I looked over and my eyes widened.
The children were hiding behind their parents, or just behind the adults. The said adults were backing away as much as they could from the monster I was.
The guards were shocked, and defensive.
Everyone looked terrified.
What did I do?
My hand went to my mouth, covering the fangs they now knew hid there and the thick blood dripping off my chin. My eyes began to water.
Without a second thought, I sprinted away out the hole in the wall, making it to a large pond in a minute or two.
This wasn't the pond I knew, it was larger and the moon's reflection haunted me from the surface.
They know. They hate me. They want me dead. They're scared of me.
I don't cry. Not often. But right now, tears fell heavy down my cheeks and my hand still covered my mouth.
Sobs wracked my body, making my shoulders shake as I desperately tried to wipe off the distasteful blood from my face.
It was putrid, clearly not normal blood. It was at least 3 different species, and the taste was as if it was from a corpse.
I finally wiped it all off, but I still sobbed as the tears continued - though growing smaller.
Without knowing anything else to do, I simply started to sing after I caught my breath.
"There's a boy, lost his way looking for someone to play. . .
There's a girl in the window
Tears rolling down her face,
We're only lost children
Trying to find a friend
Trying to find our way back home,
We don't know where to go
So I'll just get lost with you
We'll never fall apart,
'Cause we fit together right
We fit together right
These dark clouds over me
Rain down and roll away,
We'll never fall apart
'Cause we fit together like
Two pieces of a broken heart,
I know where we could go
And never feel let down again
We could build sandcastles
I'll be the queen, you'll be my king,
We're only lost children
Trying to find a friend
Trying to find our way back home
We don't know where to go
So I'll just get lost with you,
We'll never fall apart
'Cause we fit together right
We fit together right
These dark clouds over me
Rain down and roll away,
We'll never fall apart
'Cause we fit together like
Two pieces of a broken heart,
Now I can lay my head down and fall asleep
Oh, but I don't have to fall asleep
To see my dreams
'Cause right there in front of me
(Right there in front of me),
There's a boy
Lost his way
Looking for someone to play,
We don't know where to go
So I'll just get lost with you,
We'll never fall apart,
'Cause we fit together right
We fit together right
These dark clouds over me
Rain down and roll away,
We'll never fall apart,
'Cause we fit together like
We fit together like
Two pieces of a broken heart,
There's a boy, lost his way, looking for someone to play."
It calmed me a bit, and I sobbed again before taking a few deep breaths.
"That was beautiful."
I turned to see Aaron, and I laughed lightly with a slight sob. Wiping at the tears quickly (and removing all the makeup with it), I shook it off and replied.
"Thank you. Ha," I shook my head. "I wrote it long time ago, inspired from a couple I saw when I was a teenager. It wasn't like that originally - I change my songs as I get older and shape them."
He smiled, I could hear it in his voice as I watched my hands shake.
"Are you okay?"
I laughed, almost an unhinged chuckle. "No." I said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world - which it could have been. "They're scared of me. They don't trust me anymore, and this was the place I was actually ready to call home! I ran away when I was eight, because I wasn't wanted, how can I feel ok now when I'm twenty-six, and I feel like that again?"
The tears were back, as well as small sobs.
His pity hit me like a wave, and I ignored it. I think he got the message, and changed the subject. "How did you do that back there?"
"Hm?" I turned to him, wiping a tear and calming myself.
"The fire and water and stuff?"
I nodded. "Ah. It's another royal thing - the moon has weird affects. Besically every full moon I can control the elements." I touched my right wrist, revealing the tattoo. "It's why i have his tattoo. I love controlling it - it's beautiful, but it's threatening so I don't often do it period."
"And the moon tattoo?" He asked quietly, stepping closer.
"I like astronomy, and as a kid when I left home I watched the moon and sun cycles with how time passed. In my home town, time basically doesn't pass - or at least no one has a sense of time. I don't know."
It went silent, and I watched my hands.
He was going to say something, but I beat him to it. I didn't even mean to, but I guess my mind had to rid itself of at least one demon. He could run from me, or stay, and it's how I would act for Falcon Claw. . . Leave or stay.
"Remember how everyone wanted to know about my tattoos, and I said there were some I'd never show?"
He pushed aside my interruption and nodded, humming in confirmation.
I sighed, looking at the sky below the moon and pulling my hair away to reveal the small poppy behind my left ear. It was the only tattoo I had with color.
It was small, with red petals and a green stem.
"I got it when I was twelve."
He looked from the tattoo to my face quickly, shocked at how young I was.
"I ran away when I was eight, but I couldn't take it yet being that young and being alone in the wild, so I tried to stay other places." I rolled my eyes. "Of course with the war, most people didn't want me - until I found a village of vampires who didn't care who I was.
"They completely brainwashed me to enjoy killing in the span of five months, and I did - I did kill, and I liked doing it."
He was shocked and confused, it was clearly written in his aura. I wasn't looking at him. I stared at the water.
"One day when I went with them at night to kill, it was a village like all the rest - except half the residents were children. I watched one of the village leaders from where I was staying go up to a young girl - barely four years old and bite her. He didn't kill her. He just watched her lay there in pain from all the blood loss."
"God," Aaron mumbled, distressed with the turn of events my memories illustrated.
"They kept going, kept killing. But something in me suddenly woke up, and I went over to that little girl. She was terrified I was going to hurt her, but I kept her calm. She just looked at me and told me to help her over and over."
Tears wanted to fall on my face but I forced them not to - I didn't need to cry any more tonight.
"I couldn't do anything because of how young she was and all the pain and blood loss. . . So I just sat with her as she died," I breathed, finally voicing some of the cries from my soul,"A four year old child, died in my ten year old arms because I didn't stop them. Because I let them brainwash me.
"The whole village was killed, but I stayed when they weren't searching for me. I buried her and the whole village. And I didn't notice until I was done but the whole place was outlined and shaped in red poppies. Apparently they were all very passionate about the life of them. They represented memories, remembering those who are gone. That village had been there for generations. They watched all their ancestors before them pass."
I cut my rant, and touched my tattoo. "I got the poppy tattooed in their memory. And I still hate that I never saw how they brainwashed me and all the kids and people there that killing was good, it was fun, and it was who we were. I hate myself for falling for it, and I haven't killed anyone since."
"That's why you refuse to hurt people in any way." I nodded, shell-shocked that I shared so much of my heart that I had kept locked away my whole life.
"It wasn't your fault."
I laughed. "How?"
"They brainwashed you - you said it yourself. It can happen to anyone, and you just happened to get caught up in it."
I shook my head, letting him think I believed that.
He sat beside me and put his arm behind my back, pulling me to lay on his arm.
I sighed, still holding back tears and sobs, but one made my chest rock. With a shaking hand, I covered my mouth.
He took it in his, and put it back down. "Don't hide them anymore. They're beautiful - you're beautiful," he murmured.
I smiled, allowing a tear down and buried my head in between his arm and chest, hugging him pathetically.
He returned the pathetic hug, and eventually helped me up. We began to walk back to the wall, but I stopped dead in my tracks at the sound of breathing.
"I know you're there, no need in hiding."
I kept walking, hearing people climb out from the bushes near the pond who had been eavesdropping.
𝔸 𝕒 𝕣 𝕠 𝕟 ' 𝕤 𝕡 𝕠 𝕧
(𝔹 𝕆 ℕ 𝕌 𝕊)
I followed her after ignoring and brushing off the protests of the guards and people scared of Aphmau.
I heard her crying as she ran away in my mind, but I heard her singing from a pond not too far from the wall.
I followed the sound, and listened to her beautiful voice. I watched her sing.
She sobbed as she talked about her past, and I saw the broken look in her eyes. The pain on her face could never have been faked. Even the others who followed me could clearly see she hated what she had done - hated killing.
She thought what she did was wrong. Honestly? What's wrong is what they did to her.
She was right in saving that little girl from the pain she was in, and burying the others to let them Rest In Peace. But she thought she was wrong, and she didn't believe me. It was written all over her face.
⠎⠓⠕⠥⠇⠙⠓⠁⠧⠑⠺⠁⠇⠅⠑⠙⠁⠺⠁⠽
𝕡 𝕝 𝕖 𝕒 𝕤 𝕖 𝕣 𝕖 𝕒 𝕕
ℓαтєя ι мιgнт fιχ тнιѕ вσσк. ∂σит gєт мє ωяσиg, ι ℓσνє ιт. вυт ι иєє∂ мσяє fιℓℓєя ¢нαρтєяѕ. мαувє ιℓℓ fιχ ιт ωнєи тнє вσσк ιѕ σffι¢ιαℓℓу σνєя. ιт мιgнт ʝυѕт вє α∂∂ιтισиѕ тσ єχιѕтιиg ¢нαρтєяѕ, ιт мιgнт вє мσяє ¢нαρтєяѕ, ι∂к. ιℓℓ кєєρ уσυ υρ∂αтє∂. тнιѕ вσσк σяιgιиαℓℓу нα∂ 25 ¢нααρтєяѕ, иσω ιм ρℓαииιиg fσя αяσυи∂ 40. ι αм ωяιтιиg αнєα∂ αѕ αℓωαуѕ, αи∂ ι αм ѕσ єχ¢ιтє∂ fσя тнιѕ вσσк, тнє єи∂ιиg, αи∂ тнє ρσѕѕιвℓє ѕєqυєℓ.
Word count: 1932
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