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

Chapter XIX ~ As We Fall Asleep; Our Souls - Entwined...

The air trembled in my windpipe.
" I asked...Why are you here?! "

Another deep, throaty chuckle wove through the fabric of darkness, entering both my ears to reverberate inside my skull where it called upon the ghosts of my past: their voices fierce enough to pull them from the arms of a deep slumber & drag them back up to the surface for me to see. For me to feel.
To relive.

" Because David - the mastermind behind all this - thought it'd be only fair to, & I shall quote him word for word here, 'tell our innocent precious Lilyora the truth before somebody else in our midst should eventually feel tempted to do so' ~ "

" ... that doesn't explain anything, nor does it answer my question. At all! "
The blanket firmly wrapped around my torso I skittered across the bed, both eyes drifting around the cave relentlessly in a desperate attempt to make out Kjetil's whereabouts & perhaps spot Dwayne or one of the others while doing so, but the sobering realization that I was my very own ally in this surreal nightmare struck me soon enough. Kjetil's laugh - a sound once adored by me, now despised with a fierceness that felt way too compelling for my caring heart - remained all there was to find in this maze of nagging questions.

" I gotta say... This is quite a cozy place. No wonder David aches to keep it.
Mine dwell far beneath the ground, in chambers of putrid soil where no wind ever blows.

The ugly sacrifices we have to make to hide our soulless shells from the judgmental eyes of the world... "

" What do you mean, yours? ", I asked, turning to face the water fountain from where his voice had reached out to me, eye to eye with the blinding darkness.

" You know, Lily. "

" You're mistaken. I know nothing. "

" Now, now. That is only what your head is telling you. But what does your little heart say? "
Like a thunderstorm circling the landscapes Kjetil's voice began to wander, from one corner of the cave to the other, only briefly pausing to hover right above my head like an ominous ghostly presence, accompanied by a beguiling smell that urged me to search my memory for one particular event...

" It's... warning me..."

" I'm sure it does. Given how our last encounter went ~ "
His voice then drifted away, in the direction of the elevator shaft where the boys would usually sleep, my fear-ridden eyes always on its tail.
" Such a naughty guest I was, wasn't I? "

" Guest..? "

" Ah, you're right, that's not the most accurate word for it.
What I meant to say was... intruder. "

" In-", were the only two letters I managed to squeeze out of my throat before the bitter realization that my fears had been thoroughly justified wrapped itself around my neck like a set of cold bony fingers, consumed by the desire to choke the final remnants of courage from my body & almost vengeful in its ambition, unforgiving. A whine ached to slip past my lips but chose to linger just above the tip of my tongue where it transformed into a voiceless sigh, seconds away from being crushed to death under the weight of my trembling breath.

And all of a sudden, I felt more vulnerable than ever before, from head to toe exposed to harm of any kind like an open wound that had just been cut into existence & was only waiting, if not begging to become infected...

" ...it was you. You, Kjetil... were that stranger in my house! The night when we were under attack & those... feral vampires tried to break in... When they lured Marko away from the rest of the group & forced them apart... just so I would be... "

"" ~ alone, vulnerable. At my very mercy. Like you're being right now, Lily. Yes... That is the true story. And the truth is what you wanted, no? "