Not Alone Anymore (For Christine Lilla/Casual)

[leverne]

Erik sat down to rest on the couch in the centre of the sitting room after spending an hour or so exploring the castle again. He leaned forward to rest his hands on his knees and rubbed the palms of his hands together then bent his fingers round to crack each knuckle individually, the balled his hands up around each other and rested them under his chin.

He knew that there were ghosts here or rather, a ghost. There might be more as far as he knew but so far he had only talked to one. He had heard voices when he had been wandering around – this obviously meant that there were other people here. Presumably they were actual people too, not just ghosts and creaky floorboards.

So far though he hadn’t recognized anyone he knew. Not that that was terribly surprising; the only person he really knew was his wife, Christine. He unfolded his hands and slid them over his face, rubbing at his eyes then steepled them over the nose of his mask. She must be so worried about him...She was always clambering after him back when they were home. Even when they were just in separate rooms she liked him to keep in contact over the computer. He smiled slightly and let his arms drop down again.

It was probably a little too much to ask for but perhaps whatever had brought him here would decide to be kind and bring Lilla too? But that might not be the best idea...It would leave the poor cats with nobody to feed them...

// And cue convenient Lilla!

[Christine Lilla Leverne]

This was not the first time that Christine had woken up in a strange place.

Christine - or, as she often called herself - Lilla, stirred in a little bed, curled up on her side. Her icy eyes fluttered open, and she pushed herself up, instantly recognizing that something was horribly wrong.

"Where the hell am I?" She thought quietly aloud, waking the two cats at her feet from their slumber. Tupp and Felicity, the two felines in question, simply closed their eyes again and ignored Lilla, who was too busy running about and studying the tiny room she had woken to.

The one thing that alarmed her the most was that a certain husband of hers was nowhere to be seen. She knew how she was without him - it wouldn't be long before she would go into a panic attack, surely.

She was so preoccupied with her thoughts of Erik that she didn't notice that her belongings had already found proper places around the room. Instead of stopping to notice this, like any ordinary person would, she scooped up the cats and burst out of the room. Erik simply had to be here somewhere!

"This is all a dream...This is all a dream...A damned strange one at that, but a dream, certainly!" She muttered to herself as she rushed about, finally giving up once she entered a sitting room and setting the cats down. Instantly, both of the cats scampered straight to where Erik was sitting.

Lilla was about to cry. She didn't see Erik yet, and she was just plain scared. She was absolutely hopeless without Erik! Finally, she looked up when Felicity yowled at Erik. Lilla sprang up and dashed over to her husband, practically squealing.

"Oh my God, Erik! Where are we? Why are the cats here? What is this place?!" She stuttered at him, falling into unintelligible gibberish before she shut herself up and leaped onto Erik, forcing a hug on him.

[leverne]

Erik took a few moments to notice the cats rubbing at his shins as he was so distracted with his thoughts. What if Lilla never showed up? Would he have to be alone forever? They weren’t exactly cheerful thoughts, which is why he was so distracted by them.

He would have found it rather difficult to miss Lilla though, even if she hadn’t launched herself at him. He fell back on the couch when she landed on him, steadying himself against the cushions with one hand and using the other to catch her. He swore with surprise and looked at her, a little panicked.

“Ch-Christine!” He stammered, blinking heavily. “Hey, hey...Shush now, darling. Everything is just fine,” He added, trying to sound soothing and calm. Whilst he was a lot calmer than she was by now, he still wasn’t exactly relaxed.

He ran a hand through her hair lightly, resting his fingers on the back of her neck. “I have a very vague idea of what’s going on...but I’m not exactly sure how or why any of this has happened.” He licked his lips slightly to wet them before continuing. “What I’ve got so far from...speaking with a ghost is that we’ve been brought here by old residents of this mansion, castle...thing we’re in at the moment for entertainment purposes. And by that I mean to satisfy curiosity, not our kind of entertainment.”

[Christine Lilla Leverne]

Christine calmed down the instant that Erik's hand touched her neck. She thought to herself how silly it was that a simple touch from him could calm her more than a hundred soothing words from anyone else. Unsurprisingly, his voice brought a tranquil smile to her face, which she buried in his chest.

"Well, at least we have each other now..." She said quietly, peeking up at his face. "I don't doubt a word of what you're saying. Weirder crap has happened to us."

"Weirder crap" was right. After all, in all technicality, Erik and Christine were over one hundred years old. Luckily, they had gotten a few months' time to adjust to the time change before appearing in the Manor...But that did not mean that they had forgotten their old lives in the slightest.

[leverne]

Erik leaned his head back slightly when he felt her peek up at him and smiled very slightly. Now that he knew she was here with him and not catapulting herself against his rib cage he felt a lot more at ease with these strange new surroundings than he had done before.

“Yeah...We should write a freaking book about all the nonsense we’ve been through!” He laughed, his smile broadening.

He frowned suddenly, remembering something and groaned loudly. “God damn it...” He muttered and screwed up his eyes. “Uh...Have you found yourself a room yet? Only I think there might be a few problems with the sleeping arrangements...See, there’s this freaky woman in a gas mask that I’ve kind of been roomed with...”