Back from the dead...so to speak

"Hi mom! Hi dad!" Aska exclaimed cheerfully, holding two flowers and standing in front of two gravestones. She laid a flower before each one. "Sorry I didn't come visit you yesterday, I got distracted. So I brought you each a flower to make up for it."

Aska knew that her parents were dead and couldn't talk to her, but she liked to believe they were out there somewhere, still very much existing, and maybe even watching her. She could still talk to them, the only difference was that they couldn't talk back.

She sat down on the grass, as though planning to stay there for a while. She continued to talk animatedly with her parents; about herself, an interesting thing she saw the other day, the meaning of life, and other random topics one might talk about.

Rene, being the weird twisted soul he was, came to Elep's Cemetary to visit Harmond and Szilvi's grave. Aproaching his fathers grave first, he stared at the headstone for a moment, hands in his pockets, before he scowled and spat on his grave.

The next grave he came to visit was Szilvi's he stared at her grave for a while then mumbled, "I hope you gave him the message..."

He walked along the graveyard before he came upon a famalir looking clio. His childhood friend, Aska.

"...and that's why god doesn't like bingo!" Aska was telling an anecdote when she sense another presence in the graveyard. She looked upsidedown at the clio behind her.

"Oh, hello Rene!" she exclaimed with a friendly smile, as if Rene was a normal person and not a homicidal maniac. "You're looking much less unstable then the last time we met."

She made a face.

Rene grinned, that was why he loved Aska so much, why they got along so well. She'd never judge him, she'd never scold him or hurt him.

Rene took a seat next to her on the ground, sitting indian style. "It's so nice to see you again," he told her. "Are you visiting your parents?"

"Yep!" Aska chirped, gesturing towards the headstone. "I was too distracted to come yesterday and I missed them."

She still missed them. She missed their voices.

"Who're you visiting?" she asked.

"My dead father," Rene told her. "And another girl, who I actually killed."

Rene itched his nose and played with some grass, as if he just told Aska he smooshed a bug or something.

"You shouldn't have done that!" Aska exclaimed. But she exclaimed it with little surprise, as if Rene had just told her he smooshed a bug or something. "The poor girl. I bet she's upset. Wouldn't you be?"

Aska didn't think about life and death like most people. To her, dead people weren't gone, they were just...somewhere else.

Rene sort of frowned, sort of, "I'm sorry."

He pulled pieces of grass out of the ground and sprinkled them onto Aska's lap.

"It's okay," Aska replied. (Oh yeah, Aska, it's totally "okay" to kill someone.) She smiled a little and brushed the grass pieces off her lap. "As long as you're sorry."

She saw a ladybug on the ground, put it on the tip of her pinky and stared at it. "Is our overloridian still angry at you?" she asked curiously, with a slight frown.

Rene nodded casually, "His wife is my little sister you know."

Aska tilted her head to the side. "I didn't know you had a little sister," she remarked. "And I definitely didn't know you were the overloridian's brother-in-law."

"Well we haven't seen each other for so long," Rene explained to her. "I haven't been able to tell you about everything!"

"We're seeing each other now!" Aska pointed out excitedly, flicking the ladybug away. "You could tell me everything now!"

"Well, okay," Rene decided. "But please don't get too mad at me..."

He then proceeded to tell Aska everything that has been going on, how he's a father, an uncle, an murderer, a rapist, and a girlfriend beater, and how he doesn't even like that girlfriend.

Aska listened intently, looking quite impassive. After Rene finished she was quiet. She stood up, faced away from him, and took a few steps.

Then she turned back, held her hand out as if to help him up, and said, "Wanna go for a walk?"

For a second Rene actually believed that Aska really was just going to run away, but when she turend around and held out her hand, he smiled and grabbed it.

He stood up, "I'd love to take a walk."

Aska held onto Rene's hand as if they were little kids. In a way, Aska really was still a little kid. But in other ways she was very mature. She's something of a paradox.

"So are you allowed to come to Ughdarras?" she asked. If Rene was a wanted criminal he might not be very welcome there. "To visit me?"

Rene furrowed his brow, looking at the ground until finally he said, "I'm really not suppose to be there, but I could always sneak in to see you."

He turned his head to look at Aska, "You can visit me too, I live in Dahlin now."

"Okay," Aska replied with a nod. "Do you think the Overloridian will ever forgive you?"

Rene shook his head 'no'. "I've done a lot of bad things to make him upset, he might just kill me the next time our paths cross."

Rene thought about what that day would be like and how it would happen. It made him grin.

Aska looked mildly surprised. "You really think he'd kill you?" she asked. her brow furrowed slightly. "He doesn't seem like the type..."

Rene wondered whether or not he should tell Aska about the man Quinn murdered way back when, but decided that he didn't feel like it. In a way, Quinn and Rene were the same, maybe that's why Rene allowed Lumi to be with Quinn.

"I don't know," he said to Aska. "Maybe not."

"Although," Aska said looking thoughtful, "neither do you. Not now anyways. Though I guess you act different when you're not around me, huh?"

Rene nodded, "Yes, very different. Actually," he continued, "I wouldn't want you to see me, different..."

Aska looked at him meaningfully. "Why not?"