Taste Of Eternity
Disclaimer = I do not own them and I never will. ^_^
Fed up with everything and unable to shake his self-induced torture, he headed over to Central Park. It was quiet for once, completely devoid of anything living. Heero's stomach lurched and he narrowed his eyes. In his battle against his resurfacing humanity he had forgotten all about his craving. Scanning the dark grounds, Heero determined that there wasn't a human around for miles.
"Figures." He muttered, crashing down on the soft grass. He leaned his head against the smooth bark of an aged oak tree and stared up at the sky through it's bowing branches. "It's so beautiful.." he murmured, watching as a streak of red shot across the heavens. "A shooting star."
The instant the words were out of his mouth, a searing pain shot through his mind. It felt like someone was attacking him with their Power, but no one was there. Heero sat bolt upright and looked around frantically, eyes bulging. The wind rustled the dry tree branches and already fallen leaves swirled across the dirty cement, but the park remained silent and empty.
"What the hell was that?" Heero wondered aloud, getting cautiously to his feet. His question was greeted with a high pitched giggle. "What the fu-" he gasped, whirling around. Standing directly behind him was a tiny girl, no older than two. She looked curiously up at him with big aquamarine eyes that were sparkling with laughter.
*How could she possibly have gotten here without me sensing her?!* Heero thought desperately. *Come to think of it, I don't even sense her now…*
"What are you?" Heero asked, taking a step towards the little girl. She laughed and stepped backwards, then proceeded to twirl around in a little half circle. Her golden hair fanned out behind her and fell softly back down at her shoulders, yet her gaze never left his face. "WHAT ARE YOU?!" Heero demanded, extending his Power to reach into the girl's mind. The odd thing was, he couldn't find one. It was as though she hadn't a thought in her head.
Heero, more curious than anything, reached forward to grab ahold of the girl's arm. His fingers clutched nothing but air and in mere seconds, the little girl simply vanished. He stood frozen on the spot, his hand still curled around the spot where the girl stood. "Now I'm a bit unnerved." he commented to the empty park.
"Hee hee!"
It was that giggle again. He whirled around to see the same girl standing halfway across the park perched on the edge of the fountain. Heero focused his Power on her location and quickly teleported over there. "Tell me, what do you want from me?"
The little blonde haired beauty looked up at him quizzically. She tilted her head to one side, then to the other, as though he were a puzzle she was trying to figure out. His coal black eyes met her transparent blue ones and held her gaze. After a staring contest that lasted at least ten minutes, the little girl burst out laughing. "Come play with me again!" she commanded in a voice that sounded strangely like music. "I'll be waiting."
"WAIT!" Heero yelled, getting the feeling she was about to disappear again. She giggled in reply and held up eight of her fingers, then three. "Bye," she whispered and dissolved into the air without a trace.
Heero sat down heavily on the bench where she had previously been standing, going over the nights events in his head. Could it possibly be some sort of strange hallucination due to not being able to feed? Or maybe he was still upset from the events that occurred earlier that day.
No. Whatever had just happened was definitely real. Heero took one last look around the park to make sure that girl still wasn't hanging around somewhere. He got the surprise of his life. Instead of the little girl, he saw…himself. There was no doubt about it. Halfway hidden behind a tree was the unmistakable figure of himself. It felt like he was looking into a mirror, a mirror that moved.
He got slowly to his feet, his hand moving to the dagger concealed cleverly in his overcoat. He knew that some vampires were skilled at shapeshifting. Perhaps this one found it amusing to scare the shit out of unsuspecting victims by taking on their form and then calling a surprise attack. Heero, being talented in all aspects of his Power, concealed his aura and reached out to inspect the clone's. He gasped, staggered backward and immediatley sat back down again.
This was no shapeshifter. The aura was identical to his own. The person standing in front of him was…well, him! "Impossible." Heero whispered hoarsely, his head spinning. "What is this?!"
His "twin" caught him staring and grinned, as though he had just completed some important mission. Then, he too, disappeared.
Heero passed out cold on the unwelcoming cement.
He awoke the next morning to something hard and pointy poking him in the side. "Unnh.." he complained, rolling over on his back. A faint giggle reached his ears.
Heero's eyes flew open at once, and he sat upright, his dagger unsheathed and armed in his hand. But instead of the little girl he thought was laughing, there stood Duo with his arms wrapped around some girl.
The girl giggled again and tightened her grip around Duo's neck. "Hiya handsome." She said, winking. "You look familiar."
Heero rubbed his eyes with one hand and clutched at his head with the other. Where was he?
"Uh, Heero, buddy, you okay?" Duo asked, tossing another pillow behind Heero's head. "What happened to you man?"
"Where am I?" Heero croaked. "The apartment?" Duo nodded.
"I went looking for you around 4 last night. Found you knocked out in the park. Did some punk vamp jump you?"
Heero shook his head slowly, remembering the little girl's haunting blue eyes. "No…I'd rather not talk about it."
Duo shrugged. "Your choice dude. Oh, by the way, this is Hilde. She's my new favorite fledgling."
Heero glanced at the girl hanging all over Duo and offered her a thin lipped smile. She was the same girl that he had bumped into yesterday. The one he could have saved…
If he didn't know for a fact it was the same person, he never would have recognized her. Her long black hair was cut shorter and was pulled back into a messy ponytail, leaving a few strands to frame her face. She was wearing more makeup than she was upon their first meeting, and a skimpy red dress to match. And her once laughing eyes were now as soulless as Heero's himself. Duo always made quick work of his victims.
"I'm gonna show Hilde how the world works today." Duo said proudly. "Wanna come hunting with us?"
Heero glanced from Hilde to Duo with disgust. There was no doubt in his mind that the two planned to have some "after dinner entertainment" that he really didn't care to witness. "No thanks." He said shortly. Duo shrugged. "Fine by me. But don't come looking for my help if you get your ass kicked again tonight."
Snarling, Heero grabbed his black overcoat off the hook and flung open the door. "I didn't-" he began but Duo waved his hand dismissivley. "Yeah, yeah whatever."
Heero left the house, slamming the door with all his strength. The windowpanes rattled and the small glass window on the door shattered into a thousand pieces.
"Damn it!" Duo swore, looking over the door with dismay. "The whole things out off the hinges!" Hilde shook her head. "I don't like him very much."
"Don't worry about it babe, no one does."
Heero walked down the street, muttering dark words under his breath. His little confrontation with Duo was soon forgotten as he got nearer and nearer to Central Park. Last night's events flashed through his mind like a movie on rewind, playing the unexplainable images of the little girl and himself, mocking his ignorance as to their meaning. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as he recalled the girl's chilling laugh, and he quickly shook it out of his mind.
"Whatever it was, it was important." He mumbled, making a sharp right and heading into the park. "Maybe I can find an answer here.."
Heero stepped through the arches leading into the park and walked to the spot where last night's events had occurred. He leaned up against the tree, as if in a daze, and reached out with his Power, trying to determine if there were any traces of what had transpired.
There was nothing.
"Figures," Heero mumbled, turning to go. "It'll probably always be a mystery." He was just about to re-exit the park when he froze. The fresh scent of blood wafted through the air, screaming it's presence nearby. A warm rush traveled through Heero's body as he locked onto the scent and started off in that direction. The thrill of the hunt.
As he got closer and closer to the source of the blood, Heero heard someone cursing. He looked a little to his right to see a girl with poofy brown hair and milky blue eyes sitting on a park bench, grabbing her elbow in pain.
"Dammit!" she hissed, eyes watering. "I knew I should have worn elbow guards today!" She bit her bottom lip to keep from crying and looked down at her elbow. The entire first layer of skin was scraped off and fresh red blood was leaking through her fingers. She whimpered in pain and looked down at her rollerblades in disdain.
"This is all your fault!" she reprimanded the blades, chuckling a little through her tears.
"What happened to you?" A voice from behind inquired. The girl turned around to see a tall, muscular young man looking down at her. She sniffled and managed a smile.
"Tripped on my new blades…" she offered, grinning weakly up at the pale stranger, who nodded through his dark brown bangs. "But I am, after all, Catherine 'The Klutz' Barton."
"It seems pretty bad, let me have a look at it." Heero commanded, sitting down next to the girl, a slight smirk tugging at his lips. She looked a little taken aback but tilted her elbow towards him anyway.
"I don't even know how I tripped," the girl was saying, babbling on as Heero inspected the injury with hungry eyes. "At least there was no one else around to see me take that embarrassing fall…hey, what are you-?"
The girl's rambling was cut off as Heero moved in closer to her, his arm encircling her waist. She gave a little gasp of surprise and tried to pull away, but his lips were already at her neck. "Don't fight me." he ordered in a whisper as his sharp fangs pierced her delicate skin. The smell of the blood on her was driving him wild. She gave a little sound of protest before her eyes rolled back, then shut.
Heero felt the warm blood rushing past his lips and pulled her in even closer. She tasted so real, so alive, that he was finding it hard to stop himself. The scent of her was inside him and he couldn't pull away. Her skin was getting colder now, the only warm point being at the spot where Heero's lips rested.
*Stop. Stop. Stop.* Heero commanded himself, knowing she would be dead soon. But the other side of his brain, the one that craved blood in the first place, told him otherwise. *Who would know?* he reasoned with himself, drawing out a few more sweet tastes of her blood. *Who would even care?*
"No!" Heero yelled suddenly, pushing himself away. The girl whimpered and slumped against the bench, leaving a smear of red as she fell. Her face was ashen and her lips blue, but her chest still rose and fell with the effort of breathing.
Heero's eyes were wide, his own breath coming in short gasps. "Why?" he questioned aloud, staggering backwards. "Why?"
Why had he stopped? Why had he let her live? Questions and emotions swirled through his head, and he couldn't answer any of them.
Duo wouldn't have done it. He would have kept going until the end. That's why Duo, weak as he was, would always be the better vampire. And why he himself would always be the better human.
Human?
Heero turned on his heel and fled, terrified to be alone with that girl, but even more scared to be alone with himself. And in the back of his head, that strange little girl was laughing again. Laughing in her voice of music.
Disclaimer = I do not own them and I never will. ^_^
Fed up with everything and unable to shake his self-induced torture, he headed over to Central Park. It was quiet for once, completely devoid of anything living. Heero's stomach lurched and he narrowed his eyes. In his battle against his resurfacing humanity he had forgotten all about his craving. Scanning the dark grounds, Heero determined that there wasn't a human around for miles.
"Figures." He muttered, crashing down on the soft grass. He leaned his head against the smooth bark of an aged oak tree and stared up at the sky through it's bowing branches. "It's so beautiful.." he murmured, watching as a streak of red shot across the heavens. "A shooting star."
The instant the words were out of his mouth, a searing pain shot through his mind. It felt like someone was attacking him with their Power, but no one was there. Heero sat bolt upright and looked around frantically, eyes bulging. The wind rustled the dry tree branches and already fallen leaves swirled across the dirty cement, but the park remained silent and empty.
"What the hell was that?" Heero wondered aloud, getting cautiously to his feet. His question was greeted with a high pitched giggle. "What the fu-" he gasped, whirling around. Standing directly behind him was a tiny girl, no older than two. She looked curiously up at him with big aquamarine eyes that were sparkling with laughter.
*How could she possibly have gotten here without me sensing her?!* Heero thought desperately. *Come to think of it, I don't even sense her now…*
"What are you?" Heero asked, taking a step towards the little girl. She laughed and stepped backwards, then proceeded to twirl around in a little half circle. Her golden hair fanned out behind her and fell softly back down at her shoulders, yet her gaze never left his face. "WHAT ARE YOU?!" Heero demanded, extending his Power to reach into the girl's mind. The odd thing was, he couldn't find one. It was as though she hadn't a thought in her head.
Heero, more curious than anything, reached forward to grab ahold of the girl's arm. His fingers clutched nothing but air and in mere seconds, the little girl simply vanished. He stood frozen on the spot, his hand still curled around the spot where the girl stood. "Now I'm a bit unnerved." he commented to the empty park.
"Hee hee!"
It was that giggle again. He whirled around to see the same girl standing halfway across the park perched on the edge of the fountain. Heero focused his Power on her location and quickly teleported over there. "Tell me, what do you want from me?"
The little blonde haired beauty looked up at him quizzically. She tilted her head to one side, then to the other, as though he were a puzzle she was trying to figure out. His coal black eyes met her transparent blue ones and held her gaze. After a staring contest that lasted at least ten minutes, the little girl burst out laughing. "Come play with me again!" she commanded in a voice that sounded strangely like music. "I'll be waiting."
"WAIT!" Heero yelled, getting the feeling she was about to disappear again. She giggled in reply and held up eight of her fingers, then three. "Bye," she whispered and dissolved into the air without a trace.
Heero sat down heavily on the bench where she had previously been standing, going over the nights events in his head. Could it possibly be some sort of strange hallucination due to not being able to feed? Or maybe he was still upset from the events that occurred earlier that day.
No. Whatever had just happened was definitely real. Heero took one last look around the park to make sure that girl still wasn't hanging around somewhere. He got the surprise of his life. Instead of the little girl, he saw…himself. There was no doubt about it. Halfway hidden behind a tree was the unmistakable figure of himself. It felt like he was looking into a mirror, a mirror that moved.
He got slowly to his feet, his hand moving to the dagger concealed cleverly in his overcoat. He knew that some vampires were skilled at shapeshifting. Perhaps this one found it amusing to scare the shit out of unsuspecting victims by taking on their form and then calling a surprise attack. Heero, being talented in all aspects of his Power, concealed his aura and reached out to inspect the clone's. He gasped, staggered backward and immediatley sat back down again.
This was no shapeshifter. The aura was identical to his own. The person standing in front of him was…well, him! "Impossible." Heero whispered hoarsely, his head spinning. "What is this?!"
His "twin" caught him staring and grinned, as though he had just completed some important mission. Then, he too, disappeared.
Heero passed out cold on the unwelcoming cement.
He awoke the next morning to something hard and pointy poking him in the side. "Unnh.." he complained, rolling over on his back. A faint giggle reached his ears.
Heero's eyes flew open at once, and he sat upright, his dagger unsheathed and armed in his hand. But instead of the little girl he thought was laughing, there stood Duo with his arms wrapped around some girl.
The girl giggled again and tightened her grip around Duo's neck. "Hiya handsome." She said, winking. "You look familiar."
Heero rubbed his eyes with one hand and clutched at his head with the other. Where was he?
"Uh, Heero, buddy, you okay?" Duo asked, tossing another pillow behind Heero's head. "What happened to you man?"
"Where am I?" Heero croaked. "The apartment?" Duo nodded.
"I went looking for you around 4 last night. Found you knocked out in the park. Did some punk vamp jump you?"
Heero shook his head slowly, remembering the little girl's haunting blue eyes. "No…I'd rather not talk about it."
Duo shrugged. "Your choice dude. Oh, by the way, this is Hilde. She's my new favorite fledgling."
Heero glanced at the girl hanging all over Duo and offered her a thin lipped smile. She was the same girl that he had bumped into yesterday. The one he could have saved…
If he didn't know for a fact it was the same person, he never would have recognized her. Her long black hair was cut shorter and was pulled back into a messy ponytail, leaving a few strands to frame her face. She was wearing more makeup than she was upon their first meeting, and a skimpy red dress to match. And her once laughing eyes were now as soulless as Heero's himself. Duo always made quick work of his victims.
"I'm gonna show Hilde how the world works today." Duo said proudly. "Wanna come hunting with us?"
Heero glanced from Hilde to Duo with disgust. There was no doubt in his mind that the two planned to have some "after dinner entertainment" that he really didn't care to witness. "No thanks." He said shortly. Duo shrugged. "Fine by me. But don't come looking for my help if you get your ass kicked again tonight."
Snarling, Heero grabbed his black overcoat off the hook and flung open the door. "I didn't-" he began but Duo waved his hand dismissivley. "Yeah, yeah whatever."
Heero left the house, slamming the door with all his strength. The windowpanes rattled and the small glass window on the door shattered into a thousand pieces.
"Damn it!" Duo swore, looking over the door with dismay. "The whole things out off the hinges!" Hilde shook her head. "I don't like him very much."
"Don't worry about it babe, no one does."
Heero walked down the street, muttering dark words under his breath. His little confrontation with Duo was soon forgotten as he got nearer and nearer to Central Park. Last night's events flashed through his mind like a movie on rewind, playing the unexplainable images of the little girl and himself, mocking his ignorance as to their meaning. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as he recalled the girl's chilling laugh, and he quickly shook it out of his mind.
"Whatever it was, it was important." He mumbled, making a sharp right and heading into the park. "Maybe I can find an answer here.."
Heero stepped through the arches leading into the park and walked to the spot where last night's events had occurred. He leaned up against the tree, as if in a daze, and reached out with his Power, trying to determine if there were any traces of what had transpired.
There was nothing.
"Figures," Heero mumbled, turning to go. "It'll probably always be a mystery." He was just about to re-exit the park when he froze. The fresh scent of blood wafted through the air, screaming it's presence nearby. A warm rush traveled through Heero's body as he locked onto the scent and started off in that direction. The thrill of the hunt.
As he got closer and closer to the source of the blood, Heero heard someone cursing. He looked a little to his right to see a girl with poofy brown hair and milky blue eyes sitting on a park bench, grabbing her elbow in pain.
"Dammit!" she hissed, eyes watering. "I knew I should have worn elbow guards today!" She bit her bottom lip to keep from crying and looked down at her elbow. The entire first layer of skin was scraped off and fresh red blood was leaking through her fingers. She whimpered in pain and looked down at her rollerblades in disdain.
"This is all your fault!" she reprimanded the blades, chuckling a little through her tears.
"What happened to you?" A voice from behind inquired. The girl turned around to see a tall, muscular young man looking down at her. She sniffled and managed a smile.
"Tripped on my new blades…" she offered, grinning weakly up at the pale stranger, who nodded through his dark brown bangs. "But I am, after all, Catherine 'The Klutz' Barton."
"It seems pretty bad, let me have a look at it." Heero commanded, sitting down next to the girl, a slight smirk tugging at his lips. She looked a little taken aback but tilted her elbow towards him anyway.
"I don't even know how I tripped," the girl was saying, babbling on as Heero inspected the injury with hungry eyes. "At least there was no one else around to see me take that embarrassing fall…hey, what are you-?"
The girl's rambling was cut off as Heero moved in closer to her, his arm encircling her waist. She gave a little gasp of surprise and tried to pull away, but his lips were already at her neck. "Don't fight me." he ordered in a whisper as his sharp fangs pierced her delicate skin. The smell of the blood on her was driving him wild. She gave a little sound of protest before her eyes rolled back, then shut.
Heero felt the warm blood rushing past his lips and pulled her in even closer. She tasted so real, so alive, that he was finding it hard to stop himself. The scent of her was inside him and he couldn't pull away. Her skin was getting colder now, the only warm point being at the spot where Heero's lips rested.
*Stop. Stop. Stop.* Heero commanded himself, knowing she would be dead soon. But the other side of his brain, the one that craved blood in the first place, told him otherwise. *Who would know?* he reasoned with himself, drawing out a few more sweet tastes of her blood. *Who would even care?*
"No!" Heero yelled suddenly, pushing himself away. The girl whimpered and slumped against the bench, leaving a smear of red as she fell. Her face was ashen and her lips blue, but her chest still rose and fell with the effort of breathing.
Heero's eyes were wide, his own breath coming in short gasps. "Why?" he questioned aloud, staggering backwards. "Why?"
Why had he stopped? Why had he let her live? Questions and emotions swirled through his head, and he couldn't answer any of them.
Duo wouldn't have done it. He would have kept going until the end. That's why Duo, weak as he was, would always be the better vampire. And why he himself would always be the better human.
Human?
Heero turned on his heel and fled, terrified to be alone with that girl, but even more scared to be alone with himself. And in the back of his head, that strange little girl was laughing again. Laughing in her voice of music.