Trying to save my soul tonight

By Merisha

Synopsis: Okay, so here it is, my take on the Season 3 finale ;0) – if you haven't read "Losing my Religion" you may be a bit confused. This story is also from multiple POV's, jumping from the past into the present, wrapping up loose ends and explaining origins. Most of the information is a mixture of fact and fiction, so don't go quoting me in any history books LOL ;0)

There are also some new characters, but they're just visiting. It will all make sense in the long run, so don't panic.

And yeah, I know these two stories are more angsty then my usual fare … but you can blame Kripke for that … his episodes are freaking me out at the moment LOL ;0)

Disclaimer: If they belonged to me, there would be no time for fanfic LOL ;0)

Warning: Mild Language

Chapter 1 - 'The Prophecy'

Bruno's POV (translated into English)

Torre dell'Annona, Italy, 1600

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At last it is done, my final journal. I didn't think I could finish it before this day, my eyes have been so bad lately, but I have. I finally have. I could never explain the relief I feel. Out of all the 1127 manuscripts that I have written over the last ten years, this one book, it is the most important. I am giving it to Phillipo to give to you as always. You must in turn give it to my cousin as he leaves for the Americas this very night. The day has now finally come and it is the most important thing you can do for me. Per favore aiutatemi Sophie, it must reach him at any cost. I cannot explain my actions to you mia amore, you would not understand. I am so sorry for that, but sorriest for your pain. Know that what I have done is for a noble cause. I didn't know it then, but I do now. I am so very tired but please have peace in the knowledge that I have never been happier. The weight that was on my shoulders has finally lifted and I am free. If you ever think back on me, remember me this way.

Sempre, Bruno

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I fold the warn piece of paper carefully in half. I tore out the last blank page, in this my final journal, to write one last note to Sophie. I'm finally finished, I will never write again. I lay down the old ink pen resting between my raw fingertips. I smile as I look at the water stained parchment. This room has no protection against the elements. It's dark and moldy, the only light coming from the small barred window high above the straw laden ground where I am sitting. But it has been my home for seven long years, if you can call the 'Tower of Nona' home.

The old woman in the prison cell next to me starts hacking. She knows she is dying. If the infection in her lungs doesn't kill her, the cold, dank cell will. She has been here longer than me, accused for witchcraft by the church.

Philosopher, cosmologist, occultist and heretic. These are the names that have sealed my fate. I chuckle at the irony. The one thing not on that list is seer. I can see the future. At first I thought I was surely going mad, I even went to see a physician and he told me it was a sickness of the blood, causing me to have hallucinations. I had no one to talk to, except my Sophie, the one I had given everything up for, and when she saw how ill I was from the daily draining of blood with leeches she chased the physician out of our villa and into the streets, yelling obsentities at him. That is why I love her so much. I smile at the memory. She nursed me herself from that day on and I got better. It was then that I tried to confide in her. I told her of my visions, of great buildings, chariots without horses and flying coaches and then of demons and monsters and warriors. It was the day I saw terror in her eyes. I never wanted to see that look again. She thought I had been possessed … and ironically she was not very wrong.

So that day also became the day I decided to leave all thoughts of the future behind me and concentrate on my life with Sophie, the here and now. I had been a struggling writer all my life, in love with a merchant's daughter. The pain of knowing I could never marry her drove me to foolishness. Things did change, we did get married, and for three years I wrote theories and manuscripts, discussed philosophies, became a respected professore in the field of sciences. We lived in wealth and fame, as I had wished for and our love was strong. That love is what has carried me through my time in prison. But even though I was happy beyond my wildest dreams, for those three years I was still haunted by nightmares and visions. Haunted by a future that I could change, a future I had the power to change. I dreamt of a great war between good and evil. Ancient creatures battling for ultimate power and two brothers, the two brothers who would save the world. Eventually I could not eat, or sleep, the urge to write the things I saw so vividly in my head was slowly driving me insane.

That was when it started. I would get up in the late hours of the evening and write until the early hours of the morning. I couldn't stop myself. I wrote pages and pages of things that were to come. I began spending more and more time in my den, my fingers aching from the words that ran so freely from my head, through my hand and onto the pages before me. It was a history of the future. World changing events … things I had never heard of before … world war … atomic bomb … hells gate. I could not imagine such things, and yet I saw them all vividly. Maybe I was mad, but deep down I knew, I knew because I had asked to see the future and I had been granted that gift. But it had also become my curse.

My sudden change in behavior scared Sophie and our fall away from society caused an arousal of suspicions. The Vatican started investigating me secretly. They found out about my strange beliefs, my notions of the future and I was eventually arrested, dragged to court and convicted before I even understood what was happening. My Sophie cried throughout the trial, especially when they said I would be imprisoned for ten years. And if after that time I did not see the error in my ways and repent, I would be burnt alive at the stake. They didn't know that they would be three years too late.

It has been seven years …and my time is up.

I have spend the better part of this last year working on my final book. The visions come with such clarity now, that it has by far become the best thing I have ever written. It contains spells, curses and incantations that will help those two brothers who have haunted my dreams for so long. I have dates, times, places, events all categorically listed from the time of their birth, until the day they die. And then, a few days ago, after an especially painful vision, it finally came to me. A place with a name … a place I knew I had to get my final book to. A place called Kansas. The problem is that no such place exists … I did not even know where to start … and then my cousin gave me the answer I was looking for when he came to visit me last week.

He said that he was going with a ship to the new world … a new land where colonies were being built, a place to start a new life. I knew then that this was the place, the place where my journal needed to go. I asked him if he would take it with him, not to be read by anyone. He made a solemn vow, a word of a brother and friend. He will keep the book safe and he will tell his sons, who would tell their sons, that the book can only be moved when they hear of this place called Kansas. And then they must take it to the first church built there and leave it in the basement to be forgotten. My cousin doesn't understand my request, but he has accepted the task. He promises he will not fail me. I believe that my book will eventually be found there by a preacher of that time. And that precious information will at long last go to its intended recipients.

I received word that the ship is leaving for the colonies tonight. I am waiting for little Phillipo to arrive so that he can take this priceless manuscript to Sophie. He should be here any minute.

I rub my thumb over the old leather binding, slipping the note between the cord holding the pages closed. It is the final prophecy, the one detailing the greatest battle that will ever face mankind. And everything I know of those two brothers is in this book. Everything in intricate detail that will lead up to that battle, and hopefully with that knowledge, they will not fail.

The old hag coughs again. We have a bet on to see who will die first.

"Bruno?"

Her voice is strained and gravely, it sends a chill down my spine. I look up at the window above me, there is still a thin stream of sunlight filtering through from the late afternoon sun. I let them sink into my cold skin.

"Yes anziana donna."

"Bruno … you have a visitor."

She starts cackling as I turn my head, expecting to see Phillipo. Instead I look into the beautiful face of my Sophie. I think I must be dreaming as I blink my eyes a few times, slowly pushing myself up from the straw.

"Sophie?"

My voice breaks under the emotion that suddenly fills my heart. I haven't seen her since that trial seven years ago. I have forbidden her to come to this dark place. I did not want her to ever see me here. I stare at her. She hasn't changed. She is still beautiful, long black hair falling in soft curls around her pale face.

"What are you doing … why are you here?"

The guard opens the gate to my cell as she tentatively steps in. I take a step back. I know what I must look like. My clothes are stained, I have a long, unruly beard and this place smells like the pits of hell. My pure and wonderful Sophie should not be here.

She smiles at me sweetly, but the room suddenly feels colder.

"Bruno, Bruno, Bruno … just look at you … what a sad sight."

Fear instantly grips my heart. I'm looking at her, but her voice is different, she's not the same. I haven't seen her for all these many years, but I know her and the person in front of me isn't my Sophie.

"Wh…who are … you?"

"Dear boy, you already know the answer to that question!"

No! This can't be happening … no … not to Sophie!

"It's you … but why … what have you done with my wife?"

"Oh she's in this meat suit with me … she's crying to get out … you should hear her screams!"

I try to move forward but I'm suddenly pushed back and pinned against the wall. The guard rushes forward but with a flick of her wrist, he drops down dead in front of my open cell door. I'm not the man I used to be, I'm thinner and frail. I know I can do nothing against the monster in front of me, so I don't struggle. The pressure is released and I slump to the floor.

"Oh Bruno … you're breaking my heart, seriously … is this what you've become? I gave you the world on a silver platter and this is what you did with it?"

She shakes her head sadly, but her eyes suddenly blaze red and I scramble back against the wall, turning my face in horror as tears stream down my cheeks. My Sophie … I can't face the evil in her eyes … a sob escapes my lips.

"Mistress … did I do well? Will I get my reward?"

It's the old hag. The door to her cell silently swings open, the lock crumbling to dust.

"Yes donna … I'm very pleased … your wish is granted."

She flicks her wrist over her shoulder again and I watch in horrid fascination as the old hag stands up and transforms into a beautiful young girl before my eyes. The old woman walks up to me in her new disguise, she smiles down at me but the black emptiness staring back leaves me with unimaginable dread.

"You see Bruno … I will not be the first to die. I have won our little bet. I have been speaking to my mistress ever since you came through these doors. She told me to tell her as soon as you finished your last book, your prophecy ... so I did. And in return for that information and in exchange for my soul, I have been given eternal life and beauty."

She chuckles happily.

"And now I can exact my revenge on those who locked me up for all these miserable years. I am a powerful sorceress now."

The monster wearing Sophie's face smiles down at the old woman. Running her hand almost lovingly over the now smooth skin of her cheek.

"She is more than a sorceress, she is a Lich … an undead creature who feeds off the essence of life. Go forth my creation, and wreak havoc among man."

The Lich cackles again as she slowly rises from the floor, floating, and in an instant flies out the door and into the dark night.

Sophie moves forward and picks up my most precious possession, the book. She flicks it open, the letter I wrote dropping unread to the floor.

"Ah, this … this is an absolute masterpiece Bruno. Definately your best work. You've just restored my faith in you. Do you remember that day ten years ago, the day you went to the crossroads in Florence and summoned me?"

How can I forget … it was a foolish mistake that has haunted me every day since.

"You were so young and ambitious then. You wanted to be one of the greatest writers and philosophers known to man, better than Plato or even Sappho. You wanted to know the future, so that you could plan ahead for your precious Sophie's wellbeing. Your love for her blinded you to everything else and you thought that if you were not rich and famous she would never marry you. That her father would never allow it."

I bow my head in despair, looking at my dirty, bare feet. Shame coloring my face.

"But the funny thing is, she would have gone with you. Left her rich family. You would have lived like any other average couple, married, with bambino's … you don't have any children now do you Bruno?"

I shake my head, tears clouding my vision.

"If you had not made that deal, you would have had two boys now. Two beautiful children, doting on your ever word. You would have lived a happy, long life until you both died of old age. But instead, this is what you got."

She spits out those words as she waves her hand around the small room in disgust, each revelation stabbing at my broken heart.

"Please … how can I … how can I fix this?"

I'm shaking, the heaviness of my loss is crushing my soul.

"I'm sorry Bruno, truly I am … but there's no way out of a crossroads deal. Your ten years are up and I have come for you. At the stroke of midnight the hellhounds will arrive, and there's nothing I can do about it."

I nod my head again. I think I always knew it would end like this for me. Even though I can see the future, I never saw my own.

"Will my Sophie live? Please, please give her back her life."

My voice is softly pleading as I slowly look up.

"I cannot, Sophie would only die. I have been living in her body for over a year now, ever since you sent her your last manuscript. That same night she was badly hurt during an unexplainable fire. Your cousin even thought she might die. I waited until she was alone and then I entered her battered body restoring her life. But the fire burnt down your home and destroyed your life's work."

I look at her in shock, not believing the things coming from her mouth.

"You did not know? Ah well, I am afraid it is true. All your books Bruno, every last one, except the one I hold in my hand now, were destroyed in that fire"

Rage suddenly boils within me as I stand up on unsteady feet. My head is pounding, my world has suddenly turned upside down.

"Why? Why did you do this? Why did you ruin my life?"

She laughs, throwing back her head in mirth.

"Bruno, you are so intelligent and yet so stupid. You asked for something that nobody has ever asked for before. You wanted to know the future, be a philosopher and writer. We knew that you would see the battles in the years to come. And now that you have written everything down in this one book, it has become the most powerful knowledge known to demons or man. Did you think we would just let it slip through our fingers? Thanks to you, we now know who we'll be fighting and how to stop them."

I shake my head. I suddenly feel sick as my knees give way again as I fall to the floor.

"Oh god … what have I done?"

She smiles at me, laughter dancing like flames in her red eyes.

"You, my dearest Bruno, have just given us the upper hand, and ensured your place in hell."

She turns to leave, the door to my cell slamming shut, leaving me with those tormenting words. Something snaps as I watch her walk away, my Sophie is trapped, my life ruined, everything I have ever done … for nothing. But worse than this, I have betrayed the brothers who would have fought this evil, brothers yet to be born.. I start laughing, my laughter turning into hysteria at a world that has suddenly gone mad in my sane eyes. My shouts of mirth ring out in unison with the church bells chiming midnight, following me as the hounds drag my deserving soul into the dark pit.

TBC ;0)