning shift so he could take care of Ryan when she was awake. It felt like a tatic to avoid him. He used the key he had to the new apartment. He wasn’t surprised that there was hardly evidence of anyone living in it. He slowly opened the door of her room. 

She was awake, watching television with a beer propped up in pillows and curled up with a blanket. “Coté?” She turned her head and the frown on her face was evidence that he was no longer welcome. He felt a delicate touch on his shoulder. When he turned, he stood face to face with the Greek woman he had seen in the dream. His brows knit a little in confusion. The two women spoke in a dialect he didn’t understand and after a few moments of silence, kasandre took indy by the hand to the bed. 

Paulina didn’t even look at him. Honestly, that hurt worse then the fact the other woman was climbing into his side of the bed in his shirt. Paulina genuinely wanted him to leave. She did not want to be forgotten again. He didn’t know what to say to make it better. He was bad at articulating when he gave a shit. He deserved it. “Séis meses (six months).” She finally said. Her lips were slightly pursed to try to keep herself from being upset. He watched her wipe the eye that was furthest away from him. “I’m sorry.” She shook her head, “no.” He had plenty of opportunities, yet he didn’t think about it. It had just been too long. 

Kasandre felt her friend’s pain. He could see their skin was alike. Darkened by the sun and seemingly having captured it under their skin so they glowed even in the faint darkness. He nodded some as she laid her head down to curl up more around her beer. Again, the other woman’s hand was on him. She turned his head with her full hand. His jaw quivered, half in anger from being touched so familiarly by a stranger and half from the hurt of rejection. Paulina watched as kasandre coaxed the man into her arms. It didn’t look like he had the energy to leave. 

Soon enough, he laid between them in the dark. He didn’t dare touch either of them until Paulina pulled him more unto her so he could rest his head against her chest. She knew Ryan would always come first. She let her nails scratch his scalp, then the back of his neck and his back. His eyes flickered closed and exhaustion caught up with him.

[ghoulluck]

She had exactly one child. Paulina couldn't have asked for more, except for maybe it's life to be longer then a blink of an eye. She kept Celeste nestled against her chest, even days after the baby had died. She had fled Spain during it's civil war in hopes that death wouldn't touch them. Egypt had proven worse. 

The desert in which she had escaped to was desolate. The men had not followed her into it. The long Egyptian days lead to thirst and hunger. Her skin was burned by the harsh sun and the heat drew the moisture from the small corpse in her arms. The only pain she felt was the loss of Celeste's life. 

On the fourth day, she saw the temple half covered in sand. How she had survived, she did not know, but the eyes of the jackal headed statue assured her that there was a god looking after her, even if it had been too long since she had believed in one herself. The inside of the temple was untouched by time. It was empty, probably from having been stolen from by treasure hunters. The walls were carved with a language she did not know. The spanish woman looked at these things as she passed by them. 

The limestone stuck to her bare and badly burned and frost bitten feet as she walked down the small hall that opened into what must have been a small place of worship. In front of a large obsidion statue of the omnious god she did not know, there was a slate of the same obsidion. Paulina studied it and with no hesitation, she climbed up on it to curl around the dead babe. She faced the god as she laid on her side. She had prayed to the great god that the church had prayed to, but he had never answered. Perhaps for good reason. 

The spanish woman closed her eyes as she prayed to this new unfamiliar god. She asked him to let her baby know peace and to be free from the pain of death and to not allow Celeste to remember he hunger or thirst her last days had been filled with.  She didn't dare ask for anything for herself. Death never came for the spanish woman. Something else had. It glowed an intense gold and spoke in a language that did not belong to the natives on the land. 

It spoke to her and she understood. It asked for her body. She gave it freely in exchange for the things that she had asked for.

The Spanish woman sat across from Julien. Around her neck was a necklace, a crude resin with a lock of blood red hair that belonged to her child. Unlike the psychic she was unchained. Her skin was forever a dark bronze color from the egyptian sun, Paulina's brown eyes were bright as if they were made of gold and she was nearly naked as she was dressed in a delicate linen. 

There was something in her, she was not alone in her body. Julien could see it, a greek woman who had captured a dark god's heart. The man sitting next to her had dark eyes and shorn dark hair. He had a cruel, yet gentle face like he was capable of two very different things. She only dared look at his boots. Julien's nose and jaw were broken. His fists were raw and bloodied from the brief interaction. He was still angry with her. 

Coté had not understood the violence. She had been punched for getting in the way. His voice was undoubtedly raw. His face was wet. The blonde was to blame for his sister's death. There was no chance of forgiveness. Coté watched the golden woman beside him fade and she touched him softly like a lover would. In his eyes, she could see the glow of gold manifest behind his eyes. 

The thing that possessed the Spanish woman was promising him a sweet afterlife with the dearly departed.

[ghoulluck]

Angel adored the attention fritz got from the oracles. He was currently in baby's arms with only a giant hat to shield him from the sun as zero dotted fritz with sunscreen while trying to explain to the toddler why he needed sun protection in his 'adult' voice. 

Angel set her clothes apart as she joined the naked droves that had gone to bask in the sun. Maxie was next to mini laying on their stomachs talking about a book they were reading together. Kasandre lay next to her brother, the two speaking excitedly in a mix of languages she imagined they both had learned over the course of their lives. 

Sometimes she considered letting fritz stay with baby doll and her brother. Even if their relationship was a western taboo, she felt they were the best options for her son if anything happened to her. Rashida, clover, Frankie and the two poisonous ones were laying out in the space in between with Mina who was a deathly shade of white. 

It was comfortable to be naked together. There was no shyness and as weird as it had been looking in, being involved was different. The couple returned fritz to her who naturally reached for his sister's red demon. Mini took the baby to give him a kiss which resulted in her smacking her lips and frowning. She said something in french to which one of the other girls laughed about. 

"Baby butter--" Maxie repeated with a laugh as she dabbed the toddler's face to disperse the sunblock a little better.

[ghoulluck]

The separation was harder with time. Kasandre clambered up into the bed, into his lap and she reached up to bring his snout down. She kissed him, although it didn’t feel like a kiss and she kissed his forehead in hopes of easing whatever tumultuous state. 

She had been learning about what he did. The dead didn’t make her feel squeamish. No, by his side her intense curiosity became stronger. She handled hearts mostly, she put them into the scale across from the feather and when they tipped she would say her goodbyes and wait until anubis came back to her. 

She liked this job of sorts. She also had curiosity for the more morbid details. She would gently move about the corpses. Her hand from time to time dip into the flesh to pull a soft organ from it. She pushed away her thoughts as he pulled her down across his chest and over the bed. 

He plucked the delicate gold frames from her to place them on the bedside as she blushed with a shrug of her robe to expose the bare skin of her shoulder. Her brown eyes flickered at him, a soft show of gold and honey that said, ‘I’m your’s.’