Fated End

The slant of her chin and cheeks were familiar. The way they caved in the center but were full beneath her eyes sent a spark of recognition through him. He knew what her skin felt like beneath his hands and lips--or rather--he had known... at one time.

Despite the familiarity he saw in her eyes, he did not have the same reaction as she did upon seeing him. There was a shine of hope in her dark orbs that he did not share. Clouded with disbelief, her gaze held a knowledge of them together that she struggled to contain. He knew it existed but could not recall the details, nor did he care to do so. That part of him was gone and would never return.

His eyebrows pulled together as she watched him scan her face. The youthfulness in her features had dimmed little the past few months, although her eyes told a different tale. In their depths was a deep knowing of how cruel the world could be. She had seen it, experienced it, and so had he. It was what had torn them apart. But that seemed to bother him less now that he had changed.

He drew a deep breath, filling the lungs that no longer yearned for air. It was a habit, something that lingered from his days as a living soul. Those days were gone now, blown away as easily as a candle's flame. But he still recall that night--the night it happened.

He had been so naive, so innocent--which was a term that would never apply to him again. In a single, terrifying moment he had been forced to cross the unmovable border into the beyond--the one all souls had to cross in the end. Yet it had come for him too soon and not in the way he had imagined.

The sting of twin pricks on his shoulder sent a shiver up his spine. Even now he could feel heat center around the small red scars. Unlike the rest of him, the marks continued to burn. They blazed as a reminder of what had happened. It would fade with time--or so he had been told--yet right now the sting remained, mingling with the phantom sense of blood still pulsing in his limbs.

His eyes settled on the woman before him. Thoughts wandered across her face. There was a wide range of emotions and questions that lingered behind her parted lips. Whatever had been between them before was lost to him, but that was not the same for her. He could tell she still felt something, that it had not died with time. Maybe it never would.

Time had become a new phenomenon to him. He had to relearn how to engage with it. While still alive it had mattered when and how the sun came up and set each day for it dictated the work day, week, and season. But now time was little more than a definition. He had all the time he could ever want and more--years and ages given to him to exist. He would continue beyond the reach of time and yet was somehow still held captive by it. Just as a caged bird living inside a home was told to sleep by the covering of a blanket, so he was told to rest when the first rays of light came.

Even now he could feel it below the horizon. It made his limbs grow heavy and his thoughts less precise. It caused him long for a dark hole where he could be left to die again before waking. The sun's light was his new cage and what chained him to the earth. He would never leave the planet now. He would never know true peace--just the bliss of having no awareness for a few hours.

She took a step closer and he could feel her in a way he never could before. It was not as much of a knowing that she was near because she was another living soul but more of a primal knowing. He knew her because of her pumping blood and working lungs. With each step the rhythm of both increased. It was captivating and alluring. It made the hunger in his gut fester. If his heart were still able to move it would have broken through his ribs by now.

But that would never happen nor would it ever move. The muscle that had held such power and was prescribed as the center of emotions had stopped. It had stilled with the fatal sip of tainted blood and taken a portion of him with it.

He had not wanted the change. He had tried to resist but had been weak. Drained of his strength to the point he could not help but swallow what was given to him, he had slipped from life without any living soul's notice.

The resulting pain had seared through him as if the sun had just broken through the clouds. That pain would live with him forever now and he would carry its memory for as long as this form continued to walk again each night. It would haunt him as much as the image of his sire's dripping fangs.

"John?"

Her voice was soft upon the night air. No one else was nearby. He had seen to that, waiting until she was alone before stepping from the shadows to view her. She had been startled, fearful that he had come to harm her. But when she had seen his face that fear had melted into astonishment. And that feeling was still there, although it mixed with uncertainty at his silence. Her unease was growing. He could feel like it crawl over his skin like ants.

She took another step forward, her hand reaching from her chest to his face. In her wrist, he could see her blood pulse. He closed his eyes as he inhaled her complicated scent--her skin, her sweat, the odor of her feet, and the oil in her hair. She had meant so much to him once. He knew that was true. Her company had fulfilled a longing to be known by another conscious being, yet her proximity now meant nothing but a way to stop his hunger.

He could feel that hunger rise within--tearing through his thoughts and rippling across his unmoving chest. It ate away his insides as if a voracious beast had been born within him. The very the moment he had changed, the stabbing pain of hunger had begun. It twisted in his belly and made him faint even as he delayed slaking that need.

She could do that for him. She could meet that need to replace the nutrients he could no longer produce. She could still the pain... at least for now.

The touch of her fingers drew his eyes open and he stared at her.

"Is it really you?"

She was so close--so very, very close.

"I thought I would never see you again." Her palm pressed the side of his face. "You're freezing." Her fingers slid down his cheek and off his chin. She was more wary, uncertain since he had neither spoken nor moved since she had first laid eyes on him. He could sense the shift in her temperament and knew he must act before others came.

But he could not bring himself to reach out. Her words were so innocent and full of hope. Yet they were all too true. She would never see him again. He knew that better than she did for he did not have the control to do as it was done to him. He was too new at this, too overpowered by the physical need to survive to stop himself as his sire had. It was a marvel he hoped to master, but that would not be today.

Today he would satisfy the ache. He would take from her more than she wished to give and feel nothing from it. He would not mourn. He could not mourn or even mourn the loss of that ability. He existed now and that was all. Forever and ever, he would live and take, feeling nothing as he did. It was a fate worse than death--yet even that fact meant nothing to him. A shell was all he was and she was the way to still the pain consuming his empty center and drying out his tongue.

His gaze snapped to hers and in that moment fear entered her eyes. Where hope had been now there was only dread. Her eyes widened as she took a step back... but it was too late.

His left hand was on her wrist, his right reaching to cover her mouth before she could scream. Before he even knew what he was doing her back was pressed to his chest and his nose was buried in her neck. The bouquet of her life rose through his nose the moment before he bit down—and for an instant—he felt sadness. Then it faded beneath the satisfaction of silencing the eternal ache.