
Banner By me
Title: Burning Embers
Author: Dream Weaver
Category: CC M/L
Rating: Teen
Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Roswell or the characters. Please don't sue......
Set three months after Departure. Everything happend up until then except all the aliens left with Tess and Liz, Kyle and Maria were unable to stop them, leaving them to pick up the pieces of what was left behind and the knowledge of Alex's killer.
The world is nothing without him, yet Liz Parker knows that in order to live her life and move on she has to set the past right. What happens when a chance message is sent over the divide? Will it be heard by the one she so desparately seeks?
Note: This is a story I am writing for the Exception Challenge at RH....Warning it is dark and angst filled.
Part One
The sun slid behind the clouds causing dusk to set on the world. The hint of fall kissed the air with a slight breeze that whipped through the trees causing the drying leaves to flutter to the ground. It was the time of the year when Mother Nature shadowed the earth with the illusion of a dying world, something that only made the time pass more slowly as the days shortened.
Dead…this word described so much these days and the young girl could only frown at the changing of the seasons. She moved slowly, almost in a trance as she finished her daily routine. Life seemed to only pass her by now as the girl was tortured by what had become of what seemed like such a promising year. This year was supposed to be a year of new beginnings not a year for catastrophic disasters.
As she flipped the light switch off, she glanced out the window and could only wince at the day as it concluded. This had been the way it had been for what seemed like years when in fact time had only stolen three months away. Her life had lost all meaning and every day that passed only made the longing of what would never be continue to be embedded on her heart and in her very soul.
The others seemed to feel it too. The time they spent together was always filled with silence and tears. The only sense of normal they had left to hold onto was their memories and that couldn’t keep them warm at night. Where once there was everything now only held nothing and life seemed to no longer hold a purpose for any of them. Life as they had led it for the past several years was gone and no matter how they tried, they could not go back and would never forget.
She sighed as she made her way listlessly towards her room before grabbing the cold knob that matched the feel of her very core. A shiver ran down her arm causing goose bumps to emerge on her delicate skin. She felt numb and void of anything these days yet this slight gesture made her hope that maybe…just maybe she could find a way to make it though the rest of the evening.
She entered the door to her room, only finding the moonlight spilling through it, setting the illusion of peace and comfort. But for her this room only made her feel trapped, confined to a life she could no longer pretend was normal. She frowned as she turned away from the window, stripping away her work clothing, which only felt like shackles to her. It pained her that her life no longer held anything she could consider happy. It devastated her that in her heart she knew she’d never be able to live without the breath and light that was stolen from her those many months ago.
The girl sat on the end of her bed as she grabbed her robe and slid it around her slim form. The cotton fabric that should have held comfort only felt like sandpaper against her skin and she sighed. Why did this have to be her life now? What had she done to deserve this existence? Was she not worthy of happiness? Or had the sacrifices’ of the past year been truly for nothing?
A single tear fell towards her cheek and she gritted her teeth biting back the loneliness that plagued her. She turned her gaze forward and as she looked out through her window and onto her balcony, an unspeakable pain pulled at her heart. She had not been able to set foot on that balcony, not after that night when her world was obliterated. Her mind told her that she needed to pull herself up and try to live, if nothing then for her family and her friends, but the harder she tried to let go, the more she sunk deeper into despair.
Realizing that she had been holding it, she took a deep breath in hopes to calm her emotions for what was to come this evening, but she couldn’t help the feelings of emptiness that swelled through her heart. She knew that something needed to change but would this be the right thing to do? Would this free her to finally accept the repercussions of her past choices and the consequences of so many mistakes in her life? Or would it rip away every fiber of her being and condemn her to a life of nothingness.
She stood on shaky legs and made her way forward, stopping at her dresser. She looked down to find a pair of haunting eyes looking back at her through the picture there and could only stare at it as she did every time she was in this room, which caused a flicker in her dead soul as it reacted to that picture. She couldn’t help but pick it up as memories of a happier time bombarded her mind. Another tear cascaded down the brittle skin of her cheek, threatening to break open the very flood gates that she so desperately tried to contain.
She caught her reflexion in her mirror and frowned. The dark circles only grew larger around her eyes and her face more pale and gaunt with the passing of the last few months. Most days she had to force herself to even get out of bed and eating was also hard when she never had an appetite. She knew that she needed to take better care of herself, but she couldn’t find the strength to. There was nothing left for her now.
She turned away from the stranger in her mirror before she gently sat the picture down. It was still hard to find the strength to turn away from that picture. And even in sleep those amber eyes haunted her dreams. There was no escape for her. She opened a drawer and grabbed out a pair of jeans and a long sleeved tee-shirt which she gently slid over her shivering body after disposing the robe onto the floor. Then with shaking hands she opened the top drawer of her dresser and began to remove the items that she had been collecting for the final reprieve to release herself from the shackles of the past in hopes to finally begin to heal and move forward. After gathering everything up, she bent down, placing them in a knapsack on the floor.
She hated that the time had finally come to sever her ties with her past, the only happiness that she had known in her life. She feared that performing this task tonight would forever dissolve a connection that she felt was the only thing that kept her breathing some days. The faint flicker of an essence that she so desperately clung to in hopes that someday it would be rekindled. But that yearning was only hindering her from mending her broken spirit and her barren existence. She knew that she had to move forward with her life, if not for herself but then for the others, even if it would destroy her in the process.
A familiar ring tone broke through the silence and through her thoughts and the girl grabbed her cell phone off her dresser. “Hey….” She said sadly.
The female on the other end sighed. “Are you getting ready?”
The girl grunted. “Yea, I guess I am really going to do this huh?” She could feel the hint of tears fighting to remain in her eyes.
“Chica, this is for the best. Please believe that. It may seem crazy, but I believe that this will gain you closure if nothing else. “The girl sighed before adding quietly. “We want our friend back.”
There was a hint of tears in her friend’s voice that brought a slight whimper from the girl. “I can’t believe I am doing this. I can’t believe I am even contemplating this. After everything that we went through, it feels like I am only giving up.” The tears began to fall on her cheek as the sobs once more returned.
The female also began to cry. “I promise you that they would not see it that way.” She paused to wipe away her own tears. “They wouldn’t want us to be like this. HE wouldn’t want you like this.”
He…….his face flashed into her mind. His smile always made her weak in the knees. His eyes were something to get lost in. His touch made her tingle and only crave more of him. His soul made her fall in love with him as the bond they made completed her. In reality what she was about to do could ultimately destroy that very bond and she couldn’t even imagine a life without that very connection.
“What if in doing this I destroy everything?” She whispered into the phone.
The female could only sigh. “Let’s just pray that that doesn’t happen. I’ll be here if you need me.”
The girl smiled sadly. “I know. I will call you soon. I love you Ria.”
Maria smiled as the silent tears fell for her friend. “Right back at you babe.”