"For a thousand years, I've been forced to watch you. Felt the pain of every victim, suffered while you shed blood. Even you, Elijah, with your claim to nobility, you're no better. All of you. You're a curse on this Earth. Stretched out over generations. If you've come to plead for your life, I'm sorry, you've wasted your time."
Elijah shifted the glass in his large hand, watching the amber liquid churn as his mother's hateful words rang clear. Only for a moment did he believe his entire family could be reunited; but to have the sliver of hope that his mother may have forgiven them all of his sins, was very foolish of him. He knew that now. Tilting his head slightly back, he let the alcohol pass through his lips. It did very little for him.
"It's going to be okay," a woman said, standing behind the bar with cherry red lips and warm eyes. She kept her platinum blonde hair spiraled into a bun and wore a snugly white blouse and black pants. She ran her tongue across her bottom lip, and Elijah found himself entranced by the simple act.
"What is?" He inquired.
"The reason that's made you sit here all depressed and drink your sorrows away," she had such a wide grin that showed optimism, something Elijah could use, "I've seen a lot of men come through here with issues that you'd never even believe and I'm telling you... it's going to be okay."
"That's very enlightening of you," Elijah commended, setting his glass down, "But I'm afraid what's done is done. I have nothing now."
"We all have something," she reminded him, "It's the little things that matter. Try not to forget that. There's always someone in life that has less than you."
"Less than me?" Elijah inquired, "My mother has recently tried to kill me and now she's dead, my sociopathic brother is perhaps dead, my other siblings are lost and scattered and... here I am."
"Yes, here you are," the blonde leaned against the counter, "So your mom, what's her story? Why did she try to kill you?"
"Because her children are monsters," he met her eyes, his own cold and a tinge of sadness, "And she feels the world would be better off without us polluting it."
"She thinks you're monsters, or you think you're monsters?"
"We are monsters," he said without a doubt, "But we prefer living, even if we're not fully alive either."
"Well, that's family for you," she spoke with such ease, "Family always has a knack for thinking they know what's good or not for you, and sometimes go through extremes to make those things happen."
"And so my mother thought that it was good for me to be dead?"
"Unfortunately," she said unsmiling, "We can't help the family that we get born into."
"That is true," Elijah nodded.
"I think you're not fully alive because you don't know how to live," she analyzed him, "I find that people are too...weighed down by their problems. They make life seem much harder than it really is. There's one big solution to the pain we all go through."
"And what is your solution?"
"Let go," she smiled, "Let go. Change. Become a better person each day, one step at a time. Prove your mother wrong, you owe it to yourself and your family to be happy."
"I'm afraid I cannot trust in your optimism, miss," Elijah sheepishly smiled, "Letting go is simply not that easy. I've done horrible things and I deserve the consequences."
"I can't accept that," she said sharply, "You said you preferred living, but you're not really living. Would you rather go through life burdened by everything, or learn to smile often and mean it? Learn to be happy?"
"Happiness. Is that really something that can be learned?"
"As long as you're open to it," the smile that made her face glow would forever be imprinted in his mind.
"Can you teach me?" his eyes darkened mysteriously.
"I don't think I can..."
"On the contrary, I think you would be a great teacher."
Her smile had gone from her face. He would later feel guilty for kidnapping her from her workplace, but the woman had intrigued him. She'd insisted that he could evolve from the monster he was, but if she saw the truth, he wondered if she would eventually change her mind.