Revelation
Driving home from the police, I clutched the steering wheel tightly as the day’s events finally sank in: I dumped the love of my life and I was pretty sure my best friend was kidnapped because of me.
I closed the door to my room, limp with depression. Everything seemed to change the instant I turned my back on Cap, well, besides the whole Bonnie being captured after allegedly finding out some pretty incriminating info about Cap (which, by the way, wasn't helping my current Cap mentality). Colors seemed less bright, life seemed less worth living, happiness felt like a privilege I didn't deserve, things that usually keep me content were useless, even comfort food felt like a waste of time. All I wanted to do was lay in a fetal position and cry until the hollow ached in my chest filled like a dam.
I clutched my pillow and sighed heavily before tears began to fall. Mercilessly, startlingly clear images of the good times flashed through my mind: the first day we met, the first time our skins touched, the pre-date study date, the first time he held me in his arms, the first time he protected me, the first time we kissed, the first time I stepped foot in his house and perhaps the most beautiful was the first time he said that he loved me. The last one hurt the most, sending virtual poison-laced daggers at me that sank deep to inner core, almost sending me slithering out of consciousness. And they said a Brocken heart never killed anyone. Yeah right.
Fall asleep, the voice - that I've been hearing in an increasingly alarming amount of times - whispered silently to me.
The thought of slumber was a tempting thought, but because I didn't trust strange voices - I've watched way too many horror movies - or because of my blatant stubbornness, I tried my damnedest not to.
I kept myself awake by watching the Vampire Diaries reruns on the CW, painting my toes several times, rearranging my closet for the summer, reading a chapter from Duma Key (ever since reading It in the fourth grade, I'd been unable to sleep after reading any Stephan King novel), and I even read a scene from Macbeth in desperation. The good news was that through all of this I'd managed to stay up till around nine o'clock in the morning, the bad news was that summer holidays had started and I hadn't signed up for summer school. Ugh, and I really could use the extra chemistry lessons now that Cap, for obvious reasons, could no longer be my tutor. Sigh, it was times like these I wished I had insomnia.
Go to sleep, the voice whispered to me, assaulting me like a caress, ending my battle against my exhaustion.
Chloe, wake up,
The voice told me soothingly as my eyes slowly parted.
I was lying on a beach, in the funeral clothes I hadn't changed from since the, well, funeral. I brushed beach sand off of my Lanvin skirt as I stood up, staring into the blank horizon.
Where am I? I asked the voice inside my head, feeling just as crazy as that must've sounded. I don't think my psychologist would be happy to know I was literally talking to voices I heard in my head. The word schizophrenia ran alarmingly loud through my mind.
You're at the beach you were on the night you went on that 'study date', it told me, even though I couldn't see it, I could feel the silent quotation marks around 'study date'. I mentally rolled my eyes. It's about time you know the truth.
And just like that a vision of me materialized from the blue. It was the me just moments after Cap had left me stranded alone. I saw me starting to search desperately for a man who left me, I saw myself as I walked through the deserted road, I saw the man who stalked me, macabre bloodlust emanating from his eyes, I saw myself walking into the alley and just like that, what I thought had happened fell through me like water from a sieve.
I walked through the alley, convinced that walking through a dark and deserted alley was the only way of surviving. Damn, I was stupid. I walked through the alley and a man materialized behind me, covered my mouth and threatened to do unmentionable things with me. Moments later, after several things that made me cringe away happened; two more men materialized and threatened me again. But when I begged to them not to steal my virtue, one of the men shot me in the leg.
Again someone seemed to materialize from the darkness, damn this awful lighting. But this time it was Cap, and boy did he look pissed. After several threatening words, the men shot at him and Cap caught the bullets. He actually caught them! Shocked, I didn't see the next move coming. Cap flashed his pearly whites, revealing ludicrously long and sharp incisors, and decapitated all of the men while I watched in horror. He stepped to me and I flinched, we exchanged words, he proclaimed his love for me, kissed me and wiped away my memory.
The scene burned through my memory. As much as I didn't want to believe it, the memory was real. Cap lied to me. He took away my memory. I felt violated.
Why? I asked the voice as transparent tears fell from my eyes
As much as I want to lie and say it was just another way to weave you deeper into his web, he truly believed he did it to protect you.
From what?
Did you not notice anything weird in the picture?
Plenty.
Like?
He wiped away my memory after admitting that he loved me! If he didn't do that my life would've been much easier! But, how could he do that? Was it his blood. Ew! I drank his blood!
The voice in my head sighed heavily and muttered something intangible before saying, besides that.
I shook my head and she led me, with tears still falling from my eyes, to a haunting darkness in the foreground.
Where are we going? I asked in confusion.
It seems like you haven't caught on to what I'm trying to show you about Cap, what I'm trying to warn you about Cap.
What, what are you saying? I asked, shaking my head in defiance. There couldn't possibly be more he's trying to hide. I mean, he fed me his blood and then my memory gets whipped away. I was pretty sure Damian couldn't do that. Wait, warn me?
Yes, Chloe. My name is Raven and I lived in the early 1900s.
Huh?
I'm an incarnated version of you. Well, rather you're a reincarnation of me.
What the hell?! I asked as confusion as thick as the Amazon jungle washed over me. Where are we going?!
To the night I died. June 18th 1911.
Raven twirled jubilantly in front of the mirror before her. I gulped, admiring her beauty. It was the same girl I dreamt about not too long ago. Same fiery red hair. Same heart shape face. Same perfect nose. Same pale skin. Same hauntingly similar eyes. Same black lace, midnight blue satin gown.
"You look beautiful," a voice - her mother's voice - echoed through the boudoir and she turned around, startled.
"Oh, mother you scared me!" She said, hands on her heaving chest.
Her mother was the spitting image of my own. Same blue eyes, same lively features, same sun-kissed skin, same modelesque features. The only difference was her hair was the same shade as Raven's. But then again, mother died her hair so much I actually forgot what it's original color was.
"I didn't mean to, honey." She said, a warm smile breaking across her features.
Rave smiled and turned to face the mirror again, smiling widely as she straightened the perfect midnight blue masterpiece.
"He gave it to me, you know?"
"Who?"
"The boy, Capriano Delguard."
"Oh, really?" Her mother asked, a hint of skepticism clouding her words.
"Yes, said it belonged to someone really special to him. Told me she died awhile ago so I'm sensing it was her mothers. Isn't that sweet?"
"How kind of him, dear. But don't you think it's a little out of style." She said, referencing to her very 1910s gown she wore. I rolled my eyes.
"I don't think so. Beauty so well made should be cherished forever," she said before a knocked sounded through the room.
"Who is it?" Raven called.
"It is I, my love."
"Cap?" Raven's mother asked.
"Yes, Mrs. Masefield."
"Hold on, dear. Raven will be out soon." She said as she leaned over raven, brushing a single stranded hair that stuck out of her French twist. "You go have fun."
"Bye, mother." She said.
Moments later they were in a hall, where a horde of dancers danced joyously to some very dated music I couldn't recognize.
"You look amazing." Cap said, staring at her with a fondness I hadn't seen in his eyes other than when he looked at... me.
"That's the seventh time you've told me that today."
"Seven only? That's not merely enough!" He joked, causing a damning redness to rise in both of our cheeks. "Care to dance?"
"I'd be honored," Raven said, curtseying in a fashion only a girl in a full-skirted dress in the 1900s could perfect.
Cap led her to the centre of the ivory colored walls and I couldn't help but feel a tinge of jealously. Cap had never danced with me before.
He held her hands with the upmost delicacy, kind of like the way a father would hold his newborn baby. His hands gripped lightly and they stared intimately into each other’s eyes. They began twirling in harmony, Raven, in her midnight blue gown, standing out from the crowd. Her dress complemented her perfectly. The red color of her hair, contrasting with the dress and flawless pale skin looking like it was made for that gown, not the other way around. As they danced they moved in closer and closer to each other. Until finally there was no space between them. Their bodies meld together, and their eyes never left.
Remember when I said I was a little jealous of Raven, well now I was absolutely fuming with envy. I missed the way he looked at me. I yearned to gaze into his black diamond eyes. Ached for his touch. Pained for his love. I would've killed to have him with me now. Yip, there was the tears again.
The music died out and it seemed like time stood still as I saw their eyes shifting nervously, Cap leaning into Raven, her clover eyes closing, and Cap disappeared. Like the many times he did with me. I could practically feel the pain and disappointment emanating in her eyes. I knew just how she felt.
She picked up her satin skirt, revealing vintage - probably first addition - Chanel pumps, and ran towards the doors and into the cold wind.
The night sky was beautiful. Millions of little stars stretched above the horizon and a large full moon stood tyrantly in the sky, commanding attention. But beneath it's beauty was an underlining of macabre and menace, sending vivid tingles of icy fear down my skin. I'd have to fret on how weird it was that I could still feel, but not be seen or touched, later. Weird.
Raven looked around franticly and noticed a dark silhouette hunched over a tree.
"Cap?" She called out, somehow knowing that even in the great distance between them, that he'd hear her voice. He'd hear it anywhere.
Cap's head turned towards her and he shouted, "Stay away!" My skin quivered in fear at the menacing desperation in his voice.
"No!" She shouted as she walked to him.
"I said stay!" He shouted louder as she got closer to him.
"No." She said sternly.
"You don't know what you dealing with." He said, his eyes piercing her.
"I'm sure I can handle whatever I'm dealing with." She said as she stepped closer.
This time instead of stepping back he merely said, "Run."
Her legs responded instantly as a surge of fear rushed through the both of us. She ran into the woods behind the hall, not stopping until she heard the slight crackling of leaves below her foot as she entered a grove.
She turned around in hopes of finding who was after her, somehow sure that someone was, only to see flashes of a black silhouette by the trees.
"Who's there?!" She yelled in terror, fear sending her backing toward the tree for grip. Big mistake.
Hands gripped around her, sending ice through her veins. She tried to scream, but it was muffled, all that came out was a breathless whimper.
The hand left her and the figure stood before her. Watching from the side-angle like a movie, I could see the confused desperation in Cap's eyes and the fear in Raven's. My heart raced.
"Elizabeth?" He asked in a breathless whisper.
"No, it's me, Raven."
"Raven?"
"Yes, it's me, Raven."
Cap stared at her in wonder, even sniffing her neck before yelling, "Liar!"
"I, I'm not. I do not know this Elizabeth." She said, but Cap ignored her.
"Oh how I missed you, my love! I thought you died, I thought I killed you! But I can sense you, I sense your soul! I would always sense it!" Cap said, leaning towards her.
She stood dead still as she twirled with a loose piece of hair and placed his head in the area between her neck and shoulder. It fit perfectly.
"Oh, I love you, angel. Don't ever leave me again." He said, suddenly moving his head to stare into her eyes, hypnotized.
Cap leaned in and pursed his lips. Raven looked distressed and confused, but I sensed the desire within her. As much as she was scared and befuddled, she still wanted him, still loved him. Just like I did.
Their lips touched and my heart sank. I never thought I'd feel so much pain to see Cap kiss another girl, and with so much desperation. But it did and I wished against my better judgment that that was me he yearned for.
As the kiss deepened, Cap grinded against her and ran his fingers down her arm, up again, until it reached her shoulder. His fingers moved to her chest to just above her bustier, before it went to her back and he tugged against the material. The force of his tug sent her dress toppling down, but not breaking the material. Damn that is some brilliant quality satin.
"Cap!" She shouted as she stood in her undergarments.
Cap ignored her. Instead, he stopped the kiss and stared desirably at her neck. He looked like he was in a trance, practically emanating bloodlust you saw in old vampire movies. I shivered at the mere thought of Dracula and friends being compared to my dark prince, Cap.
He leaned slowly towards her jugular, and his incisors extended. He practically drooled as he got closer and closer to her, hypnotized by her frantic pulse.
"Cap! What's going on?!" She yelled, looking incredibly distressed.
A smile broke across his face and he shushed her. "It's going to be alright, my love. Just... one... taste..." He said, his Adam's apple bobbing and an incredible desperation filled his voice.
His lips touched her skin and he kissed her porcelain neck lightly before his teeth sunk into her flesh, Cap moaning in euphoria as blood brushed across his pallet.
"Cap! Stop!" She pleaded.
But he didn't. Instead, he sucked harder, draining her life ounce by ounce.
"Please! You can't kill me again!"
That seemed to get his attention.
Hesitantly, Cap released her and she fell to the ground, covering herself with her gown.
Cap looked confused and monstrous. Blood covered his smile and his face was twisted in a demented expression. Bewilderment ran through him as he saw what had happened. What he'd let happen. Hurt, pain and remorse flashed through his macabre-looking eyes before he backed away, and disappeared into the darkness.
Suddenly, the scene before me faded to black and Raven appeared before me.
"You already know what happens after that. Cap kills me." I gulped, unsure of what to say. "Take my death as a warning, Chloe. Death came to me, and those after me because of Cap. I don't want the same to happen to you, Chloe. Break the cycle and walk away from Cap, he's not good for you."
"I know," I said, sighing. "But wait, Cap had... fangs..." She nodded. "Does that make him a...?"
She started opening her mouth to answer but before she could, my eyes sprung open as my phone rang. Ugh, I've got to learn how to put the phone on silent!
"Chloe."
"Cap?"
"If you're ready for the truth, I'm ready to tell you."
End of Part 2