[center][h2]Beautiful Lies[/h2][/center]
[center][i]Themerlinhawk[/i][/center]
[center][b]Lazarus[/b][/center]
[center][h3]The Academy- Afternoon[/h3][/center]

With quick steps Lazarus walked out of his house and towards the Academy. In a couple of minutes his strides took him to the front of the academy and through the outer gate. The other evening he’d left his bag in his office and it had a few things in it that he needed. There was a piece of the black journals that he needed. 


The students in the hallways that recognized him either avoided him or gave him wide smiles and: Welcome back Master Lazarus. Tugging the edge of his Longshoreman’s cap down he kept moving. It was quite the experience being back in the Academy in the middle of the day; it was strange really. Slipping into his office he lifted the bag off its hook in his office. Looking out the window at the grounds of the Academy. Once upon a time the view had been one head enjoyed mostly from a window further down the hallway. It was...hard to see things like this and not feel her. Just down the hall. Quick steps away from the arms of someone who loved him. Now it was empty. 


Lazarus shut the door to his office and started down the hallway towards the exit. Skirting by an open door he looked in. It was one of the side doors to the grand ballroom; pausing Lazarus stared at the piano that stood off to one side. Dropping his bag and his coat by the ballroom door her took off his hat and tossed it on the bag. Walking into the room he closed his eyes and extended his hands Lazarus ran essence from the blade of Dracul in large amounts as he let memories flow through him. The essence spun across the ballroom clinging to the memories Lazarus spun across the room. With steps like a stone across water the ethereal hands of his beloved reached out and he took her hands as he stepped into a waltz. Moving across floor he turned the essence thread version of Hazumi in the ballgown she had worn for the newest class of students. 


As he reached the piano he let her spiral away from him and back into the crowd of students he’d created from essence and memories. Sitting at the piano he opened it with smooth hands and slid his fingers down the length of it. As the essence he’d let free of Dracul bled away Lazarus set his fingers to the keys and let them dance across the white keys set in the jet black of the piano. The melody resounded within the ballroom; on its own it practically brought back all the ghosts he had seen dancing there in the ballroom moments ago. This time it brought back a parade of memories: Iris, Ian, Mary, Solus, Hazumi, Shaylee, and then the final spectre. She danced across the floor of the ballroom on her own as his tune switched to something else entirely. 


Kathleen turned slowly and met his eyes before she vanished once again into the void. 

[@caits]