9 Layers

[Kitsune]

Karlisle smirked and laughed to himself.


"As you wish."


He reached his hand over the gleaming white table and opened his fist- A silver chained necklace trickled into the surface.

 

[Clairvoiance]

Aria stared at the necklace in shock and awe. Why did she remember this necklace? Why did it look so familiar to her?


She just stared at it, disguising her discomfort with a smirk and cocky tone.


"I'm sure it looks very pretty on you," her voice was stale and the curl across her lips almost charming, "but what does that thing have to do with me?"

 

[Kitsune]

"It belongs to you." Karlisle moved it closer to her.


"If you take it, you may yet find out what it has to do with you."


Karlisle saw her eyes staring at their reflection in the polished metal.

 

[Clairvoiance]

Aria looked strangely at the boy and then ever so carefully took the necklace in hand.


"I'll never leave you."


"Come back to me."


"I'm done with this!"


"Aria no! Please! Don't!"


"I love you, Aria."


The girl took a deep gasp, dropping the pendant on the table almost as soon as she picked it up. Her stomach wildly churned with disapproval and emotions she had no choice but to feel. She looked to the air for more substance to breathe in, then stared directly up at Karlisle. Aira's body hurt and her mind was reeling. Something....inside her was changing so very slowly....she felt something for him...


She stuttered in shock, "W-What....is this...."

 

[Kitsune]

Karlisle recognized that tone. That voice. There was a hidden gentleness in it. A gentleness of the past and hadn't been heard in years.


"I don't fully understand it myself— I've never heard of things like this being even possible."


Karlisle leaned in closer over the table.


"Your name... is... Aria Casternova. You were born on February 11th 1990 in Seattle, Washington at 2:09 in the morning at Northwest Hospital and Medical Center. You had two siblings, a younger sister and an older brother. You're parents divorced when you were five. You grew up in the city, and moved around the age of sixteen to Chicago with your father. You lived to be twenty three years before you..."


His eyes grew larger at this— memories...


there she was


on the bridge


arms outstretched


his hoodie over her shoulders


it was raining

 

[Clairvoiance]

She wished she could stay silent, but something inside of her demanded otherwise.


"Before I committed suicide." she breathed, swallowing hard and leaning against the far corner wall of the white room.

 

[Kitsune]

"Yes..."


A chilling silence fell over the room


"two months later, your mom did the same."

 

[Clairvoiance]

"My mom....?"


It had left her mind that she even had a mother. It was amazing to her.


She hesitated "how do you know all this?"

 

[Kitsune]

A solemn soberness overcame his face. He relaxed his hands, his arms, his whole body... As he opened his mouth


"you and I were married."

 

[Clairvoiance]

Married??


Aria's eyes flashed back to his, her limbs frozen in place and heart anything but. "Y-You mean we...." she turned her gaze away from him, blushing to herself, "if we were married why would I kill myself?"

 

[Kitsune]

Karlisle stood slowly at this and crossed to the other side of the table.


"I failed to save you..."


He hung his head with shame- "I was too blind to see - they attacked you... y-you to get to me."


A tear rolled down his cold cheek and to the floor. He could not bare to look at Aria.

 

[Clairvoiance]

Aria was afraid to touch him, but felt the sudden desire to do so. Like her hand was being pulled to his shoulder...or to wipe away the tear. She took a step forward instead, leaning towards him with a puzzled face and sympathetic heart.


"Who? Why is someone after you?"

 

[Kitsune]

Her hand was warm as it wiped the tears away... he never could describe the great comfort this would send through his heart.


"they were after us, our.... family. We are clairvoyants."


He paused once more..


"clairvoyants are very few in the world now... "


He broke down to his knees and couldn't hold back the sobbing. "....our daughter..."

 

[Clairvoiance]

"W-wait I was a clairvoyant?" This seemed to be even more shocking than the memories that were flooding back to her when she didn't wish them to. Her heart rose to her throat, and she took a step away. How could a clairvoyant be turned into a demon? How was that possible?


"We had a daughter?" she spoke carefully, afraid to interrupt his sobs or disturb him as he cried. She didn't know what to do, all of this was so new to her....

 

[Kitsune]

"..Mia.."


He spoke between broken sniffles. He tried to wipe the tears from his eyes. He just stare at her feet trying to compose himself.

 

[Clairvoiance]

The name Mia struck a chord.


Her eyes got bigger.


"What happened to Mia."

 

[Kitsune]

Karlisle looked up at her full of tears,


"she was taken." the memory of the night pierced his being once more and shook him to his core.


"you don't remember... She's why you did it."

 

[Clairvoiance]

She killed herself....for her daughter?


She killed herself for her daughter.


And then it struck her. Standing on the edge of the bridge, arms out and heart willing to be devoured by black waves. And one thought on her mind.


'I have to bring her back'


Aria stumbled for a moment to catch herself, turning her back to Karlisle and walking away. She rest her hands against one of the white walls, a burning in her chest feeling like it was eating her alive. Her heart ached for the first time since....well, since she couldn't remember.


In one quick movement, determination flooding through her, Aria snatched the silver pendant off of the table and clipped it around her neck. Just as she thought, everything came to her. A tear fell from her cheek and she grabbed her stomach, doubling over in pain as even more memories, this time, of the three of them rushing past and through her. Aria kept her eyes shut, crying out as visions of a little girl in a white dress flipped the pages of her memories. And then the pages flipped to darkness.


Hell.


Becoming a demon to find her daughter in the underworld.


And she had.


Her red eyes flared, looking up indistinctly.


"That's why Fayte's here. He wants you dead for the prophecy and wants me back with Mia in hell with him before I remember who you and Mia really are."


She remembered holding the hand of a child in the darkness underneath, finding comfort in her little white dress and big blue eyes slowly fading to pink.


"Karlisle...." she looked up at him, hopeless, "....Fayte has our daughter."

 

[Kitsune]

Suddenly growing stronger, Karlisle rose to his feet and embraced Aria.


What? There's a chance?


This hope rekindled within his heart and rushed through the darkest corners of his bitterness, wiping it clean. This was love— the strength to protect his family refilled his spirit. He felt Aria in his arms, she was back. This embrace, this place, in times of hurt and pain; through all darkness and hopelessness, no matter what came their way, this place was safe. This place was home.


He rested his head on hers and breathed her in once more— suddenly it also hit him. The joy, the strength, the hope it brought him. She was here. He was here. They were home again. Reunited.


His daughter was out there... somewhere. A fiery passion filled his heart now. He had something to protect again. Someone to love. Someone to find. Someone to have and to hold, and this time, he wouldn't fail her.


"Aria. Where is Fayte."

 

[Clairvoiance]

How glorious and perfect this felt....nothing like what she'd been feeling over what seemed like a complete eternity. Their foreheads pressed against one another's, her mind reeled. Fayte was waiting undoubtedly. Wherever they were, he was waiting to pounce at their front door.


"He's waiting for me," she hesitantly spoke. She hated that demon, which seemed rhetorical, but she knew the hate was well deserved. Back where they were from, Fayte hovered over her like a lost puppy. It still didn't connect why he had taken Mia but it hadn't mattered at that point until now.


Aria touched the surface of Karlisle's knee and whispered gently to him.


"He'll kill you, Karlise."

 

[Kitsune]

"He will try."


Karlisle took her hand and placed it over his heart. "Aria..." catching her gaze with loving and compassionate eyes.


"...we will get our daughter back. I promise."

 

[Clairvoiance]

Aria nodded. She had no doubt of that. But that meant finding Fayte.


"You need to let me find him."

 

[Kitsune]

He let the words sink in- everything within him loathed what she just told him. He didn't want to agree. It was too dangerous, he didn't want to risk her becoming taken away from him again just when he had finally found her- this peace, this home once more. He grit his teeth and let out deep sigh of discontent. He knew she was right, but his body disagreed with sudden rise in tension.


"Aria... I cannot risk losing you again. He will take you, and do everything possible to make you forget again."


He lay his fingers over her necklace.

 

[Clairvoiance]

Her heart skipped a beat when she heard his intense concern....it felt good to be cared about. But there were so many holes in the theory.


"Karlise...I'm dead...." she touched him lightly against his cheek, but it didn't last long before she had to pull her palm away. Her stomach churned, eyes darting away from him, "you're going to lose me either way. I can't..... stay here. My job was to kill you and then I'd be sent back...." the truth slipped off of her tongue before she could catch it. She shouldn't have told him she was here to end his life....


She stood to her feet, taking in a deep breath laced with more bravery than she felt. "Either way, I have to go back there. Fayte has the ability to pull me back there, and so do all other demons." She set a hand on the back of her head, running her fingers through her white hair, "they won't let me stay on earth when they realize I've remembered everything. Especially that they took my daughter."

 

[Kitsune]

"Our daughter." he placed his hand over her stomach. He let out a sigh...


"there has to be a way."