The Void Between Life and Living

Chapter 3- A Blood Filled Sunrise

Why was this figure, this Silas Delacroix so transfixed on toying with me? Why could he not simply allow me to die in peace? Now as I looked at him his very essence seemed polluted with an unforgiving darkness, the red of the Sun rising from night reflecting in his eyes, his pale skin now appeared translucent, dark blue veins climbing up his arms.

"I'm sure you're curious of what my choice is for you, don't you want to hear it?" Silas teased, seeming to take great joy from my new found hatred of his very being.

"I wish to know what you are, not what deal you hold" I snarled my fear and frustration molding together in a dangerous fusion of confidence.

"Guess Arimis, use your petty human mind to guess what I am" he laughed, a spiteful sound echoing across the bedroom.

Why must he continue to play with the strings of my mind? And why must he play them so well? Plucking a dangerous staccato tune where I perfectly fall into each trill and crescendo.

"Why must you play such childish games Silas, do you truly draw joy from such sadistic taunts?" I muttered be-grudgingly, accepting I had fallen perfectly into a well planned trap, "you're a son of Satan, a creature of such pure evil I can not even bring myself to describe"

At my words Silas laughed, it was not tainted by malice or spite, it was a pure laugh that thundered across my room and transformed his face. "Evil my dear Arimis is a point of view, like God I kill indiscriminately, for no creatures under God are so similar to him as I am." He paused for a moment his expression appearing more thoughtful, and despite myself I found that I was curious as to what he would say next.

"Consequently, if you believe God made Satan, Satan is simply a child of God and all of his power comes from God too, and as the Bible says, we are God's children also. Therefore there are no children of Satan really, so I am clearly not a son of Satan as you believe I am." He grinned, almost appearing proud at his analysis of my answer, yet his maze of riddles and unanswered questions only frustrated me further.

"Then please tell me Silas, what are you, if Evil is a point of view and you're a creature so similar to God who enjoys toying with men on their death bed?" I hissed, my tone becoming resentful with a mocking twinge.

"You know Aramis, you're rather beautiful" Silas mused once more gazing off into the deep red sunrise

"What?" I stuttered. Was this man truly insane?

"You're beautiful to me because you're human, and because of that you hold frailty. Your short years. Your heart. All that suddenly seems more precious than anything I've ever known, it holds a beautiful contrast to the wasteland of eternity" he murmured, rather thoughtfully, yet the only thought screaming in my mind was- what is this creature?

Silas turned to me, is eyes reflecting the dimming candle by my bedside appearing to hold a mournful glow. "I'm Gentleman Death in silk and lace, come to put out the candles. I am an unwilling devil."

His eyes turned venomous, In a split second of rapid movement time seemed to slow. I watched in a horrified amazement as his once smooth and generous face transformed into one of a monster. Silas' head thrust forward, his eyes bulging, as if he were drunk, his skin a mass of scars, a hideous covering of injured flesh, and his once blackened eyes were shot with haemorrhaged vessels.

I flinched back, my heart racing in my chest, desperately trying to escape my bodies fate. My eyes clenched shut and I saw only the darkness of the unknown. A rush of air gushed past my ear. I expected pain like I had never known before, I expected to hear my tortured cry echo off the walls, I expected a struggle. Yet all I felt were two minuscule pricks on my neck, as two firm grips held me securely on the bed, even if I did attempt to struggle I would have been unable to move and in that moment when all I could hear was my shallow breathing and the blood pumping through my veins I didn't wish to move. Strangely enough it was as if my body had excepted defeat and simply wished to fall into the sleep of death.

Life was being gradually drained from my already dying body, yet I chose to do nothing other than accept my fate. In a dazed and dream like state I felt my arms being released from Silas's grip and the bite in my neck began to ache.

"Aramis" Silas whispered, his voice seeming miles away as if I was being held under the silky waves of the sea "Aramis can you hear me?"

I tried to speak, desperately tried to move, yet my body felt as if it was lead, and my mind was floating, everything about myself felt tired and exhausted.

"I've drained you to the point of death, now here is your choice: If I leave you here, you die. Or you can be young always, stay forever in the simple perfection you hold now, but you must tell me: will you come with me and dance with the devil into the night?" He purred, hands gliding over my hair in a soothing pattern, and suddenly my mind seemed to change, and Silas no longer seemed so unappealing, while death seemed a strenuous and dull journey in comparison to living.

With one syllable I forever changed my fate, there was no returning on the choice I made, and it was my own choice alone that created my future. With one whispered yes, I felt thick warm blood gush into my cracked lips and spill across my pale skin. With one yes I sold my soul to the night and discovered what it meant for death to know your name.