Welcome to Gaia! ::

Lucian sat quietly.

“Hey, kid. Come on! Stop ignoring me! Don’t you know how boring it gets with nobody alive to talk to for a hundred years?” The voice went silent. “Oh, I see. Going to blame it all on us aren’t you?”

Another voice chimed in. “Can you blame him? All you do is scold and worry and torment him.” The voice was light and sweet, almost soothing. Hauntingly beautiful, at times he could almost love that voice.

The other voice retorted with a sneer, “Of course he is. Always what those warm-bloodeds do. They blame their ancestors…the dead, people who can’t fight back anymore.” There was a slight laugh, “Well not usually. But you’re different Lucian, you can hear us and for that you suffer.”

Lucian stared straight ahead. He didn’t have to have them tell him he was a freak, he already knew it. He knew that he was different. That in some part there was the offensive reek of decay in him. Lucian sniffed. Why did he always smell death?

It stuck in his nose until he was sick of it, until he ached with the pain of smelling it. He’d try to get rid of it by scrubbing his flesh raw but it didn’t work. If only--

“Hey come one! You can hear us! We all know it. You’re stuck with us for all eternity, you know?”

Lucian’s voice came low and dull. “I know.” He thought he saw someone’s eye flicker his way. They thought he was crazy, that he was talking to himself. They didn’t know the half of it. If only they saw what he saw…if only they understood that he wished that he was like them. One of them…Normal. Dull…anything but--

“Aww, come on kid! Don’t sound so happy about it. Get it! Happy?” The coarse laugh echoed in his brain. “You use to be a riot kid. What’s happened to you?”

“Leave him alone. You’re so cruel to him! He was abandoned with this Karloff.” The voice held a bit of disdain. “He’s had a hard time…his parents…” A soft, almost angelic sigh.

“He’s trying to be ‘normal’ and is therefore boring.” The snotty voice mocked again.

“Come on kid, whatcha wanna be normal for?” The masculine voice followed up with.

Lucian’s eyes glowed red. These ghosts were his demons. What choice did he have? They all knew it…There was no hope for him, he was destined to become evil…or crazy. Or maybe it was both? Why had he been born this way? He had no choice in what he would become. His sisters…where they like him? Maybe at least…These rotting voices didn’t’ haunt them…scabby, decaying hands did not reach to them in dreams, and ghostly noises did not haunt their every waking moments.

“You know, you could be so much better than normal…” The high-and-mighty voice had become soothing. “Trust me, I see great talent in you. You can do such great things, such great….evilthingssss….”The voice ended in a hiss.

Lucian sat for a moment without speaking, then he nodded his head. This was his destiny.

“Good…I have much to tell you that only the dead know…Listen, and listen well…” The voice became a whisper as Lucian’s eyes shut to it’s sobering voice.

While in his basket, the first thing Lucian remembered was Lux and Than. They were before sight or sound, but there after touch. It was difficult to explain, because he both heard, touched and saw Lux and Than. They were an integral part of him and his first conscious moments, and memories they were there. They had always been there, he knew that.

He had accepted that there were others with him, that everyone had others. They were there and they were natural to him. Not what he would find later was not true.

Lux loved him. Her voice was soft like silk, soothing. He had, at first, upon hearing her voice thought she was his mother. Who else could hold such kindness and compassion and warmth in a tone? Whose voice was like a lullaby? Who soothed him with her very touch.

Than had appeared in the same instant. He was the dark to Lux's light. Constantly trying to strangle and kill Lux. He hated the good in her, mocked her at every chance...tried to bring her to tears. But there was solid reasoning behind his actions. He was charasimatic and persuasive despite it all. Some kind of allure brought him to the forefront of Lucian's reason. He seemed so sane, but cruel. He understood the world, and regretfully he was always right.

But Lux and Than were there from the moment he could remember being in his mother's womb. And they went with him in his basket. He was amazed, they could fit with him. But they never left. They were always there. Bickering and crying, ranting and soothing....tormenting and loving.