5. Q&A
I had to admit, I was fairly poor company for Ruth at dinner that night. My mind was a million miles away. Ruth kept prodding me with questions, desperate for the gossip that she knew must have existed, but I was completely blissed out. It's amazing how being in love made you feel - at least once you knew you were, anyway.
Other people may point out that I had been in love before, with Mark, but now that I was in love again, I wasn't entirely sure. Mark and I had a relationship of mutual convenience. It sounds horrible to distil it down to that, but I'm not sure I could describe it any other way. The more I thought about it, the more I wasn't sure how much of our three years together had been a lie, both him lying to me and me to myself.
I mean, Mark had always been what I held as an ideal partner. He was smart, directed, and he had a unfaltering sense of self. He never did anything unexpected (unless you count cheating on me as unexpected) and he always knew where he was headed, and how I fitted in to that life. I mean, I'm now a little worried that maybe the only reason we had lasted as long as we did had been because he fitted the image I held as "boyfriend material" in my head, that I overlooked his other flaws.
Mark had never been romantic, and he always seemed more interested in himself than he did me, unless what I did reflected badly on him. I wasn't really sure, but maybe the only reason he wanted me was because I was the only one who did better than him. When we were seen as part of a whole rather than two competing individuals, it didn't matter which of us were better, because the success of one was the success of the other.
And Mark always had to win.
How I felt about Oliver, though, I couldn't even describe. I felt him in every strand of my being, it was though we were two parts of the same person, I just hadn't realised it before. Maybe that explained why I was so drawn to him, because I was only complete while he was around.
God, I sound like a love-sick teenager!
I had only worked out how I felt about him this afternoon, and yet that knowledge was already an essential part of my being, I didn't know what I would do without it. And it terrified me, knowing how the fates were working to pull us apart - how could we be together if part of him wanted to kill me? Which part of Oliver would eventually win, the part that was in love with me, or the part that thirsted for me?
An even bigger, though more distant, problem also existed. Even if we could reconcile Oliver's Jekyll and Hyde, what would happen once a significant amount of time had begun to pass? I would get older, Oliver would not. Would my aging drag us apart? Would he feel less attracted to me as time went by? Would I feel less attracted to him? I couldn't see this love as being a passing fancy on my behalf, but Oliver? Would his love be as immortal as he was? I couldn't say. And if it was, what would happen to him when I did die? I could only imagine how I would feel if he ceased to exist - I would die from the grief.
Ruth finally admitted defeat on our conversation once she had finished eating, and said her goodbyes. I could only feel guilty for being such poor company, but a thousand thoughts occupied my mind. I would be glad for the solitude. I needed time to think.
The week past fairly quickly. I was disappointed that Oliver didn't come to visit me during that time. And I know he didn't - I deliberately fell asleep on the couch on Tuesday night (although that was very bad for my shoulder), to see if I would wake up in my bed. I woke up on the couch, so I spent the day grumpy, not only from my disappointment in my lack of night-time visitors, but also from my aching arm. I didn't make that mistake again.
I was so anxious to get to Friday, officially my first day back at work (Ruth tried to convince me to take Friday off, but I refused), that I spent most of the days sleeping, something that I had never done before. If anything, all the extra sleep just made me more grumpy.
I did pass some of the time researching vampires on the internet - I wanted to have some intelligent questions to ask Oliver when we did reunite. Even though I didn't care in the slightest what Oliver was, I did realise that me reconciling and understanding what he was with who he was would probably be the only way Oliver would let this relationship to survive. I knew he would not allow me to put myself in danger without understanding what that danger was.
Friday afternoon finally rolled around, and I gave up and went to the hospital earlier than when my shift started, remembering what happened the last time I just wandered aimlessly through town to waste time.
I went and sat in the doctor's office in casualty, and prepared to wait for Oliver to arrive. I didn't have to wait long - pretty much as soon as I sat myself down in the swivel chair, he suddenly appeared.
"Hello Kaia, you're early," I had forgotten what strange things his accent did to me.
"Well, I was a bit bored. I've been stuck at home all week, and there hasn't exactly been a lot to do."
He grinned, "I guess you're right. I am a little bit surprised to see you back at work so early, though."
"Why? Because of my shoulder, or did you think I had become sensible and decided to avoid you?" I teased.
"I had hoped so," evidently that joke failed horribly.
"You know that's not going to happen. I've made up my mind, and it doesn't matter."
He sighed, "I shouldn't be glad that you're as stubborn as you are, but I am. I'm inherently a selfish creature."
I didn't know what words to say to brighten the mood.
"So, seeming it doesn't matter, I was wondering if you wanted to spend the day with me tomorrow."
"What, like a date?" I was a bit flummoxed, I didn't realise that normal courtship rules applied to vampires.
His smile lit up his face, "If that's what you want to think of it as, I just thought I could show you what I meant about sunlight, seeming you were so frustrated by my lack of explanation last Saturday."
"Oh," so not a date then, "Ok."
His smile grew just the slightest bit bigger - he was amused by my awkwardness.
"I'm not sure how much you're going to be able to do tonight with your arm in a plaster. I think maybe I'll triage the patients as they come in and allow you to deal with the patients that do not need to be touched."
So that basically reduced it to drunks that had passed out - other patients with sore throats and the like were sensible and waited till morning. How exciting.
"Maybe I could just watch you work tonight, see if I can pick up any techniques," like the ability to make patients pass out at will.
"Maybe. Just promise me - if anything comes in with too much blood flowing that you'll leave. I don't know how I'd react with that smell and your smell combined," his eyes seemed concerned.
I hadn't even thought of that, "How do you manage to be around blood anyway?"
His eyes flicked across the room, "Do you mind if questions like that could wait till tomorrow? Cassie is around tonight, and I'm not as observant to her thoughts as I should be when you're around."
"Ok," sounded fair enough. As long as I did get the answers I wanted, I was willing to wait till the morning.
So for the rest of the evening I followed Oliver around as much as I could, dutifully leaving the room for the one patient who was bleeding (he had been glassed in the face). I didn't realise that I had fallen asleep while I was waiting for him to finish sewing him up until I was woken by a knock on my door.
I was at home, in my bed. I could only smile when I realised how I had got there.
I opened my front door and there he was, basked in the glow of the sunrise. As always, he looked better in the morning than anyone had a right to - oh yeah, he didn't sleep.
"What time is it?" I rasped as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.
"6am. I thought seeming you've been asleep since midnight and because we have a long way to travel to get to where I wanted to take you that an early start would be a good thing. Do you need more sleep? I'm sorry, I'm not very good at human needs…"
"No, no! I'm just not very good in the mornings. Give me a moment, I'll be ready in a second."
I ran to my room and tried desperately to change my clothes as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, this was slower than most people dressed - my cast was a hindrance. I quickly brushed my unruly hair and tied it into a ponytail, that stuck out behind my like a pom pom. I hated my hair.
Oliver held open the door to his Range Rover for me, and gently lifted me into it. I hadn't realised how tinted his windows were. Evidently, I was not going to find out what he was like in the sun whilst in this car.
We drove for over an hour, not talking, as I watched the sun rise outside of the window. I couldn't be sure, but it looked like we were going faster than it felt, but that could just be a trick of the scenery. I was surprised when the flat nothingness that was the area around Keyes started to descend down a rocky slope. We were driving into a canyon? Were there any canyons near Keyes? This looked like the Kimberleys, but those were a six hour drive away. We had only been driving for just over two hours.
The car stopped next to a lagoon at the bottom of the canyon, a waterfall streaming down the sides. We had parked in the shade under a tree.
I hopped out of the car and looked around where we were in awe. This place was beautiful.
I looked back towards the Range Rover, to see that Oliver was standing behind it in the shade.
Of course, the enigma of Oliver and the sun.
"So are you sure you're ready to see this?" he asked. Although his voice was quiet, in the silence that surrounded us, he was perfectly clear.
"Yes," I whispered back, knowing he could hear me.
He breathed in and out deeply once, twice, then stepped out from underneath the protective shade of the tree.
It was beautiful.
The light shattered from his skin as though it was made up of a million tiny facets, rainbows being thrown across the scenery. He appeared to glow in the light, but he wasn't so bright as to be painful.
I couldn't take my eyes away from him.
He walked slowly towards me, as if worried that if he moved too quickly, I would run away.
He stopped when he was inches away from me, and brushed a tear from my cheek.
I hadn't realised I was crying.
"Are you ok?" he sounded anxious.
I looked up into his golden eyes.
"…it's just so beautiful…"
He cupped my face in his hand.
"No, you are beautiful."
And he leant down and kissed me.
It was a long time before I was able to talk again. Words could not express what I was feeling just then, but the silence seemed to be a comfortable one. I spent hours tracing every crease on Oliver's body (I had made him remove his shirt, if he asked, it was because I wanted to see him glitter some more, not because of his chest muscles…), learning every bend, every bump. While we lay beside the lagoon together, he just fondled my curls, which he had released from their ponytail.
Eventually, he asked me, "What are you thinking about?"
"Everything. There's just so much going through my head right now…"
He chuckled, and pulled himself upright.
"You must have a million questions," he said.
He was right, but which to ask first? Which ones would he answer?
"I'm not sure you want to hear my questions."
"But that's where you're wrong. I want to know everything you're thinking. I want you to know everything I'm thinking. Just ask and I'll answer." His eyes were pleading.
"Well, I guess I was wondering, about the whole blood thing…"might as well get the hard questions out of the way first.
"Hmm?"
"I know you don't drink human blood, but I was wondering, how can you stand to be around it if it's so tempting?"
"Ah," he smiled, "Practice. Lots and lots and lots of practice."
I waited. He wasn't getting out of that question so easily.
He sighed.
"You're right, human blood is very tempting to my kind. Most of us would not be able to be in such close proximity to it without giving in to the thirst. Considering my chosen career path, if I delved head first into whatever wound I was managing at that moment, that would be a little less than convenient. I decided a long time ago that I wanted to be a doctor. In fact, it was not really my idea, but the idea of another of my kind that abstains from human blood as I do. When I heard what he wanted to do, I was intrigued and joined him. We learnt medicine by night in the universities across Europe, looking over cadavers which thankfully did not have any blood. It was easier to learn when it was separated from the thirst. Carlisle, my friend, eventually thought we had learnt enough, and that if we ever wished to apply our knowledge, we would have to start developing our resistance to blood. We started by going to those chop shops of those who would call themselves surgeons at night, sifting through their trash to find bloody rags. We thought it would be… safer… to test our control away from live people."
He looked at my face, trying to work out whether I was horrified by these details or not.
"Well, basically from there, we slowly incremented the amount of temptation. From smears of blood, to volumes of blood, to small amounts of blood from living people… it's all about desensitising yourself. Much like what people with phobias do. If you slowly increase your exposure to the things you lack control with, eventually you get used to them.
"I don't even notice blood now. I'm not even attracted by the smell of it anymore."
"And Carlisle? How did he go?"
"Last I had seen his control had far surpassed mine, but then again I have gotten better in his absence. I'm fairly sure that he'd be unrivalled in his control, though."
"So if blood isn't a problem for you anymore, why am I so tempting?"
He sighed, "Because your blood smells so much better than the rest. You're exactly what my body craves. Before now, I had only dealt with generic blood from generic humans. Neither of those apply to you."
I know it shouldn't feel so, but I felt special that my blood was special to him.
Morbid, I know.
"I don't even want to think about what my control would be like if even a drop of your blood spilled," he shook his head.
I was intrigued. All the information he had given me thus far had only served to give me more questions, questions I knew were not appropriate and should not ask. But I had to know.
"What about… well… I am female, Oliver…" I blushed. I could not believe I was asking what sort of draw that type of blood held for him! And he thought he was the monster!
His eyes widened and looked at me. A few moments passed in silence and I wished I hadn't asked.
"I'm only drawn to living blood. Menstrual blood…" those words made me blush more - for God's sake I'm a doctor, I should grow up, "…does not really count in that category. It's long dead and contaminated by tissue and such like. It smells awful."
"Oh, well that's good then…"
He chuckled - oh God I was embarrassed! "Were you wondering if you would need to avoid me once a month?"
"It's not a stupid question," I grumbled to myself.
Oliver pulled me towards him and gave me a gentle squeeze.
"No, I guess from your perspective, it isn't. There's no need to be embarrassed. You look like a beetroot, you know."
More chuckles.
This was how he hoped to make me less embarrassed?
Oliver looked at my watch and sighed.
"It's past your lunchtime," he said as he released me and stood up. He offered a hand to me to help me up.
"Are we leaving now?"
"No, I just thought you should be fed, otherwise you'll be too weak to continue asking me your questions," he smiled at me again, "I never expected how enjoyable it would be for you to know these things about me, things I've kept secret for so long."
"I'm enjoying getting to know these things. They're helping me to understand you better…"
"…as long as the information you seek doesn't embarrass you," he smiled.
He reached into the car and pulled out a paper bag and passed it to me. It held an extraordinarily large amount of food. How much did he think I needed?
I smiled, "Thanks."
And with that, we sat down to eat.
As much as he promised that I would have the opportunity to ask more questions, it seemed for the rest of the afternoon, he was questioning me, asking me why I decided to come to Keyes, about my family (which I skipped over - I wanted to avoid more embarrassing topics), about my past (which I also skipped over - not sure how much information on my past boyfriend he needed), about everything.
He continued asking questions the entire way home, and I felt guilty that I was not being as honest with him as he had been with me, especially considering that my issues were so insignificant when compared to his.
The sun had set hours before we made it back to Keyes and I was exhausted. It had been such a long and tiring day, in more ways than one. I was embarrassed when Oliver lifted me from the car and carried me to my bed. He brushed my curls away from my face as he got ready to leave.
"Wait," I said, grabbing his arm, "I don't want you to go."
He smiled, "We have a life time to spend with each other, trust me, you won't miss me whilst you sleep."
"But I will when I wake up," I pouted.
And with that he shuffled me over and laid with me in my bed, his arm holding me tight.
"Sleep Kaia, there will be nothing to miss when you wake."
As I ate my breakfast that morning, after spending the night in Oliver's arms, he sat there watching me eat. I don't know why it is, but whenever he just watched me, I always felt less at ease. It probably had something to do with him being able to stare at me endlessly without blinking, which is unnatural (for humans anyway). A more likely explanation was that this was one of the occasions where my boyfriend (I liked the way that sounded) felt less than human to me.
Either way, I felt the need to distract him from his meditation.
I stared down at my bowl of cereal, "So…what would happen if you ate normal food?"
His eyebrows snapped together and he started to grin, "What do you think would happen?"
"I dunno…"
He reached over and pried my bowl and spoon from my hands, and put a spoonful of cereal in his mouth, and swallowed, the smile getting larger across his face. Suddenly, he dropped what he held and grasped at his throat, gasping for air.
I felt my heart skip a beat. What had I done?
Before I had the chance to rise from my seat, the smile returned to his face, showing me the full compliment of his teeth, and he started to laugh.
"Not funny," I said, folding my arms across my chest in a huff.
"Oh it was, just a little bit," more chuckling. Just my luck, to get a vampire with a sense of humour, "What exactly did you think would happen?"
"I don't know. I was just wondering why if you could eat food, why you would go to the whole trouble of drinking animal's blood."
"Oh," he looked thoughtful, "I can eat food, I just can't digest it. I have no problem with the physical act of swallowing, I just don't get any nutritional value out of it. It is sort of like, you could eat sand, but you could not live off it."
That made sense.
"So, if animal blood has nutritional value for you, then why don't other vampires drink animal blood instead of human?"
"Who says they don't?"
I shrugged, "I guess you just hear more stories of people getting their blood drunk than you do animals…"
"Well, you're right, we do, as a general rule, live off human blood rather than animal blood. I only know of two covens who do," he chuckled, "A friend of mine calls it being "vegetarian"."
"You still haven't answered my question."
He looked at me seriously, "Does it matter why I don't drink human blood?"
"Yes, to me it does. I figure it'll tell me something about what kind of man you are," I had him there. Oliver was all about trying to make me more comfortable with himself. Although he always protested that I would be better off without him, he never missed an opportunity to make himself look better in my eyes.
He sighed, rested his chin in his hand, and stared at me. I had already won, he just had to work out the wording.
"There are multiple reasons why an animal-based diet is less appealing to other of my kind than a diet of human blood. I guess the reason that is most pertinent, is that we have evolved to search out human blood. Our whole body is geared to do that. It smells better, our instincts search it out.
"Then there's the whole matter of taste. I guess you would compare the whole human to animal thing would be like the difference between wanting chocolate and brussel sprouts…"
"What, one tastes good the other gives you gas?"
"No, one tastes good, the other tastes really, really bad. The more herbivorous, the worse it tastes. My kind is into the whole self-gratification thing. Much like toddlers in that aspect, we go for what feels good rather than what is good for us.
"And that brings us to the next problem, animals have less nutritional value for us than people do. Our…strength…so to speak, is made stronger through our diets. I would have to consume in volume alone three times as much animal blood as someone else would get through human blood to have the same result. And because of it's lower nutritional content, it also means that I have to feed more frequently. This lifestyle choice of mine comes with a lot of sacrifices that very few of my kind are willing to make."
"Then why do it?"
"I wasn't born a monster, Kaia. It would be a pretty poor show on my behalf if I started to be one now, just because I had turned into one. Besides, this…talent…of mine, it allows me to know what my would-be prey would feel, and I couldn't live with that emotional burden. My talent also allows me to give a painless death to my chosen prey - they don't feel a thing."
"How could reading minds stop an animal from feeling pain?"
The look he gave me made it evident he hadn't meant to give as much away.
"Well…what I do is a little more complex than just reading minds…"
"…meaning…?"
"I read synapses, brain waves. I don't just hear a person's thoughts, I here every little biological process their brain is coordinating. Control of their heart beat, of their appetite…being able to interpret their thoughts came a lot later in the process. It was like learning how to read algebra."
"Oh," that did sound complex, "So… with me, is it just my thoughts you can't read, or can't you hear anything?"
"I can't hear anything. Not one single word, and you have no idea how mad that sometimes drives me."
We were getting away from the topic. The last thing I wanted was for this conversation to focus on me.
"So you haven't explained how you stop your food from feeling pain."
"Oh, well…um…I sort of had an… accident… about a hundred years after I was born. I was in France, and well, I came across this poor girl getting assaulted. I got really mad, and next thing I knew, everyone passed out. Turns out, my thoughts, if they're strong enough, can stop other people's thoughts, only for a minute though," he hurriedly added, "It's sort of like an electromagnetic pulse with electronic equipment. Anyway, with practice, I've managed to distil this talent, so before I…feed…I knock the animal out. I feel it's kinder that way."
It suddenly clicked how Oliver's patients always conveniently passed out.
"Oh."
"I haven't scared you, have I?" The panic was real in his eyes.
"No! This whole conversation has been very informative."
"Any other questions you have for me?"
"Only about a million."
He looked out the window and sighed, "Well I'm afraid they're going to have to wait. You've got a visitor."
"I have a visitor? Who?"
"Ruth - who else comes over unannounced."
"And how do you know she's coming?"
He raised one eyebrow and tapped the side of his head when it was obvious I didn't get it.
He could hear her.
"Oh."
He smiled at me, the way I felt that parents smiled at their children. That's not the type of smile I wanted.
"How long till she gets here?" I jumped up and started clearing the dishes from the table. My eyes swept around the room and I was horrified by what a mess it was.
Just then there was a knock at the door.
Wait - Oliver was here. My eyes flashed to my watch - it was eight am. How would I explain what Oliver was doing over at my house at eight am?
My mouth opened and shut like a fish.
Another knock, "Kaia, it's Ruth, you awake yet?"
"What do we do?" I mouthed at Oliver.
Another knock, "Kaia, are you in there?"
Oliver smiled at me, "They have to know sometime."
And before I could stop him, he walked over and opened my front door.
"Hello Ruth," he greeted warmly.
I froze in horror.
"Oh, Oliver, I didn't expect to see you here…"
Oh God, everyone was going to know. Ruth's mind went those places so much faster than anyone else. But then again, what was she meant to think? Oliver hadn't rung her yesterday like he always did, I hadn't had dinner with her like I always did, it was 8am, and he was answering my door.
I could die with embarrassment.
"Is Kaia in?"
"She's in the kitchen cleaning up from breakfast."
I hastily grabbed another bowel from the cupboard and poured half the left over cereal in it. If we were meant to be having breakfast, he would need a setting.
"Come on in."
Ruth walked in while I was standing by the sink, hyperventilating. It was one thing to know that this man was the one you wanted to spend the rest of your life with, a complete other for the people you work with to know that.
"Hi Ruth," I spun quickly to greet her, my good hand gripping the bench so tight my knuckles went white, "I had no idea you were coming over today."
"Well, I was just bringing some eggs over. I had no idea you had company."
Why did the way she said company make it sound so dirty?
Oliver chuckled and walked over to me, slinging an arm around my shoulder and kissing my hair. I could feel the look Ruth was giving us. I glared at him.
"Thankyou for the eggs Ruth," he replied on my behalf, his body quivering with suppressed laughter (why was my embarrassment so amusing to him?), "That was very thoughtful."
"Well, seeming you two are busy, I might leave you to it…"
"Oh no, I was just leaving. You two enjoy yourself," he spun me to face him, "I'll see you at dinner."
And with that, he leaned down and gently kissed me on the lips. I could feel his lips contorted into a grin. He would pay for this later.
And with that, he turned and left, chuckling to himself.
Oh God.
Ruth quickly walked over to me (although quick was a poor definition if you compared it to how Oliver could move), her mouth hanging open.
"Kaia Snow, you must tell me everything!"
Well, that whole conversation was so painful it wasn't worth reliving. Basically I gave her some generic information to explain why Oliver was there, and his behaviour - I could hardly say I found out he was a vampire and I'm in love with him. I tried to convince Ruth that it had only just happened, but when she did manage to say more than "Oh my God!", she kept repeating she knew this was going to happen, and how she knew that we'd been trying to cover-up our relationship for a while.
When she did leave an hour later, I knew that by the time Oliver came back for dinner, everyone in town would know.
I was going to kill him.
Even though I tried to avoid leaving my house, I realised that I would need some food to cook if Oliver was going to be insistent on watching me eat again. I wasn't going to allow him to try and feed me again - not unless I wanted to sit through a nine course banquet. My budget wouldn't allow for that kind of food expenditure.
As I made the five minute walk to the grocery shop, I felt like everyone was watching me. Curse Ruth to hell. When I actually made it into the shop, I was greeted by Doug the cop, saying, "You and Dr Monroe eh?", and someone else in the shop whooped at me. When I was paying for my groceries, Margie said, "You cooking for Dr Monroe tonight, huh?"
I felt like I could die from embarrassment.
On the walk home, someone shouted out of a car window, "If you ever get sick of Dr Monroe, you can play doctors with me sweet heart."
Yes, Oliver was going to die tonight.
I opened the door to my house expecting that I was alone, and found Oliver sitting in my arm chair. He rushed over and yanked the bags of groceries from my hand, and rushed them back to the kitchen. This whole movement happened so quickly I wasn't sure it had.
Bloody vampire.
He swept around the kitchen, putting things away, then swept back to me. I had my arms folded across my chest.
"You're in a lot of trouble, you know."
"Why? They were going to find out anyway?"
"Yes, but it could have been a more gradual thing! You know, maybe some harmless flirting while I was at work, and work up from there. It didn't have to be that I went home with you the first Friday night after getting back from hospital!"
"Technically speaking, I went home with you, and it was Saturday night I stayed…"
"But don't you know what this makes me look like? They're going to think we're sleeping together! They're going to think I'm easy…"
His brows furrowed together, "Why would they think that?"
"Because what else would people think if two people who had never even gotten along together were suddenly spending the night over at each other's house?"
"But can't they tell by the way we look at each other… this is so much more than just a sexual thing!"
"These are humans, Oliver. The whole soul mate excuse doesn't really fly anymore."
He thought about that for a second.
"I'm so sorry. I should of discussed this with you first."
"Yes, you should have."
"But I just thought it was easiest. My car was outside - Ruth was bound to know."
I sighed as he hugged me to himself. It was hard to stay mad at him.
"Next time, you decide what information we disclose."
I liked it when he talked about us as a whole.
"I'm sorry, I forgot you're probably not used to this decade's social norms." I started going around the kitchen collecting what I needed to cook dinner, "I would be even more confused if I was asked to conform to the norms of when you came from. I don't even know how old you are…"
He went down and sat at the table, watching me cook.
"Do you really want to know?"
"I want to know everything about you, Oliver."
"Ok then, here we go…
"I was born in approximately 1590 in London. I cannot be exactly sure of the exact date, because time was not kept at all accurately then, but I was a teenager when the plague struck again in 1603.
"I was the son of a blacksmith, and I had three brothers and four sisters. Only two of my sisters were alive when the plague struck. My mother had died giving birth to my youngest brother, who died shortly afterwards. Life was short back then. And the poorer you were, the shorter it was. We weren't exactly well off, so to have three surviving children was actually a pretty good tally back then.
"Then the plague struck, which it did every generation or so back then. The only way to stop its spread was lockdown, and that was hardly an effective measure. We only realised that the plague had struck again when our neighbourhood was locked in. It was a terrifying thing, knowing that all of us could die.
"My sister Roberta, named for my father, died first, followed by Constance shortly thereafter. I tried to nurse them through their illness, but they did not have the condition to bear it…"
He put his head in his hands.
"Even after all my other human memories have faded away to being barely whispers, the images of my sisters dying and feeling helpless remain."
Oliver lifted his head from his hands to look at the ceiling.
"My father died shortly after Constance, she had always been his favourite. She reminded him the most of my mother. Losing her was like losing my mother all over again.
"My entire neighbourhood perished. Hundreds of people across the city did as well, but my neighbourhood bore the brunt. No one but me survived it. I hadn't even gotten sick.
"But I was locked in my neighbourhood, cursed to walk amongst the dead. I wished I was dead,. The hunger and sorrow… it was too much for me. But I survived. Eventually when the streets were reopened, I was able to escape. No one wanted me around, they thought I was cursed.
"I lived on the streets of London for years, making a penny by singing for my supper. Even while I was human, I had the voice of an angel. It was my only asset.
"Lord Winston heard me singing at a pub he frequented one evening, and thought my voice was too pure to belong in the slums. He took me into his home, making me perform when he held dinners. He treated me well. As I grew older, I learned how to play the lute and pianoforte, so after my voice had broken, I was still able to perform for his guests. My voice was still beautiful, it's just that sopranos and castratis were the fashion back then.
"He decided when I was twenty-one that I should marry his daughter, Fiona. His health was declining and he wanted me to have some security after he had passed on. He considered me to be the son he never had."
My heart tightened - had Oliver loved someone else?
I think he must have noticed my tensing, cause he stopped his story and looked at me comfortingly.
"Marriage back then had a different meaning to what it does now. No one married for love - marriage was seen as a contract to benefit from. I barely knew Lord Winston's daughter. In fact, I only talked to her once during our engagement."
I relaxed just a little bit.
"It was the night before our wedding, and I was walking home from the church. Lord Winston had wanted to make sure that the clergy man had made all the arrangements. I heard this sound in an alleyway…it sounded like an animal was hurt. I walked down to check what it was…
"A pale man with red eyes was holding a woman I could only assume to be a prostitute, his mouth at her neck. He was very handsome, but something about him put me ill at ease. Then the whore's head rolled back listlessly, revealing the blood pouring from his mouth."
"I rushed over to them when I realised the woman was injured, I had not been raised to watch violence against a woman. I pushed him as hard as I could, but it was like hitting a wall.
"He growled at me angrily, dropping the woman and lunging for me…."
Oliver went silent. I could smell my food burning on the stove, but I was consumed by his story.
"A noise from outside the alley distracted him, and for some reason, he left me to die. I crawled away from the dead woman, hiding myself in a sewer and waited for death to come. But it didn't. Three days later, I had changed. I knew what I was and it disgusted me. The life I had known was over. So I fled London. I'm not sure I ever stopped running."
Oliver sighed and looked at me.
"My past is no topic to discuss over dinner. Don't let your meal be ruined on my behalf."
My mind was spinning, I was devastated at what had happened to Oliver. I brought my dinner over to the table and sat next to him, where he rested his head on my shoulder, like he was the one who needed support.
"The only blessing of what I am is that I've managed to live long enough to find you. After you leave the Earth, I will gladly leave it too."
I don't know why this statement didn't comfort me.
I ate dinner in silence.