Chapter 2 - Final Goodbye

2: Final Good-Bye
America, Washington
2012


"Are you going to finish that?" Jax asked and receive a glare from me. I quickly gulped down the last of my mocha latte before dumping it in the trash so that he couldn't swipe it away. I sat back down, nearly slipping off my seat, and watched as he finished the last of his coffee.
"I can't come tonight," I told him suddenly. Jax's face fell as he set down the drink.
"Soccer again," he said. It wasn’t a question but I nodded my head and tucked a strand of hair behind my ears, only to have it slip away and fall back into my eyes.
"My team needs me to be there. I can't skip practice to go to another Frat party." Jax tossed his cup in the trash and avoided my eyes.
"I need you, too," he said. With a sigh, I rested my head against my hand on the table, waiting for Jax to lecture me about how we never spending enough time together. But all he did was squeeze my hand and kiss it softly.
"I miss you, baby" he whispered to me and pressed his forehead against mine, making my eyes close. It was moments like these that made me fall in love with him all over again.
"I need to get home before Gabrielle gets back from Europe-" I said and gave him a soft kiss before standing. "I'll call you later.” The corner of Jax's lips twitched up into my favorite smile and said, "I love you." He did that every time we had to depart and it wasn’t fair how he made his golden- brown eyes wide to look shy and cute.
We’re childhood sweethearts; soul mates. But ever since The Mistake, I could never make the three letter words escape from my stubborn mouth.
"I know you do," was all that came out before I turned away. But not before he grabbed my waist, pulling me back to him. I felt my cheeks grow red from all the stares in the small café.
"Without pain, there can be no true love," Jax reminded me. I allowed a giggle as his lips tickled my ear as they whispered, "Baby, you are my soul and life love. Every day I strive to become a better man for you." His words made my heart fly, but everything must come in for a landing.
"You're so cheesy-" I said and slapped his hand away from my waist before it could travel any farther down. "-and you know I hate P.D.A." Jax smiled and kissed my forehead. "Call me when you get home.” With a nod of my head he let me go.
A strong gust of wind blew into my face as I stepped outside, making me zip up my coat and dig my hands in my heavy jacket pocket. After having a minor heart attack from not feeling a bump in my pocket, I pulled out my cell-phone and car keys as I walked out into the severe storm. The weather looked like a typical winter day in University Place with dark clouds over head, promising rain. I spotted my small, white Volvo sitting next to Jax's black, pick-up truck. My eyes peered up at the sky, a thought coming to my head.
It could be today.
Then, out of nowhere the dark clouds let out a roar of thunder. It sent a long boom everywhere, causing a few people to hurry inside the little shops. My feet quickened their pace, my eyes throwing glances up at the sky for lighting and counting the seconds.
"Please don’t be in the…" I mumbled but to my horror, a bright light flashed in the East."That doesn’t mean that it's time," I told myself and jammed the keys in the ignition. I tried to find a song on the radio, but everything was static. "Damn it!” I was not looking forward to a quiet drive home.
But then it happened and there was no stopping it. Like a females PMS, you can’t prepare for a late one. I slammed on the breaks and let out a gasp. My hands automatically flew to my stomach where something deep down inside of me seemed to split part.
It was then that I pressed my foot on the gas.
Two worlds were dividing as my car sailed past streets until I turned onto my home road.
The wind made my face turn numb and blew back my hair as I stepped out and slammed the door shut. The storm was coming fast and I was already running late. Rain pounded on my face, causing me to squint as I pounded in the four digit pass code for the garage door. I screamed as more thunder roared and lightning flashed overhead. Looking up, I murdered a swear word that I will not bother repeating. It was as if angels and demons were fighting in the heavens for whatever reason.
I threw the door open, making a loud bang! as it slammed on the wall. The cats scattered as I dashed up stairs and checked the clock. Time was back tracking. The numbers on the alarm clock were racing back days, weeks, and years. The theories of time found their way into my memory.
1. Time is a straight path; no way forward or back.
2. Everything happens at once.
3. At certain points, time crosses over like knots.
My experience had pretty much confirmed lucky number three. The magic of Time had found me and was pulling me back.
Normally on a Saturday, a girl my age would be out with friends or studying for exams, but I was not a normal girl. I knew a thing or two about what made everyone different in their own ways, but I didn't have the same definition of "different" in my dictionary.
At 18 years old, I was pretty proud to know that I held the ability to throw a knife at 75 mph (Oh yeah, you read 75mph) and at 50 yards away, hit a target right on the dot. To you, that is some skill but where I got it from is what will blow you away.
Since I was 16, I disappear back in time with the girl that changed my life. Melanie was a close friend of mine ever since the 6th grade and our friendship grew stronger over the years. The place where we are about to mysteriously travel to is why I was sitting on my bed and punching in Jax's phone number as the clock ticked down to the final seconds. The line rung and I forced back tears when I heard Jax's voice on the massage machine.
Some books tell true stories. The Phantom of the Opera is one of these books. My skin started to tingle and I felt myself slowly become light-headed, meaning that I was fading away. I should have been scared and freaking out but once you develop a friendship with the Phantom himself, nothing scares you.
"Hey, it's me," A lump formed in the back of my throat as I spoke into the phone and took in a breath. My eyes made a bold moving gliding over the clock and my heart beat faster as it ticked down to the final 10 seconds. "I wanted to tell you this in the Café but I didn’t know how. I have always been deeply in-"
A fire scorched through my veins, burning away the part that made Cassandra Jené Hansen exist. I released an ear piercing screech and dropped the phone onto the floor. I was gone, but still there; resurrected, but somewhat dead. The end of one was the beginning of another. Casey would not exist for another 140 years.



Paris, France
1873

The world was dark and the air was icy but it felt good against the young girl's burning skin as her body finished the last of the transformation. Her hands parted her hair that hung around her face and she looked up around the room. She shut her eyes again, trying to back track what had happened.
She remembered being in a hurry to get somewhere but everything else was blank. Feeling frustrated with herself, she stood slowly and gave out a soft groan. Her muscles ached and her skin felt numb. Had she fallen in her hurry and was now stuck in a pit? The thought made her giggle. She didn’t remember being so clumsy. With her arms out stretched, she walked around the room, looking for anything that would end the dark. It was pitch black and she couldn’t see a thing. Her foot kicked a hard object and she stumbled before catching her balance. A cool breeze caused a cloth-like material to blow against her legs.
"Oh snap," she gasped and felt down her body. She had the curves of a woman with a slender figure, much like a dancers and was wearing a tight corset dress. The girl's eyes squinted from seeing a bright glow that blasted on in the room. Standing by the door was a man that made her stomach twist and legs twitch from wanting to run. He had a boney body that he hid under black clothes that belonged to a gentleman. A white mask was covering his entire face but the girl could see his smiling, confused yellow eyes, which looked back at her as if they were laughing.
"Lorie, what are you doing?" he said carefully, thinking his words offended her.
"I-"
"Did you fall again?" he asked with an amused smile while looking down at the floor. Lorie followed his gaze and saw a candelabrum on the ground and figured that’s what she had kicked.
"Yeah, I fell somehow," she said.
"You're bleeding again," he stated. Lorie looked down at the cuts on her fingers from her constant nibbling. But they were fine.
The man's face was familiar to her, but she couldn’t quite put a name on him. He came forth slowly, and the movement seemed to scare her, causing her heart to race.
"May I?" he asked and raised his hand and placed it on her neck. Lorie flinched at the feeling of his dead, cold, bony hand to her skin and jumped back. Seeing as he startled her, the man took a step back as well. On his finger was her blood.
"Your scar, Lorie-" he said, "-you need to stop picking at it."
"What?" she trembled and touched her throat. The skin was rough and itchy and a sticky liquid covered the top of it. A trigger went off in Loire's brain and she suddenly remembered:

The window was left ajar, making the curtain blow softly. The room was dark and smelled of death with a mixture of new life. A soft noise had awoken her as she lay in bed. Her shoulder was numb but when she tried to change her position on the bed, it stung and made her groan.
That’s when she saw a yellow pair of eyes glaring at her from across the room. Her stomach flipped and she was about to scream when a dark figure sprang on her and covered her mouth. A sharp blade was held to her throat and the man dug it into her skin.
"Thanks to you, my Dove got away," he spat in her ear. Pressure was pressed upon her shoulder, but her high-pain tolerance caused her only to flinch. "To pay for your sin, you are going to sing in my opera," he told her. Lorie squealed and bit his hand. Erik yelped and recoiled, giving Lorie time to scream.
That’s when it happened. Erik sliced her throat three inches across her neck. He cut deep enough to leave a scar, but not to kill her. He wanted to use her.

"Lorie, let me help you," Erik said again and started to come near her once more. Lorie dodged him and looked daggers at him.
"Don't touch me!" she snapped dashed around him and ran like she stole something. Memories flooded into her head and she saw her life through the ages flash before her eyes. Her body seemed to know where to go so she followed her instincts and found herself running up a spiral staircase and throwing open a door and found her standing in a room.
The walls were Japanese Cherry-Blossom pink, Lorie's favorite color and a small smile tugged on her lips as she looked about the room. It was Victorian style with a light pink quilt on the bed to match the walls of the room. White drapes made of satin hung over what hid a closet and a small desk was placed in the corner of the room along with a bookshelf. The mood of the small dorm was calm and soothing and Lorie walked around it. She spotted a full sized body mirror behind the door and took a good look at herself. Her hands pulled at her oval face with soft feminine cheek bones and touched her light, pink lips. She looked into her dark, brown eyes that peered back at her shyly. Lorie turned away and got to work. She needed to find out who she was now that she was stuck in The Phantom of the Opera.

.......................................................

"I'm telling you, Donna, it was as if she had no idea who she was." Donna put on a puzzled expression on her face, pretending to be confused as Erik helped her hang up her coat.
"When was this?" Donna asked and shook out her golden locks from the tight bun it was trapped in. Erik marveled at his young beauty as she looked up at him with ocean blue eyes. "That doesn’t sound like Lorie at all," she said although she knew that Casey's soul was back in Lorie's body. Sometimes when they traveled back they lost their memory including who they were. Although it had never happened before, Time could set them in a different place and they would be lost in time.
"About two hours ago. She ran up to her room and I have not seen her since," Erik told her. Donna spun around, her eyes wide with fear.
"She has been alone?!" she hissed, "You know her condition is dangerous! She must not be alone with all of those knives up there-" she said and trailed off. Erik took his wife's shoulders and rubbed her arms, soothing her.
"Fear not my Dove; if she wanted to harm herself, she would have done so a while ago," he informed her.
"And she is still in her room?" Donna asked. Erik nodded and placed his hand on the small of her back, bringing her closer to him. Donna wrapped her arms around him, giving him a gentle squeeze. Erik took Donna's face in his gloved hands.
"She will get better," he promised. "I know it stresses you out, but we just need to give it time." He then brushed his lips over hers slowly and parted away, leaving her wanting more.
"I better go check on her," Donna flushed.
"Be careful," he warned. "I know what she is capable of doing."
"Lorie will not hurt me," Donna said. "She is only going through a tough time. Last time, the doctor said-"
"Don't speak of the doctor," Erik demanded with a hint of ice in his voice and let her hand go. "I am not proud of what I did," he said and walked into the vast cave with twinkling candles that looked like stars had fallen from the sky.
"Erik, you had no choice. Dr. Alex was a drug dealer," Donna reminded him.
"But he was the only one that knew how to get through to Lorie," he said over his shoulder as he sat down at his organ.
"There will be more Doctors," replied Donna and made her way to Lorie's room. Donna knew that she would have to explain what had happened to Lorie while they were away. She knew that Lorie would never give her heart away to another man after The Mistake and one thing that she learned was that words cut deeper than the sharpest knife and they stay with you if you don’t allow them to be healed. But actions hurt more. Actions kill. Actions are stronger than words.
Donna knocked softly on the door to Lorie's room and opened it slowly. "Hey, Lorie," she said and stepped in. Lorie snapped her head up violently, her eyes wild and red from tears.
"Is it all true?" she whispered. "The stories…are they real?"
"What do you mean?" Donna responded and followed Lorie's gaze to papers that were lined in a row on the carpet.
"Lorie, what is all of this?" inquired Donna and crouched down and squinted and found that she had made a time line starting with the year that Time pulled her back: 1862, the year she was discovered by the circus folks and taken in. They were all reborn in the lost time and Donna remembered the story of when Lorie's parents dumped her off in the cold and rain, or that’s what she told everyone. Loire was only eight years old when she lost her memory of her past and she did not remember her real parents. The lost little girl didn’t even recall her name so she picked the name of the famous knife thrower, Lorie du Couteau. On top of that, Lorie forgot she had a little sister.
Madeline, taken in and named by the Gypsies, was a sash dancer and mastered the art of flying through the air with the other Gypsies in sashes. The sisters met and quickly became inseparable. With their talents raving and becoming better, the Circus was able to travel more.
In 1864, Lorie and Maddie went on a voyaged to perform all over Europe and Persia, including Moscow. Then, in 1866 the Circus came back to stay in Paris where they fell in love with the sights.
Donna glanced over at Lorie who had her head resting between her knees and was rocking back and forth slightly. "Hey," Donna said and reached out to pat her on the arm but Lorie recoiled and told Donna to keep reading with a husky voice.
One set of articles was set aside from the others. Donna squinted at the tiny date in the corner and smiled. It was the year that she first met Lorie and Maddie in 1869 at the circus and they became their own trio. Their friendship became a sisterhood when the trio moved in to a small cottage and sold roses the following year. "The Phantom disguised himself to buy roses for Christine," the article said. Donna swooned at the memories of when she first met Erik. Of course, she didn’t know it was him. He was a gentleman and kind to her and bought tons of roses every week. When Donna's father died, the trio decided to move into the Paris Opera Populaire to start a new life. That's when it all happened: The trio found themselves living in a horror story. They all regained their memory when Donna turned 16 on July 27th. Melanie, Casey, and Gabrielle adapted to the life style they grew up in and continued to live as Donna, Lorie, and Maddie.
In 1870, when Erik's heart broke after Christine left with her one true love, he went after Donna and doing so, he tortured Lorie and Maddie out of his craziness and madness.
The articles about what happened in 1872 were of Donna and Erik's wedding. And then Donna realized why Lorie's shoulders were now shaking from her tears. It was all in the fine print.
In 1873, the editorial said the following:

It was a late night when Lorie arrived at Devin's house for a dinner date and everything seemed to be in order. "The food was delicious," Lorie told the reporters after finding out about the terrible event. "He made me Spaghetti and I ate the whole thing." What Lorie didn’t know is that Devin drugged the food and took advantage on Lorie's body while she was passed out…"

Donna couldn't read anymore. She skimmed the lines until she found the part about the baby. Madam Giry was interviewed and told the story of the painful night.

"Lorie is a very strong student of mine. She works very hard every day and her dancing always takes the crowds breath away. If she was in pain, no one would know about it. I never heard a complain come out of her mouth. So when she threw open my door that night, I knew something was terribly wrong.
She was hugging her stomach, saying that something had broken inside and she was bleeding. 'I'm not pregnant. There is no father,' she told me. I lay her on the bed and gave her morphine to take the pain away. The baby boy came out quickly but he was dead."

Donna remembered the investigation of who the father was and everything came down to Lorie's now ex-boyfriend, Devin Laree. He was charged of rape and sent away. She glanced over at Lorie who was looking at her through her streaks of hair.
"You called him Zach," Donna whispered. This only made Lorie cry out in sobs. They sat together, Donna's arm wrapped around Loire so she was forced to cry on Donna's shoulder.
As Donna thought of something to say, her eyes caught on an article that Lorie must have missed and it was a good thing she did. The heading was partly hidden but she still knew what it said.

Devin Laree Escapes His Death Sentence.

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