Post by Faith on Dec 3, 2008 11:13:06 GMT -5
“Coming home from very lonely places, all of us go a little mad: whether from great personal success, or just an all-night drive, we are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen.”
-John le Carre
-John le Carre
“It’s so . . .” she paused, the small sigh that escaped from her thin lips sounded like snow settling on morning frost. “Lonely.”
The word stung him, like a stake being driven through his heart. No, through his very soul. He smiled, not one of joy, just something to drive away the awkward silence that had fallen upon them. He wanted to speak, but the words were not his to command. All he could do was watch, watch the slow pulse of the vein in her neck, watched the small gusts of wind play with the light brown wisps of her hair. He looked up from her neck to her eyes; the innocence in the brackish green iris had startled him when he first saw her. Finally he found himself speaking, in a voice he barely recognized as his own it was so filled with wonder and awe. “Yes. It is, isn’t it?” He felt foolish and awkward, as if she held his life and he was trying to win it back by holding his breath in the water of a thousand tears.
She laughed. Oh, how gloriously she laughed! Like the whispers of angels and the songs of birds. It was as if she herself were all the good and wondrous things in the world. His thoughts silenced as her voice penetrated the depths of his mind. “Why are you so mysterious?” She turned from the doorway of his house, facing him instead of the interior “What do you have to hide? Don’t tell me - let me guess.”
She moved her hand from the wooden door and placed it on her chin, pretending to stroke a non existent beard. “You don’t like women?”
He laughed, his was a deeper laugh, a far richer tone. “I don’t like other women.” He paused, watching her expression relax. “Cecilia.” He formed her named delicately, his pale blue eyes shimmering in what remained of the days light. “I love you, anyone else is nothing to me.”
The statement caught her off guard, the amusement in her face vanished and was replaced with a slightly guarded fear. It only made sense she reacted like that. While he had the chance to watch her, she never noticed him. He merely assumed that she never bother to look. For years he had been know only as the rich man in the village, he had acted stuck up and self centered to prevent people from knowing who or what he really was. Twenty years he had lived alone, trying to hide himself from others. Just a week ago he had decided to journey into the towns market.
He spoke with few people but those he did speak with did not remember him as the man that lived in the house. Thankfully he had hidden himself long enough no one remembered him. The story he told to them was of how his father had passed away last night and how he alone had to bury him since his father lacked belief in God. He had finally run into Cecilia later on in the day, for the first day he tried to be friend her but she didn’t seem the least bit interested. Or at least she tried to act that way. Days passes and every morning he would lather her with gifts but try as she might he could not get her to respond with any type of flirting. Just two days ago he had asked her father and elderly farmer, for her hand in marriage.
She had overheard his request, and at first seemed repulsed by the fact they were to be wed. Sadly enough, he knew the only reason she had ended up agreeing was because her father had forced her to marry him. He could only hope that in time she could learn to love him as he loved her.
“Kalvier.” It gave him a strange amount of joy to hear her say his name. “Tell me something.” She paused, only for a brief moment. “Why is it you wanted me?”
A million reasons were in his mind, because she had always been kind, because she was so humble, because she was so delicate. Because she always smelled like the ocean coated in laics. Because he had watched her ever since she had been attacked by a dog at the age of two. “Because. “ He looked away from her and toward the setting sun. “You didn’t flock to me like a fly attracted to the stench of wealth.” He could have had many other women in the town, they all flirted with him but he knew it was only because they knew he was rich.
“And how do you know that I did not? Maybe that’s the only reason I’m here right now.” She glared at him, and although he did not look at her he could feel the sting of her gaze.
“Perhaps, but you are still here. Maybe if I’m lucky you will learn to love me.” He smiled, but that soon turned to a frown as the sun set even further. He hated the dark, he hated the night.
“You self centered bastard!” She slapped him, her eyes burning with such a hatred he thought it would tear him apart and destroy the very essence of his existence.
He rubbed his check; his eyes held a pain in them but it was not from the sting of her palm. “Bastard I might be. Self centered I am not.” A sighed as he glance to the sun and back to her. “Look, if you truly don’t want to be here with me…” A small smile formed at the corners of his lips. “Then, I give you the freedom to do whatever you want. You don’t have to stay here.” He walked past her, into his large and rather well built house compared to the other houses in the village.
She turned to walk away, and he felt his eyes fill with tears. He looked back to the wall of his room; the picture of the moon that he had painted years ago caught his attention. He hoped she would come back, he prayed for her return.
The sun finally vanished into the hills, the darkness engulfing the world.
His eyes, the pale blue similar to that of ice slowly turned pitch black. His two canine teeth lengthened and sharpened. He let out a low growl as his bones repositioned, his fingernails growing sharper in an instant. Every sense sharpened, every sound was his. Slowly he turned to face the open door, into the night. Into his kingdom. She stood there, her face taunt with terror.
“Cecilia… please don’t-” He watched her run; even though his voice was the same she was still afraid. He looked at his hands, he was a beast. Nothing more. It had been almost a hundred years since he had been bitten by Sophie, who called herself a Night Bringer. He was only eighteen, and now, now he had nothing but his riches and his lies.
The soft pops and crackles of fire played with his ears. He assumed it was nothing more than a fireplace. He walked toward his bed; the soft mattress of goose down comforted him countless nights already. Laying down he felt his body resist the urge to kill and feast. It had been almost thirty years since he had given in to his instincts, and he intended on keeping that urge at bay.
---------------------------------------
He woke slowly, the light of day filtering through the window of his room. The modern day household dragged him back through time, pulling him from his dreams and back into the cruelty of reality.
It had been along time since he had seen her face in his dreams and for a moment he wondered why he had dreamt of that day, the one time he had been unhappy around her. His questioning thought went unanswered as a knock on his door startled him.
“Kalvier?” The voice of an older woman required his attention and reply.
“I’m up.” His voice, though groggy and slightly cracked was otherwise smooth and strong. Giving him the sound of false youth.
“Alright, I made you some breakfast.”
He listened as her footsteps echoed down the hall. Sitting up he pushed the covers off, revealing his bare skin and grey boxers. She knew that he rarely ate anything but he was hungry enough today to eat something, so long as it was bacon and not eggs. Kalvier hated eggs.
Kalvier stood up from the queen sized bed. He was well built and at about 5’8 he was thankful to have been so tall to start with because as the years passed by he felt shorter and shorter. He drew his hands through his pitch black hair, stopping when it did at the bottom of his neck. Once his hair was a lighter brown but for reasons he didn’t quite understand it had gotten darker over the years. His eyes had done the same, from their original icy blue to a deeper and far wiser looking sapphire blue.
Kalvier moved from the edge of his bed to the southern most wall of his room to get some clothes from the four drawer cherry dresser. Opening the topmost drawer he pulled out a grey t-shirt, from the second a fresh pain of boxers, dark blue in color, and a pair of white socks. From the second to last drawer he pulled out a dark pair of denim jeans. Quickly slipping the clothes on, he grabbed a small necklace with a metal cross pendant from the top of the dresser before rushing out of the eastern most door.
The apartment Kalvier lived in was, in most aspects, rather large. For living in the inner city of Brooklyn he was quite well off, especially since he had yet to work in this town. The hall he was walking down now had three doors, one to the right only two feet or so after his door. The next door was to the left, and that lead to a guest bedroom. The final door was to the right as well and that was just a storage room. The first door though he been shut for years, he couldn’t even remember the last time he had opened it. The hallway opened up into his living room, which connected to both the dining room and the kitchen. The entire area was hardwood floor so he didn’t have to worry about vacuuming anything but the rooms that were off of the hallway.
Walking from the living room and into the kitchen Kalvier sat down in the small table that rested next to the barrier that separated the kitchen from the dining room. He rarely used the dining room, so the deep brown table that could seat six people went unused. He hated open space though, so he filled it with pointless furniture and knick knacks that, though he would never willingly part with them, meant very little to him in the greater scheme that was his life.
She sent the plate in front of him, the smell of salted pork filled his nostrils. Picking up a piece of bacon he bite it, savoring the flavor. It wouldn’t stop him from being hungry, nothing but living blood could do that but he still could enjoy the flavor. She sat across from him. Looking up from the plate he took a long look at her. He never realized it but she had aged quite a bit since he last looked at her. She looked like she was in her early eighties. Her face was lined with wrinkles and her eyes were sunken in to her skull. Her hair, that had once been close to the color of blood, was now a faded white color and stringy. She had been under a hundred pounds when he had first met her when she was around eighteen and was now a more healthier hundred and eighty or so. In his mind she looked better than she ever had, finally showing her age and actually looking mature for once. She smiled, the wrinkles sinking deeper into her face. Her pale green eyes twinkled with a different kind of joy. He almost felt bad for keeping her in his house but he kept her well, gave her whatever she wanted and only asked that she didn’t tell anyone who or what he really was. It had worked so far, and in exchange she kept house for him.
“Kalvier, Gregor stopped by earlier.” She took a bite of eggs from her plate, he wrinkled his nose as he watched her eat it. Eating something that came from the bottom region of a chicken had never been something he thought of doing but it had been common practice for as long as he could remember.
“Oh, what did he want?” Their exchanges were always so empty, void of any real emotion. Their relationship was an odd one as well.
“He said something about a meeting in the black library.” She took another bite of eggs, this time adorning it with some cheese.
“Alright then. I am going to have to go there soon then, did he say any particular time?” The Black Library was code for a council meeting. Something he was unfortunately involved in. Ever since he came over from Europe the European council had been keeping an eye on him. They had sent Gregor, a slightly younger vampire, to deliver the message that he was to run a newly established vampiric council for the east coast.
“Um.” She paused, taking yet another bit of eggs. Putting her fork down she looked up to the small clock hanging on the wall. “No, he didn’t tell me any particular time. I guess it would be about mid-day as always.” She grabbed a piece of buttered toast from the plate on the table, taking a small bite from the piece of bread.
Kalvier nodded, sighing as he stood up. His plate wasn’t empty, there was still a small pile of eggs and half a piece of bacon. “I’m off then, do me a favor though.” He paused, pushing his chair under the table.
“What’s that?”
Kalvier looked up at her, “Get some shopping done, it’s almost winter and you need some heavier clothes.”
She smiled, nodding her head, “No problem. See you later Kalvier.”
Kalvier was already at the door, pulling it open and letting the cool late fall air rush inside the apartment. “See you later.” Grabbing the jacket hanging on a coat rack beside the door he tossed it on, exiting the household and pulling the door shut behind him.