Prologue: Black and White
The sunlight passed over the waving grass in patches, broken up by the clouds overhead. The small shack that rested by the forest's edge was silent and empty, save for the glint of blue eyes from behind a dusty, cracked pane. He tilted his face up from the shadows that protected him, gazing out at the field before him with a longing; so long ago had he been able to run out there, under that blessed warmth.
He turned away from the window, seating himself at the old rickety table. Placing his feet up on the tabletop, he tilted it back slightly and closed his eyes. It would do no good to dwell on something he could never have again. Complete silence descended over the house, as he remained motionless, much like a corpse.
Hearing a small pat, he looked up to see a splotch of moisture against the window. Standing up, he walked over, to see the sky a dark angry greyish black. He watched as lightning cracked across the surface, thunder accompanying it.
"It's nothing." he murmured to himself as he started back.
Then something caught his eye; just off to the side, a flash of white stumbled through the trees, pushed by a hand that was cloaked in black. Moving swiftly, he opened the door slightly to see two figures move out to the plain, the wind sweeping their dresses tightly against their legs. He forced the door open and started after them.
"Excuse me!" he yelled over the storm's screaming winds. "You shouldn't be out here!" he couldn't see them too well, the field had darkened rapidly.
Apparently the girls heard him; the one in the white dress turned around rapidly as if trying to flee. But the one in black was faster, grabbing her ram and yanking her back hard. He stopped when a dagger was pulled out and pressed to the white dressed one's neck.
'Oh. It's only you.' The telepathic thought held a tinge of a sneer.
He paused slightly as he recognized her features. 'What are you doing out here? I thought you were in-'
'You thought wrong.' A cold smirk came to her face. 'And what are you doing here? Looking for fresh blood?' The dagger was scraped against the pale white skin forcefully, drawing a small bead of blood.
'Look, put it down and just come back with me to the shack. What happened to you anyways?'
Her face twisted into rage and bitterness. 'You happened to me! I trusted you!! I listened to you, I believed you; and that's how you repay me?!' She spat at his feet. 'What do you care what I do?'
'I've always cared about-'
'LIAR!'
He found himself flung back with a jarring blow to the midsection; apparently she had been developing her powers to their fullest.
'The let the girl go.' He rose to his feet easily enough. 'She has nothing to do with this.'
She laughed, the dagger tip twirling into the skin slightly. 'That's where you're wrong. She has everything to do with this; she is what has held me back from doing everything that what I really wanted to do; except for that one time.'
He shivered slightly at the seductive tone in her voice; oh yes, he remembered that night well for it had burned itself into his mind with its dark sensualities. 'You don't have to do this. Just put it down and-'
'I knew this time would come, deep inside I knew it would. Everyone else told me that the time would draw near and I would have to choose a side. And for the longest time, I always thought that I would choose the right one.'
He swallowed as the dagger, trailed its way down to the fabric and made its way back up again. The rain started to pelt don hard, plastering his hair to his face. Rivulets ran down into his eyes, blurring the sight before him; all he could really see now was the dresses billowing in the wind, the black and white melding together as one. He wiped his eyes hastily, the scene before him illuminated for a split second with the crack of lightning. The girl with the dagger to her neck as clearly terrified, her chest heaving as she took irregular gulps, clutching at the arm around her shoulders, trying to loosen it and see, for her hair was clinging to her face as well. But what really shocked him about the girl was that she was the same as the one holding the dagger; they were one and the same person.
'Well, well. What are you going to do now, oh noble angelic one?'
He glanced at the other girl, the one holding the dagger. The sarcasm was evident. 'I am not angelic, and you know it.'
'Oh yes, with that white hair of yours and that sad yet noble expression, how could I confuse you for something evil. But you did brutally murder a family and then you repented. Oh did you repent; now you do the good and noble thing for you feel, even to this day, that you should have adhered to it. You haven't accepted your true nature.'
'Cut the crap and let her go.' He hadn't meant to sound sharp and irritated but that dagger was boring its way in steadily and it was making him nervous.
She narrowed her eyes as she stilled the dagger. 'Accept it; you are a vampire, and that desire to kill and destroy will always be there. Just as well as the more sinful ones as well.'
'Just let her go.' He snarled as his eyes were riveted to the sight of her tongue darting out to lick her lips. 'I don't want to have to hurt you.'
'But you did.'
He paused as the girl in white spoke finally.
'You hurt us beyond belief. That is why we are so split and conflicting. I still trust you; she does not and wishes to make you suffer as much as you made us.'
'I didn't mean to.' 'I know you didn't.' 'Shut up!'
If he could have flushed, he would have. The girl in black was a contradiction, for now she made him sound like a whore but before, she had a tone that implied something deeper. 'Just let her go and we can put all of this behind us.'
'Do not give up. Only you can redeem her, after-'
'Shut up!!'
He watched as the white clad girl smiled and closed her eyes, a sad and wistful one that made her look like she was weeping from the rain running down her face. 'Just give me the dagger and we'll get out of the rain all right?' He took a step forward.
'Stay there.' The girl in black pressed the dagger in sharply, a thin line of blood ran down the length of steel, pooling where her fingers grasped the hilt. 'I should have done this a long time ago. Then I wouldn't have to deal with it now.'
'Forgive her. Forgive yourself. Accept her and accept who and what you are.'
'No!'
He started forward as he saw the dagger start to plunge in. Right before his very eyes, it sank in to the hilt and moved across rapidly, the blade parting the pale flesh like it was water. A choked sound came from his throat as the body sagged limply and was discarded to the ground, blood spewing forth to stain the wet grass a dark burgundy red. He cradled her body, head bent in mourning; it was much like before with her father.
'Why?' He looked up at the black cloaked girl who stood impassively before him, the blood on the dagger staining the metal.
'Why?' She paused, with a reflective look on her face. Then she bent down, wiping her blade on the grass, and sheathed it before she started to walk away.
'Answer me!' He called after her with a demanding snarl, picking up her dead body and holding her in his arms.
She paused for a moment and looked back at him. 'The answer is in your arms.'
He watched her as she walked off into the rain, melting away like a figment of his imagination. He looked back down at her body lying in his arms, her throat slashed wide open. He could have wept at that. He bent his head close, not caring that the blood would get on his hair. He remembered everything that she had told him while she still lived and spent the time with him. Sadness welled up inside him, tinged with understanding.
'Innocence is dead.'