Nauthiz - Chapter 4

"Hanna... the reason we're so surprised to see you is because you died ten years ago."

For a good few moments, Hanna's face did absolutely nothing. His brows were furrowed slightly, confusion resonating across his face as he tried to process the words that had just come at him. His mouth slowly altered from it's slightly agape state to a thin line in the middle of Hanna's face, and then back to being agape. It was much like a very slow fish-face.

"I'm..." Hanna took a moment to test the words in his mouth, rolling them over on his tongue because they sounded wrong, terribly, terribly wrong. "I'm dead?" The words were soft, disbelieving.

And then it hit him. The torn down apartment. The emptiness, the lifelessness. Why he hadn't seen himself considering something bad was going down around town. In a rush of emotion, his eyes went wide and his brow went down and his mouth dropped open and he looked almost ready to cry.

"I'm-I'm dead? I'm really, really dead?"

Lenore bit her lip as she watched the redhead's reaction, reaching out a hand toward him as if she wanted to touch him. "Hanna..." She stopped short, seemingly unsure of what to do.

Worth was considerably less understanding. "You heard th' lady, didn't you? Dead as a doornail," he grunted as he folded his arms, shoulders hunching up past his ears.

Hanna's zombie friend looked equally shocked beside him, orange eyes wide as he looked to the redhead. "Hanna..." His soft voice rumbled through the air as he put a hand on Hanna's shoulder.

At this, the doctor gave a harsh, sort of half laugh from his place. "What're you talking for, dumbass? You're just as dead as he is. Probably deader, considerin' you're kind of dead now and all."

The zombie spun to stare at the doctor. He felt something within him constrict, as if his long dead heart wanted to skip a beat. "How..."

The idea that the zombie was dead seemed to hit Hanna harder than his own death. He floundered for a moment, thoughts racing behind his eyes like traffic behind stoplights. He tried to shake his head, say no, laugh it off as a joke because there was no way that he would have let his friend die and the zombie could take care of himself, too, but no matter how hard he tried to force the laughter and the words out, nothing happened. He swallowed, fists clenching at his sides defensively.

There was only one question to ask.

"Who.... who else died?"

Lenore let out a sigh. She then took a step back, gesturing toward her desk. "Come on, Hanna. Take a seat and we'll talk, all right?"

Worth let out a snort at this. "'We'll talk'? Ya make it sound like you're about t' tell him 'is parents are getting' a divorce or some gays shit like that. He's fucking dead, the hell is hospitality gonna do at this point?"

The dark-haired woman scowled as she rounded on the doctor. "Worth, I'd assume this is a bit of a shock. I'd rather I didn't have to see Hanna collapse, is that such a problem?"

"It is when you act like this is a smaller fuckin' deal than it is," Worth growled back, teeth clenching around his cigarette.

Hanna quietly strode over to the chair Lenore had mentioned - the one Larden had vacated earlier - and sat down in it, fists clutching desperately at his jeans.

This was a dream. Well, he hoped this as a dream. It almost seemed too real, too true, too heartbreakingly possible to be anything but. When he found himself unable to wake up, he took a deep breath and looked straight at Lenore, asking the even more pertinent question on his mind:

"Who did I help?"

The dark-haired woman looked pained as she took a seat at her desk, weaving her fingers together as golden eyes met bright blue. "You…" She trailed off, took a deep breath, then started again. "Hanna… do you remember that thing that attacked Veser's dorm? It's called The Haunt… and well, it's very, very dangerous. You heard about there being some evidence across town while you were at work, and you were worried that someone would get hurt if you didn't hurry and check it out. So you did, and your partner was worried, so he went to check up on you and ended up bringing Worth along." Golden eyes flicked to the zombie and she flashed an apologetic smile.

"You were both attacked by the monster. You died trying to keep Worth alive and Worth was put in the hospital."

At these words Worth tensed slightly, his eyes going to the floor. "I told you I don't deal with this paranormal shit," He muttered as he shoved his hands into his pockets.

Lenore bit her lip and nodded. "It's true. After Worth, Veser was attacked at the hotel he was staying at since his dorm was under police surveillance. Toni found him, but… we weren't able to get to a doctor in time. Because we had to go to a different hospital, Toni was attacked on the way… and…" She took a deep breath and shook her head, seemingly unable to continue.

"Toni... was supposed to go to a show. Ples was the only one capable of... arriving, and... dieses Ding... attacked the theatre. A few people made it out, but... it wasn't pretty. He didn't survive." Larden continued, wincing.

Hanna's eyes had gone wide with chest ripping hurt. His friends. Dead. Dead. Dead.

If this was a dream, it was a morbid one. A disgusting, morbid jaunt into Hanna's subconscious, strangling his fears with an iron grip, forcing tears from his eyes and his lungs to catch and stop and tear. It wasn't a dream, it was a nightmare. But it was worse than a nightmare, really, because Hanna couldn't force himself awake; he couldn't force himself to open his eyes and see his green friend there in their apartment as the sun slowly rose through the tiny window, the smell of warm waffles wafting into the bedroom. He wished he could. He wished he could snap awake in his bed at home; snap awake in Worth office after a mishap involving ceiling beams and giant, talking rats; snap awake as a kidnappee being tortured, because anything, anything, anything was better than this.

Being dead himself was better than this.

"C-Conrad?" Hanna forced the name out, chest waiting for the strain of another death hanging over his heart to shatter him, break him, kill him again.

Larden blanched at the name, sucking on his bottom lip for a moment before crossing the room, placing a wavering, hesitant, cold dead - dead, dead like his friends, dead - hand on his shoulder.

"Er, Conrad... is gone."

Hanna's zombie friend was frozen at his side, orange eyes wide, disbelieving. It was almost too much to take. Their very world seemed to have been ripped out from under them, homes lost in an instant, people who had been living and breathing mere hours ago simply gone. It seemed impossible, and the more things clicked in his mind, the worse it all seemed. Add all this to the way Hanna's shoulders slumped, the way his voice shook… it just wasn't fair.

But there was still one thing left.

"What… what happened to Hanna?" The undead man asked, though a part of him didn't want to know.

Lenore fidgeted, seemingly unsure of how to say it. "He… he was really upset after what happened. We tried to stop him, but he insisted he had a rune. So he hunted the thing down and went out to fight, and…" She hung her head, eyes going to the floor. "I'm so sorry, you two."

Hanna swallowed hard, biting his lip, fingers digging into the fabric of his pants as he absorbed all the information. It wasn't that he was dead and his friends were dead - it was that he had to watch them die before dying himself. He couldn't help them. The fact was like an ice cold hand ripping through his chest, like a ghost, a spear through his heart.

This wasn't just a fucked-up case, anymore. It was a trainwreck, and Hanna was trapped inside with no way out except to keep asking questions.

"How did Conrad die?" He asked, glancing up at Worth, then Lenore. He didn't notice Larden gritting his teeth behind the chair.

At these words Lenore visibly cringed. She then swallowed and shook her head. "I… Hanna… listen to me… he's--"

She was cut off by the sound of Worth's palm slamming against her desk. "The fuck is with all t' slow pauses and stuttering?" He snarled, dark eyes livid as they met gold. "Get over yourself already, would you? Everyone is fuckin' dead. Tha's all there is to it. Ya don't need to spice it up into some drawn out four hour tragedy while 'My Heart Will Go On' plays in the background or what-the-fuck ever. Hanna was gone. They all died, and then he was a fucking dumbass son of a bitch and went down after them. Depressing shit, boo hoo, he's dead and buried with the rest of them! 'S all tha' matters, that's all they need t' hear, roll the fuckin' credits already!"

Lenore sat in silence for a moment, her lips pressed into a thin line. "That's not the whole story and evidentially that's not the end, Worth," she growled out as she nodded to Hanna. "I don't get why you're being such an ass about this. You're the one who won't even look at him."

Worth flinched slightly at this, his grip tightening on the desk. "'Scuse me?"

The dark-haired woman glared right back. "I know it's been bad. I know that. But they're not all dead, obviously."

"He may as well be. You fuckin' know that," The blond ground out.

"Now who's being overdramatic?" Lenore replied with a harsh laugh. "That's not the whole thing and you know it. If you can't look Hanna in the eye, if all you plan to do is spend your time stomping around bitching, then get the hell out of my office."

Worth glared at her for another moment. Then he scowled, turned, and stalked for the door, hands stuffed in the pockets of his greasy white coat. "Fuckin' ridiculous," he muttered as he shoved past Hanna, not even paying the redhead a passing glance as he vanished through the door.

Hanna watched him go from his seat, looking worried. "Man, he is really upset over this." He murmured. Then something hit him, and the ferocity of how he spun in the chair made the vampire standing behind it yelp with surprise.

"Waitwaitholdon - who's not dead?"

"Er…" Lenore looked from the door to Hanna, looking rather like she'd wished the drama would somehow make Hanna miss that whole subject. "Well…Conrad is… I suppose you could say he's alive, technically."

"What do you mean, 'technically'?" The zombie asked, brow furrowing.

The dark-haired woman shook her head, rubbing her arms as if she were trying to warm herself. "He's… he's not the Conrad you two know. He's… changed over the past ten years. I'm not sure if it was being one of the only survivors besides us or what, but… he couldn't take it. Something happened."

"What happened?" Hanna hopped up from the chair, shoulders thrown back slightly and tense. Conrad was alive. Apparently, he was in some kind of trouble, but he was still there and Hanna wasn't just going to let him stay in trouble. "Where is he? If we can find him, maybe we can--"

"Hanna, no." The soft accent cut Hanna off, and the redhead spun to face the vampire at the back of the room. "There is nothing we can do."

"But, it's Conrad!" Hanna protested. "Conrad's my friend and if he's alive, maybe there's a chance we can help--"

"Hanna, there is no helping him!" The bark of emotion seemed to almost startle Hanna out of talking. Almost.

"Even if there isn't there's no sense in not trying, because there's always sense in trying. I'm not leaving my friends to die again!" Hanna's volume rose as he finished his sentence, the pent up emotion from the past few minutes finding an out in his voice. He bit off his words, hands clenched at his sides, and his head drooped to stare at the floor. All his friends were dead, it was his fault, and now Conrad...

"Hanna..." Larden skirted the chair and quietly put a hand on Hanna's shoulder. "He was our friend - my friend too. But there is nothing we can do. Es tut mir leid, dass..."

Hanna looked up, and two sets of eyes locked, electric blue and bright yellow-green, a moment passing in silence.

"…I'm sorry, Hanna," Lenore finally broke the silence. Her pale fingers were laced together, clutched in a tight grip as she gazed down at her desk. "We… we tried. You did. We all did… but they're gone. He's gone. You're gone, and… we had to pick up the pieces and move on. That's all we could do, after all."

The undead man shook his head as he came up to stand behind Hanna, placing a hand on his shoulder. Silent as always, trying to be supportive… for what else could he do? He wasn't sure what to say or where to begin. "There's nothing wrong with that," he stated as his orange eyes went to the woman at the desk. "We understand. I'm sure it's been hard. But you all seem to have done well, considering…"

He let the last part of the sentence hang. It was still odd to take in the fact that he had apparently been dead and gone. One would think the idea of death a second time around would not be terribly phasing, but he couldn't remember the last time, nor had he encountered those left in the aftermath. This was something else entirely.

Lenore gave a soft laugh. "Well? I suppose that's what you could call this. I… I did the best I could, you know. Someone had to protect your city. So... so I got a hold of daddy's old connections. I set all this up, taught people to stay in the safe zones, set up the runes and tried to keep this place safe. I-I know it's maybe a bit more than you would have done, but... once you were gone, no one else knew this stuff. No one else was here, and I knew someone had to protect this place without you. Once you were gone…I…" she trailed off for a moment, then reached up to push a strand of hair behind her ear as she turned to gaze out the window. Silouetted against the bright cityscape, thin shoulders hunched as if they held the weight of the world, she seemed less like a woman and more like the child Hanna had played laser tag with mere days ago.

"…It's… it's never been the same, you know? But I tried…"

Hanna quietly stepped away from the hands lain upon him and over to Lenore, wrapping her in a tight embrace. She was his friend, too, and now she needed him, and if Hanna was one thing, he was always there for his friends when they needed him. Or, at least he tried to always be there.

"You did awesome." He told her. "You're like, the perfect mafia-type badass little sister ever."

Lenore shook her head as she hugged him back, pale fingers reaching up to clutch at his shirt. All was silent for a moment as the two embraced, Lenore shuddering. "…It wasn't fair. You were all gone in a week… it just wasn't fair. I'm sorry I couldn't have done more."

"If what you say was true, then there's nothing you could have done," Hanna's zombie friend spoke up. "As you said… all you could do was move on, and you've done that admirably."

The dark-haired woman took a deep breath, then nodded as she finally moved away from Hanna. "Yes, I suppose you're right."

Hanna stuffed his hands in his pockets, feeling the letter from the theatre, his marker, the bit of poster, and the time machine lingering in their depths. He quietly removed the artifacts, examining them all one by one, brows furrowing as he thought. Upon seeing the time machine, he felt his face splitting into a almost manic grin. He looked up and held both the marque letter and the poster corner out to Lenore.

"Here. It's stuff I found, but I don't think I'll be needing them. Take them as a promise for a better future. Cause when I get back to my time I'm gonna make sure it doesn't go down this way."

Larden quietly sidled up behind Lenore and put his arms around her, smiling at the gesture. "Better future und better past, ja?"

Lenore's expression softened as Larden put his arms around her, her hands coming up to touch his. "I suppose there's certainly some hope now, isn't there? I guess there always is when a certain Mr. Cross is in town."

"Yeah, there so is." Hanna nodded. "And man, Larden, you've gotten realllllyyyy snuggly since... uh, well, thirteen years ago, huh?"

Larden simply tried to hide his smile in Lenore's shoulder and failed. Horribly.

Across the office, the zombie rose a brow. "Something you're not telling us?"

At these words, Lenore smiled as well. "Er… well, it's been a long, long ten years. Things happen. Particularly in life or death situations."

Hanna let his smile go slack for a moment before his face split with a loud gnee of pure delight and realization.

"Ohmygod you guys you have no idea how adorable you two are." Hanna spoke in such a way that his words literally ran together in a breathless stream.

The undead man couldn't help but smile as well. "Well, I can't say I'm entirely surprised."

Lenore positively beamed at this as she leaned in to Larden's touch. "Well, I'm glad we had some good news to tell you, at least. Also glad to not hear any remarks about the age difference, Worth was all over that," she added dryly, rolling her eyes.

"Anyway, um, I hate to send you two off so soon, but I do actually have work to do," The woman stated as she reached onto her desk and began shifting papers. "I'd like to discuss some things regarding the monster later, if you don't mind, but I'm sure right now you must be very tired. Do you want me to call someone up to get you two someplace to stay right now?"

Hanna thought for a moment, hands in his pockets. "Actuallllyyyyy.... you happen to know where... where I'm buried? And, uh, everyone else? I kinda want to visit."

The undead man cast an uneasy glance at Hanna,  brow furrowing. Considering the emotional things they'd just discovered, he had to wonder if that was a good idea. However, Hanna seemed determined… and well, who was he to judge?

Lenore looked equally unsure, but she nodded. "If you really want to… I can have some of the guards escort you, or you can go yourself. It's a hill on the outskirts of town… the old park, actually."

That info seemed to strike a chord in Hanna and he nodded, hiding himself behind a smile. "I think we can manage ourselves. We'll be back later." Hanna waved, heading for the door.

His former apprentice nodded. Biting her lip, she seemed to be debating something. As the redhead reached the door, she spoke up. "Hanna? Don't get yourself killed out there, okay?" She smiled almost apologetically, though there was a clear sadness in her gaze. "We already lost you once… you know?"

Hanna smiled, nodding. "Don't worry, I'll be fineeeeee. It's not like I have that bad of luck to get killed twice."

Lenore gave a snort as she waved them off, slumping back in her seat as if the night's events had exhausted her. "Here's hoping," she murmured, a smile coming to her face.

His partner had to crack a smile at this as well. "I don't know, you are… well, you," he pointed out as he finally opened the door and kept it open for the redhead.

"Hahaha, yeah. Ohmygod gnee you smiled!" Hanna waved over his shoulder as he exited the room, the future looming out before him like a dark and winding road, an orange lantern by his side.