It was the best sleep I had had sense I arrived at Grandmama’s mansion. No weird confusing dreams, no strange interruptions, nothing! It was just a normal, wonderful sleep. And I knew the moment I opened my eyes I would see Alexandre’s beautiful face, most likely staring right back at me. Even for just that one moment, the anticipation to open my eyes was intense, because I knew that my happiness at that moment would be even higher than I thought possible once I opened my eyes.
But as I opened my eyes, there was just an empty bed in front of me. No beautiful face, no Alexandre. I was slightly annoyed (partly just because I wanted the eye-candy), but I was mostly confused. Why did he always just disappear? The blanket wasn’t disturbed on his side, and there was so imprint as if nobody had been on that part of the bed in a long time.
My bare skin cold after leaving the blanket’s warmth, I walked over and put on the clothes that Alexandre must have taken off the floor and folded up since I left them on the floor yesterday. I expected the clothes to be warm, or at least I hoped they were to warm me up, but they were cold, making me even colder. But the coldness wasn’t that important to me. With what I’d been through, being cold was nothing. Walking down the stairs and out the room, I started to search the mansion for Alexandre.
I started by checking the backyard, but as far as I could see (which didn’t cover the entire area), he wasn’t there. The sun was just rising over horizon filling the immortal sky with shades of yellow, orange, red, pink, and purple, all blending together into what could have been a million dollar painting.
Next was the servant dining room. I didn’t really expect to find him, considering it was the servant dining room, but I wanted to be thorough. The room was dark, and the wooden table and chairs looked just as old as before. It was strange to think that not too long ago, I was sitting in here, next to Lance, eating that awful breakfast. I had no idea I’d wish to be back in that moment with Lance…
No, I don’t. I have Alexandre. He is all I ever wanted. He is all I need. I don’t need Lance. Or do I?
I past threw the swinging doors at the back of the room and into the kitchen, which had to be the most modern room in the house. It was fun to imagine I still thought that Grandma was super mean, without knowing anything else. I would’ve had thought about how she had to have her food as good as humanly possible, so she paid for the equipment, but probably didn’t let the servant’s use any of the technology for their own food.
I looked around the kitchen, but just as I expected, no sign of Alexandre. I didn’t expect to find him in the kitchen either, although it seemed more likely than the servant hall.
Finally, I went into grandmama’s dining hall. Still no sign of him. I could see the fight we had plat out in my head, realizing how pathetic I must have looked. Beaten by an old woman in a fight. I sort of wondered what it looked like during the last ball that happen, where Amelia met Kaden. It seemed so romantic. The story didn’t end well, but still, the ball seemed so wonderful. Maybe Lance and I can have a ball someday.
I knew Alexandre was in the basement, but I really hoped he wasn’t. The basement still scared me shitless. So, just to be sure, I checked the parlor room, which still showed no sign of Alexandre. I wonder if the furniture is the same as it was back when Amelia was here. It seemed the same as how she described it. I left the parlor and finally, I entered the basement and began to descend the stairs cautiously, one step at a time.
I could hear shuffling and movement, and I soon began to see Alexandre standing at a counter against the back wall, next to the test tubes with the mutated children and people. I still couldn’t stand looking at them. Just looking at their deformities, and yet all of their eyes seemed perfectly aimed at the stairs, making it seem as if they were watching you when you entered. Maybe they all died slowly, staring to the stairs, hoping someone would come and save them. Or maybe Alexandre put them that way to fend off intruders. Maybe that was their purpose.
I couldn’t help but wonder if they were given a poison that mutated them, or if Alexandre did some kind of surgical maneuver on them. I couldn’t imagine what they’d been through. Could I really live with someone who could do that? Maybe he just tried to save them and it didn’t work. Maybe he keeps them in hopes that the information he can get from them will save someone else’s life. I think he’s different know. He loves me, right?
After staring at the tubes in a gaze for a short while, my eyes caught a glimpse of Alexandre and I remembered why I had come into the basement in the first place. In a thin, pear shaped glass, Alexandre was mixing something blue, with different shades of the blue swirling around as he mixed them into one, dark blue, substance. It had an odd smell to it that filled the room as he mixed the substance together. It reminded me of some weird mix between strawberries and bleach.
“Good morning, my sweet,” He said, looking back at me as if trying to show he knew I was there all along. I walked right next to him and he kissed me, dropping one hand away from the mixture to tightly hold me against him as our kiss became more passionate. The touch of his tongue was like pure euphoria to me.
“Good morning, you had me worried,” I replied and he pulled away. His kiss once again crushed my thoughts against him. I knew he loved me, and I loved him. He smiled at me and continued to mix the blue substance, that weird smell become more prevalent and nauseating.
“Today’s the big day. I had to get up early,” he said, reassuringly. I accepted his answer for a second, but realized if he had to get up early, he wouldn’t have taken so much time to remove the signs of his existence.
“But your side of the bed was perfectly made up.”
“I want everything to be perfect today,” he said sweetly. His existence being covered up didn’t make today perfect. I enjoyed his existence.
“But I enjoy seeing signs that you exist. It makes my perfect life easier to believe.” I couldn’t help but sound overly obsessed. That kiss just took over my mind.
“You’re so sweet,” he said as a large smile spread across his face and he leaned over to kiss my cheek. His lips were so soft against my skin. Sure it was a simple kiss, was it was wonderful. And just like he did, his kiss put a large smile on my face.
“Thank you,” I said simply.
“I need your blood,” he said to me pleadingly. My smiled drooped slightly as I wondered why, but I didn’t really care. He wanted something, and we were in love, so why - or how – could I refuse him? And with that realization, my smile perked right back up.
“Okay,” I replied, making him smile. He grabbed my hand and held it like a plate, palm up, before holding a blade up to it and dragging the sharp edge through my hand, leaving a long, deep cut through my palm. I only felt the pain for the first second, but then I think I went into shock, and my whole body felt warm and tingly.
Without thinking I jerked my hand away and towards my mouth, but Alexandre, knowing that if I got blood in my mouth I’d change, grabbed my hand and squeezed it so that the blood fell into the mixture, turning it into a dark, reddish purple, just because there was so much blood. It shocked me at first, but as I realized what he was doing, I calmed down. Then I began to feel again but I didn’t feel any pain. When Alexandre let go, the wound was gone, and there was so sign of blood on either of our hands.
He then stepped in front of me to cut of my view, and stayed silent. I began to wonder why he needed my blood, and then a larger, more confusing question came up. One that I couldn’t help but ask. It was staring me in the face this whole time, but yet I was too blind to see it.
It was one puzzle piece that didn’t fit. But Alexandre had to have a feasible answer right? He always did. He was always right. No matter what the circumstances were, he always came out on top, and I loved him for it.
“Why are we killing Lance now, when you didn’t kill Grandmama until right before you switched hosts?” I know I wasn’t there when he switched into Grandmama’s body, but still. It just seemed like an inconsistency to me.
Alexandre jerked his head toward me, staring at me with a piercing gaze for a brief moment before softening his look to a smile. But for that second, I saw fury.
“I’m sorry, but I need to be alone to concentrate,” he said somewhat forcefully.
I have to admit I was expecting a similar answer, but I hoped he would answer me anyway.
“Oh, okay,” I replied as I walked out of the basement. Him not answering my question only made me doubt his validity even more. But I couldn’t doubt him. I need him to much to doubt him. No matter what, we were in it together. We were alone in the journey, literally, and I couldn’t survive without him.
I stood in the grand hall for a moment, unsure of what to do. Without Alexandre, I didn’t really have anything to do. I didn’t have any hobbies, any past times, any anything. Without Amelia’s Diary, there was nothing to do. So I decided to go to the backyard, hoping I’d find something I could do.
I walked slowly, without purpose, through the hallways many twists and turns, until I reached the back door and exited the mansion. The path to the backyard was fairly simple, comparatively, however. The path to Alexandre’s room was obviously made to get people lost. The fact that I remembered it amazed me.
I still couldn’t believe how destroyed the maze was. The maze was just gone, burned to nothing. You would think that the fact I almost died in the fire would make seeing the maze trigger some kind of PTSD reaction, but I felt sort of immune to PTSD. I didn’t think I was above it, but thinks seemed to happen to me every day that could give me PTSD, and my survival mode just kicked in, and goodbye PTSD, at least for now.
I walked away from where the maze was and toward what looked like a wall of rose bushes. As I got closer I saw an opening into a clearing, guarded by four rose bush walls.
I got excited to see inside, knowing it had to be something special. As I approached I could feel the power I had inside growing, as if it were being strengthened. I became power hungrier with each passing moment, as a rich man does when he gets a million dollars a second, no amount being enough. It consumed me. I thought about all I could do with the power. Take over the world, do whatever I wanted, hell I could kill Alexandre if I wanted… But I didn’t want to.
I began to run, but when I finally got inside the clearing, it was as if my power grew so huge that it stretched beyond my body, and I could vaguely see a red energy where I could sense it. It grew at an escalating rate as my energy skyrocketed from being inside the rose bush fortress. The feeling was so euphoric. I was covered in chills, not able to move, so overwhelmed with the power. It felt better that Alexandre made me feel, which almost seemed impossible. But the aura stretched so far that it hit one of the rose bushes, which seemed to repel the energy and sent it shooting back at me, sending me into a deep haze that, within seconds, knocked me out.
There was an old lady. Just standing in front of me, her body covered in a yellow sash on top of a green dress. I couldn’t see her face, but I knew she was old. I don’t know why really. Her stance, her sense, I’m not sure. I was just positive she was old. She was surrounded by white. There was nothing except white. As if she were floating. No walls, no floors, no anything. Just her. It was hard to tell whether she caused the whiteness, or the whiteness caused to her appear, but they were definitely connected. I could just tell.
As I looked around me, I noticed that behind me was pure black. There were also no floors or walls. And the white and black intersected in one sharp line that went straight through the middle of where I was standing. In the black, there was another old lady. She looked exactly the same, except she was wearing a purple sash on top of a red dress.
They were exact opposites, representing light and dark. I was unsure of what to do until they both looked up at me, revealing their faces. At first I looked at the old lady in the white, assuming shed be nicer looking. But, after a moment of staring at her face to make sure I was right, I saw Grandmama’s face.
I instantly turned away, although I quickly realized that if Grandmama’s face was in the white, the black had to be even worse. But, through my hesitant gaze, I saw Amelia’s face. I was so confused. It was as if their faces had been switched.
Then they said in unison, “You may only choose one of us. Be it the dark, or the light, you may not know. For this is your last sign, and your last warning, before you will have to make the final decision. The decision that will change the world. Both yours, and that of the mortals. For the world you knew shall never be as it was. Your life shall never be normal. Yet it shall never end. Be it so, and a darkness unlike anything ever witnessed by man shall enshroud the world with such a force it will never leave again.”
What? I couldn’t handle everything they were talking about. What decision? What darkness? Why do I have to make the choice?
Although it held Grandmama’s face, I walked to the light side hoping it represented the right choice.
“Is it I that you choose?” Grandmama said.
“Yes” I said, but as I did her face grew into a terrifying smile and her spine instantly became hunched as she reached out her arms toward me, as if she were going to break my neck.
“Are you sure?” She said as I heard her jaw snap and the corners of her mouth began to rip, past her cheeks, making her smile terrifying. Her voice sounded so creepily happy, it sent shivers down my spine.
I turned to run away from her, but behind me, the other lady had transformed completely into a demon and was walking towards me, almost inside the light. I looked back at the smiling monster, and in her eye’s I saw Amelia’s eyes. I knew if I didn’t say something the demon would kill me. I knew demons could, but I didn’t know what the smiling monster would do. So following my survival instincts, I looked at the distorted face of Grandmama and screamed “YES!”
Frantically looking back and forth, I noticed that as soon as I said yes, the smiling monster transformed into Amelia wearing the red ball gown and what locket like my mother’s locket, and jumped in between me and the demon. Facing the demon, she grabbed onto the locket, and a beam of light shot out at the demon, shooting a hole straight through it. She turned back at me and smiled as the darkness turned into light and the demon’s body fell through the invisible floor and disappeared.
“You have passed the final test. The truth lies within the face. Although it may be mimicked, the eyes may never be replicated. Use this to make the right decision. Who you think is the light may not be. Who you think is the darkness may not be. When you have to make your choice, and you will know when, remember what I have told you.” Her voice was just as soft as before, and just as comforting. I felt safe around her. She walked up to wrap her arms around me briefly to give me hug and kissed my cheek.
Her hug was wonderful, but when she stepped back, I got to process everything she had told me, and I realized how scared I was. I wasn’t ready to make the choice. I’d make the wrong decision, and that darkness would come. Everyone would die. A flash ran through my mind, of a city with destroyed buildings in a red sky, and dead bodies covering the floor. All caused by me.
“I can’t do this!” I shouted to her as tears began to run down my eyes. “I- I’ll make the wrong choice, and everyone will die, and it will all be my fault. I can’t handle this! Please, don’t put this on my shoulders, Amelia. You can do something, right? You have too!”
She just stared at me, smiling, and with a hand on shoulder, she replied, “I love you, Leon.”
I wanted to get a response from her, but I knew she wouldn’t give me one. Maybe she couldn’t. So I just replied, “I love you, too.”
Then, just as I expected, it ended as suddenly as it began
I jumped up from the grass covered ground to “bangs” and “clangs” coming from the mansion. I started to move my legs to run, but then I noticed the rose bushes were gone. And with it, my power. But, the tears were still on my face. I wiped them away, and looked around to see if I had woken up in a different place, but there was no sign of the rose bushes.
I wondered if Alexandre even knew they existed. I wanted to ask him, but I wasn’t sure if he should know about my experience. I doubt it would have happened if I was still under his control, so I couldn’t acknowledge it happen to him.
Running out of the grass clearing and into the mansion, I searched for Alexandre. There were no more “bangs” or “clangs” for me to follow, so I ran down into the basement, and saw the first room was empty, except for the test tube bodies staring at me. I didn’t want to, but I impulsively ran into the second room with all the cages, and only found corpses. Oddly enough, it seemed like there were more than I remembered, but that was impossible. I figured I’d already gone far enough, so I entered the third room with the operation table, and found nothing.
Finally, I heard a large “bang” sound and I followed it out of the basement, and after a few more bangs, I found Alexandre, in his bulked up form, running up the stairs. When he noticed me running up the stairs behind him he stopped and turned to look at me.
“Your back,” he said in a questioning tone.
“Yeah, I feel asleep in the grass outside,” I said, trying to cover up my endeavor. Then I realized I didn’t know how must time had passed.
“You went outside, feel asleep, and ran back her in 5 minutes?” he asked, accusingly.
“Oh, wow I didn’t get much sleep, huh?” I said jokingly. His face seemed appalled for a second, but then he smiled.
Care to help me, my sweet?” He said in an alluring tone. I was so happy he moved on, although knowing him, I gave him enough hints for him to know what happened.
“Of course, how can I help?” I asked, smiling while showing no signs of my thoughts.
I have to move everything from the storage room into the ball room.” I was surprised to hear him refer to it as the ball room. I know in Amelia’s diary she described what I thought to be Grandmama’s dining hall as the ball room, and I’d assume he was referring to the same room.
Following him up to the storage room, I big my finger and transformed into my demon form and began carrying huge loads of furniture back and forth, following Alexandre. I noticed that, compared to the power I felt before, my demon form didn’t seem that powerful anymore.
That room had more furniture than the rest of the mansion had in it combined, and that was considering all of the servant bedrooms. The room seemed like it just kept growing, past the possible size it could have, which lead me to believe it was under magical influences. It was crazy to think that Lance and I were supposed to clean the entire room… That was a good day with Lance… But my days with Alexandre are better… I think.
Luckily, none of the spiders Lance told me about made an appearance, although the job still took hours. Although it appeared liked Alexandre made an expanding pit in the floor where we were piling everything, because the pile never touched the roof, but the circumference of the circle it was in didn’t increase either. There was just too much stuff for you to actually see a pit in the floor. I was just positive it was there.
About half way through, Alexandre stopped, after we had put down the furniture we were holding, and he kissed me. With us both being in our stronger forms, the kiss was so powerful, and with us being physically bigger, we had more room for our tongues to explore. It also seemed as if our tongues were longer and he went deeper than I expected, and at first I thought I would gag, but instead it just felt even better, and I began exploring just as deep in him.
“Thank you for helping me,” I said after we separated.
“Anything for you,” I said with a large smile, and we began to work again.
Finally, at least ten hours later, we finished. I was impressed with my demon form though. I was carrying at least two couches, or the equivalent, for each load, and I never broke a sweat. I still never felt quite as powerful though.
In the ballroom, Alexandre and I both changed back into our normal forms. Then he walked up to me and we began to kiss. His lips just tasted so wonderful, and the way his tongue danced was enthralling.
I just couldn’t imagine betraying him. But, was that part of my test? Deep down I knew he was the darkness. But he had this control over me I couldn’t break. I wasn’t ignorant to it, but I felt helpless to it. Somehow I knew I had to go against him, but I didn’t know how I would. I knew the time, I knew the place, but actually taking action against him – that was the impossible part. So, for my own sanity, I tried to turn a blind eye to it and just look away. It was the only thing I could handle doing.
As he pulled away, he gazed out through the one window in the room, and then uttered two words. The two words I’d been dreading. I knew they’d come, but in a way I was ignorant to them. I just figured I could love Alexandre until it counted, but how do I stop? I am in love with him.
“It’s time.”