Chapter One
I'm a fairly deep sleeper but the rain outside was so heavy that I woke often. It was humid and sweaty in my small apartment, the Palm Springs weather ensured it was always balmy, no matter what time of day it was. I had almost just fallen asleep again when there was a heavy banging at my front door. I was in the middle of assuming it was just my drunken neighbours who had been blasting heavy metal music earlier, when the knocking continued. I climbed out of bed, cursing whoever dared to drag me from my bed at three am. Rushing through the living room, it occured to me that perhaps I should have thrown on at least a shirt, my body barely covered my rediculously expensive boxer shorts.
The rain was loud but still did not drain out the sound of my late night visitor. "Alright, alright I'm coming" I shouted as I ripped the door open. To my utter suprise and greatest pleasure, a soaking wet Sydney Sage stood before me at my front door. Her blonde hair, which is usually immaculately styled, was unkept, wet and plastered to her face. She was dressed in dark blue jeans and a light blue blouse which was so transparent that I was beginning to blush. I tried to maintain eye contact, she deserved better than my perverted eyes oogling her in her moment of dispair. There is obviously something drastically wrong for Sydney to be showing up at my door at this hour.
"Can I come in?" she asked shly, not daring to meet my eyeline. I was still in such shock that she was standing in front of me that I was not able to form the words to answer her question. Standing to the side, I ushered her inside and closed the door softly behind her. She walked into the room and stood staring at my latest art project. She was dripping wet and was soaked through to the bone. I rushed to the bathroom and grabbed the newest towel from my linnen press. I took a moment to compose myself before walking back into the living room. When I returned, Sydney still had not moved and was staring intently at my painting. I handed her the towel and she silently thanked me with her eyes.
She dried herself off and wrapped the towel around her shoulders. I did not dare speak, anything I could come up with in my head paled in comparison to this moment.
"I should not have come here, this is stupid" she said quickly, dropping the towel and racing towards the front door. I could not let her leave, I had to know why she had showed up here and what had her so spooked. I chased her across the room and grabbed her arm softly. The electricity that always sparked when I touched her shot through my arm and left my whole body tingling. She stopped and turned to me, her eye's searching mine for answers for questions I did not even ask.
"Sage, what's going on? I cannot let you go back out in the weather, you look like a contestant in a wet t-shirt competition. At least stay here until the rain stops". I was desperate to know why she was here and I was not going to let her just run out of here.
"If anyone ever finds out, they will send me to re-education. Even thinking about it is wrong. But I cannot help it. It is all I think about. All I dream about. Oh god.. if my Dad was to find out, he would just disown me. Look at Keith, what he did was no where near this bad and they sent him away to god know's where" she began trailing off and paced around the room. I had never seen her this rattled before and I was begining to worry. I had no idea why she was so troubled but if she was comparing herself to Keith, things had to be bad.
"Sage, you are starting to freak me out now. Please just sit down and relax for a minute. I am going to make some tea, and then we are going to talk everything out. No one is sending you anywhere and nothing you could ever do could be as bad as what Keith was doing". I was trying to use the calmest voice I could muster but even I could hear just how on edge I was. I had made my way to the kitchen when Sydney followed me, stopping me with a soft touch on my hand. She held it ever so slightly and I was halted in my tracks. Turning to face me, her eyes were glistening with fear and she was breathing heavily. Her fingers began to wrap in between mine and my heartrate raced uncontrollably. We stood in a moment, frozen in time, hand in hand.
"Sage, what's going-" and before I could finish my train of thought, she reached up with her other hand and stroked my cheek softly. Her hand stopped on my cheek and she stared deeply into my eyes. All the pieces had fallen into place and her earlier rant suddenly made sense. The one thing that could make her worse than Keith. The one thing that could have her shipped off to re-education faster than I could say boo. The one thing we could never do. She felt exactly how I did and it scared her as much as it scared me.
"Sydney, you don't have to be scared. I will always protect you. No one will ever get to you, no one will ever send you away. No one will-" and she cut me off again by placing her thumb over my bottom lip. I had been in many x-rated situations with the finer sex before but never had such an innocent act driven me so crazy. Her touch drove me wild and knowing she felt the same was doing things to my body that I had never dared think.
I took her hand from my face and held it in my free hand, caressing her knuckles softly. I had dreamed of this moment for weeks and it was finally about to happen. She was leaning in to me with her eyes closed expectantly. I freed my hand and placed it under her chin, tilting her face towards mine. The only thing that could have made this moment more perfect was a string quartet playing in the corner. I leant in, our lips only inches apart, both of us breathing heavily. All the anticipation, all the dreaming and the wanting had lead to this moment. If I leant forward only a little, both of our lives would change forever. One more inch and we would never be able to go back. Two more centimeters and all taboos would be shattered. Screw it, I leant the final centermeter in and placed my lips ever so gentley upon Sydney's. Passion exploded between us an- BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP.
My eyes were forced open and I groaned to myself. The exact same dream had been plaguing me ever since the moment that I had realised my feelings for Sydney. Every night I was forced to endure my own personal hell after dreaming of my own personal desires. Shaking my head to try clear the images from my mind, I made my way to the bathroom for my routine morning cold shower.
Sydney was away for a few days, after being summoned away by the Alchemist's for some secret meeting. Whilst she is gone, I have to deal with Agent Boring Borscht and Agent Scarlet. After everything had gone down last month with Lee and the Strigoi, our society decided it was best to research the fact the Lee had not been able to be reawakened by the Strigoi. And instead of doing it far, far away at Court they had sent Dimitri Belikov and Sonya Karp to us in Palm Springs. They spent their evenings at my apartment, conducting rediculous experiments in a vain attempt to discover the Strigoi anti-venom. It was not so bad when Sydney was around to ease the tension, but with her out of town, it took all of my self control not to behave like a petulant child.
I had taken to emailing Sydney on a daily basis since she had been gone. Each time, I tried to encorporate a quote from a novel or play that she had mentioned in passing. Sydney was exceptionally well educated and I felt an overwhelming desire to try convince her that I was not a complete imbecile. Today's inspiration was Les Miserable. I had seen her reading it once for school and she had commented on how heartbreakingly beautiful it was. I titled the email SEND HELP IMMEDIATELY.
Day 24 Situation is growing worse. My captors continue to find new and horrific ways to torture me. When not working, Agent Scarlet spends her days examining fabric swatches for bridesmaid dresses and going on about how in love she is. This usually causes Agent Boring Borscht to regale us with stories of Russian weddings that are even more boring than his usual ones. My attempts at escape have been thwarted thus far. Also, I am out of cigarettes. Any assistance or tobacco products you can send will be greatly appreciated.
- Prisoner 24601
Spending time with Sonya was not that unbareable, her skills with spirit far out weighed mine so I was learning lots but her constant babble about her up-coming nuptuals was becoming tiresome. Her partner in crime was considerably more irritating. Dimitri Belikov was the boyfriend of the first girl to truely break my heart, Rose Hathaway. They were on the run trying to prove her innocence against murdering my Aunt, the queen at the time, when they gave in to old feelings. He was not the one to blame, he was just as much a victim as I was. We were all just pawns in Rose's life but for the first time in a long time, I was playing a brand new game and it felt amazing. I just had to endure a few more weeks of the mindless spirit experiments and I was free to return to my days spent longing for Sydney in peace.
AN- OKAY AND IM BACK! HOPE EVERYBODY LIKED CHAPTER ONE, HOPEFULLY I DO JUSTICE TO THE GOLDEN LILY FROM ADRIAN'S PERSPECTIVE :)
