Post by silent.lullaby on Jan 9, 2011 19:07:34 GMT -5
Dusk .::Chapter 29::. Psychic Teachings
“I don’t want anymore,” I whispered meekly as I pushed away my mother’s hand which held a blood pack.
“You can’t just return to your strict diet honey, you have to slowly come down from the blood high.” Vivian pushed back my hair, it was the kind of gesture that put me at ease, I leaned into her. “Mom, I get bits... and pieces of it. I remember things. The lock around my ankle. The venom... I remember being scared, but I don’t really recall why. I...” I clamped up. Calum. His face comes through the fog. Him I remember so vividly. I nearly lick my lips but I bite my tongue. “I’d like to see my friends.”
My mother stayed quiet a long moment. “I’m sorry honey, but no. Not yet.”
“You’re waiting to see if I relapse.” Another moment while my mother fiddled with the end of her dress. Her eyes were tired, red like she’d been crying. I’ve done so much recently to hurt my family though I can hardly recall any of it. Guilt eats away at me. “I’m so sorry Mom.”
She turns to me in a motion so sudden I hear her neck crack. “No, no, honey, it’s not like that. It’s not like that at all. You stood up for a friend... and...”
“And that is punishable?”
“It really shouldn’t be. But in the chamber of the Elders, their word is law.”
“What they did to her... she’s still not out. She’ll be so much worse off than I.”
“Perhaps Elder Balisa will help his grand daughter.”
“Or they’ll bury her for embarrassing the family name.” My mother looked shocked, she closed her mouth and looked away, her lips forming a tight line. “You know I’m right. I might be quiet and I might have been naive but I no longer am mom. I’m not the same girl as I was when I went into the basement. I didn’t come out right, I didn’t come out whole. You know it. Dad knows it. If you let me spend any real amount of time with Tobias or Angelique they’d know it too! My friends will sense it, they will realize I am not the same. I worry for Scarlet. I worry for our entire population. There must be something better than the basement for our kind!”
“There isn’t.” I turned as my father walked into the room. “We can’t lock vampires up, for they will just escape. There isn’t any humane way of treating our criminals.”
“I asked what happened to a friend.” I stood angrily shouting, something I never would have normally done much less to my father. “And I was hung in a God damned cage for days!”
“It was insubordination.”
“So you agree with them.”
“No!” My father responded quickly. He sighed and pushed back some of his hair. “No, I don’t agree with it, but... it’s the only way.”
“Hmph.” I frowned and grabbed the blood bag from my mother and tossed it to him. “They’re monsters. We’re monsters.” And with that I exited the room.
****
“Did you see her?” Faust asked flopping down on a swing beside his lovely red haired beauty.
“No,” Marlowe responded, her shoes digging in the sand as she gently swayed back and forth. “Toby says that Michael won’t let anyone see her till she’s fully recovered... no one fully recovers from the basement. No matter how much time they spend in it.”
“Toby... oh Tobias, Aries’s older brother? Yes?” Marlowe nodded her hair flopping into her face and she was too lazy to push it back. Faust swung slightly watching Marlowe, her quiet sadness, it put him at unease. She wasn’t usually like this. In fact, never in his knowing her had she seemed so depressed. Frowning he waited for her to speak, but she just kept to herself.
****
Calum went through his day to day routine. Completed a day, then a week then a month. The Balisa girl was released and if Aerabella’s lost look and bloodied face traumatized him at all, the look on Scarlet’s would forever haunt his soul. At this point, she looked more like a ghoul. A beaten body with no one home. Her parents retrieved her. The mother cried. The father stared at him with such intensity he thought he may just burst into flames.
He fixed the damage to the beach side house, packed up his things, burnt Olivia’s. Moved into a bachelor pad. It was a sketch area, filled with muggings, robberies and other unsavoury behaviours, but he didn’t mind. Every once in a while, one of the thugs looked like they might try something, but once they got a good look at him, even though he didn’t look overly physically overbearing, especially since most of them travelled in groups with guns or knives, once they got that look they backed off. Maybe they seen something in his eyes. The hopelessness. The carelessness. The look that said, I have nothing to loose and wouldn’t mind cracking a few skulls.
The apartment lacked any natural light, he was in the basement after all. It had nearly nothing. A stove he’d never used. A fridge that held minimal food supplies and a few blood bags. A coffin in the bedroom, and an armoire for his clothing. Nothing fancy. Nothing that even hinted it was he who lived there. It was boring. Lifeless. Lonely. He sat on the floor. All of the furniture Olivia had picked out, and he simply couldn’t currently deal with that. He’d sold it all, and frankly, the old stained carpet wasn’t so bad.
He tried every day not to think of Aerabella. First he tried biting his tongue every time he though of her, to associate her with pain. Didn’t work. He longed to know how she was doing. He wanted to comfort her. To help her with the demons the basement had surely given her. It was unhealthy, he thought, to have such an obsession with the girl.
Still, in the loneliness of the shabby apartment, he allowed himself to think of her. To admit he missed her. To admit to all of his mistakes by staying with Olivia when he was so much in love with another being. It didn’t make the pain any worse. It was already unbearable, but at least picturing her in his mind, the crescent moon clasp in her hair. At least she was alive. That had to be enough. It simply had to be. Michael would never permit him even remotely close to Aerabella. He couldn’t really blame him for protecting his daughter.
Rising to his feet he stood for an hour. Standing there. Thinking of nothing. Hopefully. Every once in a while a haunted face of a basement victim would come out. Or the vision of Aerabella smiling in her shimmering silver gown. He thought vaguely of blood, and then of bed. He shuffled his way to his coffin and stood there. His custom order would come in soon, but the embellishment of the sun, the scent of the sheets was still of Olivia. His stomach twitched.
Turning on his heel he shuffled toward the fridge, mixed a glass of whisky with blood and drank it down. He really hoped that the custom ordered coffin would come in soon. He couldn’t sleep with the ghosts in that bed. And getting drunk every night for a month couldn’t possibly be healthy. Even for a vampire.
****
Ethan walked into the tiny shop. Little wind chimes above the door tinkled. Incense bombarded his senses. Figurines, books, stones, and flowers were on shelves, and hung in various places. “Hello?”
“Hello.” He jumped at the voice behind him. A young woman, blonde, probably mid twenties, dressed in a cloak with the hint of a skin tight dress underneath. She took his hand into hers and looked at his palm. She smiled up at him. “I’ve been waiting for you.” He swallowed hard. He couldn’t believe he’d actually come, no matter how strange, and annoying the dream he couldn’t quiet remember was. He didn’t even believe in psychics! And he was quiet sure she used that particular line on everyone who walked in. “This way.”
“I didn’t even tell you what I want.”
“You’re not here for gems, you aren’t so spiritual. You wouldn’t even look at the books you simply don’t believe in. You didn’t come looking for dragon or fairy figurine. You’re here for a reading. A reading about a dream. You think I’m a fraud, but I know more about the world at twenty four than you probably ever will. Are you backing out?”
“I thought you could see the future.”
“We all can do what we wish with our lives. Destiny is a cop out. You think ‘oh all I’m ever to do is to be an accountant.’ It’s a way to say you’re not responsible for litter, or for your government, or for your damned carbon footprint. We are all responsible to the God and the Goddess. People who say destiny didn’t choose them are simply lazy. Now do you want the reading or not?”
“You’re kind of crabby you know that?” Ethan asked with a bit of a smirk. “Not good for business.”
“Like I said, I know more about the world, and the monsters in it than you could ever hope to know.” She pushed back a midnight blue velvet curtain and let him into the candle lit room.
“Perhaps you should enlighten me then.”
She sat him down and sat across from him, she put out her hand and he put his on top, she twisted it around to look at his palm. She slowly closed her eyes and for minutes she said nothing. Ethan tried to wiggle his hand away but she held tightly. Opening her eyes she spoke. “Perhaps, Ethan, that isn’t such a bad idea.”
“I never told you my name.”
“And I never told you we were lovers in a past life, but lets face it, you hardly believe my knowing your name is not a trick. You want to know of your dream? You want to know what you faced and survived?”
Ethan nodded.
“Vampires. You were seduced by a vampire.”
“I don’t want anymore,” I whispered meekly as I pushed away my mother’s hand which held a blood pack.
“You can’t just return to your strict diet honey, you have to slowly come down from the blood high.” Vivian pushed back my hair, it was the kind of gesture that put me at ease, I leaned into her. “Mom, I get bits... and pieces of it. I remember things. The lock around my ankle. The venom... I remember being scared, but I don’t really recall why. I...” I clamped up. Calum. His face comes through the fog. Him I remember so vividly. I nearly lick my lips but I bite my tongue. “I’d like to see my friends.”
My mother stayed quiet a long moment. “I’m sorry honey, but no. Not yet.”
“You’re waiting to see if I relapse.” Another moment while my mother fiddled with the end of her dress. Her eyes were tired, red like she’d been crying. I’ve done so much recently to hurt my family though I can hardly recall any of it. Guilt eats away at me. “I’m so sorry Mom.”
She turns to me in a motion so sudden I hear her neck crack. “No, no, honey, it’s not like that. It’s not like that at all. You stood up for a friend... and...”
“And that is punishable?”
“It really shouldn’t be. But in the chamber of the Elders, their word is law.”
“What they did to her... she’s still not out. She’ll be so much worse off than I.”
“Perhaps Elder Balisa will help his grand daughter.”
“Or they’ll bury her for embarrassing the family name.” My mother looked shocked, she closed her mouth and looked away, her lips forming a tight line. “You know I’m right. I might be quiet and I might have been naive but I no longer am mom. I’m not the same girl as I was when I went into the basement. I didn’t come out right, I didn’t come out whole. You know it. Dad knows it. If you let me spend any real amount of time with Tobias or Angelique they’d know it too! My friends will sense it, they will realize I am not the same. I worry for Scarlet. I worry for our entire population. There must be something better than the basement for our kind!”
“There isn’t.” I turned as my father walked into the room. “We can’t lock vampires up, for they will just escape. There isn’t any humane way of treating our criminals.”
“I asked what happened to a friend.” I stood angrily shouting, something I never would have normally done much less to my father. “And I was hung in a God damned cage for days!”
“It was insubordination.”
“So you agree with them.”
“No!” My father responded quickly. He sighed and pushed back some of his hair. “No, I don’t agree with it, but... it’s the only way.”
“Hmph.” I frowned and grabbed the blood bag from my mother and tossed it to him. “They’re monsters. We’re monsters.” And with that I exited the room.
****
“Did you see her?” Faust asked flopping down on a swing beside his lovely red haired beauty.
“No,” Marlowe responded, her shoes digging in the sand as she gently swayed back and forth. “Toby says that Michael won’t let anyone see her till she’s fully recovered... no one fully recovers from the basement. No matter how much time they spend in it.”
“Toby... oh Tobias, Aries’s older brother? Yes?” Marlowe nodded her hair flopping into her face and she was too lazy to push it back. Faust swung slightly watching Marlowe, her quiet sadness, it put him at unease. She wasn’t usually like this. In fact, never in his knowing her had she seemed so depressed. Frowning he waited for her to speak, but she just kept to herself.
****
Calum went through his day to day routine. Completed a day, then a week then a month. The Balisa girl was released and if Aerabella’s lost look and bloodied face traumatized him at all, the look on Scarlet’s would forever haunt his soul. At this point, she looked more like a ghoul. A beaten body with no one home. Her parents retrieved her. The mother cried. The father stared at him with such intensity he thought he may just burst into flames.
He fixed the damage to the beach side house, packed up his things, burnt Olivia’s. Moved into a bachelor pad. It was a sketch area, filled with muggings, robberies and other unsavoury behaviours, but he didn’t mind. Every once in a while, one of the thugs looked like they might try something, but once they got a good look at him, even though he didn’t look overly physically overbearing, especially since most of them travelled in groups with guns or knives, once they got that look they backed off. Maybe they seen something in his eyes. The hopelessness. The carelessness. The look that said, I have nothing to loose and wouldn’t mind cracking a few skulls.
The apartment lacked any natural light, he was in the basement after all. It had nearly nothing. A stove he’d never used. A fridge that held minimal food supplies and a few blood bags. A coffin in the bedroom, and an armoire for his clothing. Nothing fancy. Nothing that even hinted it was he who lived there. It was boring. Lifeless. Lonely. He sat on the floor. All of the furniture Olivia had picked out, and he simply couldn’t currently deal with that. He’d sold it all, and frankly, the old stained carpet wasn’t so bad.
He tried every day not to think of Aerabella. First he tried biting his tongue every time he though of her, to associate her with pain. Didn’t work. He longed to know how she was doing. He wanted to comfort her. To help her with the demons the basement had surely given her. It was unhealthy, he thought, to have such an obsession with the girl.
Still, in the loneliness of the shabby apartment, he allowed himself to think of her. To admit he missed her. To admit to all of his mistakes by staying with Olivia when he was so much in love with another being. It didn’t make the pain any worse. It was already unbearable, but at least picturing her in his mind, the crescent moon clasp in her hair. At least she was alive. That had to be enough. It simply had to be. Michael would never permit him even remotely close to Aerabella. He couldn’t really blame him for protecting his daughter.
Rising to his feet he stood for an hour. Standing there. Thinking of nothing. Hopefully. Every once in a while a haunted face of a basement victim would come out. Or the vision of Aerabella smiling in her shimmering silver gown. He thought vaguely of blood, and then of bed. He shuffled his way to his coffin and stood there. His custom order would come in soon, but the embellishment of the sun, the scent of the sheets was still of Olivia. His stomach twitched.
Turning on his heel he shuffled toward the fridge, mixed a glass of whisky with blood and drank it down. He really hoped that the custom ordered coffin would come in soon. He couldn’t sleep with the ghosts in that bed. And getting drunk every night for a month couldn’t possibly be healthy. Even for a vampire.
****
Ethan walked into the tiny shop. Little wind chimes above the door tinkled. Incense bombarded his senses. Figurines, books, stones, and flowers were on shelves, and hung in various places. “Hello?”
“Hello.” He jumped at the voice behind him. A young woman, blonde, probably mid twenties, dressed in a cloak with the hint of a skin tight dress underneath. She took his hand into hers and looked at his palm. She smiled up at him. “I’ve been waiting for you.” He swallowed hard. He couldn’t believe he’d actually come, no matter how strange, and annoying the dream he couldn’t quiet remember was. He didn’t even believe in psychics! And he was quiet sure she used that particular line on everyone who walked in. “This way.”
“I didn’t even tell you what I want.”
“You’re not here for gems, you aren’t so spiritual. You wouldn’t even look at the books you simply don’t believe in. You didn’t come looking for dragon or fairy figurine. You’re here for a reading. A reading about a dream. You think I’m a fraud, but I know more about the world at twenty four than you probably ever will. Are you backing out?”
“I thought you could see the future.”
“We all can do what we wish with our lives. Destiny is a cop out. You think ‘oh all I’m ever to do is to be an accountant.’ It’s a way to say you’re not responsible for litter, or for your government, or for your damned carbon footprint. We are all responsible to the God and the Goddess. People who say destiny didn’t choose them are simply lazy. Now do you want the reading or not?”
“You’re kind of crabby you know that?” Ethan asked with a bit of a smirk. “Not good for business.”
“Like I said, I know more about the world, and the monsters in it than you could ever hope to know.” She pushed back a midnight blue velvet curtain and let him into the candle lit room.
“Perhaps you should enlighten me then.”
She sat him down and sat across from him, she put out her hand and he put his on top, she twisted it around to look at his palm. She slowly closed her eyes and for minutes she said nothing. Ethan tried to wiggle his hand away but she held tightly. Opening her eyes she spoke. “Perhaps, Ethan, that isn’t such a bad idea.”
“I never told you my name.”
“And I never told you we were lovers in a past life, but lets face it, you hardly believe my knowing your name is not a trick. You want to know of your dream? You want to know what you faced and survived?”
Ethan nodded.
“Vampires. You were seduced by a vampire.”