Post by Faith on Dec 3, 2008 11:28:44 GMT -5
“Only two things are infinity, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.”
-Albert Einstein
-Albert Einstein
Dante’s patience had worn thin.
“Well, where the hell is he? It’s half past noon already and you said he normally gets up at eleven.”
Gregor sighed, “Relax Dante, relax. He takes his time. Besides, why are you in such a rush. We have all the time in the world. What, do you have a hot date or something?” Gregor looked much younger than Kalvier, he appeared to be just barely seventeen. He had short black hair, and cheerful green eyes. Though he looked, and sometimes acted, childish he was among some of the oldest vampire living in the city. Dante was just visiting. Still, the aggravated Dante toward about him in height and with his four inch advantage he could have easily beaten the 5’6 vampire in a fight. Then again, Dante age was an advantage in itself since he had at least fifty years on the slightly younger vampire.
“I always have a hot date Gregor. Might as well put my pretty face, and impressive… well you know, to use right?” Dante grinned, surprisingly his fangs were shorter than most vampires but all that meant was that he had been infected, or rather turned, at a later age. Even though he looked like he was in his early twenties, he was roughly thirty five when he was first infected. That was nearly half a lifetime during his time period. Being careless had served as an advantage to him, he found out rather quickly that the more blood you drank the younger you can look - especially if that blood had been recently infected. His hair was a rich shade of brown, almost black in tone, and was spiked back as always. He enjoyed the short spikes of hair, and didn’t need to do much to achieve that effect. His eyes were much harder than those of Gregor, capable of being playful and serious, romantic and sexy, but mainly used for staring down people his was annoyed with, and that was half the world. They were a crisps teal, with more green than blue in the mixture and an inner layer of yellow around the pupil. His hose had been broken and was oddly bent in between his eyes, his lips were slightly fuller than others and seemed to match the rest of his rough features. His chin and sides of his face were scruffy from a lack of shaving. All in all, he was more fit for a bar or strip club than the rundown storehouse waiting to deliver some all important message to some stuck up vampire that was probably still a virgin, and in truth he would have much rather been in either. He mumbled an insult under his breath, it sounded something like, impotent swine f**king f*gs.
“Watch your tongue Dante, Council man Crysto might burn you for using a term like that.” Gregor smiled, Crysto, one of the grand council members, was gay and hated those that dared to insult him. “He wiped out an entire village because the butcher insulted him y’know.”
“Yeah, I know, but as far as I’m concerned I shouldn’t be listening to rainbow chasers like him.”
“Sometimes I wonder about you Dante. How did you get to be so rough?”
“Like you care, you’re just as bad as the rest of the old farts at Grand council. All you ever do is sit on your ass and have other vampires run your messages while you make up stupid laws and sip lemonade from swirly straws. You sicken me.”
“I do care… and we don’t use swirly straws.” He paused, chuckling just barely, “Beside, you’re older than me, dearest elder.”
“Shut your trap idiot.”
Gregor just laughed, a sweet and somewhat mellow tone.
“Where the hell is that bastard?! Why the f**k is he taking so god d**n long!”
“Wow, three different curses. Extending out vocabulary are we?”
Dante glared at him, “Talk again and I’ll rip your tounge out and feed it to a pigeon.”
Gregor pretended to zip his lips and threw away an imaginary key.
Grumbling Dante began to pace, his lack of patience only worsening in the silence.
“He’s got ten minutes, if he doesn’t get here by then you’re leading me to his house so I can strangle him for wasting my time.”
Gregor didn’t talk, he only shook his head and let out a sigh through his nose.
“And you can talk!” He lowered his voice, “Just, no insults.”
He sat down on the couch, the only piece of furniture in the empty warehouse. Gregor, who had been sitting Indian style on the ground the entire time laughed again.
“You’ll have to tell me your story sometime Dante, I think it’d make a good book.”
“My story?” He paused, “Hmph. My story would bore the bones right out of your body.”
“Oh, I don’t think it would. Promise me you’ll tell me one day?”
“Yeah, whatever.”
“See, was that so hard?”
Silence as Dante drifted off into his own thoughts. His past was far from boring, but it was something he rarely had time to think about in between woman, sleep (which was quite often interrupted by women), blood and trying to keep away from council. Not though, now he had nothing to keep him safe from his thoughts.
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He was in a field now, the growth of wheat around him was his home, his escape, his freedom. This was the only place he had ever felt safe, where he could run to when things got bad. But this was all just some day dream, another of his horrible memories.
"Dante”
He looked up from his feet, where he had been staring at while crouched over. “Yeah?” His voice was much younger, he was ten now. Ten and human.
“Dad wants you…” She looked sad, her face showed the dried tracks of tears. They reminded him of a saying that he had always wanted to use.
“Oh. You okay sis?” She was older than him, by at least seven years, but he still wanted to protect her – to make sure she never felt sadness or pain. He loved her as any brother should love a sister.
“I’m fine, he’s just upset with me that’s all.” She sighed, “I’m going to be married soon…”
“That’s to be expected… you are seventeen now.” He smiled, standing up. He was tall for his age, but that was in his blood. Already he was up to her shoulder and he hadn’t even his puberty yet. At first glance, he didn’t even look ten. His eyes were serious and his facial expression was mature enough to pass for at least fifteen. His childhood, like so many others, had been cut short by his father and the tough demands of farm work. As poor farmer, and a small family at that, everyone had to work. Normally, a farmer would have had many children but they couldn’t even afford to feed even the two they had now. Plus, ever since Dante was born his mother had been sick, always complaining of being cold and sore. No one knew what was wrong but she died five years after the sickness started. His father, seeking to blame someone, put Dante at fault. Though, in the years after her death Dante would figure out that she had died of a form of brain cancer.
“Yes…” she interrupted the slight silence. “But, he wants me to marry Kalvier.”
His eyes narrowed, “Kalvier? That pig? Why”
“Because, he has money.” She sighed “He is going to show me his house tomorrow nights.”
“You can’t marry him… do you love him at all?” He looked shocked, as if his world was falling apart.
“Love.” She mumbled the word like a curse. “does anyone love around here anymore?”
Dante gripped her shoulders. “Cecilia… listen to me, don’t give up on love. There is someone for everyone.”
She looked up to him. “Maybe but love is dead.”
He sighed, “Was it really love with you and him.”
Without hesitation, she replied, “Yes. It was.” She smiled, “It was and it was perfect. Do you remember his saying… what he said when he first saw me?”
Dante chuckled, “How could I forget?”
“I was crying in the field, father had been yelling at me again. He told me he wanted to be my tears..”
“To be born in your eyes.”
“To live on your cheeks.”
“and to die on your lips.” Hew sighed, “I know.”
“Dante, I can’t love Kalvier. It would be betraying him.”
“You have to try though, we have to respect dad.”
The wind picked up, playing with the wheat field and sending a golden ripple through it.
“Dante?”
“Hm?” She seemed distant, as if she was day dreaming.
“What if.” She paused, “What if father would die tomorrow night?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, what if we could kill him? Then we’d be free. I wouldn’t have to marry Kalvier and you could marry anyone or have your own farm.” Her eyes sparkled with an odd type of sadistic joy.
“Go on.” He lifted an eyebrow, he hated his father enough to be interested in her plot. As she explained he thought of his sharp words, and even sharper beating.
“So, we’ll burn the house down?” He questioned with a different tone.
“No, I won’t burn the house down. You will while I’m at Kalviers.”
“Alright . . . lets do it.”
“Good, now… we are going to need to get anything we want to keep out of the house and here by tonight. Then, while father takes me to Kavliers house you take some hay and put it in the fireplace and all over the house. So the house can catch faster.”
“What about dad?”
She paused, thinking to herself for a few seconds before she responded. “when he comes inside, hit him over the head with something so he can’t get out.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
“One hour after nightfall I’ll be right here.”
“Okay.”
She turned to walk away, he followed her like a lost puppy. Though, in his mind he imagined striking his father over the head, watching him fall to the ground and lighting the house on fire.
“Cecilia?”
“Shh.”
“But.”
“We’re almost home so be quite.”
“What if it doesn’t work?”
She stopped, glaring at him. “It will… it has to.”
They went through with their little scheme, and everything went almost perfect. Only, their father wasn’t the one to walk in the door first. It was their dog that took the strike intended for their father, their dog who fell to the floor. In his panic Dante had struck the dog, in his panic he made the mistake that would have cost him his life. His father had chased him around the house and Dante had the chance to light the fire before his father cornered him. During his beating, the fire was busy destroying the house. A support beam that held up the simplistic roofing fell on his father, and his leg. Everything has worked almost perfectly. Father was going to die, the house would be burnt. His job was done, but, Dante was going to die with him.
His sister had tried to save him, but she couldn’t even get in the house. The memories came back to him, in a series of pain filled semi-conscious flashes.
In the midst of the flames he could hear his sister, screaming for help from someone. Screaming for someone to save him. He had been save, saved by the person he hated most next to his father. But he saved his sister too, and that was the only reason he didn’t want to kill the man that pulled him from the ravenous flames. Kalvier had saved them, even the dog.
He remembered, so clearly now, what he had said to her.
His face had been covered with a hood, a long coat hiding nearly all his skin. “Cecilia.” His voice was strong but wavered slightly, as if he was afraid of her. “Please.” He whipped the river of tears from her face, though he didn’t know why she cried. She had passed out trying to get into the house, passed out from the thick smoke.
“Kalvier, leave her alone.”
“Dante.” He looked up at the boy, staring straight at the boy with his pitch black eyes. “I have lived, far longer than you can even imagine…” He looked back to her. “And no one else has stolen what she has…”
“Don’t –“he wanted to stop him from pushing her hair back from her eyes, wanted to tear her away from him. “Don’t even think about touching her.”
He sighed, letting go of her and standing up. They were in the same field again, only now he didn’t feel safe. He never felt safe around Kalvier. He looked at Dante again, and even in the blackness of his eyes you could still see the sadness of a broken heart.
“When she wakes up, tell her.” He paused, “I’m sorry.”
“What are you sorry for?”
“For almost forcing her to live a lie.” He sighed again. “You know, you remind me of myself. I had a sister that I would have died for her if she gave me the chance.”
“Hard to believe, you’re the only son of a rich man. I know who you are, don’t act like you’re someone else.”
He laughed, “Dante, I am not what I seem to be. I am something else entirely. Just tell her please… if not for me for her sake.”
“There is no need.” Her voice was low, and barely audible but Kalvier could hear her clearly. “Kalvier, leave us.”
He held back tears, it made him feel weak when others saw him cry, and he bowed slightly. “Cecilia. Dante.” He gave a nod to the boy. “I am leaving, forever. You can stay at my house and live as though you were my widow Cecilia. All my riches belong to the both of you now.”
She coughed; the effects of the smoke were still upon her, “Why?” She was stunned, and that was all she could manage to same in between the fits of coughing.
He just smiled as he turned to leave. “Because, my love, you are worth more than a thousand time what I have now. Because I do not need to live this lie any longer, I can not. So, I will not force you to live a lie as well. Maybe, if you’ll allow it, I can come visit you sometime.”
“No. You can never come back. Not ever, because you can’t leave.” She paused, thinking about her decision before she continued. He turned around, staring at her in a confused expression. “I never realized it, but… you, you’re like him.”
Dante choked on the air he breathed in. “Cecilia? What are you saying to him? What are you doing?!”
“I’m saying that I accept his offer of marriage.”
And that, that moment of time, was when his life as Dante ended and his lie began.