***************************************************************************** Authors notes:
I've been threatening to do it for a while, and now it's done. I've succumbed to the dark side. What follows below is a tale of the Undead, Nosferatu... Or in everyday terms; vampires. I have slight misgivens about doing this story, but ever since I read 'Interview with the Vampire' by Anne Rice, I've been inspired beyond belief. I know it's a change from 'Little White Lies' but to be honest, that's what I wanted. A change. And I know this chapter is short, but it is only a prologue. So, without further ado, let's get on with the (freak) show.
Standard disclaimer: You know the drill. Too young? Don't read. Too homophobic? Don't read. Too repressed? Don't read. Think this is real? Seek help. Like The Backstreet Boys? Read on. Start to believe they're actually gay? Well, just don't start stalking them. Then I guess we'll all be okay.
'Shouldn't be so complicated Just touch me and then just touch me again' - Bent, Matchbox 20
******** Prologue ********
The mind will burn with beauty unfounded. It's senses become dim, the light shines transparent. A simple touch reduces it to a catatonic state. A simple breath reduces it to an unprotected fortress.
I watch and I learn. Learn what it would be like to touch, learn what it would be like to breathe. But the feelings are amiss. I will never truly know.
His eyes shine brighter than any rare crystal. His voice would put the fluttering of a butterfly's wings to shame. The perfection I have sought over the years stands within meters of me. I can touch him. I can run my hands over his porcelain skin. I can kiss his rose-tinted lips.
He registers me, and I register his fear. He knows not what I am, not what I can do, but he knows deep down that he must fear me. I wait patiently. His mouth bites on air, no words escape. Beneath me, a man lies dead. Insignificant, negligible, and yet enough to reduce him to fear unparalleled. The dumb mouth, the blind eye.
"Speak, child." I whisper. He tries, but once more fails. The blood flows from the deceased. A winding river. The boy wishes to call out, but my stare immobilizes him. He needn't worry. His mind is too innocent, his soul unconstrained. It is against the unwritten laws to take one such as he.
"Please." He whispers, and his voice echoes exactly how I imagined. "I don't want to die."
"Then you shall not." I tell him. I place my hand on his chest, feel his beating heart and feel the life within. The life I cannot live. I hate this boy, and love him at the same time. His beauty and his vitality shine through his clothes like a guiding star. I hate these qualities. And I love them. Bloodlust. Stronger than love, stronger than life, stronger than anything known to man.
"I can go?" He asks. Every word he speaks is ecstasy to me. With each new word he lifts my darkened soul to a place I've never been.
"Near and far." I tell him, as my hand travels upwards, cupping his sculpted chin in my arctic hands. "Always I am near."
"Please." He sobs, and his tears fall onto my hands, the droplets falling into the crevices, offering me no warmth.
"Go now." I whisper in his ear, feeling his body stiffen against me. "I will watch you with the night. You will come to no harm."
"Who are you?" He asks. My sensual mouth takes the form of a smile. He has fallen. His beauty is unprecedented, but it is not unnatural. My beauty resonates with the magic of the dark side. He is fascinated with me, as I with him.
"Your mind would not cope." I tell him. "Not yet, at any rate."
"I have to know."
"You will wait." My voice becomes harder, empowering. "Seek me by the moonlight." I leave, and behind me the boy's questioning mind seeks knowledge, before fading into the oblivion. I will not tell him my truths, and I will not tell him my lies. In time I will tell him the horror of my past, the countless murders, the desperate lives I've devoured. For now, I will simply wait, disgusted by what I am and what I will always be. A vampire; the eternal, the unsacrificing. One day the boy will know. His beauty must remain. But not at my hands, nor my teeth.
All I know is his beauty must remain.