________
No more questions were asked, no more words exchanged. I, despite being in excruciating pain & hardly able to grasp a proper thought because of it, already stood on both my feet again, granting my body a poor few seconds to adjust before I took right off in the direction of the entrance. I did everything in my power to conceal my suffering & the fact that every single step of mine meant pure torture for me, arms crossed tightly so Marko & Paul wouldn't see my quivering chest.
I wanted to run in order to reach Dwayne as fast as possible & rid myself of that awful feeling of uncertainty that was currently gnawing its way through my brain, however only a few steps were needed for me to realize that moving at all was already a challenge in itself. Soon it was no longer a stabbing pain that tormented each & every inch of my womb, but a relentlessly pulsating one that would have sent me straight to my knees again if it hadn't been for my imperturbable determination to keep on walking, past the fountain towards the gap between the rocks where - unless the sky was covered with clouds, which appeared to be the case right now - the moon would illuminate the barely ankle-deep water.
It was here that I acted completely out of instinct & leaned against the rock the second I got close enough, escaping a potential collapse as I felt its icy clutches reach for the back of my neck. For a moment I thought I was doomed to faint, but much to my surprise nothing happened. Although my mind was foggy & my vision distorted my body would not forsake me this time. At least not entirely... As the next wave of pain swept into the corners of my nervous system I let out a gasp, drawing air through clenched teeth; it was the best I could do to withhold a whimper or even a scream. Of course that was more than enough to not only earn a concerned look from either of the vampires, but also have them rush to my aid with hasty steps.
Paul was the first one to arrive by my side, instantly grasping my shoulders. He was probably afraid I would break down any second.
"Geez, little flower! Are you mad?? Why didn't you tell us that you were in pain?? "
" Calm down, Paul. It's nothing I can't handle... "
" Yeah, I can see how you're handlin' it. Tryin' not to die is one way I suppose...", he stated more or less sarcastically, a quick sideway glance in Marko's direction.
" Listen, you stay here. Marko & I will go outside & look after your boyfriend, got it?? We'll bring him with us, you got my word. With chocolate sprinkles on top ~ "
" Not a chance, " I breathed out before he could even wait for Marko's nod of approval & squeezed past him ever so boldly, my hands in the air to push his arm out of the way.
" I can take it. And even if I couldn't, I'd do it anyway. "
" Precious, there's no need to play the tough one right now. We can do this for you! "
Not that his words had any effect on me as I continued to make my way out of the cave, allowing Marko's voice to more & more fade into the background with each step. I could hear both of them follow me after a short yet fierce exchange of words, catching up with me once I reached the part of the cave in which Dwayne & I had been quite intimate with one another several hours ago.
" Which way, Marko? "
" That one, to the left. ", he replied from behind me & I peered over to a large chasm embedded in a literal collection of pyramid-shaped rocks, all thrust together in one place by what I assumed had once been a powerful storm from the seaside, now silently facing the pale spine of the cliff.
Behind it, several steps away from the entrance to the cave, my eyes captured Dwayne's tall silhouette in the pitch-black water which reached all the way up to his hips, quivering with tender waves. Dwayne himself was not moving at all, remained still just like the many rocks that surrounded him.
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?? "
" They would have gotten inside the cave… They would have taken you.
They… would have hurt you! I had to stop them… no matter how. "
I took but one small step closer, my extended hand already hovering mid-air, however reluctant to touch him yet.
" Who are they, Dwayne? What happened out here?? "
" I grabbed them by their wings, Lily… Grabbed them by their wings & necks… & pulled them from the sky. And the sky just gave them to me… like it wanted me to have them…
Like it has been waiting for me to stop them the whole time…"
" I don't think I understand, Dw— "
" I tore out their feathers, Lily. I tore them out of their flesh with my bare hands… One by one I ripped them apart. One by one… I killed them. "
The movement was only subtle, almost fully concealed by the dense cloak of the night, yet my with disbelief widened eyes witnessed how Dwayne turned his upper body towards me, his gradually opening hands held out in front of his chest like there was something inside them that he wanted me to see, but they were empty.
There was nothing inside them but the same pitch-black blood that clung to his flesh; the very same blood that decorated his torso & arms, dripping from his calloused fingertips & into the water below for the ocean to swallow…
" I killed them all… I killed them all…"
My eyes travelled from his blood-coated palms over his trembling fingers down into the water where a literal carpet of widely scattered feathers had found its peace, far too many to count, dancing along to the sporadic rhythm of the petite waves the winds gave birth to. Something tickled my elbow, causing me to startle like a dog at the sudden sound of thunder & hastily draw back from the pile of fringed & partially bloodied feathers that were slowly floating my way.
Creeping panic sent a surge of adrenaline through my already tense body, my left arm plunging into the freezing cold water in order to push the feathers away & clear my path towards Dwayne only to come in contact with something else; something that felt strangely warm & rather solid, unlike the many soft feathers all around us.
Curiosity itched within my fingertips whilst that ever-growing sense of dread refused to loosen its grasp on my throat, & for a moment reluctance caused me to freeze entirely. However that moment came to an abrupt end once the moon fully escaped the prison of clouds & beamed its soulless light back onto the scenery of death & blood that I had become a part of; a scenery far too grotesque to fathom with the little information provided.
More & more light flooded the area, revealing the terror gnawing at Dwayne's handsome features & the glint of fright in his glassy eyes that were incessantly planted on me. Meanwhile mine continued to wander across the expanding tapestry of floating feathers & chunks of flesh in various sizes that surrounded the two of us, every now & then spotting the gruesomely mutilated head of a corvus-like bird sticking out from the quivering water, their ebony beaks either snapped or wide agape & dead eyes staring back at me from their cold moist ocean grave.
I watched, fear-stricken, as one of their crooked wings twitched & spasmed in despair like it wanted to fly away before it was completely buried underneath an incoming wave, swept out of my sight back into the shadow of the cliff.
My throat ached with a scream of utter horror but everything remained silent; all I managed to do was stumble backwards when the waves carried yet another pile of flesh & feathers in my direction. A powerful metallic scent entered my nostrils as a gust of air brushed across the water's surface, causing my senses to plunge into a daze until the world before my eyes went on a merry-go-round. Never before had I been so grateful for the cool air from the open sea without which I undoubtedly would have fainted right here in the open water.
A still petrified, blood-covered Dwayne watched me through dilated pupils, the tremor that had taken hold of his body visibly intensifying upon seeing my struggle & the shadow of fear that had just begun to spread across my face, nesting in every corner it could reach.
" D-Dwayne. Let us go inside… please. Let us get away from here… ", I forced out of my gradually tightening throat, almost choking on my words as it took me everything & more not to throw up or collapse,
" This… this is a bad place to be in…"
“ It scares you, doesn’t it? “, he replied with a voice so fragile, I could barely hear him.
“ I scare you. “
“ Why would you scare me, Dwayne? You know I stand by you. You know I love you… and whatever happened out here… Whatever you did out here, I’m sure you did it for a good reason. “
“ I did it… to protect you, Lily. “
“ … & that is a reason. I may not understand everything yet, but I trust that you will explain it to me. Just… please, come inside with me. We are all worried about you, & it is not safe out here… “
I pulled my shaking hand out of the water with all the strength I could muster & carefully held it out for Dwayne to take, hoping he would break free from the shackles of his paralysis & follow my plea. Once again I was greeted by the strong smell of blood in form of an invisible cloud that wrapped itself around my head, putting a salty taste on the surface of my tongue & well-nigh acidic tears into my eyes as the urge to brutally retch squeezed its way out of my body, with a force that knocked the air out of my lungs, the sight of my own hand dripping black blood instead of water being the last straw; the world before my eyes turned upside down like someone had just thrown me over his shoulder, erasing the little few beams of moonlight from my vision & sending me back-first into the deep, cold darkness of the nightly sea.
————
" Alright, bud'. Uhm... You gotta walk me through that step by step 'cause I don't think I get it ~ "
Paul?
" There's nothing else to say, Paul… Not at the moment anyway…
What matters is that they are no longer a threat to her. So maybe all of this had to happen… "
That one was, unmistakably, the warm sound of Dwayne's voice; my only truly soothing companion in this maze of darkness that I had stumbled into. There was nothing else in here - no shapes, no silhouettes, neither a tinge of colour nor a single grain of light. Everything was darkness & darkness was everything in this oddly familiar place. In fact, this entire situation felt quite familiar to me.
Could it perhaps be that…
" Alrighty then… But do you really think little flower's doin' okay? Dunno about you, but I've never seen her that pale before…"
" She's unconscious, bud. Don't worry, she'll come back to us any minute. Takin' a little dive might've done some good in her case if you ask me. From what I've seen she was already a little 'groggy' before we went outside… "
Last but by no means least, Marko joined the conversation, a strangely anxious undertone tugging at his voice in spite of his reassuring words. The air felt thick & heavy as I took a deep breath, granting my lungs to expand in my rather tight chest, & there was an unpleasantly foul taste on the surface of my tongue; the same kind of taste one would have after a long, feral vomiting. My joints were screeching in agony, the bones trapped inside this shell of human flesh & skin close to melting under the heat my body radiated which could very well be the result of a vicious fever. And the longer I lay there in the dark surrounded by familiar voices & the strangest thoughts, the less threatening the darkness in front of me became, its grim countenance retreating back into the shadows one step after the other as the fog behind my eyes began to lift to make room for my slowly returning memories.
" Yeah, I get what you mean… Think she's hiding somethin', from all of us. Our little flower has been acting strange ever since she woke up. Ah, maybe 'strange' ain't the right word for it… Unusual sounds better to me ~ "
" What do you mean, 'unusual'? "
Subtle agitation hung in Dwayne's voice upon asking Paul, which was never a good sign…
" All I mean is… She didn't seem to be doing alright. "
" Did she tell you that? "
" Of course not. She ain't that type of person. But like I said, Marko & I couldn't shake off the feeling that something was troubling her… Something…"
" ... something she doesn't want to share with us. "
Marko continued as Paul appeared to have a difficult time explaining what was on his mind, probably because the sudden change in Dwayne's voice had caught him off guard.
" Then again, it's just a feeling… It doesn't have to mean anything. "
" That doesn't make sense to me… What could she possibly be hiding? "
" Every woman has at least one little secret that she keeps far out of everyone's reach, Dwayne. A secret she refuses to share with anyone ~
Not even those she trusts the most . "
A velvety baritone split the darkness before my eyes sealed by slumber, the irresistible allure within every single syllable shaking me awake & slowly guiding me back into the here & now; a voice so beguiling that my heart craved to leap out of its cage made of ribs & flesh only so it could follow its sound, far too naive to even worry about the consequences of such a foolish act.
David…
The echoes faded from existence as I eventually found my way into the safe arms of reality, bathing in the comforting sensation of a soft blanket that rested on top of my chest & several cushions underneath my head, the scent of a tender ocean breeze that had travelled the night for far too long lingering just below my nose before I took it all in with a deep, heartfelt draw.
Here I was, back in my bed within the sanctities of the cave, in the presence of my dear vampire friends who I loved & cherished like a family, if not even more than that, however my eyes would not open. Not because I was unable to open them, but because I did not want to open them.
Not yet…
Far too intriguing was their conversation; a conversation of which I had clearly become the main topic.
Moreover, David was there, & something in the depths of my guts assured me with iron-clad persistence that his sudden reappearance shortly after the bizarre incident outside the cave was anything but a coincidence.
" Believe me, Dwayne. If there's any person in this world who has a secret to keep that they would die for, it is her ~"
If only I knew what David was talking about.
" You enjoy talking in riddles, don't you, David? More than that, you enjoy reminding us that there's something you know that we don't… "
" Is that how you think of me, Dwayne? " asked David, who had audibly drawn closer to the bed & whose voice now sounded so close, the air around me trembled under the weight of his words.
" Have blinding hatred & soul-deep distrust at last fully contorted your picture of the person I am? "
" Quit acting like you are genuinely wondering about that. Ignorance doesn't suit you. You know I'm no one to hand out trust easily... And to you I gave little to none, in all those decades spent together... "
" For sure, an act that did not go unnoticed. "
A response that dripped from the blonde's lips like venom from the fangs of a snake.
" Like a deep wound caused by a blade I never knew existed until it cut my flesh... "
" You always knew, David. Always. You only chose to ignore it… Something that comes easy to those with a consciousness as rotten as yours.
But you also knew, from the very first moment she set foot in our life… that things were destined to change. "
" Guys. Do you really want to argue about… whatever it is you're arguing about… right now?? Don't we have bigger problems that we should be kickin' in the butt, those shape-shifting vampires for example? "
" Indeed, we do, Paul. And when it comes to those vampires I'm fairly certain that David can provide us with quite some relevant information.
Isn't that so,... boss? "
I tried my hardest not to visibly shudder at the shift inside Dwayne’s voice as that would’ve given me away, the heart between my ribs murmuring regretfully as the haunting image of his blood-covered face distorted by anguish snuck back into the fragile chambers of my mind, ready to plant the seeds of guilt among the soils of anxious thoughts.
Maybe it was the connection the two of us shared, interlacing not only our minds but also our souls in such an intimate way that every shift of energy, every subtle change caused by the things he felt or pondered also affected my own perception. Day by day, Dwayne’s fears slowly became my fears, his anger slowly became my anger, & whatever glint of joy brightened the part of him that lay hidden from my eyes would eventually cast a blinding light on my inner self as well. Eventually…
However right now, in this very moment, all his soul seemed to know was gnawing, crippling fear; undeniably the result of his unswerving ambition to protect me against the most devastating of odds & keep me far away from David's venomous grasp, if somehow possible hide me forever from his cold prying eyes.
His voice, corrupted by anger & dread, sliced the air like a freshly whetted blade, anxious to cut an honest response out of David's flesh, yet all he received was derisive laughter born & raised in the pits of their leader's chest.
" I'm dying to hear what precious information you're speaking of... "
" Guys," interfered Marko with caution.
" This is neither the right place, nor the right time for an argument..."
" It is always the right time & place to tear down the mask of a traitor. "
" What..? "
Did Dwayne know of David's secret identity??
It couldn't be...
" You heard right, Marko.
David does not only know a lot more about these feral vampires than he's willing to admit. He has already spent a fair amount of time walking among them.
He is one of theirs. He is their leader. "
Deafening silence rolled in onto the scene like an avalanche, burying every sound that lurked between these walls of stone & dust. The distant murmurs of the sea died down, the soft crackling of dancing flames from the nearby fire bowls subsided, until the only sounds left were my very own breathing & the fierce thumping of my heart inside my chest.
A timid draft akin to a breeze born on a wintry morning came crawling across the thin blankets that covered my body, a whiff of cold leather & rain-kissed pine close on its tail that filled my lungs with the one odor dearest to me, the scent of my favourite vampire. Dwayne.
" Time to open your eyes, Lilyora ~
I know you are awake. "
My heart took a leap into my throat, my eyelids lifting like curtains when a voice from the past whispered my full name into existence with a lenity that stirred my blood & called for the sleeping demons in that head of mine to torment me with memories the shape of scars.
A voice I thought I'd never ever hear again in this lifetime.
" Surprised, my dear? I'd hope so. Coming here sure wasn't easy. Your mind is far stronger than I expected, & your new friends have done a great job acting like your bodyguards.
Well, until now...
But thanks to David... & his quite promising abilities... reaching you eventually became inevitable. "
The drapes of the bed were all pushed aside, allowing me to see the dark figure dressed in black that stood at its end like a frozen shadow, with soulless emerald eyes embedded in a porcelain face piercing my skull from underneath a waterfall of silken ebony hair, swaying gently in yet another breeze that wandered the completely abandoned, dimly lit cave.
They were all gone. Dwayne. Paul. Marko. Even David. All gone... As though their previous conversation had been nothing but a dream.
There was no one but the two of us. Just this figure in the corner & myself.
Just me & this one painful memory...
" Kjetil. "
—————
Writer's Note:
a warm, heartfelt Thank You to anyone who's currently reading these lines as it means you chose to stick with me & my story despite this chapter taking yet another three awfully long months. My physical condition hasn't been the best, neither has my motivation, & for quite a long time I was alarmingly close to dropping this story once & for all.
That was until the realization that writing is one of the few things that actually keep me sane & shield me from new waves of depression struck me ever so vehemently, along with the wish to return to my blood-sucking fictional family in Santa Carla whenever I feel like it.
Their story needs to continue, & I've come a long way thanks to you wonderful people; to give up & turn away would be the worst of all insults. Not only to myself, but to you as well.
What I'm saying is: I'm back. For real this time. You will hear from me again... And not just in another three long months ~🌹
- Greetings, Lily