The Order of the Whitening and the New Beginning.

The Order of the Whitening and the Threat to Mankind.

The Order of the Whitening. Clarina and Luke.

She was confused as to why she was seeing him right now. Clear as day right in front of her. Clarina rubbed her eyes as she tried to come to terms with what she was seeing. This wasn’t real, she knew it wasn’t real and it wasn’t just the sight of Luke before her eyes that proved that to her. What she didn’t know was why she was being tormented like this. Was this a figment of her imagination or actual hell?

Clarina was pulled from her thoughts as the scene she remembered so well played out in front of her eyes. It was a dagger to the heart reliving this moment. She couldn’t stop it going through the motions nor could she close her eyes. Life had never been crueller than the day she lost her soulmate, Luke. He was human but he knew about her past, her powers and what may lie ahead for her, for both of them. But he loved her. Piece by piece he broke down her barriers until she let him in. Remembering it brought a smile to her lips. She had let herself love him with everything she had.

Watching the day Luke finally won her heart simultaneously warmed and broke her heart all at the same time. His brown eyes were fixated on her and only her as he gave her one last chance to have him, to admit she loved him before he left her. Forever. When you have lived forever, it is truly a long, long time. Especially to be alone.

All those feelings she had buried long ago resurfaced as the tears rushed to escape and cascade down her cheeks.

She never truly let herself grieve over him when he died. Instead, she punished herself for being so stubborn and downright pigheaded all those years ago. For all the time wasting with her negativity towards love. She had wasted precious time with him. If only she had known back then that they didn’t have forever.

But there he was, stood stock still in her yard, the same as that day back in 2006. On the wooden crate, she hadn’t yet gotten around to filling with flowers for underneath her window ledge. He was wearing his Napolean fancy dress costume. The one he bought for the party where they first met. The same one he refused to return because he said he knew all along it would bring him good luck. He shelled out £150 in the end to the hire shop to keep it. She thought he was mad at the time, and seeing him again in it, what she wouldn’t give to chastise him one more time for being so crazy and impulsive.

But he wasn’t all that crazy, impulsive yes but not crazy. Just crazy in love with her. His 6-foot frame, slender from all the sports he played gave him a sleek silhouette as the sun began to set behind him. He only moved occasionally to run his hand through his short mousey brown hair or itch his nose. He wasn’t classically handsome, but his kind eyes showed you who he was. His compassion, especially for the children he trained in his sports clubs, betrayed the rough and ready ruggedness of his cheekbones and jawlines. People always thought he looked like trouble and was most definitely someone to be avoided. But once you got to know Luke, you knew, nothing was further from the truth.

It was some time around midnight that night, she had noticed he had moved.

Her doubts preventing her from calling to him or even going out into the garden. Until he left. Never once did Clarina think he would actually leave. After all, he had been in her life for four months now, he wouldn’t just leave? She just needed time. Time to know if he was worth revealing her secret too. Time to know if he could be trusted with it and if he would still love her, as she loved him, once he knew who she really was.

Seeing the empty crate was all it took to finally make her decide she wanted him. Clarina watched herself race into the garden calling him over and over. She caught sight of some of the neighbours turning on their lights as they heard the distressed woman calling out for the crazy man who had been stood in her yard all day. “Luke” she cried once more as she turned the corner. His leather jacket slung over his back over his crazy outfit as he slouched in defeat making his way home alone. “Please Luke, stop” she implored him but he kept walking with his head lowered.

“I love you” she whispered to his back as she stopped in the street wearing nothing but a ripped vest top and PJ shorts emblazoned with Mickey and Minnie mouse cartoons “I Love you” she repeated as she waited for him to stop. “And I’m sorry”

That time the tears really did spill as she let out all the emotions she had been holding inside since the day she met him. Deep down she knew. Her prophecy told her of her one and only love whom she loves with her one true heart. But she had gotten too used to being alone to accept that it would actually come.

Through the tears in her eyes, Clarina stood in position, in some sort of strange no man’s land, she watched as Luke ran back to the other her all those years ago. She watched him embrace her before kissing her on the lips as they fell through the front door. The sound of neighbours cheering in the background made present Clarissa blush as she watched her memories continue to play out in front of her. “Together forever” she whispered in time with Luke as he told his Clarina.

She was lost. In her thoughts, in her love, in her own troubles.

She tried to focus on how she got here witnessing her past. As she watched Luke disappear for the second time she knew this wasn’t a dream. This wasn’t something she had done, someone had done this to her. She was trapped. Away from real life, from White Manor and from the evil now contained in its walls. Something really bad was going on and she needed to get out here now. She closed her eyes, taking in Luke’s scent to lock into her memory once more as she began her fight to get back to her time and her place and more importantly the evil at White Manor.