Chapter One - Devastation
Eternity. Is it even possible to imagine? What if your life could last for eternity? How would you live it? What would you do to pass the days? Would it seem like one day blurring into the next? Would you be able to find excitement each day knowing your life would go on and on and on without end? Would it be a blessing - or a curse?
Adam contemplated these aspects of his affliction for a century. He'd lived through some interesting and enlightening times. He gained knowledge and experiences and honed skills others could only dream of doing. He had time on his side, as long as he could continue to appease his hunger. There were nights in the company of the greats - and long lines of lovers to choose from. It was exciting to be an immortal. At least for a while.
As the centuries passed, the thought of living for eternity seemed more like a curse than a beautiful gift. He saw others gain fame and glory through invention and creativity while he had to remain in the shadows - his true identity hidden from the masses for his safety and on account of his unusual lifestyle. Adam's incredible creativity had to be made known through giving his work to others and letting them take the credit. He watched from a skybox seat as Humanity degrading from the beautifully inventive and imaginative beings he preferred to de-evolved zombies existing in some rat race with no goal to strive for poisoning and crushing the beauty of his world. The burden he internalized disillusioned Adam to the point of suicide.
If it were not for Eve, he might have pulled that trigger. Eve saw the immortal life they lived as an incredible gift - a chance to see history unfold century after century. This gift was for living an unending life - sharing, learning, loving, growing, appreciating all around them - and dancing. Having lived for five millennia led her to believe she could survive anything - even the worst the zombies could hurl at her. She never let anything stop her from going on, and this she tried to instill within her depressed husband time and time again. However, she was not unaware to their world so poisoned that their very existence was now a game of Russian Roulette.
Sitting together in a darkened alcove in Tangier, when all hope seemed lost, the couple waiting for the sun to rise and burn them into oblivion because they had used up the last of their sustenance and had little energy left, that's when a chance to survive sashayed into view. They were beautiful indeed - young and in love. Mirror images of what Adam and Eve shared for centuries. Eve's romantic side drifted to thoughts of her own devotion to Adam. With their hunger exhausting them to the point of near death, Adam stared hungrily at the young lovers with animal need. They could just turn them while satisfying the horrible painful pangs in the pit of their stomachs. Initiate a new immortal pair just like them - lovers locked forever as immortals.
"How romantic of you," Adam said almost sarcastically. "I get the girl."
With so little time and energy left, Adam and Eve made their approach - their feral forms walking with desperate determination toward the young couple. The pair were too engrossed in their own affections to have time to react when the vampires seized them. They dragged them into the shadows out of sight. Fangs pierced jugular veins that released warm red life into their mouths. The more they took, the more they wanted. Exhaustion and a need to survive overcame them and the hunger just wasn't quickly satisfied - and the want of stopping before death consumed their prey couldn't be stopped.
So much for turning them.
Adam clamped down harder and closed his eyes as the euphoria hit. His mind clouded with animal need to satisfy the hunger. Forcing his eyes open, he looked over to Eve as she continued to gulp down mouthful after mouthful of the warm sticky fluid in desperation. The sweet fluid flowing down their throats was warm and brought on a feeling of utter fulfillment satiating the hunger while extreme ecstasy ran through their bodies. It was pleasurable beyond all description. Almost orgasmic. It quenched the hunger. It enhanced dulled senses and heightened a pleasure to continue in their nocturnal life. And they shared the experience together almost as intimately as if they were physically joined in the throes of passion.
Yet, something changed. Adam felt the pleasure turn to pain when the young woman's body crumbled to his feet. He sensed something like molten lead flowing through his veins - heavy and of searing agony. Within Eve's mind, he begged her to let go but the hunger hurt too much. When the young man's body dropped like a rag doll at her feet, she wiped away the dripping blood from her mouth. Adam watched her carefully hoping he was wrong. But his animal instincts told him otherwise. As her eyes opened, she tilted her head slightly and smiled.
Adam wanted to run - to run as far away as his long legs could take him. Away from the dead bodies they left at their feet drained of every drop of red life they consumed. Adam couldn't run for if he did he'd have left her behind - again. Just like Paris, no thanks to Ava. But it was more than just the two bodies. It was a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach. It wasn't that they had to kill to survive but that the killing would bring death. What took Kit from them now ran through Eve's veins.
"Why didn't you let him go? I would have shared," Adam said blandly.
"I couldn't, darling. You needed fulfillment more than I - and we both know a woman drains quicker than a man."
Her face held a peculiar expression Adam never saw before. "Something is wrong," he said recognizing the concern n her features.
"The taste was sweeter than usual," Eve replied knowing from Kit's description of bad blood that she was now poisoned.
Adam walked over to his wife and embraced her tightly. "We have to get out of here and now."
He helped her walk back into the shadows of night away from the lights that illuminated the darkness. Finding a secluded place, he sat her down before joining her again taking her into a tight and protective embrace. The anger in his eyes was so apparent and she grew worried for how his fury would express itself. She put her hand to his cheek trying to calm the rage and hurt inside him.
"Adam, no matter what, I will always love you. We must stay focused."
The one woman he loved for centuries was now poisoned. He had every reason now to end his life, for his life was soon to end with death unstoppably knocking on her door. Why should he care anyway? How many times had he threatened to take his own life and leave her alone? And not that it really mattered. She was a survivor. She'd get over losing him and move on because that is what she was best at - surviving - at all costs. But how would he go on without her? If she was to die, so would he.
He could never doubt their love. No matter how many women he seduced over the centuries during their times apart, no matter how many men she laid with during their separation, they always managed to reconnect and reignite their love just like the first time they met. Consuming feelings of lust and love mingling together no different than their mutual scents mingled after a night of passion. It was all to end now.
Adam was not a typical male. When others would be cold, uncaring and selfish, Adam was far from it when it came to Eve. Although a playboy, his love for her never foundered. He was so warm and inviting, loving and giving. While she was carefree and wary, Adam preoccupied himself with the things he hated most and internalized many of the pains he felt. She went about living no matter what it took to survive. Her wisdom built upon a millennia of years and cultures she experienced made her the woman he did love. They were almost polar opposites and therein lie the beauty of their love - eternal love - because they accepted each other for what they were. And now something was about to split them apart - for eternity.
"Your sister really fucked things up bad for us, didn't she?" he said in contempt.
Eve's younger sister never put a rein on her animalistic needs. She was the beast all feared - the creature of the night in the fables. And she didn't care despite everything Eve tried to teach her. She was like a young pup whose uncontrollable playfulness got her into all sorts of trouble - trouble Adam and Eve long learned to avoid. As long as Ava got what she wanted, it didn't matter what the consequences were. She took no responsibility for her actions, whereas Adam and Eve took great care to remain under the radar and found reasonable alternatives in order to survive. They both were wise beyond their years and now they were in trouble and now would have to pay the ultimate price for what Ava's wild behaviors spurred.
Immediately, he contemplated life without her. What was he going to do when he loved her so deeply that even when they were apart they were still together? He thought about suicide so in recent days no thanks to the horrible way civilization had become - so barren to all the beauty around them and only caring about instant gratification and the here and now. Life was wasted as far as Adam saw it. Humanity had become a race of mice going through a maze looking for the ultimate prize - a fucking piece of cheese to satisfy an immediate hunger. A hunger that never seemed completely fulfilled. Life that seemed so pointless for they failed to see the world as he saw it. They drove away their ability to imagine and invent and investigate. Sure, he witnessed many a great advance but he also saw such downfalls and it drove him to extreme states of melancholy and a want to end it all. Finding a reason to get up each night had gotten harder and harder, although he still managed to despite centuries of lamenting for what should have been. Perhaps it was the frustration of seeing life through death's eyes that opened his senses and intellect to fully understand the purpose of mortal life. And still, he wished to end it all. The gift of immortality was not a gift at all but a horrible curse.
Sometimes it were simple things he missed. The smells of a banquet dinner that now repulsed him for it was no longer able to satisfy his hunger. He missed a walk in the garden to see a sunrise - to feel the warmth of the radiant energy touching his skin without burning him to cinders. To walk among people studying their culture. What culture? Culture seemed to all but disappear in the modern world.
How barren the world had become. Where was the passion? Where was the love? Where was the music in a world full of noise? Deafening noise! Adam hated it and had no control over fixing it. What more could he do when so much seemed lost?
What the hell was the meaning of life anyway if people refused to see the beauty in all it offered? Adam wrangled with these questions every day of his life over the last century. Immortality had it's good points, but the suffering he endured seeing people become "zombies" in life disgusted him. Only the scientists and poets and intellectuals figured it out and many were criticized or put to death for their work.
His enthusiasm for life dulled with boredom. Night after night. A humdrum of existence because Adam sank into a world of isolation whereas Eve still walked among the masses. It worked because of their alternative methods to killing to survive. She made it work whereas he looked for an excuse to end it all. Eve was the only being that made it all worthwhile by being the piece that completed him - that made him whole. She made life worth living. However, with the degradation of humanity came the poisoning.
Adam went on a series of reflections as his life ran in wild visions within his now terrified mind. Life in Detroit was perfect for it was the self-imposed hell he needed to be in - a reflection on the outside of how Adam felt on the inside - barren and desolate - empty. Ian tried to get him the fame he so deserved, but Adam wanted something different. He had no need of money and the fame that would go along with it. Or did he? Isolation was where he became most comfortable for there were few in modern society who got it. Ian did - in his own way. Perhaps Adam chose this otherwise lifeless place for a reason - to torture himself in one way and to delight in the solitude and darkness it offered - and in the one zombie who understood.
Knowing Eve's condition could never be treated, he contemplated ending it now - with her - together. He held her tightly to him wanting to cry but remained strong because he had to - for her. She sensed the tumultuous thoughts racing through his mind knowing exactly what he was thinking. Eve felt him blaming himself for what had happened as he trembled. His lover, his confidant, his wife would soon die and painfully and she would do so right before his eyes. The one person he felt equal to would leave him - alone - as if he didn't feel alone as is. And it was all his fault - his fault in demanding he take the girl.
She saw the storm clouds chasing around Adam's mind and immediately he was chastised by Eve. "You will not even consider it, my darling. I will not allow it," she sternly said.
He couldn't face life alone - he wouldn't - not now. Even though they spent years at a time living in different locations, he always had his love close by.
"My love," she said as she let her long pale fingers trace the outline of his jaw, "We are going to enjoy every moment we can together. Adam, I said it before that our time would come to an end at some point. However, I fully intend to enjoy every moment for as long as I have left."
Eve rose and took his hands pulling him up. "Come on, baby. We need to get out of here and now."
"Where do we go now? We have bodies here and your sister messed up what I had in Detroit," Adam growled.
"We have to find a new home, at least temporarily. However, we do need to part ways - just for a little while."
The agony in his eyes upset Eve. But as always, Eve was wise and a survivor and Adam always relented to Eve's wisdom because she spent centuries existing through some of history's worst and cataclysmic events. They loved to share their stories together especially after exhaustive intimacy. He'd miss that most of all and Eve saw the anger and confusion and deepening depression in his eyes.
"Stop it right now!" her deep voice stated like a mother scolding her rebellious child. "We are not going to let this turn of events change what you still have left to do in this world."
"What I have left to do?" he asked angrily.
"No time for this discussion now, my love. We both need to find a place to go as the sun is rising."
Immediately, Eve was working a plan in her mind to keep Adam from fulfilling the urge to succeed in killing himself. And retreating to the seclusion of her apartment for the day was an immediate and dangerous necessity.