- - - -o- - - -
Solstice
- - - -o- - - -
By: oathk33p3r
Disclaimer: No, it's already obvious that I do not own any of these characters. If I did, I wouldn't be writing my so called stories here, would I?
Characters
-Kairi
-Selphie
-Albino stranger
-Sora
- - - Chapter Three - -
+I want to finish this couplet+
Before you vanish into the sunset.
-Kairi-
The sky began to darken beyond the glass windows of the small flower shop. Business was getting slow these days, and Kairi felt overwhelmed and tired.
That guy named Sora. She had called him a vampire, a fictional character. How can she call a complete stranger a vampire of all things?
Kairi shook her head, her hair falling over her face.
"Kairi," a voice called her.
The girl looked up, her eyes clouded with thoughts.
"Yeah?" she answered as she rubbed her eyes and yawned.
"I have to go a bit early today, sorry. I'll make it up to you later," Selphie said as she gathered her belongings. She had already taken off her florist uniform.
"What? NO! Don't leave me, please," Kairi pleaded. She nervously eyed the back of the flower shop, afraid that Sora would pop out any second saying "SHE'S CRAZY!".
Selphie rolled her eyes and gave Kairi a weird look.
"Kairi, I'm only leaving thirty minutes earlier."
Kairi looked up at the clock covered by a small palm tree and a few vines hanging from the ceiling.
It was five thirty.
"Oh," Kairi said quietly.
"My mom went on the business trip I told you about and my dad's the usual drunken idiot. I have to pick up my brothers and sisters from the daycare center," Selphie said.
"Right, right," Kairi said as she recalled the discussion about Selphie's family the other day.
"'K then, see you tomorrow."
"Bye."
Selphie pulled the straps of her purse up to her left shoulder and walked towards the exit. She stopped before she got it opened all the way and looked back at Kairi.
"Say, remember that hot guy I told you about?"
"Um, yeah," Kairi said, trying to hide the shakiness in her voice.
"I don't think I saw him leave, did you?"
Kairi shook her head, and then immediately nodded.
"Yeah, I saw him leave! It was when you had to take care of a customer!"
Selphie took a step back and gave Kairi another strange look.
"Kairi, you should leave with me. I doubt anybody wants flowers right now," Selphie suggested.
Kairi leaned against the polka dotted wall and let out a sigh. She felt tired and wanted to go home this instant.
"It's okay, Selph. I'll stay here," Kairi said finally.
"You sure?"
Kairi nodded and smiled.
Her friend gave her one more worried glance and finally left the store.
Kairi looked back at the clock: 6:35.
Why wasn't Sora coming out of that closet? It was because of him she had to stay. Twice she had tried to check up on him, but both times failed.
She was attempting to go for a third try when the glass door opened and a customer walked in.
"Hello, welcome to Flowers for Destiny," Kairi said dully.
The customer ignored her and scanned the flower shop with piercing blue eyes behind blonde bangs, which was covered with a black beanie. He almost looked albino, which Kairi assumed he was. He was draped in all black, just like Sora. He had a dark T-shirt without any designs that was worn behind an ebony trench coat. The coat reached all the way down to his converse shoes, which were also black. Kairi found his pants most interesting; pockets and zippers everywhere. It seemed as though this guy had all the things he needed to live with in his black pants.
Kairi raised a brow. Was black the new trend again? She heard people were going retro, but black on a summer day was too much.
The albino finally shook his head and looked at Kairi. He smiled without showing his teeth.
"I'm sorry, miss. I was just looking for someone," he said with a voice even smoother than Sora's.
He turned and exited the shop. Kairi swore she heard him whisper "I found you, brother", not to mention he had an accent too. It wasn't as strong as Sora's though…
Why was she comparing everything with Sora? Which reminded her…
She looked up at the clock. Ten minutes till closing time and Sora was still cramped in that closet doing who knows what.
Furious, Kairi finally stomped through the flowers and trees and to the back of the shop. She tried to open the door, but it was jammed.
"What the—HEY! Open up!" Kairi shouted. She banged the door with her fists and gave it a kick.
No answer.
Seeing that punching and kicking didn't work, Kairi stopped and pressed her left ear to the door.
She heard soft snoring.
Annoyed, Kairi started to pound on the door again.
"Wake up! The store is closing soon! WAKE UP YOU IDIOT!" Kairi shouted even louder.
The snore obnoxiously got louder.
"What's wrong with you?" she mumbled.
After a few more seconds of silence, she screamed:
"Oh my gosh! FIRE! AHHH! THE PLANTS ARE ON FIRE!"
She forced her self not to laugh as she heard a muffled yelp. She heard pots falling from the shelves and something being removed from behind the door. Kairi stepped aside as Sora banged the door open and frantically looked around the place. She immediately shut the door behind him.
"Ha ha. Gotchya."
+Sora+
Sora wiped the blood from his lips as he placed the fifth rat of the day in the broken flower pot next to him. He whispered another prayer and hid his stash of dead rats behind a row of water cans.
He let out a content sigh and patted his abs; he hadn't eaten this much in years. He closed his eyes and leaned on a bag of fertilizer. He estimated that he's been trapped in this closet for about eleven hours.
"I'm bored," he announced.
Obviously, nothing answered him, but he was used to it. He didn't have any friends. It was dangerous. Finally, he started looking through his pockets and pulled out random objects:
A rosary, a rock, a piece of string, and another rock.
Why in the world did he carry a rock around?
He aimed for a pot and chucked the rocks into it. He pocketed the rosary and ignored the string.
Still bored, the vampire pulled off his left boot and poured out nineteen orbs shining dully with yellow and blue.
"Nineteen munny."
Nineteen munny was enough to buy a horse back then. These days, it was barely enough to buy a flower. He had been looking around the closet and gasped at the old price tags.
He had even risked looking around the market down the street four nights ago. The meat was outrageously expensive. It was probably because there weren't a lot of domesticated animals on this puny island; only fish and more fish.
Sora's shoulders sagged and he dropped each yellow orb into his boot one by one. They were probably one of the first munny to be manufactured.
"Radiant Garden," he mumbled.
He was referring to his homeland. It had changed a great deal, of course, and he's been banished from that world for nearly two centuries. But that didn't mean he missed it. He closed his eyes as he remembered the angry mob of farmers and villagers. They had blamed him and his kind that they sucked the blood out of their livestock. They also blamed them for taking the lives of their wives and daughters. This wasn't exactly true, but it wasn't a lie either.
It was his twin brother's doings. He occasionally charmed a woman when he was tired of pigs and cows. He lured her into dark corners of the street and made love to her, only to sink his fangs into her neck afterwards, and suck all the blood from her body to leave her dry and dead.
The brunette had only lived off of small creatures. He couldn't bring himself to biting a human's neck. Of course, he was tempted to do so several times.
Ugh, just the thought about his brother filled his nostrils with his scent; it was vivid and clear too.
He drained all thoughts about his brother and in a few minutes, the air cleared and only the usual smell of rats filled the closet.
Suddenly, the door started to shake. The broom he had wedged under the door knob seemed to be working.
Sora rolled his eyes as the girl started to scream and bang the door. He closed his eyes and made a soft snoring noise. He started to snore even louder as the girl told him to wake up.
Finally, the banging stopped and the girl stopped shouting. Smiling, Sora got up into a sitting position and was in the act of unbuckling his boots. He was intending to spend the night here.
"Oh, my gosh! Fire! Ahh! The plants are on fire!"
Sora yelped in surprise as his cold heart skipped a beat. A fire? Not again…
He quickly got up and accidentally knocked a pot with his elbow. It hit the floor and broke into pieces by his feet. He swiftly stepped over them and removed the broom from under the door knob.
He didn't want to be entrapped by fire again.
Sora pulled the door open and blinked at the bright light flooding the closet. He looked around the small shop. The plants were as green as ever. There wasn't a single flame in sight. He angrily looked at the girl.
"You lied to me."
+Kairi&Sora-
Kairi nodded.
"Yes I did."
"Don't you ever call fire again."
"Not even if there's a real one?"
"Ooooh, don't get smart with me, young lady."
"Ah ha ha, and how much older are you? Two months?"
Sora remained silent.
"Um, how old are you?" Sora asked.
"Thirty," Kairi lied.
"Thirty? Humans have evolved quite a bit…" Sora thought.
"Well, I'm thirty-two," Sora said confidently.
Kairi stifled a laugh.
"Very funny," Kairi said sarcastically.
"Did I say something wrong?" Sora asked nervously.
"How can you be thirty-two with that height? I don't think you even finished puberty yet."
Sora flushed with embarrassment and anger. This human had tricked him twice.
"I was just yanking your chain," he finally said.
"Yanking your chain? Did people even say that these days?" Kairi thought.
"Fine, I'm seventeen. Would you please get out now?"
"Seventeen? Ha! I'm eighteen," Sora announced. Actually, he was probably a bit younger than that before he got cursed, but eighteen worked.
"That's very nice. Just get out please."
Kairi grabbed Sora by his arm and pulled him through the vines and other plants.
"Look here, uh—"
Sora searched for the girl's name tag.
'Hello, my name is Kalri'
What was wrong with this girl's writing? He couldn't distinguish the l's from the i's.
"—Kalri," Sora finished.
Kairi stopped and turned around.
"What did you call me? Calorie?" Kairi asked.
"Yes, Kalri. Stop pulling my arm," Sora commanded.
Kairi let go of Sora and stared hard at him.
"Where'd you get the name Calorie?"
Sora pointed at her name tag, confused.
"Your name tag on your uniform says "Hello, my name is Kalri"."
Kairi looked down at her uniform and smiled.
"It's Kairi. That l is really an i," she said.
Sora looked closer at the name tag. He realized that he missed the dot over the first i.
"Oh, my mistake. Please accept my apologies, Kairi."
Kairi blinked. He was such a…gentleman. She didn't know guys like Sora still existed.
"Um, well. I forgive you," Kairi said uncertainly.
"Man, this guy makes you say the weirdest things." Kairi thought. It was normally "sorry" and "it's okay".
She shook her head and faced Sora again. A weird stench was coming form him. It smelled like fertilizer. She forced her self not to smile as she gave him a demanding look.
"Well, it's closing time so you'll have to leave," Kairi said.
Sora gave a small nod and looked down at his shoes. After being able to spread out his legs and sit up properly in a dark corner the entire day, he felt a great reluctance to go back under the dumpster.
He thanked the girl and walked out of the small shop. Half of the sun was hidden by the vast sea. Sora pulled the hood over his head again and quickly ran towards the dumpster across the street. He crawled under it and frowned.
Nothing was going right.