Saints Awakening

Rain dripped off the tips of his dark hair as his golden eyes bore into mine. There was so much pain behind his bright eyes and he looked at me as if he were waiting for me to understand something, but I didn’t know what. I never knew and he never told me.

He never said anything.

A sad smile tugged at his lips, he let out a sigh and walked away from me. Sorrow and hurt spread through me. Tears mixed with the rain on my cheeks as I reached out for him. I screamed for him to come back to me but nothing left my lips. I tried to go after him but I was rooted to the ground as he disappeared into the mist.

“Miss Remida!”

“Fuck!” Leni jumped as she popped her head up from her desk. Her arm jerked and spilled coffee over the pages of drawings and notes in front of her. “Shit.”

“Leni, Mrs. Harken is here,” her assistant announced as she burst through her office door. “Oh dear, did you have a rough night again?”

“I-I’m fine, Amber,” Leni sighed as she dabbed the coffee off her notes. “Is she waiting to meet with me right now?”

“Yes. She’s with the designers and they want to look at your plans for the new spring line,” she said as she hurried across the room to pick up the fallen notes on the floor. “Girl, you need to get yourself together. You can’t let Mrs. Harken see you like this,” she huffed as she brushed off her shoulders and took the coffee stained notes out of her hand. “I’ll print you a new copy. Now, get up and do something with your hair.”

“Fuuuck, why is she here today?” she groaned and slid her hands over her face.

Amber slid her hands to her hips and shook her head. “You’ve known about this meeting for weeks and you know how Mrs. Harken is. That woman gets after you for the littlest things. You’ve got to get more sleep, Leni.”

“I’m trying. I just -” she sighed as a pair of sad golden eyes floated through her mind. She shook her and stood up. “I’m fine. Just give me five minutes and I’ll be ready.”

“Mm-hm, I’ll get you another coffee too,” she said as she left the office but not before dumping the stained notes in the bin.

Leni crossed her office full of fabric and garment samples to stand in front of the mirror. She tucked a few curls back into the half braid around her head and ran her fingers through her curly tresses.

She smoothed her hands over her tan and burgundy plaid pants and buttoned her burgundy blazer over her black turtleneck. Tears pricked the corners of her eyes as a heavy weight of sadness washed over her. She pressed a hand against the mirror and took a deep breath as she blinked back her tears.

That fucking dream.

It had been a regular occurance in her life for ten years. They started on her eighteenth birthday, but they weren’t as frequent as they were now or as emotionally draining. Every time she closed her eyes he was there. Staring at her with that sad look on his face and her heart broke every time he walked away from her.

She wiped the tear rolling down her cheek.

Come on, Leni. Get it together.

She took another deep breath and straightened her jacket. She rolled her shoulders and pointed her finger at her reflection to recite the mantra she’d created to keep her sane. “That man isn’t real and his sorrow isn’t yours to bear.”

She looked herself over once more and her heart thumped as a faded image of the phantom in her dreams materialised before her.

“No!” She screamed and threw a blanket of fabric over the reflection. Her hands shook as she backed away from the mirror. She’d never seen him like that before. Not without closing her eyes.

“Fuck, I need to sleep,” she slid a hand over her face as Amber popped her head into her office.

“Miss Remida, are you ready?”

She pulled her hand away from her face and nodded. “Y-yes, I need you to cancel any meetings I have after this. I’m taking the rest of the day off.”

“A wise decision. Here’s your coffee and your notes,” Amber smiled and pressed a hand to her shoulder. “You’ve worked hard on this, we all did. Mrs. Harken is going to love it.”

“Thank you,” she sighed. “Um, would you mind having someone remove that mirror from my office? It’s um, taking up too much space.”

Amber raised an eyebrow and looked over her shoulder at the fabric draped haphazardly over the mirror in the corner of the expansive corner office. “Do you want a smaller one?”

“No, just...just have it removed.”

“Sure thing. It’ll be gone when you come back.”

“Great,” she nodded. “Wish me luck.”

“You got this, Miss Remida.”

Damn straight I do.

Mrs. Harken was a formidable owner and executive director, but Leni had worked her ass off for this new clothing line and she wasn’t going to let her tear her down again. Nor would she let that dream or that hallucination throw her off her game.

I got this.

10 years ago

“I’ve served my time!” A prisoner roared from an orbiting cage inside the well of a damp cavernous cave.

“Yes you have,” a man chuckled below him. He raised a powder white hand and the cage lowered from its orbit. “Two hundred years has passed and your beloved has been reborn.”

“You have to release me,” the prisoner growled.

“Mm, I don’t. The Impions rule the Earth and Elysia now. You’re the only Saint left so why should we let you go?”

“Because that was the deal or have you all lost your integrity too?”

The black robed man bared his fangs and grabbed the prisoners by his neck. “We should’ve sentenced you to death and I should’ve chained your wife to my side,” he grinned and leaned in closer to him. “I can still feel her blood in my veins.”

The prisoner’s golden eyes turned a deadly shade of black as a guttural growl rumbled in his chest. His mouth curled into a snarl as he strained against the pulsing chains around him. Frozen patches of ice freckled his tawny cheeks and he let out a quick breath.

His captor’s eyes grew wide and cried out as a blast of air full of tiny frozen needles slashed his pale skin. He chuckled and wiped the blood from his face. “I’ll always have a piece of her.”

“Release him,” an elderly man dressed in the same black robes commanded. His white hair flowed around his head as if it moved with an invisible breeze. His milky white eyes fell on the prisoner and a smug grin tugged at his lips. “We are still a people of our word and he’s no threat to us any longer,” his tired voice croaked. “Let him search through time for his mate. The Deessa Lua is nothing but a mere mortal.”

“Ah yes,” the captor grinned and licked the blood on his fingertips. “A fragile unsuspecting mortal,” the captor smirked as he unlocked the cage around him. He raised his fingers and the chains around the prisoner went taut as he levitated out of the circular enclosure.

The captor held him in mid air as the milky eyed curmudgeon next to him waved his frail arms and a portal of blue and black swirling energy materialised before them.

“Happy hunting, Deesso Verndarni," the captor growled as he catapulted the prisoner through the swirling portal. He called out and struggled against the restraints still locked around him as the portal engulfed him in a whooshing rush of time and energy, heat and cold, silence and the weight of crushing darkness.

A tiny spark of light lit up in the sea of black and a pair of warm hazel green eyes on the face of a woman with deep brown skin and soft curly black hair stared at him in shock. The prisoner’s heart thumped, he tried to call out to her and reach for her but she was gone as soon as she appeared.

The insidious sound of voices, car horns and a rush of air filled his senses before he crashed into wood and metal and finally landing in a thick puddle of mud.

“Oh my God! Are you okay?” A woman shrieked.

The prisoner groaned and shook from the shock of what he’d endured, but more so from seeing her face. ”Mi cuore...mi Deessa Lua,” he whispered before his limbs went limp and darkness swept over him again.

A/N: Thank you so much for checking out Saints Awakening!