See You On The Other Side

[Josephine Lightbourne]

●●●

Cause darling I'm a

nightmare

dressed like a

daydream

The last thing she remembered after being resurrection was the pain. And then there was fear. It carried over into this new life like a cruel dream. The memories came in rapid flashes as her mind was uploaded: Gabriel's handsome face, the taste of his lips, the eclipse, her mother dying in her arms, the twisted look on her fathers face as he drove the axe into her body. Josie remembered laying on the forest floor as the sounds of gunshots echoed through the trees, her father on a rampage. Then she was screaming, begging them to stop before falling to the floor in an attempt to escape the two men standing over her resurrected self.

She shuddered, and forced the deep panic beneath the surface. But it was hard. Josie had only been alive for a few days now, and coming to terms with what had happened, understanding and accepting it, was no easy task. She was trying to be able to look at her father with the same love she had before he'd killed her, but every time flashes of the axe in his hand entered her mind. And every time her throat would constrict to silence the screams welling up in her chest.

She jumped when the bedroom door opened unexpectedly, and whipped around to face the intruder with an expression that was fierce to hide her turmoil. Except she caught her reflection in the mirror. "You startled me. Don't you ever knock anymore?" She was staring at herself, not Gabriel like she should have been. She was... different. Emotionally, mentally... physically. Just staring in the mirror showed that. She was still blonde, but her hair was a bit shorter. And her eyes were a different shade. Even her features were different. She didn't know how to process the changes, dint't know how to accept them.

● Tag: Gabriel Santiago ●

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0

[Gabriel Santiago]

They had done it. After over 2 decades of tests and non stop, gruelling experimenting . . . they had actually done it. Done something that others would deem impossible, yet they had achieved it. Russell was already talking about doing the same for his wife, and all the others that he had killed when under the influence of the toxins . . . but Gabriel had to slow him down. They needed to wait and see, desperately hoping that the aftermath would not have devastating results. The joy felt in bringing Josephine back was overwhelming, and he doubted either he himself or her father would be able to survive losing her twice. All those failed attempts having resulted in excruciating disappointment, but now the light at the end of the tunnel was finally bright and clearly seen. She had returned to them. Getting used to her in this body was not going to be easy . . . but it was most certainly Josephine.

Wanting to check on her, Gabriel was all too eager that he didn't even think to knock, but merely, just opened the door quietly, having assumed she was sleeping. But instead, she was standing in front of the mirror, snapping and his abrupt entrance. "I'm sorry," he apologized, taking in her sight. It was still an odd thing; to know that it was Josephine but that her physical figure was totally different. Unaged, unlike him. "I just wanted to see how you were doing." It was one of the few moments they'd been alone since her ressurrection, Russell wanting to -- understandably -- spend as much time with her as possible. But now since it was just the two of them, unless she turned him away, he hoped this would be their chance to have some time alone.

Tag Josephine Lightbourne

[Josephine Lightbourne]

●●●

Cause darling I'm a

nightmare

dressed like a

daydream

The expression on her face was difficult to describe: Josie looked at him with obvious recognition but also like he was a stranger. He was still himself--she could see his handsome face beneath the scraggly beard. She found it so confusing, and it made her head hurt the way her memories overlapped with reality; his younger face was there, shadowed by his older one. Josie swallowed the lump in her throat.

Everything bout him was the same but also so different. Or was she imagining that too? Josie turned away from him when he explained his reason for walking in without knocking. He was the same caring, sweet, boy she'd fallen in love with. Obsessed with her. That thought made her smile despite her turmoil. "I'm fine." Except she wasn't; it was a bold-faced lie. She wasn't fine. She was struggling.

"I'm just..." she started, her arms crossing protectively against her chest. Josie didn't know how to approach what she was feeling, what he was feeling. Before... she'd been killed... they had been lovers, obsessed with each other in many ways. Did he feel the same after all these years? Did he look at her in this strangers body and still feel love for her?

Josie turned back to him, really looked at him, his body changed by the hands of time, and she didn't see an old man but the boy she'd come to love. And she knew that he still loved him. "It's just a little weird, is all."

● Tag: Gabriel Santiago ●

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOXOGRAPHY 2.0