(no subject)
Title: Trick or Treat? Chapter 19.
Characters: Eden/Gabriel.
Rating: R.
Word count: 1,904.
Disclaimer: Do not own.
Summery: They make a deal of convenience together.
Note: Very, very AU. The Carnival.
Overall WC: 41,493.
Parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20
The newly formed foursome stuck together, helping each other to survive and reach their destination. Because for the first time Eden was heading in a set direction, working everyday to get to it with Charlie and Molly at the head.
“You see, Molly is special. I was only half joking about her having a keen sense of smell. It’s more then that.” Charlie had told Eden who was sitting up front with her as Charlie drove the horses over the grass. “She can find people, you give her a name and she can point on a map and tell you where they are.”
Eden at first found it jarring to come to terms with the fact that there was others like her but after she did she had never felt such a connection. These were people that understood, who’s lives had been upturned. She had looked at Charlie’s glowing face as she looked out over the horizon, seeing something that Eden couldn’t. “Who is she looking for?”
“The Carnival.” Was the short reply.
“And what is that?”
“Oh sweetie. It’s like some place in a fairy tale. It’s a travelling city filled with people like you.” Her smile stretched over her face, butter soft. “The love of my life is there and that’s where I need to be.” She faced forward with a set, happy determination.
“Who’s that?” Eden could feel the girl’s excitement and hope soaking into her and making her wish to see this thing and the inhabitants.
“Hiro. He came over from Japan and travelled with the Circus, looking for a sword. You see one day that Carnival pitched up in my town and I went. I thought it would just be tigers and clowns and I was bouncing just to see that.” She laughed. “Dear lord the fright I got! One moment I was walking along, minding my own business and the next this little man was falling at my feet. He got up, bowing to me and then snap.” She clicked her fingers. “He was gone, right out of the air. I thought I had seen a fairy or something like that you know? But then just as suddenly he appeared again, to apologise for scaring me. I about fainted away!”
Eden listened carefully as Charlie explained the night Hiro invited her into the special tent, filled with special people. Eden listened with wonder when she hears of all the amazing people living in there. But mostly she talked of Hiro, and his boyish face.
“After that night I knew he was the one for me.” She had fallen in love and he loved her. The next week the fair had moved on with out her knowing and Charlie had to make a decision. Stay in Texas where she was content but alone or go after the Carnival. “Well that decision was set in stone when I met Molly.” She leaned closer, keeping her voice down as the girl slept curled beside Niki in the back. “Her parents had both died of a fever. I found her or she found me, I don’t know. She wouldn’t speak but she unfortunately had to be picked up by me and I can run my mouth off like no one else! I told her where I was going and she just looked at the map and pointed to where my Hiro was. The first words she said to me were ‘ He jumps around a lot.’ Truer words have never been spoken!”
When Eden had tentatively asked if she had a power she had scoffed, saying that if an elephant’s memory was a power then that was it.
They travelled further, Molly getting more talkative the closer they got to the place she thought the Carnival was. Eden had tried to give up drinking, had even stopped for a few weeks before she had walked into a tavern they were near for no more reason then she wanted to. Molly had come to find her and she helped her home, holding up her intoxicated body. Eden had confessed to Charlie and promised to never let it happen again. She stays in the wagon whenever they pass through a town. Before long they didn’t need to follow Molly’s direction but the posters that would be stuck to tress and the inside of windows. Eden had ran back, a poster clutched in her hand, the delighted news that the fair was about the pitch up not a week from then. Charlie was asleep on the front seat.
“Charlie! Look! It’s here, we’ve finally caught them up!” She stepped up onto the wagon and touched her shoulder. She felt an unexplained fright and her face felt frozen in place. Charlie didn’t move. Eden shock her harder and the way her head flopped made her stomach flip and feel queasy, hair standing on end. Her voice sounded small and strained as she spoke the redhead’s name to her for the last time. “Charlie?”
They buried her on top of a hill, next to an oak tree and a cloudless sky.
*
When the tents came into their sights it didn’t seem as exciting as they hoped it would be. A dull anti-climaxe. It was a place they all needed to be but the light that had been guiding them and picking them up was gone. Eden didn’t look at the stalls, didn’t look at the people until she spotted the two Japanese men, standing next to a tall older man. Eden had taken a breath and introduced herself to the smallest one there. She had started to cry even before she could tell him, seeing his face light up when she mentioned Charlie’s name. Then he just became still as the dreaded words left her and she had instinctively pulled him into her arms. He had looked at her with dead wet eyes and a shaking thin mouth before he had disappeared in front of her. She had given the directions to Charlie’s grave in broken sobs to Hiro’s friend who left, face sad.
Eden had been left crying amongst the excitement of the exhibition, a sole pocket of grey cloud in a summer sky. She had slumped against a back and was pulled into a warm hug. A man’s soothing, deep calm voice whispered to her that everything would be ok, she’s home now. That was her first introduction to Noah Bennet, the ring leader.
And from that point she was never very far from him. He seemed to have adopted her on the spot, showing her a fatherly affection from the fathomless well inside him while training her, teaching her. It was Bennet that taught her to govern her power, to control it and not the other way around. It wasn’t totally altruistic on his part, she was staying in his nomad home and that didn’t come free. She was asked to use her gift and she did. She soon learned that there was two faces to the Carnival: one where she was on display, wowing the intended customers to give them money, for her own livelihood and other things that Eden had no clue about. The other was collecting and recruitment.
“You see Eden what we do here isn’t really about putting you on display.” Bennet’s mouth had thinned in disgust before he resumed. “It’s about helping the good of mankind. There are some out there that have wild and uncontrolled powers that are more a curse then a gift. In most cases we hopefully help them to control it and keep them safe from themselves and others. Because that’s what we want, to offer sanctuary.”
“And to the ones that can’t?”
“Then they are dealt with accordingly.” His voice was stone cold but then his face had softened. “You’ve been with us months now. When you arrived here you were hopeless and without purpose. I think, if you’ll allow me to say, that you’ve found a new meaning to your life? Because Eden you are indispensable to us, so much so. Like Maya and her brother. If you hadn‘t helped them who knows the destruction that could have been unleashed.” It was true. She had found them and helped Maya control her gift. Her brother had finally found himself unshackled from his sister and free. It had been her first success. Eden had filled herself with Bennet’s words, taking them and driving them to keep her up. She had meaning now and someone that respected her and she wasn’t going to jeopardise it.
Eden, when she wasn’t helping Bennet and the silent Haitian find others like herself, was performing her stage act. She was a rousing success, as was Niki with her Strong Woman act. Eden was so much so that she started to attract regulars, mysterious seemingly important people from all over. They watched her with a greedy interest. But one more then any other because for all intents and purpose she belonged to her, everyone did. But Eden wasn’t to learn about Angela Petrelli yet, she was just this queenly figure that others whispered about in revered tones. And Eden had impressed her.
She had been trained well and she felt the words not just in her any longer but all around her, spreading out from her like webs and touching everything. She saw it, the vowels and guttural stops, the lilts and alliteration forming into something real and powerful. Valleys and plains everywhere, a new dark land for her to explore and control.
*
“But you didn’t stay there? How did you end up in my village?“ Gabriel’s voice trailed across the sound of the train wheels.
Eden looked up at his face, thinking hard. “It’s all jumbled in my head, all these memories of the Carnival, I didn’t have them before. Before I thought I had spent a year in the Red House. I thought after Niki and myself had run away we simply went back. Niki is there now, or she was.” She moved herself into the circle of his arm. “I have two sets of memories Gabriel and one of them is not real.”
“What did you think before? What did you remember?”
“I remember staying in the Red House as Niki had her baby… Yes that’s why we went back, she was pregnant. After she had it I left, tired of that house and seeing such a new born in it. Niki wouldn’t leave but I couldn‘t stay. I found your village and just started living in the cottage, after the previous owner had died.”
“When you moved in everyone wondered how you got the old place, where you got the money from.”
Eden looked at him with a sense of helplessness. “I don’t know Gabriel. I don’t pay anyone for it, it’s just mine.” Her eyes moved back and forth with a nervous fervency and Gabriel kissed her, easing her down again with his hand, making circles on her back.
“Don’t worry yourself. All that is in the past. But -” His eyes gleamed with excitement. “We could always look for the Carnival, find out answers?”
Eden knew that it was a sensible plan but something made her shake her head. She didn’t want to travel, she needed to stay and nest in one place. “I have you. I don’t need to go anywhere.” She rested her head down on his shoulder and closed her eyes.
Characters: Eden/Gabriel.
Rating: R.
Word count: 1,904.
Disclaimer: Do not own.
Summery: They make a deal of convenience together.
Note: Very, very AU. The Carnival.
Overall WC: 41,493.
Parts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20
The newly formed foursome stuck together, helping each other to survive and reach their destination. Because for the first time Eden was heading in a set direction, working everyday to get to it with Charlie and Molly at the head.
“You see, Molly is special. I was only half joking about her having a keen sense of smell. It’s more then that.” Charlie had told Eden who was sitting up front with her as Charlie drove the horses over the grass. “She can find people, you give her a name and she can point on a map and tell you where they are.”
Eden at first found it jarring to come to terms with the fact that there was others like her but after she did she had never felt such a connection. These were people that understood, who’s lives had been upturned. She had looked at Charlie’s glowing face as she looked out over the horizon, seeing something that Eden couldn’t. “Who is she looking for?”
“The Carnival.” Was the short reply.
“And what is that?”
“Oh sweetie. It’s like some place in a fairy tale. It’s a travelling city filled with people like you.” Her smile stretched over her face, butter soft. “The love of my life is there and that’s where I need to be.” She faced forward with a set, happy determination.
“Who’s that?” Eden could feel the girl’s excitement and hope soaking into her and making her wish to see this thing and the inhabitants.
“Hiro. He came over from Japan and travelled with the Circus, looking for a sword. You see one day that Carnival pitched up in my town and I went. I thought it would just be tigers and clowns and I was bouncing just to see that.” She laughed. “Dear lord the fright I got! One moment I was walking along, minding my own business and the next this little man was falling at my feet. He got up, bowing to me and then snap.” She clicked her fingers. “He was gone, right out of the air. I thought I had seen a fairy or something like that you know? But then just as suddenly he appeared again, to apologise for scaring me. I about fainted away!”
Eden listened carefully as Charlie explained the night Hiro invited her into the special tent, filled with special people. Eden listened with wonder when she hears of all the amazing people living in there. But mostly she talked of Hiro, and his boyish face.
“After that night I knew he was the one for me.” She had fallen in love and he loved her. The next week the fair had moved on with out her knowing and Charlie had to make a decision. Stay in Texas where she was content but alone or go after the Carnival. “Well that decision was set in stone when I met Molly.” She leaned closer, keeping her voice down as the girl slept curled beside Niki in the back. “Her parents had both died of a fever. I found her or she found me, I don’t know. She wouldn’t speak but she unfortunately had to be picked up by me and I can run my mouth off like no one else! I told her where I was going and she just looked at the map and pointed to where my Hiro was. The first words she said to me were ‘ He jumps around a lot.’ Truer words have never been spoken!”
When Eden had tentatively asked if she had a power she had scoffed, saying that if an elephant’s memory was a power then that was it.
They travelled further, Molly getting more talkative the closer they got to the place she thought the Carnival was. Eden had tried to give up drinking, had even stopped for a few weeks before she had walked into a tavern they were near for no more reason then she wanted to. Molly had come to find her and she helped her home, holding up her intoxicated body. Eden had confessed to Charlie and promised to never let it happen again. She stays in the wagon whenever they pass through a town. Before long they didn’t need to follow Molly’s direction but the posters that would be stuck to tress and the inside of windows. Eden had ran back, a poster clutched in her hand, the delighted news that the fair was about the pitch up not a week from then. Charlie was asleep on the front seat.
“Charlie! Look! It’s here, we’ve finally caught them up!” She stepped up onto the wagon and touched her shoulder. She felt an unexplained fright and her face felt frozen in place. Charlie didn’t move. Eden shock her harder and the way her head flopped made her stomach flip and feel queasy, hair standing on end. Her voice sounded small and strained as she spoke the redhead’s name to her for the last time. “Charlie?”
They buried her on top of a hill, next to an oak tree and a cloudless sky.
*
When the tents came into their sights it didn’t seem as exciting as they hoped it would be. A dull anti-climaxe. It was a place they all needed to be but the light that had been guiding them and picking them up was gone. Eden didn’t look at the stalls, didn’t look at the people until she spotted the two Japanese men, standing next to a tall older man. Eden had taken a breath and introduced herself to the smallest one there. She had started to cry even before she could tell him, seeing his face light up when she mentioned Charlie’s name. Then he just became still as the dreaded words left her and she had instinctively pulled him into her arms. He had looked at her with dead wet eyes and a shaking thin mouth before he had disappeared in front of her. She had given the directions to Charlie’s grave in broken sobs to Hiro’s friend who left, face sad.
Eden had been left crying amongst the excitement of the exhibition, a sole pocket of grey cloud in a summer sky. She had slumped against a back and was pulled into a warm hug. A man’s soothing, deep calm voice whispered to her that everything would be ok, she’s home now. That was her first introduction to Noah Bennet, the ring leader.
And from that point she was never very far from him. He seemed to have adopted her on the spot, showing her a fatherly affection from the fathomless well inside him while training her, teaching her. It was Bennet that taught her to govern her power, to control it and not the other way around. It wasn’t totally altruistic on his part, she was staying in his nomad home and that didn’t come free. She was asked to use her gift and she did. She soon learned that there was two faces to the Carnival: one where she was on display, wowing the intended customers to give them money, for her own livelihood and other things that Eden had no clue about. The other was collecting and recruitment.
“You see Eden what we do here isn’t really about putting you on display.” Bennet’s mouth had thinned in disgust before he resumed. “It’s about helping the good of mankind. There are some out there that have wild and uncontrolled powers that are more a curse then a gift. In most cases we hopefully help them to control it and keep them safe from themselves and others. Because that’s what we want, to offer sanctuary.”
“And to the ones that can’t?”
“Then they are dealt with accordingly.” His voice was stone cold but then his face had softened. “You’ve been with us months now. When you arrived here you were hopeless and without purpose. I think, if you’ll allow me to say, that you’ve found a new meaning to your life? Because Eden you are indispensable to us, so much so. Like Maya and her brother. If you hadn‘t helped them who knows the destruction that could have been unleashed.” It was true. She had found them and helped Maya control her gift. Her brother had finally found himself unshackled from his sister and free. It had been her first success. Eden had filled herself with Bennet’s words, taking them and driving them to keep her up. She had meaning now and someone that respected her and she wasn’t going to jeopardise it.
Eden, when she wasn’t helping Bennet and the silent Haitian find others like herself, was performing her stage act. She was a rousing success, as was Niki with her Strong Woman act. Eden was so much so that she started to attract regulars, mysterious seemingly important people from all over. They watched her with a greedy interest. But one more then any other because for all intents and purpose she belonged to her, everyone did. But Eden wasn’t to learn about Angela Petrelli yet, she was just this queenly figure that others whispered about in revered tones. And Eden had impressed her.
She had been trained well and she felt the words not just in her any longer but all around her, spreading out from her like webs and touching everything. She saw it, the vowels and guttural stops, the lilts and alliteration forming into something real and powerful. Valleys and plains everywhere, a new dark land for her to explore and control.
*
“But you didn’t stay there? How did you end up in my village?“ Gabriel’s voice trailed across the sound of the train wheels.
Eden looked up at his face, thinking hard. “It’s all jumbled in my head, all these memories of the Carnival, I didn’t have them before. Before I thought I had spent a year in the Red House. I thought after Niki and myself had run away we simply went back. Niki is there now, or she was.” She moved herself into the circle of his arm. “I have two sets of memories Gabriel and one of them is not real.”
“What did you think before? What did you remember?”
“I remember staying in the Red House as Niki had her baby… Yes that’s why we went back, she was pregnant. After she had it I left, tired of that house and seeing such a new born in it. Niki wouldn’t leave but I couldn‘t stay. I found your village and just started living in the cottage, after the previous owner had died.”
“When you moved in everyone wondered how you got the old place, where you got the money from.”
Eden looked at him with a sense of helplessness. “I don’t know Gabriel. I don’t pay anyone for it, it’s just mine.” Her eyes moved back and forth with a nervous fervency and Gabriel kissed her, easing her down again with his hand, making circles on her back.
“Don’t worry yourself. All that is in the past. But -” His eyes gleamed with excitement. “We could always look for the Carnival, find out answers?”
Eden knew that it was a sensible plan but something made her shake her head. She didn’t want to travel, she needed to stay and nest in one place. “I have you. I don’t need to go anywhere.” She rested her head down on his shoulder and closed her eyes.