Passing Glance, Alexandra [epub ebook reader .txt] 📗

Prologue


Before I begin, I must make something known. I am passionately, desperately, perfectly, ardently, and maddeningly in love with Tanya Lindsay. I cannot live without her, just as most cannot live without air.

Our first meeting was a passing glance. There I sat, in the blackest of cells. My face was dirty, my clothes torn and faded, and my soul aching with that which is true and that which is false. The truth, I was imprisoned for a horrible crime I did not commit. A crime that had a punishment worse than death itself. My fear and my tortured soul were my deepest wounds, although no one could see them. I sat with my back against the stone wall. Breathing, blocking out every sound that touched my ears. Every sound, from the man screaming across from me, to the man begging down the hall, flowed like water from one ear, to the next, without reaching any barricade prepared to analyze such sounds. I believed my walls to be impenetrable, that was before I heard her voice in the cell, echoing toward me as she stepped into my view. The guard held a blanket out to her, she took it was a smile and looked around, her bright green eyes absorbing every smell, sound, and sight. I remembered when I were that lucky, to sense everything.

Her hair was a bright red, a color that I had never seen before, and yet it seemed too perfect. I did not even consider who she was to have it. Her eyes fell upon me last, and I was surprised to see recognition in the gaze. Her eyes bore into mine with truth, with sound in it's wake. The guard had rushed off, muttering something that I did not hear. We were alone, it seemed, for nothing but her reached my senses. She looked around before kneeling at my bars. A bright smile lit her face, and emotions that I wasn't sure I recognized brightened her eyes. Her hair fell into her cheeks and I found that I desperately wanted to brush it away, for it was covering her beauty.

"Landon." She whispered her smile bright. I looked confused. How did she know who I was? Why would she speak to me if she did? I was a horrible prisoner. She looked at me further, at the dirt on my face, the blood caked in my dark hair, the bruises and cuts along my body. Her smile wavered and tears almost sprung to her eyes. My confusion turned to utter longing. It did not matter who she was, this angel was holding back tears for me. "Oh Landon, what did they do to you?" she sobbed, reaching through the bars to take my hand. I was shocked at her touch which sent shivers up and down my spine. She brought my hand to her face, cupping it to her cheek. Her eyes closed back tears as she clutched to my fingers.

"Please," My voice sounded shaky, worn, unused, "Please don't cry for such as bitter soul as mine." I was filled with concern and this strange need to protect this girl from everything that might happen to her.

She brought my hand to her mouth and kissed my callused palm softly. Chills rushed across my entire arm and I swallowed hard. "Why is it that you can remain humbled and sweet even in the face of eternal damnation?" Her eyes shown brightly into mine, I never wanted her to look away.

"Who are you?" I asked, edging closer to the bars wanting to be close to her. Her voice gave me hope. Her voice, the only one I could hear, gave me life.

She looked sad, as if the realization that this was our first meeting just came to her. She brought her hand to my cheek, twining it through my hair, and muttered, "I can't tell you, not yet. But soon you will find out for yourself." My face was right at the bars now, her's only inches from mine, and with her words she kissed me,uncaring of my scars and mud caked body. Her fingers knotted in my bloody hair and a fire within my heart erupted with such ferocity that for a moment I had lost my breathe.

She parted, smiling with tears streaming down her cheeks and muttered, "Remember this, Landon, I have always and will always love you. You are forever mine, just as I am forever yours."

The guard returned, screaming in shock at Tanya's closeness and dragging her away from me. I watched as she looked back, a sweet smile across her face. As I sat back down, I allowed, for the first time in months, the sounds to enter my head. For the first time they didn't hurt.

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My trial was short, as are all for my circumstances. I was guilty. There was no defense, no jury, just a man prepared to throw me into the pit.

The pit was a gruesome thing, it was black and endless, spanning across half the room. There was nothing covering it, for all who entered would never return. Like a gaping mouth it awaited its dinner, and I shuddered merely to gaze upon it.

"Any last words Landon Grady before you are sentenced to eternal damnation?"

I thought. What words would I say that would never fail to echo in the minds of my prosecutors? Finally I ended with the only words that felt right, "Remember me good fellows, for this will not be our last meeting, and I would hate to introduce myself again." And with a mocking salute, I threw myself into the pit, the air whipping through my hair and my laughter echoing through the endless walls.


Chapter One

I woke to the light shining in my face. It had been months since I had been thrust into a new life, and although I had come to terms with the general culture of this world I was still troubled by the teachings of my past. The pit's power had soaked into me thoroughly, sending me sprawling through history. I must have been in the future now, a strange place called America. the pit's powers were clear, it warped you, first sending you to a place of no time at all, and then speeding it up, spitting you out wherever you fell.

The first few days I had no idea where I was nor what language the people were speaking, but I had learned, and now I was able to live a somewhat normal life.

It was that day, however, that my life was destined to be thrown back into the past. As I walked down the High School hallways, I heard her echoing voice, the only ones that never failed to reach my ears.

With shock, I froze upon seeing her face, smiling as she glided through the masses of people. She saw me watching, she saw my smile, and looked at me as if I were crazy. I walked toward her.

"Hello?" She said, her eyebrows raised.

"You-you don't remember me?" I was shocked, this was the girl who had walked up to me in a cell and had kissed me, telling me that she loved me. Why did she not recognize me now?

"No, I've never seen you before in my life." She said, edging away from me.

"Yes, yes you have, I've seen you...haven't I?" I was confused now, what if everything I thought was real wasn't? What if it was just all apart of the pit's magic? No, no I refuse to believe that. There was no way that that kiss, that kiss...that kiss filled with so much emotion and love could be unreal.

I walked away in confusion, pondering over her forgettfulness. What had she told me? She had remembered me then, repeating my name. She had said that she loved me, and that I was forever hers. Yet she also said that I would find out her name soon.

I walked into History, her voice still echoing in my brain. I sat down, still contemplating what this ment.

She must have known that I would meet her, and yet she doesn't know who I am now. Could this mean that her coming to me in my cell was after this moment in which she first met me? The pit worked in strange ways, and it would not surprise me, but it still bothered me, knowing that she didn't love me yet. Knowing that she didn't know me. I grew angry as I realized I had neglected to find out her name. I'm so stupid! I scolded in my head.

my thoughts were interupted, however, when the speaker turned to life and a dry male voice made his announcement. "Attention ladies and gents, The first creative writing club meeting will be in the English Attic this afternoon, for all those who have a story to tell, please come on up." the speaker died.

I did have a story to tell, I had a very true and yet very unreal story. I shrugged, wondering, what the heck, why not?

After classes I headed up to the English room way in the Attic, unprepared for who waited me there.


Chapter Two

There she sat, staring out the window, awaiting the rest of the group's members. I held my breathe as I froze in the doorway. I was about to run, remembering our conversation that morning, but at that moment she looked up, seeing me standing ten feet away from her.

Her face looked weary. "Um...are you okay? You seemed a little odd this morning."

I coughed, coming up with an explanation quickly. "Oh, I'm sorry. Last summer I met a girl who looked just like you but I neglected to remember her name. I thought you might be her. Apparently not."

She looked at me for a moment as if she saw through me, as if she could reach my soul. But then something changed, as if she had decided to believe me. "Okay. Well, welcome to the Creative Writing Club. I'm president. My name is Tanya and you can friend me on Facebook if you want." She rolled her eyes at the last sentence.

What was Facebook? I had never heard of it in my life. God, I still had a lot to learn.

I nodded and smiled because I was totally lost and I had a feeling that EVERYONE knew what this Facebook was.

"So do you like to write?"

"Yes, I like to tell stories." I nodded, standing uncomfortably in the doorway.

"Do you want to sit down?" She asked, noticing my stiff form.

"Oh, okay." I sat in the chair beside her. She brushed back her hair over her shoulder and I was disoriented for a moment by the seductive smell of vanilla.

"Okay, who are you?" She asked, staring at me with her huge green eyes. The same eyes that had gazed at me with so much love. I swallowed hard.

that phrase had haunted my steps. I wasn't anyone here. Nothing I said made me apart of this civilization. I was banished from the one time I belonged, and doomed to never understand things like Facebook. "No on of