Part Three: In which some of Joe's tragic past is revealed... fate can be too cruel! Can they work passed the sins of their parents though?? Find out! R&R, plz!
Dark and Light: Part Three
"In secret we met
In silence I grieve
That thy heart could forget,
Thy spirit deceive.
If I should meet thee
After long years,
How should I greet thee?
With silence and tears."
-Lord Byron
The ground beneath them began to rise as Vampire Goddess Venus began her ascent back into the Heavens. Adrian and Joe were left alone on a grassy plateau overlooking newly green valleys and meandering rivers. Hand in hand, they watched as the dawn rose upon fertile land. In the distance the pair could already see a playground where little vampire girls and little human girls would one day sing songs, skip rope, and take turns pushing each other on swings, together.
Joe and Adrian turned towards each other, the morning sun accenting the softness of their smiles. A rose appeared in Joe's hand; he presented it to Adrian.
"For you, not just a human, but a love, who deserves not one, but all the roses in the world. May we be a tale to sooth the hearts of those who learn of our hardships, of past's hardships!"
Adrian could only a sigh a dreamy sigh, as he took the rose, holding it delicately in his hands. The view in front of him is full of grass and trees, and the sun rose here, just as it would anywhere else; there is little difference between here and Central Park, he reasoned. Yet it was different; it stood in such contrast to the world he was familiar with, a world filled with strife, where violence rains down upon the innocent daily, and prejudice rules along with superimposed ideologies and false dichotomy... If only the others could see past it all to the raw color and beauty of something so simple as a day mixing with night; the raw color and beauty that always lay just beneath the surface of things, hidden in the form of some long forgotten, simian emotion, or perhaps just a long forgotten, longing for emotion.
Perhaps, if they could, Adrian reflected, he would no longer need to eventually fry their asses with a giant squid.
The thought distressed him, but as he glanced down at the rose in his hands, his murderous thoughts began to fade.
"That's so sweet of you. No one has ever been so terribly sweet to me before.... You are so much more than just a terribly good looking, dark skinned vampire. You are wonderful and poetic and you can read books just by tapping them. Lets stay here for a while. Do you mind?"
Joe's deep and sultry vampire voice whispered into Adrian's ear, "Of course we can. We can stay here for as long as want. Thank you for what you gave me, too: a flower that blooms much more beautifully than any lone rose." He stares at Adrian, his teeth like cavernous crystal, white shining through darkness.
"I'm looking at that flower right now, and I think it's going to bloom longer than any other in the world, perhaps for eternity."
He lay down on the grass near Adrian, Adrian resting his head upon Joe's chest. They watched the nacreous void fill with comets, and shooting stars that would glissade across the sky and then disperse into diminutive sparks, that would then fall and vanish into the lingering darkness.
Celestial bodies moved above them, as summer shifted into winter. The constellations made their repetitive way across the sky, before they too, sank beneath the horizon, as seasons blended together, trapped in an eternal sunrise. The usual ways of keeping time slipped away from them, for time is useless in the realm of the immortals.
Joe looked to his lover, and knew, that though he was looking at a Human, the love they felt for each other would be transcendent beyond any time or space, and that this was why they had been brought here. He felt happy. He could not remember ever feeling so happy, not even while his father was still alive, back before the HHH came to take him away.
For the first time, Adrian shifted from his position cradled against Joe. He stared into the beautiful face, and saw now that it had suddenly become full of conflict and turmoil, all former tranquility gone from those usually placid eyes.
Perhaps Joe was having doubts. After all, Joe was a vampire, and Adrian was...
But then their auras shifted, darkness sifting into light, the two sides merging, the conflict forgotten in the blended harmony of yin and yang. That is, until the light bolted back, distancing itself from darkness, and then flaring into the air! The two auras snarled at each other, elongated shadows swaying menacingly as the sun began its stifling rise.
The darkness roared to Joe, voices deep and tinged with sorrow:
"Keep away from the human, son! Do not touch him! We can feel it in him! We can see the blood on his hands: that of his parents! He is the slime that crawled out of a murderer's womb..."
"Our murderer! It was his parents that had killed us! Those hooded horrors that came screaming into the night with torches that set our ashes into the night. That left you alone. He will carry on their legacy. He will murder you if you do not get away, Joe! Kill the human! Kill him now! You cannot trust him!"
Adrian felt a chill as he watched Joe's twisting features. He was beginning to feel uneasy, like he should leave immediately, before Joe had a chance to collect himself and attack... But then his thoughts drifted back to that night long ago; to the murmured voices of his parents back from another night of murder... the smell of blood heavy and exaggerated in Adrian's memory... the susurrous whispers and then the clear sound of a now familiar name... He stops himself from continuing down that path, but the possibility is all too horrible and possible not to consider.
He says nothing of it, deciding that like all his dreadful secrets, the most logical thing to do would be to forget the thought had ever occurred to him.
"...Joe?"
He reaches out to Joe's shoulder with a tentative hand.
"Is everything alright?"
As soon as Adrian's light touch met flesh, Joe whirled around. His formerly dark eyes a stark and bloody red. The black aura loomed over the white aura, ready to strike. Joe stalked towards Adrian, mouth open, fangs bared. He only stared back, unblinking, refusing to flinch, even as Joe's fangs edged ever closer to his exposed, white neck.
But then something... something life affirming came over Joe. He gripped his head between his hands, wrecked by convulsions as the red light of his eyes flickered on and off.
Adrian knew better than to interrupt. Joe was struggling with himself, with his birthright, with his very nature and identity in this strange and confused culture they had both found themselves born into.
And then Joe let out a cry so sorrowful, so full of pain, that it was heard through out the world, and each Human and each Vampire felt themselves simultaneously shudder.
With the scream, came light, spiraling forth like emetic Holiness. The floating soul of darkness sputtered in the air, dropped to the ground, and faded away. The darkness of Joe's darkness was gone. He was free. He looked at Adrian, gentle eyes stained with tears, face dripping with sweat, and then...
He smiled!