I've known better days... (better_days) wrote in haunted_roads, @ 2008-02-09 19:51:00 |
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Entry tags: | bastian |
Week Two: Tuesday - Narrative
Seattle. How long had it been since he'd walked these streets? They were familiar and foreign to him now. Dark alleys that he once had known too well now lit up by new building lights. Each step was tentative as he moved, as though he were waiting for the next one to send him falling and spiraling back to where he'd been. He wasn't even sure how he had made it this far. Running, hiding, she knew where he was going to head. It was only a matter of time before she'd be walking right next to him with a smirk on her lips and a pat to his head like a puppy. Yes he knew he was running on a short time schedule....but he didn't care.
He had to get back. He had to know.... For so many years it was hinted they were dead and gone. So many times dangled in his face that he had nothing to go back to now. He had refused to believe it, unwilling to ever accept it....but he didn't know what he was coming back to. Even as he'd raced here he wasn't sure what to expect. It had been years now...did he think if they were alive they were waiting for him? Yes part of him had hoped for just that...and another part had hoped for the opposite. Did he really want them sitting around not moving forward because of him?
Could he take it if they had moved on?
So many questions shoved aside as he walked the streets. The cold had so many huddling indoors and yet Bastian didn't blink an eye. A tattered leather jacket was all that kept him from the cold. The same one from all those years ago, it had seen better days. But so had Bastian. Eyes looked hollow, dark circles lay under the eyes and his once fit form now was worn thin. He needed to feed, he could feel the need at the back of his thoughts slowly trying to push its way forward. Or was that her?
He kept walking.
One step, another, he knew where he was going. Back to the bar, they had to be at the bar. Back to where all this began. Back to where it had all gone bad. Back to where the bitch decided to strip his life away. Back to where he used to work, where he used to sing, where he used to smile.
Back....to closed doors?
Bastian stopped before the bar, scanning through the windows to try to see someone...anyone. But the place was dark and empty, closed in the middle of the week during night hours. The door was checked, the back one too, he was near tempted to break in and make sure the place was even still running at all. To make sure his family was still running it. Fist at the glass...he couldn't do it.
He turned and started walking.... Walking back through the vacant streets. Following a once familiar path back towards the house. Each step seemed to echo no matter how light the movements. A pounding to grind in the thoughts that came with being here. How long since these last steps? Was Sophie making them now? Did Maggie still come by? Was the house still lit up and welcoming them all home...
Lights were on when he arrived but the house wasn't the house he remembered. It had changed, the color changed, the fence removed. Even the steps felt different as he walked up them. His chest ached as that knock sounded to the door. Would Sophie even recognize him? Would a new man greet him? Substitute father...
It was a man alright. Sleek in a suit and a glimpse at the house beyond was something Bastian didn't even begin to recognize. Modern, every memory stripped away. No marks to the wall to measure height, no break to the kitchen tile where his mother had dropped some pans when he and his sister scared her. Not home.
Not them.
Where were they? The man had not a clue or a care, dismissing the strung out looking man that came knocking on his door at night. Minutes passed with Bastian staring at the door. Staring like if he did so long enough the place would change back to what he remembered. Stare long enough and he'd get something back...some hint to what he'd lost. What she took from him. But it wasn't there...not even a little bit.
Numbness started to settle in as hunger pressed against his mind. Begging for notice, he'd been traveling for so long now...fighting his way back to find nothing.
Did he have anything to find? Anyone? Were they goneā¦ Head down he started walking....Not knowing where he was going.