Voice Among the Living
'Melissa'
Her name echoes in his mind like a little voice screaming in a vast cave. His eyes shut and for that one moment he sees her again. How young she was, how beautiful. How lively and ripe she was.
Her chestnut hair, loose and flying all around her adolescent face as she runs around, beckoning him to chase after her.
All too soon, that dream was over.
'She isn't here anymore' he tells himself that, but it's difficult to swallow the truth after centuries.
He focuses on his days when he first met her and courted her. He remembers how indifferent she was when she first met him. He remembers how she came to accept him, came to love him.
'Melissa'
He sighs and pulls out his pocket watch. It was a present from her, it was a wedding present she gave to him.
He studies her face, carefully as if by staring at it long enough she would come back to him. He would hold her, cherish her and make sure that they would never part again. Though she isn't smiling in the photo that lays in his pocket watch, he is the only one that can see it. There she is, young and youthful. There she was, happy and alive.
He won't say she's dead. He can't believe that, especially not now. Now that he sees Loren, right next door, so vulnerable and so young. However, even Jared can tell himself that it's not Melissa. Her face and image are alive, but is it really her?
Looking back down at the photo, he counts the minutes till the full moon.
'Melissa'
He hears her name as if it's actually her calling to him, beckoning him to chase her again. He remembers her, remembers how alive he felt as well. He wanted her, desperately. He could have had her, but fate played a cruel trick and he lost her.
'Not again' he tells himself. He stares out the window, into Loren's room. He is sure he sees her, sleeping away. He wants to get into her mind, to disturb her dreams, find some way to figure out if it really is Melissa.
When she died, he died. He wandered around, either in wolf or human form, slaughtering who he could find, feasting on the flesh and blood, hoping she would come back again.
Maybe she is back, maybe Loren is Melissa. He desperately hopes that truth is all the same. He wants her, wants to lust for her. This time, he will not give up and he refuses to let anything come in his way of possessing her.
'Loren'
He imprints that name into his head, but Melissa cannot be replaced so easily. He looks down at the photo in his pocket watch again. She smiles at him, trying to let him know she is back and she is here to return to him.
He feels dead, hopeless. That's how he's been feeling for years, but now that tiny little spark of hope has returned. He'll have her, he'll possess her no matter what.
'Melissa'
He knows it is her. There can't be no other way.
He closes the pocket watch and tucks it back under his shirt. It doesn't matter what time it is. He can sense the change. It's as natural as riding a bike.
Staring out the window, he watches Loren sleep. Though he desires to intrude into her mind, he realizes it might not be a good first impression, considering they had only met a short time ago. Tonight he would roam the suburb and annihilate his next victim.
'Melissa'
He will have her again.
With that declaration, he lets go of all his senses and he is finally free.