The light in the sky was fading. Fading fast. In the distance, flashes of lightening could be seen. They were pretty far off in the distance though. If there was a storm coming, it wouldn’t reach the rocky cliffs for a few hours. By the time the storm reached this spot, it wouldn’t matter to him anyway. Nope. Not at all. A tall form was standing on the rocks at the top of the cliff over looking the ocean. Directly below where the form was standing was not water. No. Directly below where he was standing was a whole bunch more large rocks.

This evening, Erik was simply wearing a pair of blue tennis shoes and a pair of cut off jean shorts. Quite the unusual outfit for the pale man who never ventured outside in anything but long jeans, boots, t-shirt and his trench coat. It didn’t matter what the weather was, he always had his trench coat on. His straight black hair hung limply about three inches past his shoulders. Yes, it’s grown. Quite a bit it’s grown. Deep blue eyes reflected what he felt inside. Empty. His tattoo’s and scars showed up clearly in the dwindling light. There were new scars, cuts and bruises. That would be from his run in with Kaldun.

He’d lost a lot of weight. He was probably no more than 105 pounds at this point. He didn’t care though. What reason did he have to care? None really. He had no one. No one but himself. Having the shit beat out of him by Kaldun in Lucifer’s body really did a number on him mentally. He didn’t give a shit about the physical pain. Hell, he put himself through enough physical pain, what was a little more? No. It was the fact that Kaldun was in Lucifer’s body and had beat the shit out of him using Lucifer’s hands and such. That’s what really fucked him up.

So now, here he stands, on the edge of a tall rocky cliff that over looks the ocean. An empty bottle of vodka in his hand. It wasn’t a small bottle either. It was the biggest bottle he could find. He’d drank it all on an empty stomach. Talk about really fucking someone up. His legs wobbled a bit as he stood there. He was ready to jump. Oh yes indeed. At any given moment, he would do just that. The rocks below would surely crush him as he hit. He hoped so anyway.

Cecily was flying, she hadn't been flying long, she could only use her wings so much. Still it was something to do. She had only recently rediscovered she could fly. It was one of the many things she had forgotten. She was darting around in the cliffs glidign on currents of air. There shouldn't be anyone around to notice. Besides she was moving so fast she looked rather like heat lightening.

She was trying to determine how flying made her feel. Fellings were so...beyond her, she'd lost them. She'd determined she liked flying, but she couldn't go so far as to claim enthuiasm.

On one of her streaking glides she overshot....someone....uh oh.....

He tipped the bottle back and tried to drain out any remaining drops left in it. A deep frown contorted his face as he realized it was indeed entirely empty. Just as empty as he felt inside. He brought his arm up and back. It was the arm that was holding onto the empty vodka bottle. With a grunt, he pitched it forward as hard as he could. “God dammit!” he yelled as the bottle went sailing. Because he was drunk, the bottle didn’t go out near as far as he had thought it would. Instead, it went crashing down onto the rocks below him. The very rocks that he was contemplating jumping onto.

He moved closer to the edge to gaze down onto the rocks below. Not the smartest move for a drunk guy to do. One of his feet slipped. This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. He had wanted to jump. Not slip! “Oh shit!” he cried as he began to slip down the rocky edge.

Then the form of the person below slipped. Cecily sighed. This was agitating, what was the appropriate feeling to deal with something like this? She had no idea. She did know she couldn't let him fall plumenting down onto the jagged rocks below.

She flapped her wings of light with purpose each flap creating a brilliant flash until she caught up with the falling form. She grabbed him, none too gently, but the force of gravity was working against her. Her cool slender arms grabbed him under his flailing shoulders and around his chest. He didn't weigh much at all. She hardly had to exert extra effort to beat her wings, as she caught the updrafts once more. Each wing beat still created a flicker of light as she flew. The swoop up and down and up again suddenly had been rather exilerating. Pleased she had felt a sensation she repeated the process to be certain she had indeed felt something, still carrying the man.

She let herself plumment tucking her wings in and then she unfurled them a couple yards above the rocks to catch the updrafts and fly back up. Was that what fun felt like? perhaps she was confused, the man she was holding didn't seem pleased.

He was falling. Falling to what was sure to be his death. He gave up trying to catch himself so that he could do it the way he had planned. He closed his eyes and spread his arms. He was ready. Ready to hit those jagged rocks below. His pain and suffering would finally come to an end. Nothing could go wrong now. Not this time. He was sure of it.

What the hell? His eyes flung open as someone was suddenly catching him in the air. Deep frown contorted his face. “What the hell are you doing?” Then he looked down. It had taken a moment for it to sink in that he was being carried by someone with wings. “Put... put me down!” Not ‘drop me’. Not ‘let go’. But ‘put me down’. That meant to put him down on flat ground.

After a few loopdey loops Cecily deposited him on a section of beach. "Sorry, looked like you fell to me." she said. Her voice likely sounded as empty as he felt.

She dusted her hands off and with a heaving flap her wings vanished in a flash of light. She reamined standing there wearing a pair of snug fitting crago pants in khaki with an olive tank top. She was wearing hiking boots. While she was beautiful, just looking at her now you'd hardly know she was an angelic being, or anything other than a very beautiful but bored looking woman of perhaps thirty years.

"So what was that all about?" she asked, bored, she definitely seems bored.

He was not at all thrilled in the least about the few loop-de-loops she did before landing on the beach. The moment his feet touched down, he stumbled forward slightly and away from her. He reeked of vodka. “Yeah. So what. I was going to jump anyway. You’ve just delayed my goal,” he shot at her.

He turned around, finally, to look at the one who’d prevented his death. Her looks didn’t impress him much in all honesty. Now, if she were a male, that would surely have been different. But no. this was a woman.

“What do you think it was about? I was plummeting to my death. You ruined that.”

"Interesting, you meant to slip then, jumping would have been more graceful don't you think.....well perhaps you did jump, it was sloppy though. You are quite enebriated. " her voice is still very bored. "Well, so you were meaning to fall to your death....why?" Cecily can't even imagine being moved enough by anything to want to die, nor for that matter wanting to live with enthusiam. She simply lives in this state of apathy, it isn't that she doesn't care, but so long ago she forgot how.

He shook his head slightly. “Of course not. I had moved closer to make sure that I was in the right spot. My foot slipped. Not how I wanted to do it but, hey, I could live with it.” Yes. The pun was intended. He ignored her comment about him being drunk. He didn’t give a damn. Not at all.

“Why do you care?” he shot back at her. “What’s it to you why I wanted to fall to my death or not? I don’t even know you. Why should I tell you?” Yes. Erik is quite the angry angsty soul right now. He’s not going to make this easy on her in the least.

"Care, not exactly, I think you mistake me for someone else. I don't care, not to be cruel, I just don't remember how. I suppose I could have let you fall and then possibly explored how guilt might feel. There was no guarantee I would feel it though. It's not as if I know you, so there is not reaon you should stir any emotion or sensation at all. I simply thought you hadn't meant to fall. If you really want to jump I'll take you back up. Do you think you could explain what compells you to want to end it all though. I can't imagine such an extreme feeling. "All of this sounds teribly detached, not to mention bizarre. through it all her face remains bland and expressionless. So bored.

His jaw dropped slightly as he stared at her with a blank expression. This had to be one of the most strangest experiences he’s ever had. It had to be. Was this even real? Or was this his drunk imagination?

“What the hell are you talking about lady? Why do you want to know why I want to kill myself?” He really was confused at this point. She was confusing him. He hated that feeling.

"Well I would like to understand it and perhaps the emotions that you're feeling. It's not as if you're going to be late meeting someone, you can die anytime. It's not so much that I want to know, I just want to remember how to have feelings" she explains still oh so bland, her face could be carved but for the minute movements of her lips as she speaks.

He shrugged slightly. He was tired of standing already and let himself fall backwards onto the sand.

"I don't feel anything right now. Just emptiness," he answered.

He flopped himself backwards entirely so that he was now lying in the sand. The sand was still pretty warm feeling for it had been a terribly hot day today. He ignored it though. He just didn't care.

"Remember how to have feelings? That's a new one. Never heard that before."

"I forgot them, everything was so monotonous I forgot my name for along time. If you feel empty, why die, or is it because you remember what it was to feel full?"She asked. She really did want to understand, though she realized she might never.

The more she spoke, the deeper his frown seemed to get. What the hell was she talking about? She was so confusing.

"How could you have forgotten your own name?" Erik remembered when he had forgotten his own name. But that had been because he had been knocked quite hard over the head and such.

He shrugged slightly. "I would rather die than go back to feeling everything that was before the emptiness. The loneliness. The hurt. The anger. The pain." Gee Erik. Are you forgetting to leave out the parts regarding how other people's feelings flood through you even when you aren't feeling anything else yourself?

"So there was nothing positive, nothing at all? "She herself frowned, but it was a frown of perplexion. "Ho can you understand the negative without haveing felt the positive to compare it to?" she wonders outloud, "If you never knew happiness can you be certain what you feel is sadness?"

He shook his head slightly against the sand. "I never said that I hadn't ever felt happiness," he answered with a sigh. "I did indeed. It all came to a crashing halt one day." Oh yes. It had indeed.

"Well at least you know what happened to it. You can't get it back then, any of it?" She asked. She herself couldn't get hers back because she asn't sure when or where she lost it, still maybe she could help the human find his, he seemed less bent on death at the moment.

Again with the shaking of his head. "No. I can't get it back. I can't ever get it back." Wow. There was emotion in his voice. Sadness. A deep sadness. He closed his eyes so the woman couldn't see the tears threatening to appear.

"That's not good, not good at all, was it taken or did it get lost?" she asked. She knew there were things in the world that stole happiness, she didn't fully comprehend them. It was hard for her to understand things though. She was alone. She did try to interact with people, but it was almost as if her apathy was a barrier between her and the world she couldn't understand. She could tell he was sad, but she could not feel sad for him she didn't know how. "Can I help?" she asked. Her voice was not quite empty here, but it was sincerely curious>

"It was taken," he answered. "Taking as a result of violence. A bullet. All my happiness shattered with it." Yep. The day his lover had been shot by the mugger, Erik had never been the same again. Sure, he had begun to feel happiness again with Lucifer. But, it seemed that some things weren't meant to be. Especially now. Kaldun had said that Lucifer had a new boyfriend. "There is no help for me," he muttered and then fell silent. He was squeezing his eyes shut tightly. However, a tear managed to slide down the path towards his ear and dripped onto the sand.

"A bullet, hmm. I don't know what to do about it then. No help for you? I can begin to see that that could be a problem. I myself have no one to relate to. It is....frustrating, I think that is how I feel. " she had to pause for a few minutes to even think of the word. The thunder was growing louder and lightening danced out on the water now. "I do not think we should stay here." she commented as she looked at him.

He listened as she spoke. "For a while, I thought I did. I thought I had someone I could relate to. Things changed though." And not for the better it seemed. Just look at him. Bruised and cut up and such. Fresh even. It was Kaldun. In Lucifer's body.

He opened his eyes and stared at the sky for a few minutes. He didn't want to go back to his house. He never wanted to go back to his house. "Why not?"

" I seem to remember rain can make people sick and so can temperature change. I can take you from here, heal your injuries, at least your physical ones." she offers.

Big fat rain drops begn to fall on them. Cecily watches the lightening on the water. "How are you called?"

He closed his eyes again and shrugged. "You're telling that to someone who wants to die. Why would I care if the rain made me sick? And why would I want to be physically healed?"

He felt the rain drops and still he didn't move. "Erik. You?"

"Cecily." she says simply in a very thoughtful manner as if her name requires a great deal of thought. Actually it does, even though she knows it again she never hears it, there's no one to say it, and she doesn't talk to herself. "So you want to get sick and die a slow agaonizing death from an illness potentialy. I got the impression you wanted a quick exit. Strange." She says quietly as she analyzes all this.

"Nice name," he muttered as he felt more drops of rain falling from the sky.

Slight shrug was given again. "Death is death. Doesn't matter at this point how it happens. Just so long as it happens."

Eyes finally opened and he pushed himself into a sitting position. "Why are you here? Why are you asking me all these questions?"

"I don't know, some people believe the universe is random, others believe in destiny and a devine plan. I don't believe either but think a little of both, things happen for a reason, but at random. Why am I here?" again she sounds very analytical. "Did you want me to leave you here then, Erik?"

Callie had been swimming for a while when the clouds began to roll in. At that time she had decided to get out and dry out on the beach. Sitting down on her blue beach towel that had a picture of a dolphin on it she let herself dry off before putting her clothes back on over her bathing suit. Hands rung out the extra water from her ponytail and it dripped in the sand next to her. She had managed to get Charlie to let her go to the beach alone again. He had been a bit nervous since her last incident there when he left her alone.

Standing up she pulled on her jean shorts and white t-shirt over her black bathing suit. T-shirt was tied into a knot at the bottom of her shirt and to her right side; exposing her bathing suit where normally her stomach would have been should she not have the suit on. Surprisingly she had left her leather jacket at home which was a good thing by the looks of it. Rain had not been in the forecast. Gathering up her towel in her arm, she picked up her shoes which held her socks in them and walked down the beach.

By the time she had reached near the cliffs where the parking lot was it was raining and the clothes she had tried to keep dry were now getting wet. Great. Charlie wasn’t supposed to be there to pick her up for another half hour. Hopefully it wouldn’t downpour. That was the last thing she needed.

Briefly looking up she saw a man and a woman talking. The man was laying on the ground and the woman talking to him. It took her a moment to register that the person lying on the beach was Erik. She did a double take and finally decided it was indeed Erik. Who was he talking to?

”Erik.” She shouted at him and waved hello. Hopefully she wasn’t interrupting an important conversation.

He wasn’t really understanding a thing she was saying. It was all so confusing to his drunken mind. Of course, right now he didn’t even give a damn. He didn’t even try to understand what ever it was that she was talking about. It just went in one ear and out the other. Pretty much anyway.

He was just about to answer her last question when he heard his name being called. At least he though his name was being called. He opened his eyes and turned his head in the direction his name had come from. It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust just enough to see who had been calling him. He could barely make out the blurry form of a female.

Wait a minute. Was that who he thought that was? “Callie?” he said in an almost inaudible voice. He pushed himself up into a sitting position. His head was spinning for he was obviously still quite drunk. “Calli? Is that you?”

A huge grin came upon her face as he spoke back to her. It was him! She turned away from her walking to the park and went back down along the beach towards him. He was now sitting up. A glance was given to the woman for a moment. ”Hi.” She then turned to Erik.

”I haven’t seen you in a while. Where have you been?” Curiosity and worry was in her voice at the same time as well as excitement to see him again. At least he hadn’t left town or she hoped he hadn’t left again since the time she last saw him. He probably wouldn’t have noticed it, but Callie no longer bore new scars or bruises or bleeding like she normally did. Nope. That had been fixed by Charlie however the mental trauma still did a number on her every now and again.

He hadn’t really expected Callie to make her way towards him. In fact, a big part of him had hoped she wouldn’t. He didn’t want her to see him like he was right now. She’d never seen him in another other than long jeans, t-shirt, boots and his trench. And here he was, sitting in the rain on the beach wearing nothing but beat up old blue tennis shoes and a ragged looking pair of cut off jean shorts. Since he had come here to kill himself, he hadn’t seen any reason to wear anything more than that.

Because he wasn’t even wearing a shirt, his ribs would be clearly seen as well as many new scars, cuts and bruises of his own. Several of those cuts and bruises were fresh. Especially the slight burn down the side of his face. He would also reek of vodka. He reeked of it so bad, one could almost get drunk just breathing the air around him. He was too drunk right now to notice her own lack of bruises and such.

“Callie... what are you doing out here?” he asked in a slurred voice. “You shouldn’t be out here. It’s raining.” Well DUH Erik.

"I believe I had pointed out the inclememt weather just moments ago."Cecily comments.

Her smile quickly turned to a frown as she was hit with a wall that smelled horribly like alcohol. She smelled it many times from her mother which only made her heart beat race a bit. Looking his mostly naked body over she could see the vast cuts and bruises which made her frown even more. If she hadn’t known any better she’d say her mother got out of that institute and was now picking on Erik. The idea sent a sudden prick of pain in her head.

”By the looks of you, you shouldn’t be out here either and more like in a hospital or something.” She was now sitting down next to him, the stench of the alcohol was overbearing. It was bringing back all sorts of unpleasant memories, but she was trying to keep control of herself. With Erik there in such a horrible state she felt she needed to remain emotionally stable for his sake.

“Yeah, yeah,” he muttered to Cecily. “So you did.”

Slight shrug was offered to Callie before he let himself flop backwards again into the sand. “I don’t need no hospital. I don’t need nothin’,” he muttered. “Nothin’ at all.”

He was obviously drunk no doubt which made her even more wary given her past around drunken people. *coughhermothercough* It was making her headache worse to see Erik in this state.

”Why are you drunk. What’s this talk about not needing anything?” Eyebrows had furrowed as he slunk back to laying on the beach. At this point she’d forgotten the woman was there.

”Erik I don’t need you drunk.” She wasn’t sure if he ever found out about her mother’s drinking probably but it was definitely disturbing her to see him drunk as well.

Cecily observes all this. "Well you do need something, but I don't know what it is." She says simply.

Shoulders shrugged slightly. "Why shouldn't I be drunk? It's the only thing I've got going for me. Nothing else seems to matter."

Head lifted off the ground slightly. He glanced over in the direction of Cecily before letting his head flop backwards again.

"If she wouldn't have shown up, I would surely not have to have another care in the world. That was my plan anyway. Till it was spoiled."

He turned his head to look at Callie before looking back up at the sky as rain fell from it. "You don't need me at all Callie. I've got nothing to offer you. I'm nothing more than a worthless punk."

The more Erik talked the more tears began to well up in her eyes and begin to streak down her face. Why was he saying these things? Callie didn’t need another reason to fall back into her unstable mind and Erik was slowly pushing her there again and if Charlie found her in such a state after she said she’d be okay, she was sure he would never allow her to go to the beach again. After all it was the first time she was allowed to go alone since the last incident.

”So…so you’re saying you don’t care about me?” Her voice was cracking as she spoke and more of a whisper. They were choked out between her tears and she was trying to still remain stable, but Erik definitely wasn’t helping.

”Of course I need you. You have friendship to offer me. Something I’ve never had before.” Her face was glistening now with the mixture of salty tears and rain. Her clothes were soaked by this point as she sat there next to him.

Cecily knew it was bad for them to get soaking wet, but didn't know what to do about it. Afterall it's not like she could unfurl her wings and make them a canopy, it might shock the girl. the man was so drunk she couldn't be sure he even knew this was real. Still she knew better than to expose her true nature. She continued to observe them, trying to understand their reactions. The girl seemed to care for Erik, but he still seemed resigned to his coarse of action. She didn't understand.