Emmeline, the girl in the storm

Of farewells and revelations

Emmeline found herself within a ruin. Here the wind had ceased to slice the air, save for the gentle breeze that was now tousling the snowflakes about in a flurry as they made their way down. Snow in a thick blanket smothered everything in sight.

She was surprised but not shocked. Most cases in life what we perceive is closely, if not completely, related to actual reality. Emmeline's perception of reality had been turned on its head several times over within the last twenty-four hours, so a house that appeared manicured, ornate and solemn from the outside could very well on the inside be a grand and grave ruin, exposed to the elements and shrouded with heavy snowfall.

In the very least it explained how cold it had been when she was walking up the driveway toward the front door.

"Where am I?" Emmeline asked.

She directed the question at the man who stood before her, though she doubted greatly how much of a man he was, after the disjointed conversations she'd had with her kidnapper on the nature of monsters.

He tapped his chin thoughtfully with long blackened fingers as he considered how to answer. His face was much like that of any man, with a nose, two eyes and a mouth. But to Emmeline he appeared similar to the vampires of folklore with greying flesh pulled tight over angular features, high cheekbones and strong eyebrows. His black hair, wiry and thick by nature was pulled back to the nape of his neck in a severe ponytail, revealing a defined widows peak and veins that pulsed blue and slow beneath his skin. He was taller than an average man, and his movements as he stepped through the snow toward Emmeline were elegant, seductive and smooth. Next to this creature, Emmeline did not even remember how she had managed to classify her kidnapper, Charon, as a monster.

Despite the horror of his individual features the creature was not unattractive, and that understanding was what made Emmeline truly terrified of him.

As he paced closer through the snow, Emmeline took one step, two steps, and then a third backward, until she bumped into Charon as he came through the door. Charon steadied her from behind, and with one hand on each shoulder, he pushed her back towards the monster.

The creature smiled at the fear on Emmeline's face, "Oh my, you are even more delicious than your mother! What a pity."

His smile was so disarming that Emmeline almost didn't hear the undertone in the words he used. He took her by the hand. His grip was even colder than Charon's. "So warm," he whispered to her, as he led her deeper into the ruin, clearing the snow before them with a mere look.
Emmeline knew she should run. There was a cry within her like her soul was caged and screaming for her to take action, but her body couldn't hear it. She was warm, so warm. The snow was nothing really. It danced before her eyes and melted on her nose, each flake a playful sprite sent to enchant her.

And the man who led her—enthralling, enchanting and beautiful—he spun her around like a ballerina on the ice, a princess treasured and safe. He lifted her up off the ground and set her down on a giant stone that once belonging to a great gothic arch.

A glance over her shoulder once as she spun had brought Charon's face to her attention. He was still standing just inside the door, which remained slightly open. The frown on his face and the set of his jaw told her she should worry.

But why? It was he who had kidnapped her! He was bad. He knew what had happened to her parents and her grandfather.

She turned to face the monster. On the pedestal she stood at eye level with him and she found herself peering into his burning red eyes with excitement as she asked, "Who are you?"

The monster smiled again and leaned forward to stroke her throat right up to her chin with a charred finger. Then he spoke, "I have been called many things throughout the time I have spent in your world, my dearest. I was known as Hades once, and Anubis before that. Through many ages since then I've been called names like vampire, djin and yōkai. Sometimes the name they scream is incubus." He laughed. "On nights when I've walked through the ice-bitten fields of destroyed crops I've heard them cry in anger at Jack Frost. At a distance I've heard them whisper Will-o-the-whisp, and my shadows on the snow have given birth to legends of glacial gods, the Yeti and Sasquatch. Once at a great massacre I was even mistaken for the Grim Reaper, death incarnate himself. Yet, sweet Emmeline, whilst I am the origin of some, if not all and many more of these myths, I am none of them." He feigned a sigh, and shrugged, "What I am very simply, is a creature not of your world, and I have been trapped here for a very, very long time."