Swan Song || The Lost Boys - & The One Who Found Them...

Chapter XVIII ~ ᛒ (Berkana) Part III - Cursed Be The Truth...

The sea was calm tonight. Unsettlingly calm. So calm that it filled me with terror.

" Dwayne? " Neither a response nor a reaction, he wouldn't even flinch at the sudden sound of my voice. Perhaps he hadn't heard me?

" Dwayne! " I repeated, much louder this time; loud enough for my words to bounce off the walls & echo out into the quiescent night. But nothing... He remained in his near statue-like position, wordlessly facing the dark sea ahead, as if he was waiting for it to consume him right where he stood. 

I for one had enough of the silence. I stormed forward without so much as a second thought, squeezing through the small gap between the rocks instead of walking around it - which undoubtedly would've taken even longer - & a mere moment later I felt the first cool gust of wind on my face, one that forced a chill to roll down my spine. Several steps behind me Paul & Marko were once again engaging in a heated conversation yet their words flew past me along with the wind, leaving me completely oblivious to their meaning & reason; Dwayne was now the center of my attention, all I cared about. 

Ice-cold water embraced my ankles as I stepped out of the cave & into the sea; a gentle reminder of the slowly approaching winter. 
My very first winter in the city of Santa Carla, my new home...

" Dwayne..? "

The water to my feet whispered & mumbled with each step I took, away from the entrance of the cave & towards the silent vampire whose silhouette threatened to become one with the darkness that engulfed the horizon, the vastness of the ocean before my eyes drawing nearer. I shuddered when the cold water through which I trudged touched my bare knees, the edges of the blanket I wore around my body like a second skin soon grazing the surface & beginning to take in the water. I crossed my arms in front of my quivering chest to keep the blanket in place as it quickly soaked up the water similar to a sponge, growing heavier & denser with every additional step out into the ocean.

" Dwayne... I know you can hear me. Please, talk to me! What is going on..?? "

By the time I stood within arm's reach of my beloved vampire the water had already completely swallowed the lower half of me, from my feet all the way up to my waist, the icy temperatures working like a numbing agent as it made the mysterious pain that was still raging inside my lower abdomen far more bearable for the moment being.

" Dwayne! Why won't you say anyt– "
but my mouth dropped shut just as quickly as it had opened, the sight bestowed rendering me speechless & causing me to tumble right back a few inches, though certainly not by choice.
It was thanks to the moon - who at last managed to break through the seemingly impenetrable cluster of dark clouds - that mild horror settled in the fibers of my bones, the clutches of dread slithering around my throat & making it hard for me to breathe as the first silvery beams fell from the louring dome above onto the man whose attention I so desperately craved, illuminating his bare back that was well-hidden under a layer of feathers, black & white ones alike, sweat & unholy amounts of blood keeping it glued to his alabaster skin. His broad frame trembled violently, in fact so hard that I could hear the water splashing around his hips, & now that I stood in close proximity there was also the sound of slow but heavy breathing stirring the nightly air.
The lump in my throat grew firmer, the sensation of my heart beating its way up my chest intensified.

Those feathers that decorated his naked flesh looked all too familiar, even here in the blackness of the night…

" Dwayne…"

" I… I had to stop them, Lily. "
My beloved vampire's warm, sonorous voices rang out at last.
" I had to… I had to stop them.. "

" Stop who?? "