Alyssa had a complex mind, one that appreciated the ominous fog rolling about her feet and the strange chaos brewing in a coming storm. She saw beauty in the dark grey clouds ahead and found a seductive melody in the idea of thunder that hadn’t yet decorated the world around her. She wasn’t fearful of the darkness seductively curling around every crevice of the tomb stones around her, instead she found serenity in its hold. Alyssa had seen enough to know that darkness was ever present, perhaps not in sight but in the acts of those around her. Her own soul harboured a kind of darkness that she used to regret and fear but grew to love when it became her shield and sword. The deeper darkness to her own soul was the very thing that not only protected her but lead her battles against those she considered enemies. It was powerful, even more so than the fond memories scattered far and wide in her consciousness.

A voice spoke from behind her, a tone bittersweet and somewhat familiar to her ears but foreign all the same. She spun on her heel with a stoic glare at a man whose face felt as if it deserved familiarity but a stranger she couldn’t place. Her arms folded over her chest as she stepped back with a defensive caution not knowing what his full intentions were. Fear didn’t yet root itself in her, she knew she’d be able to protect herself or otherwise return for the addictive taste of revenge. Still, she curiously glanced at the lines of his suit and the eerily familiar yet unfamiliar features of his person. Her fingers curled out and in on itself, she could feel the mutational draw to telekinesis bubble beneath the surface in case she truly saw the need to defend herself against a ghost of a man in the middle of a supposedly haunted cemetery.

“I suppose whether or not I am a ghost is none of your business”, there was a playful nonchalance to her tone as her feet slowly stepped around him. Her curious gaze never left the sight of him as she circled him, almost like a predator ready to rip out it’s claws. She saw recognition in his gaze but she didn’t understand why, she didn’t dare ask either. Alyssa was somewhat disappointed that he wasn’t a ghost like entity but in a way she couldn’t truly comprehend, she was also dipped in intense curiosity and a desire to unnerve why there was a familiar tug at the sound of his voice and an vague feeling that she was supposed to be enveloped by the moment.

She glanced at the abundance of graves about them when he mentioned a loved one he’d lost, a chuckle nearly slipped through her lips at the irony of all the times she’d died. She wondered at times what it would be like to be buried, to end it all and never reawaken and while the idea was terrifying, it was also comforting. Alyssa didn’t want to die but she didn’t want to wander the earth until time ceased to exist, it was a terrifyingly lonely existence. Unless she stumbled upon another immortal, she’d never truly love anyone who wouldn’t inevitably perish and leave her in eternal solitude.

His words drove through her like a sword to the gut but she didn’t falter her fierce glare of caution. Alyssa didn’t know if it was an actual curse making her feel odd and out of place in his company or perhaps she’d grown sick from the strange food she’d eaten with Grace. Nevertheless, she didn’t have anything to say back so she kept her ruby lips locked and ignored the sad edge to the smile he donned. Her lips tilted into a daring smirk, how he had guessed that she had no loved ones buried in one of the many graves around them made him intelligent or lucky. She didn’t know which one yet though.

“Bold assumption to make”, she commented with a daring circle around him before gesturing to his nonchalant seating on some random grave. She chuckled lightly, almost enchantingly so and spoke in a confident tone, “awfully rude, don’t you think?”. she barely spent a second thought before pulling herself onto a broad gravestone and folded one leg over the other.

“You’re not another fraud fortune teller, are you?”, there was a humourless laugh that slipped through her ruby lips as the wind blew her golden waves over her shoulders and caressed her shoulders. It was a chilling comfort in a haunted space. “Let’s just say, I’m drawn to haunted places”, the words carried a deeper meaning than she could ever truly describe. Most places she knew, truly knew were simply haunted memories of times she could never get back. Memories lost to a curse of a mutation. To add a more humorous implication to the darker meaning of her words, she flicked a finger and watched a branch to the back of them rustle underneath a small pile of leaves.

“Why visit a loved one in the middle of the night? The world isn’t safe these days”, she told him curiously glancing at the dark shadows around them. She didn’t fear death but rather welcomed it as an old friend, if she died in the middle of the night it wouldn’t be the end of her journey. For a stranger caught in unfortunate circumstances, it might just be. She really wanted to ask him who he’d been visiting but she thought it far too personal and bit her tongue as she waited for the curiosity of her question to fade into nonexistence.

She found herself raising a brow at the sight of his theatrical introduction. Alyssa chuckled softly remembering the days where dramatic introductions were a norm and her hatred grew for stiff curtsies and awkward waltzes. Nevertheless, there was an excited edge to her smirk at the sight of the ink that grew to life in his palm. It was a beautiful sight, something that had her leaning forward if only to see it cleared in the shimmering rays of moonlights raining down on the fateful encounter. She was tempted to reach out and telekinetically grasp the flower forming purely from the ink that decorated his skin but she waited patiently. Alyssa was mesmerised though, for the first time in a century that she could remember, she was truly seduced by the beautiful sight.

She would never truly admit to any living soul that she was compelled by the cemetery when she first set foot on its haunted ground. Alyssa was drawn to its lonely darkness for reasons far past her understanding. It was difficult to comprehend trauma at times, even for an immortal. She didn’t recollect a previous life anchored to the haunted space but her soul was strangely comfortable in its dark embrace. When he spoke, it was almost shockingly harsh to her focused mind. She was ripped from an entranced spell of watching his mutation grow to life in the form of a beautiful rose only to find the fog looking thicker, the moonlight brighter and the darkness more ominous.

“Impressive”, she told him with a subtle nod at the intricate rose. She truly found it astonishing, mutants were truly the evolved in every way to her. She wanted the superiority of their kind, she’d seen the years pass and she watched her kind hunted and killed out of fear and lack of understanding. It made her cautious and it made her fierce. She was a force to be reckoned with, from the first life until the last.

She wasn’t entirely sure why he seemed so intriguing, nevertheless, running a circus seemed fitting for his theatrical introduction and it all seemed to make sense to her complex mind. There was a tug of curiosity brewing in her mind and she had to bite down on the soft flesh of her tongue to keep from speaking an almost sad, ‘where will you be going?’. She tasted a subtle copper on her tongue but she was determined not to let him see the slight turmoil of indecipherable emotions and questions echoing in her mind.

There was a humorous glint to her gaze, she recollected names that she’d donned through the years. Some she remembered, most were lost to the ever present reaper that collected her every time she died. Artemis would forever be engraved in her memories, it was who she started out as but Alyssa had been the name on her lips for a very long time. “Alyssa”, she told him with a small smile at the soft gesture of the rose being tucked behind her ear. She couldn’t see it but she could smell the distinct presence of lilac and honey, both of which she found very pleasant. “For now”, she added with a mischievous wink.

Her chin lifted as he sought out the sudden howl drifting on the wind, she couldn’t recall the last time she saw a wolf but it was a beautiful sound to her ears. She found herself smiling in the moonlight that rained down on them. At the odd question about children she found herself almost defensive. Alyssa couldn’t determine why it had struck a nerve but it did. Before she truly comprehended what she was doing, she was forcing Gavin back with her telekinesis against a tomb stone and stepped closer threateningly. There was a dangerous glare on her beautiful features.

“I’m not sure why you’re so very curious about me, but I’m warning you, I’m not the kind of woman you cross”, she drew her palm back and felt the push of telekinesis drift into nonexistence before turning away from him to face a nameless grave. “I’m not entirely sure”, it was an honest answer. Every life she remembered was a life where she was cautious, a life where she didn’t want children because she knew she’d have to outlive them. But the lives that were lost, the memories that were scattered in the wake of death was a mystery. Alyssa wanted to say no but she couldn’t lie, not about that. The world was a cruel place and she was no stranger to the curses life gave out around every corner.

“What about you Mr. Sinclaire? Any children?”, she turned the question on him with a blatant glare and daring smirk as she turned back around. The fog rolled around them like an ominous warning, like it mimicked the strange turmoil in her mind but she was focused on him. Her blue eyes were almost too bright in the dim light but she didn’t falter. Her only worries lay with the unknown intentions of a man who strangely felt familiar.

She rose a brow at the smile embracing his features, she knew she’d put enough force in the push to buckle most men and he seemed happy for some odd reason beyond her understanding. Her eyes rolled at the compliment, he was right tough. People rarely survived the aftermath of crossing her, she was a force of nature. Something equivalent to a hurricane wiping a town of the map, something capable of bringing chaos and destruction at her will. Alyssa was growing angry though, angry at the painful thudding against her skull at the words he spoke. Madison. A name she’d forgotten, a name she’d happily left behind in the 1800’s when a close friend died a tragic death. It was the name of a young woman who didn’t care about Alyssa’s more unique capabilities but simply wished to know the immortal out of a curious friendship. Her mind willed her to remember the time she used the name in memory of the strangely perfect woman she’d watch die but she refused to believe that she had a child somewhere in a world where the fate of mutants hung in a dangerous balance.

Alyssa was in denial, pure and raw denial as she watched him carefully. He didn’t seem to lie, the words rung true to her mind but she refused to let the throbbing probe of old memories through the new walls she’d built. Her fingers reached up to the tender pain at the side of her temple as she glared at the man in front of her. As wonderfully powerful as her mutation was, it wasn’t without it’s cursed consequences. Lives lived and lives lost. Her memories were her biggest enemy, one that robbed her of the only child she’d birthed in two thousand years. It was a cruel fate, one that left her nauseated to the very core.

His. She couldn’t comprehend the idea of loving any one person so much that she’d have a child with him but Maddison did. But Maddison died and she was banging in Alyssa’s mind to be brought back through scattered memories and haunted trauma of leaving behind two very important people she used to care about. “I’m no one’s property” she argued passionately knowing he didn’t mean it as such, she desperately wanted to dive into a pit of anger in the hopes of dulling out the ghosts of her past banging away at her consciousness.

“Shut up, just shut the hell up!”, the memories were harsh and unforgiving. She forced her telekinesis against him one more time out of frustration before turning to place her open, shaking palms on the very tombstone she’d sat on. She watched her mind shut in a thick darkness, the memories were too bright and blurry. She heard voices, his and hers but she couldn’t see the foggy faces in her consciousness. She couldn’t recall the bright background of her scattered remembrance but she recognized the smell of popcorn and the sound of jolly circus themed music. It was overbearing and painful. She forced it into seclusion and watched her vision turn back in a foggy blur until she saw the ominous fog of the cemetery and the eerie glistening of expensive tomb stones as the moon still watched the events unfold.

The telekinesis shifted until the branches by their feet floated about her in vicious circles until she felt the painful throbbing of her memories subside. The branches stopped mid-air as she turned to face him with a dark glare etched into her beautiful features. Deep down she knew she couldn’t ever hurt him but she didn’t understand how an old life could be so viciously hauntingly on a new beginning. At the mention of a child, her child, being lost to the world she could no longer bear the thought. She didn’t care what ghosts banged against her consciousness or what haunting loves burrowed into her complex mind but she’d do her old life justice. She didn’t remember herself as Madison, not really but she couldn’t live the rest of time knowing she’d left a child behind.

“Maddison’s dead Mr. Sinclaire and I’m not sure she’ll ever truly exist ever again”, it was a rough contrast against the words that echoed in her mind ‘I’m sorry I left you. I’m sorry I left our son. I’m sorry I forgot’ but she couldn’t voice the thoughts without crumbling to a pathetic mess. “But I’ll help you find the boy in Detroit”, she couldn’t bear to look at him anymore. It made her nauseous to know the deep sincerity of feelings from a previous life without remembering how they came to be. She recognized him, his soul and she saw recognizable regret in his gaze. Alyssa couldn’t comprehend the scattered realignment of her intricately woven lives but she could buy herself some time until she could discern the old from the new and form a less painful transition into memories that haunted her mind with a throbbing headache.

“Now”, she straightened her shoulders and crouched in front of him with a dangerous smirk knowing whoever stood between them and the boy were closer to a grave than the heels of her boots sinking into the ground of a haunted cemetery. “Which way to the circus?”, Alyssa knew it the moment she’d uttered the words. Her life was about to dip into a strange turmoil that would leave the past entwined with the present and her future in a foggy uncertainty. Alyssa was in for one hell of a ride, even for an immortal.

Alyssa felt herself nod stiffly, it was unlike her to truly be bothered by the simple worrisome emotions that humans so often complained about. Two thousand years of roaming the world made her guarded and safe from the girl she used to be. A young maiden in Greece who cried when her mother blew the candle in her small room and angrily ran into the woods near her home when her father didn’t have the coin to buy her a new dress. Hardships made her stronger and her mutation made her inevitable. She’d fulfil whatever her heart yearned for regardless if it killed her, she’d simply come back to wreak havoc on those who stood in her path. Alyssa knew she was only a mutant, for a time she believed herself to be the Greek deity as the people so proudly believed her to be but when science enlightened her she knew she was nothing more but an evolved soul among bland mortals who would never truly understand. And yet, her mind could not release the thought of being a goddess among mortals and she revelled knowing that power shielded her from their senseless wars.

“Did I stutter?” she offered an apologetic glance, subtle but ever present when she realized just how rude she’d been. The whole ordeal was simply too much. There was an inner battle raging. Fragments of Madison begged entry to the new world but Alyssa didn’t want to remember. She couldn’t bear the thought of forgetting loved ones, her own child even. It was a traumatic tragedy she didn’t want to relive any more than she was already drifting through. Chaos was already raging and she felt trapped in the eye of a storm that would never shift. She appeared almost too calm but all around her ghosts banged away at built up walls hoping for a second chance. Ghosts of her own past, those who donned her face and vivid eyes, some forgotten in bits and others entirely. And in the core of her inner storms raged one voice, Madison’s. They were one in the same and two different souls all at the same time. It was horrifyingly confusion but she’d find a way to dull the haunting remembrance or discover a balance that didn’t leave her with a throbbing headache.

His words were crystal clear in her mind, every syllable echoed loudly in a familiar comfort. Like an old hymn her mother used to hum, she couldn’t recall the melody but the comfort and security it brought was a memory anchored to her very being. “Fine”, a small confident smirk grew to life on her ruby tinted lips as she watched him, “not that you’d survive any senseless attempts to relive the past”. She wasn’t all too sure of her words but she hardly knew him, there were feelings that felt familiar. Feelings she often associated with home, a place she hadn’t known in as long as she could recall. Nevertheless, he was a stranger to her reborn soul, a man who seemed familiar but truly wasn’t.

She pondered the idea of giving her hand to his but found herself stiffly reaching out to feel the warmth of his skin against that of her palm. Words rolled in her mind for what felt like an eternity before she truly spoke, confident as always. “I’ll tell you whatever you wish to know”, it was going to be a simple deal, one she couldn’t dare not suggest, “only if you tell me about the boy. I’m curious”. Her tone suggested an almost morbid curiosity of a life lived and lost but she had a deep desperation in her to remember a son she’d forgotten. How horrible it must have been to lose a mother. She would never voice it to Gavin but she feared the child’s response when he saw the ghost of a mother he thought was gone. Nevertheless, anyone standing between her and a forgotten son would be the first ones welcomed into the underworld. Even if she had to drag them there herself.