Chapter Four- A Madman's Punishment
Her skin was coloured in a soft orange light as the sun was starting to rise from the valleys, Felicity had slept all night and the light was starting to stir her. Soon i would have to trap her in the darkness once more; she didn't even know what i had done to her. I had turned her into a monster.
Her skin was scarily white when the sun wasn't giving off a soft orange glow, i would never see those perfect brown orbs again they would be replaced by blood red iris's, she would no longer crave warm bread but warm crimson liquid.
I had created a dark fiend to join me in the shadows.
She let out a soft, painful groan in pain as the sun rose on our fragile bodies. I quickly closed the thick drapes covering the room in darkness.
Her new eyes flickered open before burying her head in the blood covered pillow. She let out a hiss and her red orbs found me.
"What did you do to me?!" she screamed as she tried to find her feet.
"I can't lose you" I whisper, knowing full well that she could hear me.
She was shaky, before moving towards me and slamming me into a wall with her new found strength. "Myrnin... did you change me?" she asked before letting out a painful howl and dropping to her knee. I stood where she left me. She knew of my selfish act, how i had taken away any chance of her having a normal life. "Why?! You know i didn't want this?!" she screeched before trying to choke me.
"Because i love you! I want to be with you forever, Felicity! This is the only way" I plead, wanting her to understand but it was no use. I had taken away any chance of her having a baby, a family, of growing old.
"You do not love me" She hissed before releasing me and stepping away, "You love yourself, Myrnin, you are too scared of accepting sadness or grief because you'll be the one who is hurt. You have turned me into a creature; i have lost my soul to a monster" i saw the burning passion in her eyes and i knew her plan immediately.
In a blink of an eye she was gone and i followed. I followed her like a lost dog, as she wandered into the sunlight that shone over our garden, as she and i screamed in pain as the sun scolded our chalk-white skin but she keeps walking, then crawling trying to find more light. I watch as her skin is set on fire, her hands holding out for me but I'm too late. I cannot save her a third time. Felicity Greycroft is no more. She is a charred body in the garden of her home.
I throw myself back into the shadows. The disgusting smell of burning flesh attacking my nostrils. The one thing I tried to avoid, turning my beautiful lover into a monster, her last thoughts of me full of hate. I deserved to lose her, i learnt my lesson, i was no good. It took losing Felicity to show how selfish i was.
I sit in the shade, laughing. Laughing so hard tears fall. I deserved to be punished and Felicity was finally safe from me, she no longer had to live her life a long side mine.
I stand and walked into the light. Not to die, to live and face what the world will do to me as a punishment for turning an innocent, young woman into a dark creature with a thirst for blood and hate.
Present day
My eyes flicker open, in a familiar place, my lair. And there she is- her back to me, cleaning up after a mess i probably caused. She was wearing strange clothes but the fashion was changing so often i could hard keep up. She wiggles her rear as she completed her task, her brunette hair pulled back into long pony tail also swayed as she teased me.
I zapped behind her, wrapping her in my cool arms loving her warm body against mine. i moved my lips to her ear, "Oh sweetheart, i had the worst dream!" i murmured as i pressed sweet kisses to her temple. "I can't stand the thought of being on this earth without you"
I felt a sharp jab in my ribs, i released her realising i probably scared her. Felicity spun on her heel to face me, only it wasn't felicity. The girl was young and clearly angry. To ear buds swinging from her ears, i rattled my brain to try and remember what century i was in. "Who are you?!" i ask, ready to kill.
"What do you think you're doing, Myrnin?!" she snaps at me, clearly not frightened of me or doesn't know of what i am. "I am not your next meal!"
"Where's Felicity?" I ask the stranger, "Felicity?!" i cry out, then realisation sets in. I return to my armchair. I know where Felicity is, i know who the young girl in my home is. I close my eyes and count to ten, finding it helps me return to 'normal'. "I am very sorry Claire. I was a bit dazed from my nap"
Claire comes to my side and kneels by my side, her small hands in mine. "Myrnin that wasn't a nap, you were more like in a coma, i came in calling your name and you didn't even stir." She smiles sadly. "You seemed like you needed the forty winks"
"Well Claire, i got enough to last me a life time" I reply trying to lighten the mood.
She was not biting. "Who's Felicity? You kept murmuring her name while you slept."
"A friend from many, many years ago" i state, trying to end the conversation. Claire didn't need to know how much of a monster i could be.
"You can talk to me, you know" she squeezes my cold hands and i appreciate the offer. I kiss her forehead, leaving my lips linger on her soft skin, needing to feel a connection.
"Thank you, sweet girl" I pull away slightly, looking into her eyes, "but my memories are enough to give an innocent thing like you nightmares. I won't burden you with my guilty crimes."
"You have paid enough." She whispers getting to her feet. "You can't be held to you crimes forever. You're a good man, Myrnin."
Only if you knew, Claire, only if you knew.
"I have been left on this earth as punishment." I whisper, catching her eye line again. "I am over a thousand years old and for the rest of forever i shall live alone because i spoilt the one thing that actually made me hang on to my humanity. I am no man, Claire; i am an animal, a beast with no limits." Her eyes look straight at me, no blinking or looking away. She wanted to know the beast and she believes it has been tamed. "I have killed thousands of humans, maybe even millions. And yet i feel no remorse or need to change my ways." I tap my finger against my chin. "Do you think any less of me now?"
"Stop trying to scare me, Myrnin. I know what you have done to survive, humans kill millions of animals in a year to survive, it is no different." Claire states, her eyes betray her by looking slightly to the left. A small sign she was not expecting me to bring out a horrid fact like that. And yet her words burn into my skull, why was i trying to scare her off? She was the closest thing to a friend i had in this century. Then it hit me, how could i drag Claire in to my dark mind like i had done to felicity? An innocent young woman with a brain that made millions of people jealous, a pretty face and an award winning smile that could tempt angels to commit crimes. My punishment is to live alone with my insanity and yet i seemed to have trapped another small fly.
"Claire, please understand this: i want to kill you, i want to taste your sweet blood again, i want to feel you cool in my arms." I hum, drooling at the thought. Claire had now taken a visible step away and her heart hammered against her rib cage. "Felicity was smart, she ran away. But you keep returning to me, teasing Me." i catch her in my arms, looking into her hazel eyes her fear and sadness shining through them. I lean my face into the nape of her neck and press my cool lips to the vulnerable skin. "And yet i won't." I whisper, looking up at her face, her eyes now showing me that she was relieved that i had not sunk my teeth into her. "As i can't face a world where i kill two innocent woman that i care deeply about." I release her and turn away from her, stalking down passage ways not ready for her to question me more.
Claire didn't need the burden of knowing how i wanted to keep her forever but i had learnt from my mistakes, by time i finish with her she will want that too and not in a figure of speech matter. She will willingly give herself to me: Heart, body and soul.
I made my way into my little kitchen area and peered into my fridge and picking out a cool, bag of blood. Raising the crimson liquid into the air, i shouted out into thin air, "A toast to Felicity Greycroft, In Your Absence I have gone well and truly insane"