What Have U Done?

Everyone laughing again, Ryan shook his head. "So I'm guessing we're going through with this," he said, his straw between his fingers as he stirred around the ice that remained in his glass. And it was to the waitress that he smiled as he ordered his, "Angel's Delight."

"Just a simple Sweet-Tart," Ming-Yuu chirped as she gave another look to the scratching on the notebook paper. "I think it would be a good idea... I think it's something that we need."

Becka nodded in agreement. "Just because one of us—is gone, doesn't mean that we're supposed to end our lives too!" Watching the waitress walk away, Becka pursed her lips again, unsure of whether or not to bite her tongue. But it was only moments before she'd made her final decision. "Besides, I think it'll be fun, ya know?"

"A fun time to be had by all," laughed David. "Though, a fun time to be held—where?"

Though, for a time, the question was up in the air, and they all exchanged curious glances amongst one another, it wasn't too much longer before all eyes settled upon Becka, all in mutual agreement.

For years that was where their parties had gone, and if not started, it was always at Becka's home that they would end up. Becka's family home had always been like no other, old and rickety in all the right places, and creepy in the dark of the night. It was always fun to stay up late and to see who would have to get up in the middle of the night first, to venture out into the drafty, dark halls and down the creaking stairs for a glass of water, or past those dark, trick shadows that seemed to hide more than a table or a corner. And it was always fun, the way Becka's mom would dress up with them, inviting kids from all the houses about the block for her renditions of the ghost stories that her grandfather used to tell to her. It was all part of the atmosphere of the house that brought out the adventurer in her; or at least that's what Becka had said. Her mother who was like a big sister and a mother all in one. And it was no wonder that Becka was always so comfortable with who she was and what she studied; her mother wouldn't have had it any other way.

"So how is your mother anyway?" asked Ryan with a smile.

"Bonnie?" Becka laughed, shaking her head and wagging her finger in his direction. "Bonnie, you have to call her Bonnie or mom!" She corrected first and foremost. "And she's fine," she finally said just as the waitress brought about their drinks and she took a sip of her own. "When I told her that I'd be seeing all of you... Jeez... She wouldn't let me off the phone for hours, asking me anything and everything about all of you." Smiling, she glanced to each and every one of them, making certain she'd caught their eye. "She's looking forward to having us all back at the house—that same old creepy Victorian that she's been fixing up for years. And is still fixing up today!" She gave a halfhearted roll of her shoulder, taking another sip of her drink. "That is, of course, if everyone's willing to go back, ya know. I mean, it just wouldn't be the same without all of us going together..."

"Not gonna' turn this into a Lifetime sob-story, are ya Beckers?" Jess joked, arching and waggering a playful brow.

"No!" Becka snapped, scowling at Jess as she spoke. "I—and my mom—just think it would be stupid if just one or two of us showed up to this, ya know? Talking about the rest of us behind each other's backs as if the ones who didn't show up never existed. It was just be stupid, not to mention mean."

"So then I guess that settles the where," said Ming-Yuu, speaking around the straw from which she sipped her drink. "Now we just need a theme, and the rest'll be a piece of cake!"

"Mmm, cake..." moaned Jess as he seized a menu for the restaurants desserts and began to peruse.

His laughter more inwards than out, Ryan settled back into the seat, listening to the bantering of the others as they all spouted out their ideas at random as to what their group theme should be. And it was as he sat there listening that he thought in depth to himself of just how interesting this event could prove to be.

He stood outside with the rest of them, having one last cigarette and making last minute plans before they each would go their separate ways for the night.

It was a pleasant change of pace for their having met up after all the years gone by. It was like a great weight lifted off of each of their shoulders, even though there wasn't a one of them that would admit it, even amongst each other. And yet—still there was something missing, something that held between them a certain level of uneasiness that surely kept each of them distant from one another.

"No, I'm not going to just drop it!" Ming-Yuu laughed out loud, pushing Jess in the shoulder. "Not until we have a final theme for the party, just like we always had back in school."

"I agree," said David with a curt nod. "It has to be just like old times. Down to the final letter. And it won't be the same, in the least, unless we have a theme for all our costumes."

Folding his arms across his chest, Jess rolled his eyes at the statement, though his mind had already been set into motion, trying to recapture the brilliance of his creativity that he'd used so well in his youth.

"And it can't be anything hokey!" added Becka before exhaling from her latest drag taken from her cigarette.

"It has to be something that we can all do; something that we can all agree on," said Ming-Yuu, her mind whirling with a hundred different thoughts and possibilities at once. "Something gothic—of course. But kind of romanticized, like you read in all those popular vampire novels and the like."

"Something along the lines of Anne Rice-ish, right?" asked Jess, still lost in his own world of thought.

"Of course," Ryan stated with a smile. "You know how obsessed these two can be."

"Hmm, yeah," started Becka, a pondering purr to her voice. "But let's go for a little deeper than that. I mean, we are adults, after all. And we didn't pay for all these years of education between us all just to say 'screw it' and fall back on what's safe, right?"

"That's true..." murmured Jess, the wheels in his head still turning. "Something— Shakespearian, maybe..."

Curious, David glanced to Jess, watching his friend carefully, as if he could see the gears of thought as they worked. "Ladies and gentlemen, I think he has something!"

Nodding, Jess stroked at his goatee as he started to state his thoughts out loud. "Of all the years that we've done things together, of all the things we've researched throughout the years just for fun—Why not take a good mixture of research and imagination? The gods, goddesses and other icons of mythology with a thespian—or Shakespearian twist." With his chin he gestured to Ming-Yuu, and then David. "Between the two of them, I think the right look of it all could be pulled off. A gothic fantasy of myth and lore."

"Falling into it much?" laughed Ming-Yuu as she dropped back to lean against the cool brick of the building for better support.

Wavering his hand to silence her, Jess went on to finish pleading his case. "I'll sum it all up for you in one simple title, and then you'll all bow down to the great and magnificent glory that it is me!" With all of the others laughing, Jess took a minute to stand upright and to clear his throat. "Simply put, what do you all think of the theme 'A Mid-Autumn Nights Moon'?"

Everyone cheered to his, even giving him a boisterous round of applause, rounded out by a few whistles and cheers for their finalized theme, never minding the curious looks and comments made about them by the others that looked on from afar.

And it was for the rest of the time that they all remained there that the mood remained light and care-free about them, each of them so wrapped up in what was to be that they were all oblivious to the chill in the air as they chattered on, still, of their plans made and ideas still in the making,. It was just like old times again, with their plotting and planning, each of them just as eager as they had been once upon a time way back when. Suddenly it was as if nothing had changed—so long as not a one of them brought up that one definite glitch in their alternate reality.

Quiet and complacent where she stood, Becka looked on and across the faces of all the others as they talked and caught up amongst themselves, a half-finished cigarette carefully balanced between her fingers as she shift from foot to foot, trying to balanced herself where she stood about the corner in front of the building from which they had come. Of course, no matter what others her eyes would scan, always they would return to the one of whom she'd been yearning to speak to the most, the one of whom she felt compelled to over all others. Quiet is how she stood there, even as everyone began to make their excuses and readied themselves to part for the night, giving only the most simple of waves with her otherwise occupied hand as the other kept its place folded comfortably just under her chest, hidden beneath the velvet black of her shawl that she wore over her dark corseted top and long and layered skirt. She was quite the spectacle to the curious eyes of onlookers who entered and exited the establishment, catching the repeated eye, even, of the one of whom she'd been watching in particular throughout the night. And it was as he, himself, began to prepare to leave that she finally shift anew, dropping to the ground the cigarette that smelled of clovers and stomping it out with the pointed toe of her black, suede boot as she started to approach him, extending a hand to him, to grasp at his shoulder to keep him from turning completely away. "Ryan, wait!"

With a brow arched in curiosity, Ryan turned back to the friend that he'd just been facing to meet her gaze again, offering half smile to her as he shoved his hand into his pocket as he turned, searching for his keys. "Yeah?"

"Don't go off—please. There's something—That is—," She sighed and took a break, composing herself before she opened her mouth to speak again. "Could you come with me to my dorm? Just for a minute. You could follow me in your car or even ride with me if you like--,"

A mischievous grin across his lips, Ryan licked his lips at the younger girl, giving a shake of his head. "Becka, Becka. So brazen now after all these year," he teased. "Really, I had no idea you felt this way--,"

"Save it!" Becka scoffed, shoving him hard enough in the shoulder to make him stumble back a step. Bust just as quick as her smile and laugh had come, both faded and her expression was solemn once more. "Really, Ryan," she said as she cast her eyes to the side, giving one last focused glance up as one of their friends passed by in their car, waving a final good-bye. Both of them waved in return. "I want you to see something that I came across—something important. It's what compelled me to start finding all of you. And I think it's worth a look, if anything. A simple look over at the very least." Raising her eyes to him she gave an innocent bat of her full, dark lashes, her bright eyes glittering, almost shining, from behind them. "Please?"

With wondering eyes he searched her face, more pale than what he remembered, the dark gloss of her lip color shining plum in the light of the lamps that loomed overhead. Her eyes were pleading to him, speaking volumes without her voice making a sound. How could he resist her? "Alright."

He'd followed her in his own car, unsure of just how long this all would take. Not that it mattered to him much, after all the years that he'd gone without seeing it, it wasn't as if it would kill him to spend a night with her; though it was what he wanted anyhow. She'd always been like the little sister he'd never had, with her great adoration for him forever shining in her eyes—Not that she would have admitted that to anyone. She would have rather died first! But back then it was almost an annoyance that she was so inspired by him, as it seemed, so wanting to follow in his footsteps and to go wherever he went, with him, with all of them.

But then, it wasn't just him that she admired so; and it was apparent whenever she was along.

Liric was the one, who had been her idol, her icon, the image of her ideal. Liric who was all that she had wished and strived to be. And though he hadn't seen it then, it was clear as day to him now why, in a sense, he despised her as he did; maybe even more so now than then. It was in a way that he couldn't explain that she seemed to resemble his Liric lost; her simple mannerisms and her docile though childish sense of being.

So much alike, those two, that they could have been twins And he hated her a little for that.

Finally at long last they were there, Becka stopping her car not too far onto the property of the school as she rolled down her window and pointed towards guest parking, gesturing him to go on there rather than following her all of the way. Nodding, Ryan took that turn off of the straight and narrow and followed the signs for parking, all the while keeping an eye out for Becka's car as she rounded another knoll or two and took a spot that was closer to the building that had been labeled as student housing.

To Ryan, it looked as if he were approaching a hotel once he'd stepped out of his car and had set the lock and alarm. One of the sorts that kind of reminded him of something between the Bates Motel and the Holiday Inn. Not all that shabby, but not exactly star quality; large but plane to say the very least. She was standing by her car as he approached, waiting for him with a smile and extending to him a friendly hand once he'd gotten near enough. He was shocked at how warm she felt against him as she took a hold of his arm and held it tight, coddling up to him and tangling her fingers with his, her head at rest against his shoulder.

"It's really good hearing from you again," she started, her tone more sincere than when she'd been talking around all the others. "Of everyone else that I'd contacted, I really didn't think you'd come."

A half smile curled his lips as he followed her through the main front doors and through a small commons where a few students sat around, chatting and watching some late night television. A few of them gave him a peculiar look as he passed them by, Becka still holding firm to his arm. It kind of made him wonder how they knew her, what disposition they'd always seen her in. He wondered, though only slightly, what they thought of him with her. "What made you think that? We're all of us friends, aren't we?"

The door leading from the commons falling closed behind them, Becka nodded as she turned towards a staircase leading up, gesturing slightly as she only half led the way. "It's just—I knew how you felt about her—About Liric, I mean. Even before you knew it, I knew. And then—that happened," she whispered, her lips curling into an unconscious sympathetic pout. "I left because I didn't know what to say—to you, or to any of the others..."

"None of us knew what to say."

Up to the second floor, then the third. Finally she led him away from the stairs and down the hall of that third floor, silently counting her steps as she went along. Even then it was hard to speak on it, to say anything about what really happened, what they'd seen or heard or felt. It was all, "like a bad dream, or something," Becka said finally as she started to unlock the door, opening it up to darkness.

Placing one foot in front of the other, Ryan started in, only to stop just past the threshold, hovering as he watched her figure fade into the dark. "What about your roommate?" he whispered, not wanting to wake anyone that might have been asleep inside.

With a smile she shook her head, clicking on a light that stood to the far left corner of the room. "Nah, she's out for the night. She often is. If it isn't meetings with our coven, it's all-nighters with her boyfriend." With both hands she reached for the thick, black shawl around her shoulders, whipping it off with ease and tossing it to the edge of her bed. Once her hands were free and clear, Becka turned to the door and laughed, gesturing for Ryan to follow suit. "Come on! I won't bite. Well, unless you provoke me, of course."

"Of course," Ryan said with timid ease as he moved in a little further and closed the door behind him, hearing the latch as it caught with a click. Stepping further into the room, he could see it better then, the reflection of the new Becka as his eyes drank in little by little all that there was to see. Both beds stood to the left wall of the room with a mutual table between them, though fitted with two separate reading lamps, and adjacent from it stood the large desk and the set of mutual drawers with shelves that sat above. It was a quaint little setting, though much cleaner than the room that he shared back at his school with his roommate. All along the shelves were books, books, books; all of the volumes filled with information that Ryan was sure weren't taught at the school. Candles were strewn about as well, and the room wreaked of incense in a vast assortment of fragrances. It made his head dizzy, the sight and smell of it all. And it made him wonder just how many of the books actually belonged to Becka, and just how many she had read.

From where he stood, still only a matter of feet inside the door, Ryan watched as Becka took a seat upon the bed furthest from the door, reaching for the papers that sat in the lower storage of that mutual table, pulling them from where they were and shaking them a bit to hold them better upright in her hand.

"This is what I want you to read," she said, thrusting out the papers towards him for the reading.

Ryan moved towards her, taking a seat on the bed opposite her own as he took the papers into hand and began to glance them over. "What is it?" Ryan asked.

"Something—that someone in the coven gave to me and Ming-Yuu after they'd heard about—about Liric."

Looking up from the papers, Ryan could feel a scowl narrowing his eyes, a knot forming in his throat eve before he spoke again. "Exactly what did you tell, and who?"

"Just my roommate is all," Becka confessed, gesturing to the picture that sat in the center of the table, unframed. "It was one night when the three of us—me, her and Ming—were in here just shooting the breeze, ya know? One thing led to another, and we found ourselves telling her—well, not everything—but the basics of what happened to Liric. And the next day she gave us this."

As Becka gestured to the small collection of papers again, Ryan dared to give the printing another look. Over and over he read the words, unbelieving of what he was reading. It was a fantastic thought in itself, what this—incantation, this spell was claiming to do.

Liric...

In the most clean, cut and precise way, it spelled out in layman's the most simple of directions that spoke of great loss, and times of mourning. The broken heart, and the way of healing...

Truly fantastic in its own right was all that he could think of, though his mouth wouldn't speak the words as he thought them, too dumbfounded by the very thought of it all. It was—a jest, he was sure, some cruel joke that he was sure Becka's roommate was all too aware of, if not in on. It made him wince, then, as he read on, reading over the ways of the working, how to go about setting it all into motion, how to follow through and how to see it until its end.

"A—cruel—joke..." Ryan growled through hard clenched teeth, his hand gripping the paper so tight that he was sure that the force behind his fingers would turn and break his own hand. It took all of the strength that he could muster to shake his head and to set the paper down, disgusted by what he'd read. "Becka..." he began, struggling with himself not to bark at her, not to loose his temper.