The Sacred Night, Chapter 13
The sun disappeared behind the Tokyo skyline, obscuring the busy streets from its light. I began to open my eyes, seeing only the last vestiges of the shine through my window, the only sunlight I was ever allowed to feel. I wished sometimes that I could live in the light again, but of all the things that changed in me when I was changed, this was the least. I had grown to like the night- it wasn't as if I had never seen the sun. I had been alive once.
I rolled over to greet my wife, who was still sleeping next to me. It was rather late for her to be in bed, since she was human and didn't need the full fourteen hours of daylight to sleep, but I supposed she could have stayed up later than usual the previous night. I myself never saw her go to sleep, since I could not stay awake after dawn no matter what I did, and as a human, it took her a bit to fall asleep after we lay down. Maybe she had remembered some neglected task and gotten up, or maybe she hadn't been able to sleep.
She was still asleep, and very deeply if the amount of movement she made was any indication. I must still have been groggy myself, since for some reason, her ki was not becoming apparent to me yet. I decided to let her sleep awhile longer, since she must have had a hard night last night or a hard day just now to sleep this long on her own. I got out of the futon and dressed, and then started to leave the room when a bright color caught my eye. There was blood on her face.
I crossed to her side of the bed quickly to investigate, and saw perhaps the worst thing I could ever see on her- a cross, carved into her flesh by a knife. That scar was too dirty to touch her. It was the emblem of my evil, my scarlet letter. She should never bear it, but there it was. Had she done this herself? Why, unless I had somehow made her unhappy, would she take my mark upon herself? If that weren't the case, someone else had mutilated her to try to make a point- that she was guilty by association, or something of that nature.
I cursed myself for not being awake to protect her when someone invaded our home, but knew the only thing I could do about it after the fact was to talk to her and, in the event she had done it herself, reassure her that she didn't have to feel bad and that I could leave if that was what she wanted. I bent down to shake her awake gently, but she didn't stir. I strained to feel her ki, but failed. A nervous fear grew inside me and I tried to push it away, telling myself she was not dead and could not be dead.
I rolled her onto her back and saw her eyes open, fishlike, staring emptily straight ahead forevermore. I closed them and covered her body with the blankets that had not kept her warm, and my hands that had not kept her safe. I didn't have anywhere to go, and thus there was no one to inform that I wouldn't be there. Her employer, however, would be expecting her eventually, and it would not do to have her coworkers thinking badly of her because she was not present. I used the phone to relay the information, since humans generally didn't take telepathic communiqués seriously, but I would use the simpler and cheaper way when notifying our vampire and bound friends.
Thankfully, there were not many details to tie up during the long period of mourning that I had just entered. Her employer had been seen to, and she did not have very many connections other than that to the human world. Her job had supported only her and the few modern conveniences of our house, since the vast majority of things had been paid in full long ago. A coroner would not be necessary, since she had probably been presumed dead back in the eighteen hundreds by any who may have known her before I did. She hadn't had any living relatives to leave behind, and had had only a few friends closer than casual acquaintances. A coroner would probably not believe her basic information anyway:
"Hello, Sir, my wife died today and I need your services,"
"All right. Name?"
"Himura Kaoru."
"Date of birth?"
"June 28, 1861,"
"Listen, kid, prank calls are rude, and this is no place for that anyway. There are dead people here, show some respect,"
"This isn't a prank, Sir; she turned 103 last month,"
"You sound awfully young to have a wife over a hundred years old,"
"Did I say my wife? I meant my, uh, mother..."
Yes, I could just picture that conversation, and it wasn't going to happen. We would simply have a private funeral and dispose of the body ourselves. I would go back to existing alone, or maybe I would just die as I'd planned so long ago. I didn't know. It didn't really matter yet. I didn't feel like feeding, so I wouldn't bother to find a donor until I got hungry, which might be never. I had not fed on anyone other than my Kaoru in such a long time that I felt I would be cheating on her to do so.
Many vampires, when feeding, would be doing things that would constitute cheating, especially younger ones- say, under 100. I, though, had been and would be loyal to my wife if and when I ever decided to feed on someone else. It would be purely feeding, nothing more. For some reason, humans of late had acquired a rather sexual view of vampires, and would offer themselves as prey. Most vampires were very obliging when it came to this. Even older ones usually would not say no to an offer, but recently changed vampires made a bigger deal of it.
In any case, I would not be doing any feeding for awhile in all likelihood, assuming I ever felt like it again. At this point, I was torn between wanting to find her killer and ask him or her why and wanting to crawl back in bed and never come out. Needing something at least mildly constructive to do, I chose the former. I went back into our bedroom and looked over the area immediately surrounding her body. I didn't see anything that would provide insight, and after only a few moments, I did crawl back in beside her.
I did not move for quite some time, and during that time, I held her and relived every minute of the last one hundred twenty five hears we had spent together. After awhile, my body even warmed her enough that I could convince myself that she was only sleeping, except for the frightening lack of movement. I stroked her soft black hair, spilling over her neck and in front of my face. I hugged her as close to myself as I could have without hurting her, had she been...
I almost wished the sun's rays were as harmful to me as many humans believed, because my window was wide open and dawn was only a matter of time. I made no effort to stand up, to speak, or to notice anything other than her. I kept straining to feel ki coming from the spot next to me, and almost succeeded in convincing myself I could, but not quite. I knew too well what had happened. Slayers often hurt bound humans to get to the vampires to which they were connected, rationalizing that they were not fully human anymore, that they had made agreements with demons. I was her demon.
It was kind of strange, really. Slayers were becoming fewer and fewer as fewer humans believed in our existence, but the slayers that did persevere were becoming more and more outlandish. They adopted more brutal methods as time went on, and had now resorted to killing their own kind to get to my kind. If I found this killer, maybe I could convince him or her that it was wrong, that it hadn't accomplished anything, that she didn't deserve punishment for my sins. Maybe I could let him or her slay me and then the slayers would realize they were causing trouble instead of fixing it. Maybe pigs would fly soon.
I ran out of thoughts eventually. I had caressed every memory, cursed every party who could be blamed, and rejected every plan for rectifying the situation. A silent ache settled over me, and I lay awake in the darkness, sometimes trembling with the impatient hurt inside me. It threatened to explode out of me, though I couldn't think what it would do once free. It compelled me to do something, if only turning over furniture and throwing glassware. I felt it tear me apart, goading me to do anything, but at the same time to stay right where I was, glued to her side, and never move.
I knew I would have to arrange her funeral and inform her friends of her death sometime, so that was my chosen activity for the moment. I sensed several vampires and bound humans in the area, and picked out the ones who had known my wife. Shinomori-san, Kaoru-dono has... been... has... passed on. Her funeral will be soon... I have to arrange it. Misao-dono, Kaoru-dono has... p-passed away. Sano, Kaoru-dono has passed away, please come help me... arrange her funeral...
A flood of responses expressing condolences came into my head as I continued telling people, stumbling over words less and less each time. I heard the voices of my friends and some I hadn't even known, but only Kaoru had. It was strangely comforting to hear all those voices while I was alone in the house. I felt their presence almost as if they'd been right there, and was glad I hadn't simply sent them all postcards or something like that. As if to confirm this, three people materialized in my living room momentarily.
Sanosuke and Aoshi didn't say anything or move immediately, but Misao walked over to where I sat and put her hand on my shoulder. I didn't really care to be touched at the moment, but I knew the gesture was well-intended, so I allowed it. I held my head in my hand, and the two men walked to me silently, not touching me or involving themselves in any way, politely waiting to be asked to speak. After a period of silence, I sat back and began on practical details. It was past midnight already, I had spent so long mourning privately.
"I can't give her an expensive funeral as she deserves, so I at least want all of her friends to be there. I've told all the vampires and bound humans I could think of, but there are some other humans, ones who didn't know she was bound. I don't know who they were, so I can't find them..."
"We'll help. Her boss would know the people she worked with," Misao offered. I nodded. It made sense.
"I don't know anywhere else she would know that kind of people except the ones who live in your building," Sano added. "Would you know them?"
"She didn't associate with the other people in the building. She resented it that they always said we were strange people. Her work friends didn't think so, since they didn't know me and they just saw that she worked at night, but so did they..." I was babbling. "She would always say the people in the building were stuck up... she hated it when people acted superior. She never did that, she was so sweet and gentle..."
They tolerated my rabble and were very patient with me, so we eventually got the details of the funeral worked out. As I had wanted, a lot of people came to pay their respects to a woman the humans called "wise beyond her years," thinking her only twenty or so years old. I left soon after the proceedings started, though, unable to control my emotions. I went home and slept. I couldn't really do anything else, and didn't really want to anyway. I had lost every desire to live and every sense of caring what happened to me. I began to think that maybe I would just slowly wind down until I died.
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yes, you just read what you think you did. Be not disheartened- you will not be disappointed when you see where I'm going with this, if you haven't figured it out yet.
The-Great-Monk-Grl: i update fast because i had a few chapters written ahead of time, so i was always posting something i wrote over a week ago, though now i'm sort of behind on that...
PraiseDivineMercy: i think aoshi makes an excellent vamp. Misao is one, yes, but i don't think it's tragic. I like vamps! And i didn't originally mean for a hand to hand fight to happen, but he didn't have his sword, and it wouldn't be right for aoshi to be armed and not him.
Cattibrie393: thanks, i like the salamander, too. It's sort of like a lizard, which is the closest i could come to a dragon, but not really a lizard. Thanks for saying i did a good job. Shishio's lover's name is Yumi.
Unique-starfish: glad you like aoshi and the story. Aoshi makes an excellent vamp, ne? You mean you're grounded from ff.net just because you didn't tell your mom about it? That's silly... my parents are thrilled that i like to write, and they don't really know or care what it's about. Don't get yourself in trouble, though.
Cheesecake: oh ok, i thought you might have been kidding, but wasn't sure. There will probably be some fighting relatively soon, but not with aoshi.
Maeve Riannon: hope you weren't disappointed. You'll find out more about Aoshi's and Misao's arrangements later.
Yuhi-thedoerofevildeeds: if you are psychic, tell me what i should write next, lol...
Chibi-Yuushi: so sorry you were banned... i feel your pain! Okina has suspected for a long time, and he's not one for showing anger, so that's why he's so calm. Glad you liked the fight scene. I thought an unarmed fight would be original, and plus i had neglected to realize until it was too late that a salamander cannot carry a sword... *blushes* thank you for saying i'm so good... really i think you're awesome and i'm really dying here waiting for more RtK... and as for Hannya and the others, they died in Tokyo as per the manga... i may put more explanation of that later, but i may not. Glad you liked my take on hiko and katsura. I find them both fascinating and underused, and most people do use hiko in absurd situations. i like to probe more into his actual character, not just the funny things about him.