Saturday, May 5, 2007

Tabula Rasa

BIG NOTE:

This chapter is from Malice's POV. So you don't have to wonder why it seems so strange.


Chapter 6

"Yes, nostalgic. That this place is."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another day. A day just like all the others.

Wake up, get dressed, eat breakfast, go to work, get home, eat something, go to bed.

The same happens every single day. Minus the vacations.

And here I thought that when you die you get out of the never-ending circle.

But no.

The only difference seems to be taking out the lost souls and all the other demons everyday.

But even that gets boring after a while.

Being almost immortal has its good and bad sides.

But I wasn’t thinking of that when I got here.

Well better here than in Hell I suppose.

...and then there’s rookie.

Yeah, I know she has a name. But someone has to keep her on her toes.

She’s too much of a human anyway. And humans need to be slashed at every once in a while or they get used to things being good. But even when things are good they complain. It’s like they want everything to go wrong.

And when it does, they complain some more.

Sheep, that’s what humans are. Stupid and close-minded sheep.

They always need someone to point at the direction to go to and they don’t give a rat’s ass even if it were the wrong one. Hey they have someone to blame for that too!

God, Satan or whatever they “believe” in. Hah. They’re just looking for someone to blame for their flaws. Because the man is never at fault. Even at the time when God was perfect and innocent the man was never at fault.

The woman was.

Women were always “the ones to turn to Satan” and “away from God” and always “easy to trick to committing sins”.

Never the men. Men were loyal to God, perfect, strong and women were their underlings and servants.

And of course women started to fight the fact AFTER I died.

Bad luck or some sick revenge from God or whoever?

I don’t care really. When life kicks you, you gotta kick it back.

That’s the reason I’m here in the first place.

~*~*~*~*~

The rookie is late. Great, I get to grill her again.

She’s high above the clouds and I’m the one who snaps her back to reality.

But I never asked for a partner anyway. I’m not her beast friend or anything. This whole arrangement is just plain business as always.

Ah there my victim- eh partner is.

Looks like she hasn’t slept too well. Well that ain’t my problem.

“You’re late rookie.”

“I know, you don’t have to tell me that!”

It’s not like I’m too happy about this either.

Well someone’s gotten up on the wrong foot this morning.

“Just make sure it won’t happen again.” To my surprise she goes through her bag and throws a folder at me. I easily catch it.

“I was late because I finished that stupid report!”

And that took ages so you better NOT complain! Plus I haven’t been sleeping well, I skipped breakfast to get here as fast as possible and I do NOT need you to start bitching at me about it!

I suppress a laugh. Maybe she’s got guts after all.

~*~*~*~*~

“When am I going to get my weapon?”

Well that one sure got me off guard.

“Huh?”

“Yeah Sam told me that you should’ve given me one already!”

“So the nutcase redhead told ya? Well then I guess I don’t have to explain it to you.”

“Well how about you do so that I know what I’ve been missing!”

“Not much I can tell you that.”

“So when and how am I going to get my weapon?”

Geez she’s like a persistent little kid.

“When? I was thinking of today but since you’re in that mood...”

“Sorry. I’ll calm down.”

“Nah just kidding. How? That depends. It’s different for everybody.”

She nods.

“And you have to go get it alone.”

“WHAT?! You won’t help me?!”

“Nope. You gotta make it through this one all by yourself.”

She looks horrified. Great.

“Plus you won’t get just your weapon. You get all your other powers too.”

“Powers?”

“Yup. Powers.”

“So when do I get them?”

“As I said, today.”

And there’s the movement she does every time she gets nervous. She starts scratching her arm like she has a rash or something. She doesn’t even realize how much of the stuff she does tell how she’s feeling and what she’s thinking.

“In a few hours to be exact. But we can go grab something since you skipped breakfast and all.” She looks horrified. I grin. “You really need to work on those thoughts of yours and how to keep them to yourself.”

“I can do that?” She looks surprised.

“Sure. But it requires concentration. Which you don’t have.” She pouts.

“Cheer up. There are a lot of people who don’t.”

“Okay. No work for you today?”

“Nope, how’d you know?”

“You’re wearing a skirt and you can’t run with those shoes.”

Damn observer.

~*~*~*~*~

After eating we enter the elevator.

“So where are we going?”

I saw that coming.

“The lowest place of the whole Office.”

“Which is?”

“Floor D.”

“Okay.”

The elevator goes lower and lower. I’m getting a nostalgic feeling from this.

“How long does this take?”

“To get to the bottom or getting your stuff?”

“Getting my stuff.”

“Depends. It took me a few hours but you might take longer.”

“Why?!”

I give her a neutral look.

“You’re weak and not just physically.”

She looks like I hit her with a bat.

“Face it. I’m not here to comfort you or give you courage. I’m here to make sure you get out alive. It’s my job.”

She looks down again. Well there’s nothing I can do about it, it’s her problem.

The elevator stops.

“Well we’re here.”

We step out in silence.

~*~*~*~*~

I’ve seen this place before so it doesn’t bother me anymore. But this is the first time for rookie.

I remember how shocked I was when I first stepped on the platform and saw the endless red ocean.

So is rookie right now.

“Well what are you waiting for?”

“Huh?”

“If you’re ready, then jump in.”

“In THERE?!”

I sigh. She’s not too bright sometimes.

“Yes. You won’t drown in there. And you’ll get out when you’re done.”

She looks reluctant to jump in. I guess I need to give her a push.

Literally.

“Good luck rookie! Make sure you survive okay?”

She opens her mouth and I push her off the platform.

The ocean swallows her. She disappears from my sight for a minute and then the water clears. She’s getting up from the floor.

I sit on the edge of the platform. Yes, nostalgic. That this place is.

~*~*~*~*~

“Amanda! We have to get going, the service is about to begin!”

“Why do I have to go?”

“Don’t start that again, the whole town is there!”

“That’s not a reason.”

“Why didn’t I have a normal daughter? First you start fencing then you refuse all the men I brought here to get to know you-”

“They’re all just spoiled rich boys with an intelligence of a duck.”

“Mind your tongue, girl, you never know who’s listening.”

“I have no intentions of getting married!”

“You will get married voluntarily or God help me I will drag you to the church myself!”

“Well then you try to do that, because I’m NOT. GOING.”

I get a slap from my mother.

“Listen. This is not for you to decide. Now grab your coat and off we go. Act like a normal daughter for once in your life. Do it for your family’s sake if not for yourself.”

I grab my coat and off we go.

The mood in the church is even more depressing than usual. Still I sit down next to my mother and try to block the words coming from the priest. It’s not like I believe that bullshit anyway.

Now that’s a though my mother would kill me for.

“Dear congregation, I have horrible news.”

Everyone goes quiet. Now what is it this time?

“We have found something from the woods. We have found evidence of a horrible sin, we have found evidence of the practice of WITCHCRAFT!”

The whole church stirs. Even I look at the priest.

“And we have a sinner right here among us! Yes, a wolf disguised as a sheep! Servant of the Devil! And we have witnesses!”

Some black coated men bring in 3 girls. All of them have hated me since my family got here. Last week they came to me and said that they “know what I do at nights”. Right, they’re all just spoiled brats. If I could do magic I would’ve made them suffer already.

Now I got the picture of what’s going on.

And I think I know what happens next.

And sure enough, one of the girls points straight at me.

“It was Amanda! She did it! She came last night! She made us sign the book of the Devil! And then she left, she flew away!” she screams hysterically. Now of course the whole church turns to look at me.

“Get her!”

~*~*~*~*~

I wake up from my memories and take a look at the ocean. Rookie’s doing alright. I sigh.

Guess she’s better than I though.

But the hardest part is still ahead.

It was for all of us.

--------------------------------------------------

A/N: So we had a peek in the mind of Malice. Interesting? Boring? Let me know if it was bad and I won't do it again.

Now I don't have anything against religion. I don't hate people for believing. But Malice isn't that much of a believer character, so I write according to her character. So don't start flaming me for it.

See I know it's a good character when it starts to live a life of it's own meaning that I sort of know what it'd do or say. Malice, Sam and Kaoru are characters like that. Anya is still developing though.

Also I've done the Rowlings! Meaning that I know how the last chapter of Tabula Rasa will go (it's not coming up for a long time, don't worry!) and how some of the later chapters go as well.

And I'll have a special chapter up at some point and it (hopefully) won't be so...angsty since we all need some humor every once in a while, don't we? ^^

So as usual, all comments and questions are welcome!


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