Pure

Cassie opened her eyes to what she thought would be a ceremony; candles, flowers, petals, and the twelve guardians looking at her with admiration. Her head hurt and her vision was blurry but she instantly recognized Piero... and the dirty and abandoned room around them. Piero handed a white, thorn-less rose.

"Hello." She said with a soft, melodic voice.

"Cassie," Piero grinned but his smile vanished suddenly, he recalled that he wasn't allowed to have an emotional connection to her. He cleared his throat. "As a guardian, Cassie, you'll spend the rest of your life trying to stop Icarus from killing the girl." Piero paused and looked at his black hands, remembering how it was to have them pure. And Cassie always reminded him of how pure he was before dying. Sometimes when a strange combination of light and shadows occurs, he can distinguish the black lines. Each one representing one of Icarus' lives; and yesterday he saw a new line, covering the small part of his arms that was still human-like.

Cassie was confused for a moment then she looked at the rose. "But... he doesn't kill her, they both die, that's the curse... his punishment."

"We know that, but guardians are meant for protect humans not," he hesitated for a moment, "Whatever he is."

"He is just a boy."

"Remember Cascadia, he is the boy who flew too close to the sun."

"Oh come on! Convincing him to kill himself so the curse breaks can't be that hard. And don't call me Cascadia, please and thank you."

"We've been trying to do that since the times of ancient Greek."

"Yes, but I'm more determined than all of you."

Piero sighed in frustration. Cassie was that type of girl who had her own ideology. Her mind was a cage, and inside that cage was her personality and the thoughts that would come out but new ideas would never come in. Basically, she was stubborn. And gritty; very, very gritty. She broke the innocent and calm atmosphere with her personality and last words.

Piero is hiding something, Cassie thought, specifically because of his behavior that day. It was probably because taking a life out of someone was exhausting. But hey, dying and reviving as a bad ass human guardian was an arduous job too.

"Where is Helena by the way? Or Alexander? I thought my revival would be a bit more like..."

"A ceremony?"

"I was going to say fancy, but you get the idea."

She tried to get up from the chair, her little ballet dancer legs felt lighter. Cassie had to learn how to walk all over again, and even if she learned quickly, with all her knowledge still buried deep inside her, she still felt weird. The colors she saw were softer and everything she touched felt like silk to her hands. And the sounds were all melodic, even the ones made by the annoying humans on the street.

"What are you amused by?" Asked Piero, making Cassie smile.

"Oh nothing," she sighed, "My twisted little thoughts, you know?"

Piero watched Cassie move her tiny feet try to get her ballet poses right, still holding the rose in her hand.

"You'll meet him today." He said adruptedly, watching her rose fall to the floor.

"What? I'm not ready! What? I mean.... What?"

"You heard it; you'll meet Icarus today. He'll do a show tonight, this is the address" He handed Cassie a piece of crumpled paper. Watching her reading and shake her head as she finished made Piero feel bad. He felt bad about lying to her about who the girl is; her.

"A show?"

"He has a band..." Piero sighed and smiled, a familiar gesture, like if what he was about to say was some kind of inner joke. "He is a cool kid now."

"Oh, I see." Cassie raised an eyebrow and smiled, walking to the door with her chin held high until she remembered she didn't know where she was. It was too late for turning around and asking Piero, but instead of asking for the way out, Cassie decided she was too prideful to admit she needed help.

➳

A drop of cold sweat ran across her back as she gave the security guard her entrance ticket. She was going to meet him. Cassie was about to meet the boy she was destined to fall in love with, but of course she didn't know that. She thought that she would only need to convince him to kill himself, so then the human girl he was supposed to fall in love with wouldn't have to die.

The room slowly filled with people. The stage'slights flashed all of the sudden. Her heart started racing along the beat of the drums, giving the introduction to his band. A calmed voice that made her tremble said, "we are the fallen, we are going to scream. There is no turning back now," Everyone in the room started to repeat what the voice said "Welcome ladies and gentleman, we are Within Inferno."

Cassie was overwhelmed with a wave of screams, clapping, and loud noises. Red lights flashed once again and now four people were standing in the stage. For a second she imagined herself up there, dancing, in front of that kind of people, the kind of people who dressed in leather and studs. How would that be like? Would they appreciate her dancing as a form of art and expression as much as she did?

She couldn't see the band's faces; the light behind them was too strong, making only their silhouettes visible. Piero told her that Icarus played the guitar and was the lead singer so for her, it would be easy to find him.

The lights reflected on them and her blue eyes found his dark ones in less than a second. They locked each other's gazes and suddenly her mind was far, far away from the show. Far away from the people questioning why the lead singer couldn't start singing, even though the guitarist was calling his name.

She started sweating, her fists clenched with a strength Cassie didn't know she had. She tasted the salt and metal on her tongue. Cassie didn't know she was biting her lips so hard it hurt, but she didn't feel the pain, or the blood. Her mouth quivered as she felt all of her breath leave her body. Then her cheeks started to flush when she saw him smiling at her and her face contorted in fury. Her anger turned on like a light switch, and that's when she decided that it was a matter of life and death. That was when Cassie decided she was going to convince him to kill himself, without a doubt.

And suddenly her heart skipped a beat; Cassie felt smothered by the fake smoke, blinding lights, and the crowd's screaming. Icarus' eyes on her weren't helping at all. Her legs started stumbling backwards as she left with people insulting her. She turned back on her feet and ran away from there.

The young man left the stage as soon as he saw Cassie running away, leaving the crowd and his bandmates alone. He ran backstage and left the place through the backdoor. He thought he lost her when he got to the street but he saw her turning around the corner of the street.

"Wait!" She heard in the distance.

His voice. Cassie almost stopped running but she contained herself and moved her feet. She heard steps behind her and someone saying "Stop!" Cassie turned in an alleyway, hoping he didn't notice where she went. She closed her eyes to took a deep breath.

A few seconds later, a voice took her by surprise, "Why are you running?"

She opened her eyes. Icarus was so close to Cassie, when did he had the time to place his hands against the wall surrounding her?

Cassie couldn't breathe, and neither could he. He was confused by her reaction. Usually what happened when he first met her was attraction, like magnets, and they would walk into each other's arms and kiss. But she literally ran away from him. He thought of his talk with Piero and smirked.

"You are Cassie, you are seventeen, and you are a Guardian."

"You are about to turn eighteen and you are... the soul of Icarus."

"I'm just Tate in this life."

"Not for long." Cassie took out a gun and pointed at his chest.

"Why does everyone want to shoot me today? Like that game, pin the tail, well now seems to be shoot the Tate"

"Huh?" And that my friends, is the side effect of immortality: insanity... and a very bad sense of humor, she thought to herself.

"Go ahead, shoot me...BAM!" He shouted making Cassie shudder. "See this scar here?" Tate pointed at his forehead smiling like if it was some kind of battle scar he was proud of, "Piero gave this to me yesterday."

"You talked with him?" Cassie asked Tate. He arched his eyebrows and laughed.

"Didn't he tell you?"

"Tell me what?" Cassie asked irritated, pondering when to shoot his chest.

"You are going to fall in love with me."

"What? I'm not... I'm not the one you are looking for."

"You are... Cassie, you are the girl of the curse."

Cassie heard those words come out of his mouth and everything just dropped around her. She was her, a part of the curse, and she was going to die again. But she wouldn't revive this time, she wasn't going to transform from human to immortal like she did two days ago. She was going to be face to face with death.

She held the gun tightly with her shaking hands, shooting four times at Tate's heart.