I have lived a long time. In many times on many planets. I have watched many people, and taken many more. But there was only one who I vowed not to take.
I would watch her. Everyday she would pass me, and I would be watching her, but she never glanced up at me. Back and forth, with friends or alone, she was always too busy to notice me. But I noticed her. I saw her grow, mature into the most beautiful young woman I have ever laid eyes upon. She would walk past me on her way to somewhere new, with new friends, a boyfriend. I hated her boyfriends. I wanted to take them all so that she would be mine.
Then, one day, she walked past, her head down. She was dressed in black. A sombre group followed at a distance. I knew something was wrong. I've seen people like this before. There was someone missing from the group. Her latest boyfriend. All I wanted was to reach out, to be there for her. But I couldn't. I was stuck still, my hands cupped in front of me. All of them walked past me without a glance. Rain began to fall.
Countless rainfalls, sunrises and sets later, my lovely lady returns. She walks past me, a bunch of flowers in her hand. She is returning to visit her boyfriend. As she walks past me, I hope she doesn't notice me. She stops, however. Looks up. Smiles. I see her eyes flicker. She is going to blink. "No!" I think, "Don't do this. Please don't blink!" But she does. I know humans can't help it, but now I am reaching forward, again stuck in beauty's gaze. Her eyes widen in surprise. I am frozen, silently begging her to stop, but she shakes her head, then blinks twice more. Internally I'm screaming, pleading with her to stop. I can't do this to her. Not her.
Again and again she unwittingly rips my stone heart into pieces, wondering why I am getting closer to her. Now I can see fear surge within her. My jaws widen in anticipation of my next kill, but I try to fight it. She is screaming now and I am so close. "So close now. Blink again", I think, but then I think "NO! Don't blink again! Run!" But she is trapped, and I am trying to stay frozen, but she keeps looking away, and she is pinned against a headstone, and then she is gone. Gone forever. Disappeared to some other time, where I can never see her again. She had her eyes closed as she disappeared, and I manage to fall onto the stone, something as cold as I, and cry.
No-one will ever know that I loved her. Or that I made her fear me. Or that I sent her to an unfamiliar place to die. Or that now I am crying, raught with grief and filled with tears that will never fall. I am stuck in place, awaiting the next beautiful lady.