Parting Words

CONTENT WARNING !!

This story contains smoking, blood, and depictions of violence/domestic violence, consumption of blood.

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Among the vast emptiness of open space that is our galaxy, there are countless living organisms just like you and I. Creatures beyond our knowledge and understanding; who walk and talk and breathe just as we do. The phenomenon of “alien life” has been denied by many, but there are still those out there who believe.

What if we lived in a world, where alien life was not a conspiracy theory, but a concept everyone knew and accepted to be true? What if aliens lived among us?

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Earth

2020

Kailen Elron is not human. Yet somehow, he has found himself walking amongst them. He pulls his hood tighter over his head, pale skin an angry red where it touches the sun.

“Elijah, how much longer until we get to… what was it again?” 

“QuikTrip. It’s just a fancier gas station.” Elijah is human and, not surprisingly, the reason they are on Earth. Kailen would have argued against going– the sun is too bright there and he’s only heard bad things, but Elijah seemed excited.

And, trying to be a good boyfriend, Kailen agreed to go. Now he’s just antsy and agitated, skin breaking out in a bad rash from the sun’s rays. 

See, Kailen– he looks human. One might look at him and not even bat an eye. That doesn’t change the fact he’s from the infamous planet of Brood, a planet known for its crime and poverty, home of the Sanguis. Elijah calls them vampire wannabes and Kailen reminds him that those shitty books humans write existed long after the Sanguis’ existence, which tends to get a roll of the eyes from Elijah. 

“How fancy?” Kailen curls his tongue against his cheek and leans some into Elijah’s space, a teasing smirk on his face. “Do the toilets wash your ass for you?”

“Ew, gross.” Elijah gives him a look and flicks Kai on the temple. “No. It’s just… bigger. And a little cleaner, I think.” 

“By comparison to anything on Brood?”

“Nothing on Brood is clean, no offense.” Elijah laughs and Kailen stands up straight again, walking along the sidewalk and fidgeting with his jacket.

“Fair. God, it’s bright here. You know, if you hadn’t tossed my fucking sunglasses out of that cab earlier we’d be having a lot less problems right now.”

“Oh my god, don’t be a baby, Kai.” Elijah scoffs, shaking his head and the dismissal makes Kailen clench his fist. “You’re gonna have to get used to a little sunlight. Besides, it was an accident.”

“An accident? You threw them out of the window!”

“Okay, okay, fine! It wasn’t an accident but you were pissing me off tapping them against the side of the door like that!”

“You know I need those Elijah what the fuck is wrong with you–?”

Elijah holds his hand out then as if asking Kailen to stop, which he does but a tense silence follows. 

Elijah and Kailen have always been this way. In the three years they’ve known each other, it’s been a constant back and forth between hating each other’s guts and the most passionate love. They met on Brood, while Kailen was working as a dancer at one of Brood’s many clubs. It was an odd place to connect but they did nonetheless, and now here they are arguing on an empty street in the middle of bumfuck nowhere.

“Are you sure we’re going the right way?” Kailen pipes up after a while of silence, kicking at a rock on the sidewalk with his hands tucked into the pockets of his hoodie. At least the fabric protects him from the heat of the sun somewhat. 

“Yes, Kailen. I’m sure. I’ve been here a thousand times before so just shut up and trust that I know where I’m going?”

“Whatever you say.” Kailen sounds skeptical as he mutters under his breath, and the couple treks on along the path. 

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The young couple finds their way to the “fancy gas station,” and Kailen takes a moment to take a smoke out along the back, where he comes into contact with a worker who must be on break, considering they are currently smoking just a few feet away from him.

They nod at each other and Kailen eyes the guy up and down, a tilt to his head as he listens for every breath and every beat of his heart. He’s further away but Kailen can still hear it, and suddenly he’s reminded that he’s had nothing to eat yet today and this trip to the gas station may be the perfect opportunity.

“Smoking’s bad for you, y’know.” Kailen calls out to his temporary friend, a smirk curling his lips. 

The other man scoffs, “Funny, coming from you.”

“Well, smoking won’t kill me.” He answers matter of factly, puffing from his cigarette with a quiet chuckle. It’s the other guy’s turn to eye Kailen up now, and as he does so he catches a glimpse of the name tag pinned to his shirt; Jerry. “You see, Jerry… I work a bit differently than you.”

Kailen straightens up then, pushing off the wall and moving closer to Jerry, shoes quiet on the concrete ground. Jerry laughs, and it almost sounds like a wheeze. “How so?”

“Let’s skip the monologuing. I always found that to be rather exhausting.” Kailen as he says this is now right in front of Jerry, putting his cigarette out on his arm, listening to it sizzle out. “Here’s the deal, Jerry. I haven’t eaten yet today– Elijah, he’s my boyfriend– he’s taken me on this escapade on Earth trying to show me shit, but really I’m just hungry. The sun’s too bright and it’s making me itch, and he doesn’t seem to care. So I’m gonna kill you, okay?”

The fear in Jerry’s eyes when he says that is exactly what Kailen needed; it’s exactly why he does what he does. Without further question he grips one side of Jerry’s neck and bites down into the other, tasting the delicious burst of blood on his tongue. His grip on the poor gas station worker prevents him from fighting back and almost as quickly as a lightning strike Kailen is done, dropping his limp body to the floor and licking his blood stained lips.

Elijah comes around the corner a few minutes later with a slushy in hand, only to see Kailen crouched over Jerry, still feeding like he’s starving.

“Kailen!” He gasps out, running forward to tear the young Sanguis off of the long dead worker, a disgusted scowl tainting his features. “We talked about this!”

Kailen is wiping the blood with his shirt sleeve, watching Elijah with hungry, lust filled eyes. “And I told you earlier I was hungry.” He stands up, grabbing Elijah and taking him with him. “I told you the sun was bothering me. I told you I needed new sunglasses after you tossed mine and you refused! You never fucking listen to me. You know this is who I am, as a Sanguis. You decided to take me to earth, and you decided to date me!”

“Well maybe that was a mistake.”

There is a chilling silence then, and Kailen huffs a quiet laugh, shaking his head as he pets the side of Elijah’s hair, pressing a bloody kiss to his lips.

“No, no… it was my mistake, darling.” Kailen hums, looking Elijah over and breathing a soft sigh. “There are things I should have done… a long time ago, things I’ve wanted to do…”

He trails a finger along Elijah’s throat, and he moves back some in response. “Stop talking like that Kai, you’re scaring me.”

Kailen sighs again, reaching out to grab Elijah’s hands, trying to get him to stay. “No, no no… please don’t go, Eli. Please don’t leave me, you said you would never leave me…” His voice almost sounds like a whine and Elijah looks at him with fear and concern, slushy long dropped from his hands. “I didn’t mean it.”

“You killed someone, Kai.”

“I didn’t mean it!” 

“You did mean it! What the fuck?” Elijah tries to move his hands from Kailen’s grip but he holds on tight, so tight it almost feels like he is cracking bone. “Kai… Kai, please, you’re hurting me. Let go.”

“No, no… Elijah, always and forever we said.”

“Yeah but just let go!”

“NO!” Kailen’s grip tightens and he uses his grip to turn and throw Elijah against the wall, hand to his throat. He leans forward, breathing him in and shushing Elijah, hand brushing over his cheek. “Shhh shhh… it’s alright, baby it’s okay. I didn’t mean that, I’m sorry. You know how hungry I get, I won’t do it again… just let me have a little taste now and it’ll all be okay.”

“Kailen, aren’t you full? You just ate–” Elijah has never quite seen Kailen get this way before; sure, they’ve had some pretty nasty fights but this came out of nowhere. 

At some point Kailen must have gotten tired of waiting for a response, because suddenly he is digging his teeth into Elijah’s skin, breaking it and tasting the blood on his tongue. Elijah tastes good but not as good as some of the other’s he’s had, but he’s his boyfriend and he always had to say it was the best.

But now as he drinks it tastes like vomit in his mouth and Kailen has to pull away, tearing skin and dropping Elijah to the floor. 

As soon as he falls, Elijah coughs, blood coming from both his mouth and the wound at his neck, which he covers. Apparently Kailen got more than he had initially thought, because it’s not long before a pool is forming on the cement beside Elijah and he is falling still and silent.

Kailen sighs, crouching down beside his now ex-lover with a frown, cupping his chin in his palm. “I’m sorry, my love…” He places a kiss on Elijah's cheek, pulling his eyelids shut gently with his fingertips. “We’re just too different.”

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These creatures can walk among us in many shapes and forms without our knowledge. Perhaps the very things we create in stories exist around us, and our imagination is merely a portal into the unknown. Whether real or not, there is one thing that remains a mystery to us all; are we all truly that different from one another?