Date: Mon, 23 Sep 1996 09:15:47 -0000 From: Michelle David A Forever Knight Story. Last Knight spoilers. But we all now how it ends!!! :-((( This is just how I think it might end, in some alternate universe in which Last Knight wasn't just a nightmare. ;-) Please forgive all spoilers. I stayed up late tonight, just writing. I've already written 3 (count 'em, 3!) FK spoilers. Standard disclaimers. ********* And After... By Michelle David ********* He plunged the stake in. The pain coursed through him, connected by the bond between the two men. Letting go of the spear, he knelt, cradling his gasping child. "Lucien-" Nick was fading fast. "Nicholas. I'm here." God. Why had he done it. Because Nicholas had asked him to. There was no other reason to do anything, of course. He followed Nicholas' beck and call to the ends of the earth. A pity that this time the road had led to this. Nicholas reached a trembling hand up to his father, a weak hand resting on his cheek. "Thank you." No, Nicholas, don't say thank you. Say that this never happened. Say that we can rewind the tape of life five mintues. Say that you never asked me to kill you. Say it. LaCroix hugged his son. The spear was still in his chest, but he supposed that by letting the blood flow freely he would hasten Nicholas' death. "Shhh... It's going to be all right." It wouldn't, of course. But the single thread of absurd hope he always carried with him was stretching right now to the limits. Nicholas managed a feeble smile. "You know it won't. But... I'm going to be with Nat." An ironic smile. "And leave me alone in hell?" Nicholas' gaze went skyward. "No, Lucien. You won't... In fact, I'm already in heaven." No, he wasn't. He couldn't be. He had aslways thought he was going to hell, hadn't he? Nicholas... don't leave. I'm so sorry for everything I've ever done, but please realize I've always been afraid of losing you. He attempted to speak, but no words came out. Perhaps Nicholas could feel the emotions coursing through him right now. Nicholas began to spasm, the final convulsions notifying them that in a few moments Nicholas would well and truly leave. The tears flowed freely now, from both of them. "Nicholas..." Nicholas was gone. His son was gone. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. Not Nicholas. But the truth lay cradled in his arms, the blood all over the floor. LaCroix closed his eyes, feeling the weight in his arms dissolve into ash. ****** A soft moaning caught LaCroix's attention. LaCroix had been staring blankly out of the window. He had been thinking he would have to spread the ashes, and was wondering where. Natalie was alive. Barely. Skimming the earthly plane. "Nick?" she rasped. He knelt next to the dying woman. "Nicholas... is gone." Natalie managed a stunned shake of the head. "He can't be dead." LaCroix didn't know what to say. Sorry, he's gone. Drained you and faced the stake. Vio con dios. Nicholas is waiting for you in heaven. Yes, that last statement sounded the best. "Dr. Lambert... He is. He asked me to stake him." Rage flickered in her eyes. "You killed him." "I did. I'm so sorry. He asked me. He begged me." A single tear. Clear and mortal. "I loved him so much..." Yes. LaCroix knew exactly how she was feeling. She had never been able to exactly tell Nicholas how much she cared. He took her in his arms. "He's waiting for you. In heaven. He told me he saw you." A smile. "I knew it. Mr.'my soul is damned' got there before me." LaCroix laughed, but flinched as he saw a red tear drop on Natalie's cheek. "I'm sorry." She swallowed. "I'm dying..." He took a fingertip of Nicholas's ashes, and rubbed it on her forehead. The last sacrament? "Go with God." How corny. How unLaCroix. But how much he knew Natalie and Nicholas would want it. It hurt to say it, but he managed to say it. He closed his eyes, and after the last breath left her body, he kissed her forehead. ****** LaCroix stood by the shoreline, the small jar in his hands. He had a jar in his hands, and was crying, letting the blood dry on his face rather than wipe it off. He missed them all. From that Vachon, the doctor, that Urs woman, Janette... Divia... Nicholas... He spread the ashes over the later, watching it be carried off by the waves. He was the last left. Divia had been right. Nicholas had been the last one left. And yet LaCroix, with his love, had killed him. He wanted to broadcast his Nightcrawler tonight. To have other people pour their hearts out to him. To let out a bit of his own soul. Yet... he couldn't. He didn't know why. Perhaps it was too personal. More personal than when the virus had struck his people. Because a part of his soul had died. What to do, what to do... He didn't want to leave Toronto. He didn't know where to go. Perhaps if Nicholas had been alive, he would have left. New York was a lovely city. But no, not now. He felt too empty. There was no where for him to go. No one for him to turn to. Only the dark oblivion of his own soul, meticulously created with 2000 years of never letting any of his emotions fly. No where. But death. To the firey pits of hell, or the blessed blue of heaven. One of those. Two lovers were walking together a few hundred feet away. He could hear their laughter from here. Had he deprived Nicholas of this, by not letting him achive his cure? Or at least letting him nurse that feeble hope? He would never know now. Nicholas... where are you. LaCroix fingered the empty jar, before carefully placing it on the ground. And he sat. And waited for the sun to rise. ******** Michelle Schattenjager@hotmail.com dandavid@earthlink.net --------------------------------------------------------- Get Your *Web-Based* Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------