Thank you all for your interest in T-M-T-E-T-S and the reviews you have all left.
It is both an honor and a privilege to have this story, which was initially intended as a 'practice dummy' (meaning: I had only written it as a means of diverging from the usual genre I write) - to have caught your delight!
Lots of love your way.
This chapter will be short and sweet while I prepare the upcoming one.
Enjoy.
THE MOON THAT EMBRACES THE SUN
Chapter VIII
Requiem of the Queen
Whipping against the glass of the double-hung windows adorning the beige-tiled scullery, the thrumming torrent's dogged pour echoed emphatically across the darkened, disorderly kitchenette, as its comfortless peal enhanced the cold emptiness within.
A flash of inbound lightning struck, flaring like a burst of light through the crystalline windows; and illuminating - for the briefest of seconds - the solemn figure that stood absently in the corner of the desolate room, leaning her tremulous body onto the brass tainted sink for, both physical and emotional, support.
Filling the metallic basin with soap and water, Regina carefully submerged the sullied dishes within it, delicately sponging their white bone china back to its impeccable condition, before assembling the last set of plates along the drying rack beside her.
Each movement made from her graceful limbs, appeared to be almost mechanical in motion, as she continued to go about every precipice of the kitchenware and appliances that lay around her. Turning toward the batter-splattered counter behind her, she diligently cleaned the residual mix that had dried against the tiles, before kneeling onto the ground - with the same robotic gestures as earlier - to wipe away the scattered remnants.
Pensively, she bore her phlegmatic gaze onto the floor. Her hands, never once, stopping in their task.
The stillness that enveloped her being resembled that of a porcelain doll upon a glass shelf, crafted to be beauty incarnate.
Nevertheless, for all the beauty she unknowingly possessed, a tinge of somberness veiled her like a shadow shrouding a star; and the glass mask she persistently wore to hide the silently breaking heart, within, began to slowly chip away.
Reasoning had long since been led astray by the chaotic muddle of emotions swaying her heart, like a boat in the middle of a tempest, as it kept trying to make sense of what had previously transpired between her Uncles, her siblings, but most importantly...
...Her Father.
"What of your power, Regina? What is your ability?"
The accustomed weight in her chest had gotten ten times heavier than lead, as it suddenly dropped to the pit of her stomach in a moment of sheer terror. An unruly tension slowly ransacked every nerve in her body, surrendering her into a havoc of apprehensive distress that froze her in place; and, unable to manage much movement in its stationary condition, could only clutch helplessly at the fabric of her younger brother's pajamas.
And she knew Akumu was aware of this fact.
As he gently guided her toward the seat behind them, she vaguely noticed his lips move into - what appeared to be - an assurance, before he turned away from her and faced her Father with an equal grounded scowl.
Her wavering heart rang loudly against her eardrums. Loud enough, that it began to slowly drown out all the background noise around her; and, had she not noticed the obvious agitation in both Hime and Kaname - at the time - she surely would have missed their failed attempts at concealing the fact that she was a...
Her hand suddenly stopped wiping the floor.
'Okaa-sama,' she mutedly called out from the depths of her pained soul. 'Okaa-sama...I promised...I promised you that, no matter what happened...I'd be brave...'
Quickly lifting her hands toward her mouth, she contained the burning wails within, as they rose from the back of her throat like a volcano bubbling before an explosion.
'That I would be strong...'
Clenching her teeth, the sound of her ivory molars pressing against one another rebounded off the walls.
'And for their sake...I must not cry!'
"Nee-sama is-!"
"Nee-san is actually-!"
But the silence overpowered the high-strung words with a vacuous sound louder than even the flowing blood in her veins, when Akumu - her supercilious, but gentle-hearted brother - told Reiji, her Father:
"You just saw it for yourself, didn't you?"
She felt the air get vaccumed out of her lungs in that brief moment, as her blood froze in her veins.
Remorsefully, she realized that - for that short-lived second - she had assumed Akumu to be capable of directly divulging the truth she had so desperately wished never to reveal to anyone.
Least of all, her own Father!
But she was wrong.
So very wrong.
Lamenting the poison that had filled her heart then, she forced back the sobs that escaped her lips, muffling them behind nimble fingers fervently clasped together, as if in prayer.
Because, just as her siblings wished to live a life free from the discrimination of a vampire's existence. So, too, did she wish to live a life that didn't blatantly expose the difference between them, like oil over water.
"Did I, now?" Had been her Father's incredulous response, as she watched him arch a brow in noticeable scrutiny. "And pray tell, when was this?"
"A few seconds ago, actually. You really didn't see?" Akumu had scoffed, as if making fun of Reiji's lack of attention, which the older male apparently disliked. "Those glasses must be for show then."
A sharp, stinging pain shot through her chest as she raised a quivering fist toward it, grasping the robe that covered her partial nudity.
'Akumu-kun...'
What had been in his mind - in his heart - she wondered, when he added what followed next?
"What is it then?"
"She stopped my powers from getting out of control."
Silence had encased the room almost immediately, as incredulity filled the eyes of her other siblings over what had been confessed.
Akumu.
Her younger brother...
The most forthright person she knew...
Had lied.
Lifting herself off the floor rather feebly, she glanced at the dread-painted world through the crystalline glass, with a sadness about her that knew no refuge.
"Is that so?"
"Yeah, it is."
With a soft, yet sad, smile she recalled the times that Father Komori had exposed his lies. Akumu was as transparent as pure water, and was obvious enough to wear his deception on his face, by quirking his lips in an almost impish sort of smile that - unbeknownst to the boy - made him conspicuous of what he so desperately tried to hide from the priest.
Akumu was never, never, someone who could tell a lie while carrying such a straight face.
But, in this case, he had been resilient with his fabrication; and kept up the credible facet for the others to believe in his words.
And she had no one else but herself to blame for-...
A faint 'clink' reached her ears.
Lifting a hand toward her alabaster cheeks, Regina could feel the warm liquid stain her fingertips as the fresh set of tears poured from her eyes, and slid onto the cold, tiled floor.
"May not be much to a high class vampire like yourself. But she's essential to all of us in every way. Nee-chan...Nee-chan is the most special one of us all."
And those words could never have rung louder than they did that one, single moment when - standing before her Father and Uncles - it was her younger brother who stood to defend her; and the wish she so dearly longed to make real.
She was happy.
Undeniably so.
To be treasured in such a way - admired - was the highest of praises for anyone to experience as she did that moment.
But just as she stood there, humbled by the acclamation and love her brother exalted unto the purebreds, so too did another half of her begin to perish beneath the pain of what she consistently tried to blind herself from.
Deep within, she could hear a muffled 'crack'.
And she knew.
She knew that the 'crack' was none other than her own shattering heart, wrapped within a fallacious strength that was nothing more than a simple mirage.
An image.
An illusion.
A lie.
Because the truth of it all was...
She wasn't strong at all.
An onslaught of fiercely contained sobs rose from the darkest parts of her broken soul - with a force greater than the rampaging storm outside - to vocalize its disconsolate aria. Not wanting to capture the attention of those that lived in the manor, she harshly covered her mouth; muffling the suffocating wails that choked her lungs and blurred her eyes from the world around her.
Tears, left unrestrained by their disconsolate owner, ran across her cheeks and onto the floor, as the teenager poured her heart out onto the enveloping darkness that comfortingly hid her frailty from those around her.
It no longer mattered what she did. The truth of it all could not be changed.
This constant reminder that she was not like her siblings, not like her Uncles, and certainly not like her beloved Otou-sama would always and forever be engraved in stone; and with it, the truth that within this hierarchy of a supremacist race, she would always be no more than an outcast.
A sheep within a pack of wolves.
A prey that would, forevermore lay, within a world of predators.
All because she was born from a human mother. Her dearest Mother! The woman who had loved these men, and their children, more than anything in the whole wide world! Who gave her own life to grant them theirs!
Through the memory of that wonderful woman, Regina had grown to accept the irrevocable truth about her own self. Her mother's warm kindness and unwavering courage, were what Regina aspired to reach the most.
And she believed that, by having accepted this humanity of hers she could...would be-!
'No!' she denied, shaking her head as her nails scraped against the wood of the cabinets she fiercely grasped.
It was more like she had learned to accept it, and the weight that came along with it.
From the most feeble, weakened constitution that overcame her, to the ephemeral and limited lifespan that she feared would take her away from her siblings when they still needed her.
Because to her, there was nothing more frightening that knowing your imminent death would separate you from those you love.
Yet, despite that, she had persuaded herself to remain positive. If anything, for the sake of her siblings.
Because, even with her consistent growth that well stated their immortality against her own mortality, their Fathers' presence would be able to replace her own, someday.
Saddening, perhaps. But to her, that was all that mattered.
At least, that was all that had mattered.
But what had been the point, then, of accepting herself - of recognizing - for once, her own mortality, when there was still a part of her that latched onto the bubble she enveloped herself in?
Roughly wiping the tears in her eyes, she tried to recompose herself, to no avail.
"I know," she softly confessed, amid the snivels mercilessly escaping her lips, "I know that I can't change who I am. I know that! So...So why is it that I still can't-?"
...Accept it...?
Deep within her, she knew the answer to the unfinished question.
Because, just like a human contained an insatiable greed within their heart, she too was an avaricious one.
She coveted, just like any other human, even if her greed was not a materialistic one.
And after the passing of her dearest mother, that yearning - that wish - only grew larger.
She longed for a single thing.
One sole thing.
To be loved.
To be loved by the one, and only, parent she had left in this world.
And it was that hideously selfish part of her - that human avarice for affection - that began to show her to what extent she was capable of.
Even if it meant leaving the weight of her consequences for her siblings to carry.
Because she could've said something!
Should have said something!
Speak out above Akumu's lie! Tell her Father and Uncles that she had no powers! Show them that she was nothing more than a simple, powerless human!
But she didn't!
As if giving a muted confession, she chose to keep the truth hidden from the eyes of her family; and let her brother handle it all.
Let him lie...for her sake.
Openly sobbing into the palms of her hands, Regina released all the sorrows that had been locked away for three long years.
And, as if aiding her mournful requiem, the torrential storm began to crackle and crash above the land, muffling the wails that continued to pour out of her bleeding heart.
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