A Requiem Eternal

Chapter 29 - Desperation

The moonlight shone through the stained glass of her window dividing one ray into a changing kaleidoscope on the floor. She watched it every night before she went to sleep. Tess snuggled deeper into the bed covers and thought of all the other things about her new life she loved. The very next to enter her mind was Daniel, even though she didn't see a lot of him lately. He was so preoccupied with that damned book. So she waited keeping Daniel high on the pedestal she placed him on when they first met. She knew there would be a time when he would come down from it to spend time with her again. Then in a faint echo to her mind, she heard him say "Goodbye."

She instinctively went to her window and looked into the clear moonlit abyss of the night. A shadow moved away from the house. It became the outline of Daniel but his body was nowhere in sight. No, this wasn't happening. She wouldn't let him leave without knowing why. She ran down the stairs, opened the front door and called after the shadow, screaming,

"Daniel!"

The shadow stopped at the end of the street. Lights in the homes of her street blinked on. To her mind he said, "Quiet, Tess."

"No I won't," she yelled after him. "I'll wake the entire neighborhood if you don't show yourself now!"

Daniel stepped out of the shadow realm still continuing to walk at a brisk pace. Tess sprinted to catch up with him.

"Stop Daniel. Stop and tell me why."

"I knew it. I knew you can hear my mind. It's too dangerous for me to stay," Daniel said.

"Why is it dangerous, Daniel? Because I'm not like you?"

Tess lunged towards Daniel and grabbed his hand in the space of less than a second. He tried to move away from her before she could touch him. The intense neon indigo light flowing from her hand to his became magnetic, sealing his hand with hers. With all of his strength he tried to release her, but it had already begun. The pain when her color surged into him was charged electric and instantaneous. It made him drop to his knees. She looked down at him, from her eyes he saw the light streams reaching out for him. He shut his eyes tight while the streams entered pulling at the vaporous green hunger from his. Still he tried to resist her.

"No Tess, you don't want me like this."

"Daniel it's too late, you have to take me with you."

"You don't know what you've done. I should kill you. You'll wish you were dead."

"What? No Daniel. Why would you say something like that?"

Tears welled in her eyes.

"Now we can be together."

***

Daniel stood up. He interlaced his hands with hers touching her for the first time. He kissed her in the way he sensed her mind ached for him to so many times before. Daniel let his light flow deep into her eyes, feeding from her. He embraced her as the man she wanted. He felt the innocence and purity of her inside of him for the first time. He gave it back to her, exactly how he felt for her when they met.

***

Kate rubbed her eyes and remembered why she didn't want to get up that particular morning. She turned her back to the light rays filtering through the lace design of her bedroom curtains and tried her best to go back to sleep but the stress of the day had already reached her. She begrudgingly slid out of bed and wandered downstairs in a sleepy fog. The creak of her footsteps made her flinch in the uncommon silence with each step she took.

Something was off and Kate knew what it meant in an instant. She turned halfway down the stairs and headed back up to the guest room. The room looked exactly as it had when she and Tess first moved in. She fell to her knees in disbelief.

"You little son of a bitch, I trusted you!" Kate screamed at no one.

She ran to Tess's room. Kate rifled through her chest of drawers and found everything gone. No clothes. No perfume. No makeup near the mirror. Her baby was gone. And so was he. What had the bastard done? Why else would they both leave without telling her?

"What the hell?" Kate said to herself sitting on Tess's bed with her head in her hands.

"Why? Why would you do this?"

Kate's body shook with the oncoming anxiety of complete shock. Did this mean everything she wanted for her, everything she hoped her life would be was over. Or was it? Or had it just changed? Change, the thing she hated most in life confronted her again. But this time it was so bold and in her face she couldn't ignore it. Instantly her mind calculated. Daniel and Tess left in a rush. Could it still be there?