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Member
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 11
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Working Title
We were walking as we had so many times before on the worn path we’d seen with each of our passing days. The blossoming trees filled the air with their familiar fragrance and the sun lit the world with its same, old golden light. We took our steps in silence, only allowing ourselves to stare straight forward. Even from the corner of our eyes we didn’t venture to glance at each other.
“I didn’t choose this,” he finally whispered.
I gritted my teeth. Even hearing his voice brought back every memory, every bit of pain that walked into my life hand-in-hand with the news. The news! The misery I was dragged into without being able to say a word against it. It wasn’t fair and that was painfully obvious.
“And neither did I,” it took every ounce of my being to keep my voice even. I wanted to fall to my knees and weep; I wished beyond all else to just force this from my life. I didn’t want this; I would prefer torture to this.
“Of course not,” he hissed, stopping suddenly and turning to look at me. “We had no say! No one could do anything to stop this, so wipe the blame from your voice and see that nothing could have been done!”
I averted my eyes from his, “Of course, sir.”
I saw his back straighten with tension, “Please, do not address me with such distance.”
“And why mustn’t I? This has befallen me and so all that I once knew and embraced has been stolen.” I paused for a moment, still keeping myself from looking at him, his face. “I am leaving everything; I am only helping my apparent future come to its full fruition. What is to come will come. To lose you here, now, will be much preferred than to lose you when I am countries away and in most need.”
I could hear a struggle in his throat and only stepped away when he came towards to embrace me.
“No, you mustn’t,” I whispered, beginning to walk once more. “I am leaving with the sun rise and then you shall see no more of me. Come what may, I wish you joy. But now, save your self from any temptation, forget me, and find another.”
Another woman, I meant, and my words brought tears falling to my cheeks. Had what I come to know here been nothing more than a lie? It seemed so now more than ever; for now, I was to leave and seek a new life entirely. I was instructed to forget my past and look only towards my future, but fear dwelt within my breast; I did not know where tomorrow’s journey would bring me.
“Never,” his voice hit my back with such sorrow, such lament that I could do nothing to stop myself from turning back.
“You must. I cannot bear to think you alone your entire life because of me.” I pulled a cloth from the pocket of my jeans and wiped away the tears. “No life is worth living if living it meant loneliness.”
In an instant his mouth was inches from mine, “No, my dear. Life would not be worth living without you by my side.”
He pressed his cool lips against my own and pulling away he took my hand. With the utmost care, he slid a ring around my finger.
“A promise,” he whispered. “We shall be together.”
I curtsied to him, “An oath I swear upon.”
He bowed to me, “May not even the centuries bring us apart.”
“An eternity could not,” I brought myself to smile through my sadness and he returned the gesture. Our pace was slow the rest of the day and throughout the night. Neither the cool ocean breeze nor the soft sand could bring me from the dread of the oncoming day.
We apologized to each other fruitfully; pledges were shared as well as many tears shed. What stupidity it had been to spend my last week here fighting and yelling and blaming. Despite all this, though, not even my soon-to-be captors could tear us apart.
*
My home was packed with the utmost diligence and I was assured that there was no more I could think to bring. He waited with me, our final hours silent ones. His arms were always around me as well as mine round him and our anxiety grew as the minutes passed. Our stomachs were knotted in fear and sadness. We professed our love again and again, the dreadful truth of our words swirling in our cold blood.
“Where is it I will be taken, my love?” I asked in a low voice as the time of departure crept upon us.
He caressed my cheek with a smooth palm and wintry fingers. “My dear, if only I knew. On your journey I shall be awaiting news from you. Every day,” he spoke with earnestness, “write to me, send word.”
I closed my eyes, “I will, I swear it.”
The rising sun broke the horizon, casting orange and red light to our feet, making shadows of window panes and the trees’ silhouettes against the white satin curtains.
As was promised, they came to bring me away then. My steps were determined as I passed my open door, leaving my lover to watch my back as I left him. It was three who collected me, wrapped in the simple garb of brown robes. As I studied them, they took care not to meet my gaze. The car left my driveway slowly as if the driver was unfamiliar to our roads, which I’m sure he was.
The houses, the stores, the gardens, and the graves passed slowly as I looked on them with a distance I’d never experienced. I was leaving them behind and I had no time to mourn for their loss, but indeed I didn’t hold back from letting silent tears roll down my cheeks, whether I felt them or not.
*
Nearly two hours passed where the only sound echoing through the vehicle was of the road sliding beneath us. My sight was plastered to the moving scenery outside the tinted windows, none of which I could really connect with for my mind was far away in those moments. My luggage was within the trunk, along with my books, pens, and journals. But I probably could spend no time on any of those things with the depression of leaving weighing so heavily on my spirit.
Suddenly, I was wrought with anger. I snapped my head in the direction of the man closest to me, staring him in the eyes. “Where is it you are taking me?”
He couldn’t break away and I watched as his lips trembled until he gained control of his expressions again. “You’ve already been told the answers.”
“Informing me that I will be taken to a new home is hardly giving me answers. Tell me where this new home is and why I am going there.”
He hesitated; I watched as the power he held over himself broke and he fell under my charm. His hands shook and his voice broke, “A new home across the water, miss.” One of the men in the front seat flung his hand back and struck him. He didn’t cry as the two fleshes met, but the pooling of blood under the skin of his cheek caught my eye. I quickly cast my gaze to my outside surroundings once more.
It was clear that these people were unlike mine. They had the scent of prey upon them; the predator within me desired to make the kill, but my senses told me that that would not be wise. They were warm-blooded and I was hungry; it took much control to not appease that hunger. With these ideas playing out in my mind, I grew wary. Where was I being led by these weaklings and why?
“You remember distinctly, I’m sure,” one of the men in the front of the car began to speak slowly. “There are laws where you are going. To kill means certain death for you.”
I didn’t turn from the window but replied simply, “Then you must let me leave your presence, sir, for I need to kill whether there is a law or not.”
He seemed stupefied and I caught the concern in his face when he said, “You will continue to kill?”
“As you eat their flesh, I drink their blood. You seem to be afraid of that fact when in all truth we are quite similar,” I glanced at him with bored eyes. We both were hunters of the creatures below us. To say I couldn’t kill was an absurdity that made me cringe.
“Ah, yes,” he mused quietly. “Animals are quite acceptable, but to kill a human would be your call to a guillotine.”
I gave him a warning growl. A threat by him towards me again would give me all the reason in the world to take his life. “I know not the names you use. We’ve no names for the creatures we hunt, or your kind. To say you are a human is a useless title, one I care not to know.”
“You cannot kill a single human!” He barked, his friend catching his arm before he struck me too.
I looked on at him with dull eyes. If he were to hit me, I would kill him. It was simple. It was how I was taught before being welcomed into the clan. What strangeness it was to tell me not to feed upon beings I know are counted among the ranks of my prey.
Why is it, every decade, we allowed them to take one of our own and place them in lands none of us have ever stepped foot in before? I promised myself to find an answer to this question; I would return home.
*
“You will listen to these people; you will do as they say and follow their directions, do you understand that?” the man who’d driven the car was lecturing me before a grand building, humming with a collection of warm-blooded creatures, all of whom were distracted and noisily going about their actions. I listened in silence, wrought with a flaring anger that willed me only to do harm to these beings.
I’d been ripped from my clan, taken to these strange places, and they act with such disgraceful custom, as if this were the natural order and I was no more than an unintelligent girl who had a need for a leash and master.
“I will listen and, depending on my own sense and opinion, follow as they say. I tell you, if the directions I receive do not appease sensibility, I will certainly not obey.”
He said no more regarding the subject and guided me into the hive of brooding noise and confusion. These creatures moved aimlessly; they were clumsy and acutely nervous. How I wanted to pounce; it was such an easy kill, which only made my craving strengthen. Their fast beating hearts, their complete trust in their surroundings, like a mindless flock!
“Here,” He grabbed my arm and forced paper into my palm.
I lurched out and dragged my sharpened nails across his face. He yelped and fell back, like the weakling he was. I was at his throat in a moment, the sent of his blood driving me towards the kill. I would have broken his neck and drained him within an instant, but looking around to make sure I would act without a threat to myself, I found the two other robed figures looking on us with pity and… relief. Both had weapons by their side. Were I to kill him, they would see to my death. Foreign laws were at play; I dropped the man. With each step back, the “humans” started to scream and scatter.
“Kill a single human and you will be killed,” the one said and pointed to where many of his own kind gathered into a line before a strange tunnel. I turned to follow, ignoring the confusion surrounding me. My actions seemed to relax the creatures; they stopped shrieking and running into each other. With acting as if nothing was wrong, with my almost-prey being helped up looking all-too well, the people assumed they were safe, that it was a misunderstanding. And with that, I handed my paper to a woman clothed in a buttoned-up blue suit and a false smile, entering the tunnel.
*
It was a strange sensation lifting off the ground within the metal machine. I watched with earned sadness as the ground fell away, hoping I would one day return, but feeling as if it were a final goodbye. I was entirely alone here; only surrounded by warm blooded people, perspiring and speaking loudly, I shut my eyes and fell adrift my memories. I felt strong, held up by my clan’s honor, but the horror of never being their again, never returning home… I couldn’t focus on that here, now. I had to remain alert; I needed to learn where I was headed and where I was coming from.
*
Many, many hours have passed, but still we are held within a night’s hand. I need so badly to move, to stretch my too-long dormant muscles. I am the only one on the foreign vehicle to be conscious; every other creature sleeps, their slow breaths chorusing together, gnawing away at my sensitive ears. I turn, trying to find comfort, but nothing prevails. I haven’t slept since maturing and being turned. Thirst, too, beckoned with my restlessness; I am cursing myself for not having fed before departing from home.
*
I’ve been led away from the machine, but my hands are shaking so badly and my nerves are electrified. Commotion everywhere; it is a plague upon my mind! It pains me to admit my disorientation, my fear and confusion at having found myself enclosed within a labyrinth of warm-blooded creatures that have all the power in the world to strike me down. It is as if they would let one of their own fall to but have a reason for my head. Shouldn’t this be repulsing? Allowing such a thing would be counted among a fowl crime in my home, even within a place that has scarcely any source of rule. What is it they wish to find in my demise? It pains me to imagine such things within this hive of aimless wandering and noise.
Ah, yes. My sight has fallen once more onto the head of a robed figure: a woman tall, lean. A braid the color of dried clay falls down a straight back; accentuated by dark lashes, her green eyes take in my every move. She is unlike the others; I see the tension in her stare, how her muscles are ready to either fight or flee. I know she isn’t within the illusion of safety as she holds her head high and her sinewy, vein-entwined arms rest by her sides. Even here lips are carved within the aged face as a straight line, masking a clenched jaw.
“You are to come with me. We have your luggage in the car. Do you have any questions?” She spoke without the slightest hint of emotion. Her eyes mocked me; they chorused that I was marked for death.
“Will you answer any of the questions I have?” Though I spoke without the manner of questioning, for I knew her answer. Already weighed down by fatigue, I continued by her without again meeting her glare. I needed to recuperate, feed; I couldn’t take any chances in dreaming up the many ways in which I could put an end to this new foe.
Instead of fighting, I sat silently in the backseat of a cab, accompanied by the woman. My mind no longer cared to analyze and question their motives, but relaxed. I hardly was conscience to my surroundings as I was led up the stairs of a suburban home to a room they named my own. Despite what I was, all I could do was lie down on the bed and rest. Perhaps I was not in a true sleep, but when I stood up again hours later I felt calm, attentive, and ready for a new day.
“Good morning,” a petit woman greeted me with the dawn. “Did you sleep well?”
I nodded cautiously. Of course, I did not trust the sound of her voice. Why would she act kindly when all the others treated me as an unwelcome parasite?
“Dear, here’s a letter they left for you,” she motioned gently to a white envelop seated on a blue and white tiled countertop.
I took it up in my hands, starring intensely at the inscription across its top which read, “Welcome to your new home”. It had the stern woman’s scent upon it.
I walked away from the kitchen to return to my new chamber. With inhaling the stale, dust lined air I quickly withdrew a typed letter. It read:
You are here to live as we live and I hope you’ll be aware of our presence every moment of the day. As you know, to kill a human means immediate imprisonment under any circumstance; after the passing of twenty-four hours of your arrest, you will be put to death via a public burning. Take care and heed this warning.
Tomorrow you will join a public school. It is expected you keep up with your studies, maintaining nothing under a 3.8 GPA. At the end of every month, you will receive an oral exam. Failure of this exam will result in expulsion and a transfer into another district. We hope we are not forced to act in such harsh manners.
You are free to do as you please, so long as it is within legality. We also suggest acclimatizing yourself with the culture, laws, and customs of your new home.
Good luck.
p.s. We’ve provided you with new clothes and supplies. We were forced to discard your other possessions.
I tore the paper in half and watched with a strange sense of satisfaction as they fluttered to the faded brown carpet beneath my feet.
The next steps I took were drawn out in a bored haze. Nothing I did seemed to gather any bit of purpose; I was trapped within a prison no matter how large its walls. And with such vast boundaries, how was I to know where I should begin searching for my answers? I have a home, a school, and a supposed foster family; with all these things as a prominent mask to the true danger I was in, would I be able to escape it? At the moment, all seemed to be theatrics.
The woman downstairs seemed kind enough. I know she greeted me un-armed; would a human who knew what I was act so carelessly while all others I encountered with the fact reacted so fiercely? I highly doubted it, honestly. Was I not the only one unaware of the truth behind all of these pretences?
Indeed, it is an awful sensation being caged for the viewing of others, invisible or otherwise.
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