Once Upon a Lifetime Ago
Original



WARNING: Some bloody themes.

At one time, once upon a time, a lifetime ago, he would have called himself happy. Genuinely so. Each day he would have met with a smile. Each day he would be ready to face the world like it was his to conquer.

But now…? Not so much. He would smile, sure. But was he happy? Not really. It was a general happiness now. Something that was just enough to get him by. Happiness for having a roof over his head, food in his belly. Everyday happiness. Nothing like what he had once known.

You see, Klaus Riykofuma had been in love once. Deeply in love. Unbearably in love. But perhaps it had been a love not meant to be… A love that the world around them scorned and hated—but nonetheless that love between him and her only grew like some fairytale wonder. It grew into something beautiful. Something he had held close to him, cherished and thanked for each morning he woke to her sleepy face and each night with her in his arms. He could have never imagined he would have fallen so passionately and perfectly in love. Not with her… not with Sierra Burns.

Klaus blinked away the nostalgic memories that clouded his eyes with tears. Such a beautiful happiness… How he missed it. His fingers ran along the silver frame of a small painting a friend had painted ages ago… A painting of his Sierra. He captured her beautifully. Her black locks tumbled down her shoulders in loose ringlets. Her face, pale, sweet and magnificent, was kissable, loveable. Perfect lips shaped into the most stunning of all pouts graced her. And her eyes… thick eyelashes—dreamy—beautifully magnetic crimson eyes stared with such gentleness. She had been his once… His to hold. His to cherish. His to love.

The elf pushed his glasses up so he could brush the tears from his eyes. Yes… he had once been in love… Long long ago… Even if it had been in his youth, each feeling, each memory, was forever in his mind… Almost like some sickeningly wonderful form of torture…

”Oh, Klaus, won’t it be so wonderful when our baby arrives? Won’t it just be so wonderful to have our own little one to run around in this great big house?” Sierra laughed and it was a beautiful sound. It made Klaus smile. He reached out to pull his fiancé into his arms and kissed her gently.

“Yes, yes… The more the merrier, right?” He smiled dashingly, youthfully. They were going to have a most lovely family together. He was sure of it. In only months they would soon be able to make that dream true. He crouched in front of the woman and ran his hands lovingly across her swollen belly. Soon, very soon, he was going to meet his child. “Well, hello in there, little one. I hope you’re ready to come out soon, because Daddy just can’t wait to meet you. The suspense is most unbearable!” He kissed her belly before standing and taking her hands. “A girl or boy? What it is you feel mother-to-be?”

Sierra laughed quietly, batting her eyelashes coyly at him. Her smile was demure, all-knowing. “What makes me think that I just magically know?” Klaus grinned at her and she laughed cutely. “I think it’s a boy… I think he will look like you. A lot like you.”


And how right she was. They named him Gabriel. He had been a most adorable of a boy—bright green eyes like his father (yet with a inquisitive hint of gold) and dark black hair like his mother. He had a smile like hers, but laughter like his. Gabe, as they so fondly called him, was always so curious. He was always grabbing things to shove them in his mouth and explore it curiously despite his parents’ angst. He was the joy of their lives, the apple of their eye. They couldn’t wait to have more… And yet, fate had not been so kind.


“Despicable.” One mans pat, scowling at the woman as she walked quietly down the dirt road, carrying the six-month old Gabriel safely in her arms. The little boy was reaching out curiously for anyone that came close. Sierra smiled gently at the boy, kissed him, and ran her hand gently over his growing black hair. She did not comment as several gave her disgusted glares. Some, like the man before, were even brave enough to curse her as she walked.

Sierra cooed the little boy. /Everything is all right… They’re just words, little Gabriel. Don’t listen to the words. One day you’ll grow big and strong and you will know that those words are harmless./ She smiled, kissing the boy gently. Gabe blinked up at her then smiled, giggling gleefully. Sierra smiled back.

It was because she was looking so fondly at her son that she did not notice the group of men walking so meaningfully towards her. When she raised her crimson eyes it was only in time to see those burly men reaching for her.

She cried out, trying to pull Gabriel closer to, trying to shield the boy. But someone hit her across the face, her grip loosened and the boy was jerked out of her desperate hands. The woman began to cry, trying to jerk herself free. Someone had her long locks and twisted them savagely between their knuckles. Her eyes stung, her heart beat furiously, but her eyes never left the man carrying her wailing baby.

“You witch. You cast a spell on the Professor. You made him fall in love with you.” The man shook Gabriel. He was holding the baby by one arm. Little Gabriel wailed and screamed but the man seemed unconcerned. “You created a demon in the disguise of an elf. But we know better. We know that this thing you made will one day kill us all. You can’t hide it. You’re disgusting.”

A murmur of agreement spread through the growing crowd. Sierra was horrified. These people, some of which she had come to call friend, only had one look for her; loathing. True, honest and powerful loathing. All because of her heritage? Because she was a demon? That couldn’t be right… She had lived so peacefully among them most of her life—how could they still think that?

Gabriel, who was crying painfully, was carried further and further away from her sights. Sierra began to scream—it was all she could think of doing. She struggled, feeling her dress and her hair being torn. She felt her skin being bruised from the hands holding her so tightly. She had to get her son back… She had to have him… He was just a child—a baby. He was their child. Their Gabriel.

It was then that she realized that Gabe wasn’t just being lead away from her—but to something. The town well. Fear like she had never felt gripped her. She was suddenly aware of how hard it was becoming to think—how her body seemed to suddenly fill with rage. Her screams—horrifying, almost inhuman, seized.

The men holding her suddenly burst into a shower of crimson. Limbs flew in the air to land several feet away from the bodies. Women screamed, children cried—men, even those that had so savagely taken her child from her began to turn and flee.

They did not get far. Most died painless deaths and hardly knew it was coming. Others she was only vaguely aware of crippling. Fire engulfed one woman who screamed as her clothes, hair and finally her skin caught aflame. Flailing she fell against a building that greedily caught fire.

Her Gabriel… they had tried to kill her Gabriel. She would show them no mercy. She lifted her right hand—painted delicate fingernails pointed in the direction of her next merciless killings. A group of three, two men and a young woman suddenly found that they had no legs to run with anymore. Their upper halves slid from their lower and intestines and blood spilled from their bodies into the streets. Chaos was everywhere. Simple, pure, beautiful chaos.

How dare they touch her Gabriel—

“Sierra?”

The woman turned to the sound of her name. Something inside of her clicked and she knew not to kill this one. Why was that? Was it the way that he had said her name? Maybe it was the look on his face.

“Sierra?” He said it again. She turned fully to him. Her once beautiful pale blue dress was splattered with crimson. Her black locks were drenched in blood. Her eyes, no longer gentle, stared hauntingly at him. Klaus felt his heart lurch. “Sierra… you have to stop… You have to… Please…”

“Can’t.” She wasn’t sure why, but it was the only word that came to mind. She couldn’t remember why she was so mad. She just knew that she was. That she had to keep killing. It felt good to kill. It felt damn good. She resisted the urge to tear the man limb from limb as he came closer, trembling hands leading him. He was crying, but she couldn’t really understand why.

“Sierra… It’s me… It’s Klaus.” His hands found her arm and it was instantly smeared with blood. He tried to ignore the stickiness. He tried to ignore how soulless she looked. How positively and utterly different, but the sickeningly the same she appeared. She shook her head slightly as if she didn’t understand and turned away. Her hand lifted and the person she had spotted began to scream.

He moved faster than he would have imagined himself capable of. He jerked her around and with all his force, all his love, all his misery, plunged the whittling dagger he kept at his side into her body. He felt the blade pierce through her diaphragm, felt her shudder.

She blinked up at him questioningly as he lowered her gently to the ground. He was crying… why was he crying? So strange… what a strange man.

“Sierra… I’m sorry, Sierra… I’m sorry… I couldn’t let you… I know you wouldn’t… I don’t know what’s happened… What happened to you…?” He watched her crimson eyes stare into him—and he couldn’t help but notice how lost she looked. How utterly perplexed. Like she never knew him. Like they had never fallen in love. Like they had never had dreams together. Had a child together… Her eyes glossed over and she went limp with death.

He had no time to grieve, however. He could hear a crying baby and his fatherly instinct knew that it was his Gabriel. He ran to his son, scooped the sobbing infant into his arms and fled. He did not look at his fiancé as he left. He couldn’t. He couldn’t see that delicate body splashed with blood—mostly that of others. He refused to remember her like that. He refused.


Klaus shuddered, reaching up to run his hands over his eyes. Yet that image that he told himself not to remember still haunted him. Every so often deep in sleep that image would wake him in a start. It would remind him of how he had killed her. Of how he had killed his wife-to-be. It would remind him of the day she had looked at him as though he had been a perfect stranger.

He tried to hold back his sobs at first—but then remembered he had no reason to. He didn’t have to hide it anymore. Klaus lowered his face into his hands and cried hard. The ring he still wore—that ring that promised a picture perfect family—was cold against his cheek.

No. Nine years after his Sierra had died, their Gabriel had followed. Disease like he had never seen before had stolen their son too. He had been helpless to stop it.

It was true; once upon a time he had been truly happy.

Once upon a lifetime long, long ago.


[Ramirez]

<sub>A/N:I seem to have a habit of giving my character's shitty pasts. =/

This is Klaus Riykofuma, (alias Professor Klaus Vatererde during the time he was traveling with Gabriel). He is Yami's former Professor and ironically Kaelin's (Yami's husband) older brother.

Klaus is actually a very bubbly, energetic and fun guy. He just sometimes lets his past get to him.

Sierra, one of Yami and Kaelin's children, was named after this Sierra. The good memories of her.</sub>


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