Pleasant Thoughts [Open]

[Kara Eisenheim]

Kara walked down a long, lonely lane of headstones lined with rose bushes filled with thorns. Her knee-length skirt swayed this way and that, catching in their claws so that she had to hold it back, keep it away from the clingy bush. The air was fresh and smelled of evening, an orange sun slowly sinking into the horizon behind her. As her eyes passed across departed names, chiseled into the surface of the aging rocks, she wondered about life and meaning. How many of these people had accomplished everything they had wished for before they had been lowered into the earth?

Soon enough she reached a familiar sight, a tombstone she had visited many times before. Tiny vines were crawling up, obscuring the name, blanketing it slowly from the sun, and she let them. Her grandfather had always enjoyed nature and he would chastise her if she touched even one of the delicate weeds that hugged his farewell stone. Kneeling slowly she sat on the cobbled walkway, her arms encasing her legs and chin coming to rest on her knees when she sat down. For a long while she just stared, thinking nothing, wishing nothing and saying just as little.

When, finally, a slight breeze broke her from her spell of thoughtless longing, her eyelids lowered somewhat. “I did it gramps, I got the research scholarship,” she confided to him, her voice barely above a whisper. “It’s like you said. There’s nothing I can’t accomplish if I try hard enough,” she smiled a broken smile, “and I know you were there, guiding me along.” Her eyes were becoming moist from forming emotion and she dabbed at them with her sleeve. “Mom and dad still don’t talk to me and I don’t even notice.” She slowly sucked in a breath. “You always told me one day I’ll see more clearly than they do and I’ll understand how to approach them like they never did when it came to me, but I don’t even want to see them again.”

With a sniff, she wiped a stray tear from her eyes. “Sorry, I just meant to bring you the good news today.” Smiling briefly, she closed her eyes, all curled up into a tight ball, trying to remember that death was not an endless parting, but just a few decades-long inconvenience. Although her grandfather wasn’t here anymore, she would find him again someday, when the great curtain of the world rolled back and she could see the truth. The thought comforted her and dusk warmed her back, rays of gold playing across her navy top. It was so nice and peaceful in the cemetery that she allowed herself to truly sit and relax, sorrow becoming only a light thought at the back of her mind.

In this garden of memories for those who yet lived she felt alone and yet not so. She could almost hear the collected thoughts of love and longing that played through the grass.

[Paine Helsing]

He had told himself to never come into this graveyard, for it was such a sad-looking place. All of the headstones were old and spoke of memories that were left in the dust long ago; however, if one were to simply give those memories a good clean, then they could be appearing right before the eyes again, just from a look at a name carved into a stone. Though a graveyard was a gloomy place, it was almost a happy place all the same; harboring quite the amount of nostalgia must take some courage.

At first glance, as the mutant made his way through the entrance, he saw nobody. He walked down a trail, trees overhead casting shadows, his skin still hitting patches of sunlight as it filtered through the leaves that clung to the branches for dear life. This place was a beautiful one, eerie beauty that gave the pyromaniac chills.

The tall figure looked around, red hair falling in his face, causing him to have to move it out of the way with a quick brush of his fingers. Emerald eyes were scanning the area until he picked up something that he didn't expect to see: human life. He thought that the only humans he would find here were dead ones.

She was before a gravestone, looking rather sad, he could almost see the tears in her eyes from his stance, but he wasn't too sure so he didn't jump to conclusions. She was a pretty girl, wearing a skirt down to her knees and a pretty shirt, so she was one who cared about herself and obviously the person that she had come to see; she looked to be a good-spirited girl, but one can never be so sure in this world. However, Paine decided to approach her anyway. Besides, what's the worst that could possibly happen?

Anything was possible, but he tried to not think about that right now.

"Who have you come to see?" He spoke when he was behind her, still advancing and stopping a few paces behind her, to the side some to give her breathing space. He didn't want to look like he was about to attack her or anything of the sort; Paine was a kind soul. For the most part. His lips were curled up into a gentle, warm smile, one that offered comfort for the stranger. He always felt that it was his obligation to cheer up anybody who seemed sad.

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[Kara Eisenheim]

Kara’s eyes popped open when a voice broke through her peaceful silence. She got up immediately and turned herself towards the other fully. Noting she had some stray moisture at the corner of her eye, she swept it away with her sleeve. “My grandfather,” she answered simply, as simply as he had asked. Although she was surely people didn’t normally approach others so casually in the graveyard, she found she didn’t mind. It was best to distract herself from potential grief with conversation.

He was smiling and she gave him a little cracked one of her own, before looking left and right at the other graves near-by. “Oh, I’m sorry. Have you also come to visit someone around here? I could give you some privacy if that’s the case. I hadn’t realized how long I was taking just sitting there.” Her hands went over each other nervously. It was just the two of them in the whole place. Although she didn’t expect someone to have a sadistic interest for attacking young women by the graves, the prospect wasn’t completely out of her mind.

“It’s pleasant here,” she said suddenly, glancing to the side almost distantly. “It makes me feel like I’m surrounded by enlightened people who’ve learned to be kind and know no more violence,” she added, in an almost whisper. A light breeze swept through her hair, moving it a little. “Do you think that’s silly?” She looked back to him, a hand coming to rub the back of her neck. “Sorry. That was sort of disrespectful of me. I shouldn’t talk about the dead so lightly…”

[Paine Helsing]

She looked rather nervous to see somebody speaking to her and she wasn't exactly the most eloquent of speakers, in fact she was rather fumbled with her words, but Paine looked past that and saw that she was a seemingly sad creature. She looked to be just a normal girl who was saddened by the loss of somebody very important to her.

After she would speak she would say something like an apology or saying that she shouldn't have said such a thing as though she was committing a crime by simply speaking. His emerald eyes curiously examined her and then he gave a small laugh; his voice was warm and caring, even though he didn't even know the girl's name. Paine was just that kind of person.

"No, that's not silly at all. It's like being surrounded by knowledge, I see what you mean." The redhead communicated very sweetly to her, trying to soothe her in any way possible. "And no, I am just walking around is all. I didn't think I would see somebody else here, though. My name is Paine; nice to meet you." He surely did know how to put on his manners whenever he needed them, and he felt like the girl could use a friendly greeting, even if they don't become friends at all.

The pyromaniac looked at the headstone that was apparently that of her grandfather's. It was covered in vines and various assortments of plants, but it was the only one here that was like this. Paine personally thought that such a thing was much more beautiful than a simple stone sticking up from the dirt. It looked like it was more at-one with nature, and that is what Paine wished for his own self when he did. He didn't even want to be buried in anything whatsoever, just surrounded by dirt. Maybe something would grow there, who knows? It would be a nice memorial of what life he was going to create for himself; for he was still young.

"I'm sure he was a brilliant man." Paine smiled over to the stranger, then looked back at the headstone, examining it more.

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[Kara Eisenheim]

He laughed and Kara watched him with a slightly lowered gaze. Was he mocking her? Hm. No, it was something else. Maybe he was trying to dilute the tension. Her sheepishness was blooming into full on suspicion however, for he seemed so casually warm and friendly it almost looked like he was trying to sell her something. Since there was no bartering going on, she was wary of his intentions, always the paranoid one.

Knowledge wasn’t really what she meant but all she did was crack a half-smile. His voice was sickly sweet, it gave her goosebumps. “Paine,” she echoed. He even had one of those questionable names, she wondered if it was some sort of nickname or his actual birth given label. “Likewise, I’m sure.” Whatever thoughts she had had about her grandfather, school and parents were effectively overshadowed by this chance encounter. “My name is Kara,” she added as an afterthought, not keen on being rude in any way.

His eyes travelled to the headstone and he made a random comment she could only assume was meant to be polite. Considering her grandfather her eyelids lowered somewhat in a brief display of nostalgia. “He was a kind man,” she told him, and then brought her hands together behind her back. With eyes livened away from thoughts of the departed she motioned her head in the cemetery’s exit direction.

“Want to get out of here and go grab a bite or something? Having conversations with spirits always makes me so hungry.” She was willing to propose anything so long as they went somewhere more public for her paranoid disposition to calm down. “There’s a new pastry shop open just down the road not very far from here. I’ve heard they make fabulous fruit tarts.”

Sweets were her madness when she wasn’t filling up on chips, fries and mashed potatoes. She didn’t wait for him to agree or not, but simply started walking, her head turned towards him the whole time. “Do you live here in the city, Paine, or are you just visiting?”