Things Could Be Different (A SkellyxEbony Story)

Skellien could smell the blood, it hung thick in the air like fog, however he could tell it was a day old. He had missed some action.
But when he realized where the scent came from his heart nearly stopped, it came from the old graveyard, the place Ebony spent all her time with Xander!
Fear for him made him a white blur as he raced through the trees, when he finally burst out of the woods, panting, he faced the graveyard.
While he saw no blood he did see a thin purple shape crouching over a grave.
“Ebony,” he breathed and started to walk over to her, a smile breaking across his face to know and see that she was safe.
But then he stopped abruptly, the grave she was sitting at was right next to her makeshift graves for her family though no body lay under those tombstones.
He looked closer at the grave Ebony sat by and saw words carved into it: Xander Leighlock.
Skellien’s eyes widened, he had a feeling Xander’s body now lay in the ground. He must have made some noise because suddenly Ebony snapped her head around, her multi-colored eyes full of hostility and grief but then recognition flashed through them and his breath stopped, she was so beautiful, she had always been so perfect.
And yet, she had settled for that mortal boy.
He remembered with a grimace back when they had been young, her younger sister Sable had spent time with them but usually it was just him and Ebony, and those days had been so wonderful, playing, reading, simply living. But then the Diemon Hunter Organization had sent his father to a new location, his wife and son with him. Skellien had promised Ebony he’d be back one day though he knew not how long. Years had passed and his spark for her had never been extinguished and when he reached his twenties, already a high-respected Diemon Hunter he went to look for her, hoping she could stay with them and maybe they could fall over again…maybe they could start a family. But then he found her house destroyed and learned of Chaza and Melodi’s death, he assumed Ebony and Sable had suffered the same fate, he had never found Sable but when he had walked aimlessly through the woods where they had last been spotted he had come across this very graveyard.
And he had saw her, older, more womanly, and if possible more gorgeous, he gritted his teeth when he remembered he had run to her, like a love-sick fool but that was exactly what he had been, she hadn’t noticed him, had her back to him and just when he had been about to call out she ran away from him, into the arms of some pale human who retuned her embrace. He watched as they two had gazed at each other with passion and love and he had felt his heart break, he had nearly let a cry of pain escape, but the anger over the fact she should have looked at him that way never left him.
Of course he had revealed himself and while Ebony acted happy at his return he knew she would have been happier if that boy hadn’t been there, she would have ran into his arms, he knew it, but Xander destroyed that chance, he destroyed everything.
  But now he was dead, for whatever the reason, maybe things could start over. Ebony let out a sob, “Skelly,” only she called him that, she ran to him then and wrapped her arms around his torso. He wondered if she could hear that happy flutter of his heart for the embrace he wanted for so long. Things could be different now, they could.
“He’s gone Skelly,” she sobbed, “A Diemon came out of nowhere and killed him.”
Skellien tensed, looking around for the monster, “Where is the Diemon?”
“Oh I took care of it,” she snarled but her anger quickly faded back to grief, “But I was too late.”
He rubbed his hand over his back comfortingly, “I know Ebony, I’m sorry, but this would have happened sooner or later.”
Those words, those careless stupid words, made him lose her right then.
Ebony pulled away and looked at him with confusion and hurt, “What?”
“It’s just,” he began awkwardly, “He was a human, we soul stealers are immortal, Ebony he would’ve died sooner or later.”
“So I should just forget about him,” she asked with a start of a snarl.
“I never said that,” he said quickly but Ebony cut him off.
“I see it,” she said, “In your eyes, you hate him.”
“I don’t hate him,” Skellien said darkly then decided to add, “But I don’t see the big fuss over him.”
“What are you talking about,” she asked.
“Why did you keep amusing him,” he demanded, “You weren’t going to have a life with him so why lead him on?”
“Maybe I wasn’t leading him on,” she said, “Maybe I wanted to have a life with him, despite the difficulties.”
Now he stared at her with hurt and confusion, “What?”
“I loved him,” she admitted, “I loved him so much, he was everything to me.”
“Everything,” he snapped, “He was everything?! So I’m not, I’m not a part of your life?”
“You weren’t even there for my life,” she yelled back, “Where were you when I needed you?”
“I had to move away with my family you know this,” he defended himself.
“Oh I know that and I understand perfectly,” she said, “But what I didn’t understand is why you didn’t come here sooner?”
“I was becoming the best Diemon Hunter I could be,” he said.
“So that meant you couldn’t come back for just a visit,” she asked, “You’re lessons were more important to me?”
“I never SAID that,” he snapped, “And I don’t think it! You know I would’ve come back if I had the chance.”
“I know you Skelly,” she replied, “And I know if you had really wanted to you would’ve found a way to come to me.”
Fresh tears started to crowd her eyes, “But you weren’t, when my family died I was all alone, I had nothing, and you weren’t there for me.”
She pointed to his grave, “He was.”
Skelly glowered at her, “You loved him huh?”
Ebony nodded, “With all my heart?”
The pain he had felt when he first saw those two together was nothing compared to this, but Skellien wasn’t going to let her have the satisfaction of seeing his world crumble before him.
So he lashed out, “Don’t cry Ebony, it’s your own fault, falling for some dumb, weak little human who doesn’t last half our life time. You really were desperate, probably easy too.”
Skellien didn’t mean one word he said, his heart still beat for her but he was caught between a rock and a hard place, he knew if Ebony knew his true feelings she would rebuke him, going on again on how he should have been there, or pity him and he didn’t want that. If all his choices would be painful he’d make her think he didn’t care.
But Ebony didn’t hear his thoughts so she didn’t hesitate in slinging her hand against his cheek, the force making his head turn all the way to the right and a red mark appearing.
Ebony huffed with anger, “Shut up, Skellien… If you didn’t care about me, or my family, or my pain then you shouldn’t have come. Go back to where you came from, I don’t need you here.”
And then with a last pat and loving glance at the tombstone she left, leaving him out in the graveyard alone and secretly heart broken.

Months later he saw her again, she appeared at the St. Ivy’s Cathedral, looking lean and dangerous but none the less breathtaking, her old family’s demon, Cecil, at her side.
She had come to speak to Jekyll Hyde, the man who appointed all the new Diemon Hunters, she told him about her idea to make a carnival that would perform and travel but also be group of Diemon Hunters, Jekyll liked the idea and Ebony was made a Diemon Hunter.
But when she made her way out of the cathedral to go and collect her carnies she passed him one glance, the first time she had looked at him since she arrived, and all he saw was dislike, maybe even hate. When she left he had to hide his face from the others, so he could allow his face to morph into a mask of sadness and regret, oh how he wished things could be different.
But little did he know that after Xander’s death Ebony had begun to realize that while she would always love the Undertaker’s son she loved her old childhood friend as well and maybe, given the time things could have worked out, been better. But she refused to talk to him about it, believing he found her as he had named her: desperate and easy.
  So little did the two know that while they talked to each other with malice their hearts bled for the other.