Death is Never Truly the End

S

SpooksTheSpookster

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Death is never truly the end.
For some, the life that they lead now is but one in several that they may lead before their souls may finally rest.
Some may see it as a curse, but is it?
If you could lead life after life, would you?

Had someone asked Icarus his thoughts on being reborn over and over, well, he would have brushed it off, maybe laugh, But Icarus, well, Icarus had been reborn, or, well, his soul had been reborn. Unfortunately, he never forgot.


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Every life that Icarus had been reborn into he remembered. Not everything that had happened, but enough to be able to piece together what had happened in those past lives. In some he had been born into wealthy families, or at least well-off ones, but for most he had been born into poor families. Families that loved deeper than what seemed like any of the others. But none he remembered more vividly than his first. Even now, sitting alone in the back corner of his favorite internet cafe he could feel scorching wax rolling down his back, the heat of the sun, of Apollo, burning his skin.

Even after all these lifetimes, Icarus still loved the god. It was...it was the reason that he flew so close. His love for the sun, for Apollo. Feeling that warmth on his skin, even as it burned him, it wasn't something that he would ever forget. Nor was the feeling of the icy arms of the ocean closing around him and dragging him to his death. The ocean was a jealous one and was never willing to release the ones she claimed.

Icarus wasn't ever quite sure how his soul managed to slip through her grasp. Even as a reborn he felt the pull of the ocean, for he was one of the only souls that had ever escaped her. Though not unscathed.

He wasn't sure when he realized it, but now that he knew it was a constant thought at the back of his mind. His soul wasn't whole. There was a part of it missing and he had an inkling of where it was, and he shuddered to think of where it was.

He knew, of course, exactly where it was, it really wasn't a hard guess. What, with the stinging, achingly cold feeling that radiated through his body and the sound of water rushing in his ears when he dwelt on the thought for too long. Yes, Icarus knew where that part of his soul was, but he wasn't in any rush to get it back, as much as it pained him.

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"Thinking again Icarus?"

The voice of his favorite waitress pulled Icarus from the deep well of memories. He blinked slowly before managing to grace the young woman, more of a girl actually, with a small smile.

"You know me." He replied, sitting up and letting his hands fall to his lap. "I think too much." Rose laughed and brushed a lock of light hair behind her ear. How she kept her hair as pale as she did he would never know, but from her pale eyes and equally pale skin he figured that it was mostly natural.

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"With all that thinking you do you'd think that smoke would start coming out your ears." She teased, pulling out her notepad. "The usual today?" Rose asked, tapping the end of her pen against the pad of paper.

"Mmmmm," Icarus took a moment to actually look at the menu before him. The usual lists of coffee and teas lined the inside. "Yeah, peach tea and let's try..." He took a moment to look over the pastry side, sucking the ball of his lip ring into his mouth as he thought. "Let's try that butterscotch pie." He finally decided, closing the menu and handing it back to Rose.

"Got it- hey, you coming over tonight?" Rose shifted her weight to one side and crossed her arms over her chest. "You've been distant lately, It's been worrying me and Dalton."

Ah yes, Dalton. It wasn't that he wasn't a good guy, but Icarus wasn't about to trust anyone around someone that he had seen as family for years.

"I'm going to pass, I have Icarus things to do." He sighed, resting his chin on his open palm, Rose scoffed, but there wasn't anger in her eyes, but disappointment. She wasn't the only one disappointed in him.

"Maybe next week Rose." He finally gave in, looking away from the woman and instead turning his gaze to the outside at, surprise surprise, the sun. Well, not directly at the sun, he still valued his eyesight.

"I'll hold you to that." She sighed and he heard her move away, no doubt to put his order in.

Icarus almost felt bad for blowing her off again, but lately, the only thoughts that filled his head were thoughts of warmth, of sunkissed skin, of Apollo.

Rose had been a welcome distraction, but now that she was gone, his thoughts once again turned to his past lives, more importantly, the first of a long line of them.

He wasn't the same boy he had once been. Many lives had changed that. It wasn't like he was reborn as soon as his body died or that he immediately remembered who and what he was, because that wasn't how it seemed to work. Many years seemed to pass before his soul was reborn, and he was always in his teens or twenties before he remembered. He supposed it was a blessing, really. Icarus couldn't imagine being a child with the mind of an adult.

Icarus didn't so much look up when the door to the cafe jingled, signaling that someone had entered. It was a normal enough sound to hear when a door opened, so Icarus continued to gaze out the window, lost in his own thoughts

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Even as Icarus sat in his comfortable booth waiting on his tea, the tides were changing.

Apollo had left Olympus and now wandered the earth, and had for many centuries. He lived now like Icarus, reborn over and over, each time with one goal: Find the one who had been so brave as to fly too close to the sun.

The Ocean, mighty and fierce likewise walked the earth, bringing disaster with her where she went in search of the one who escaped her clutches. Icarus belonged to her and she wasn't one to let what was her's go, even if it meant going against the sun god.

They both searched for Icarus. One would bring only death, the other, well, the outcome to that was still clouded to the Fates.

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