Death Upon Eternity

This was meant to be a short story, but I couldn't completely figure out how to piece it all together. This is only the last part, the part specifically written to accompany a wonderful piece by Victoria Frances. *Note: Dhamphir: half vampire, half human.

 

I could feel my heart pounding faster, electricity flowing through me. William’s mouth was covering my skin in soft kisses, his lips grazing the sensitive skin of my neck, making me shiver. My insides were burning, and I found myself longing for some sort of satisfaction; a satisfaction that my body didn’t know, but my mind was all too aware of: the satisfaction of the flesh, a human desire.

                His lips found my own, and I leaned into the kiss, resisting the urge to nibble on his lip with my sharpened teeth.

                William’s strong human hands found their way into my copper hair. His lithe fingers tangled their way through, weaving through the strands and holding my head closer to him. For a moment, I envisioned Saiya; the way she used to comb my hair gently, sometimes twirling the red strands around her long, graceful fingers. I banished the thought immediately, sent it away; Saiya was no longer here and I was – here with this beautiful human man.

                On and on this went. The setting sun painted us with its rich red and purple glow as he plundered the depths of my mouth slowly, as if committing the taste to his memory. I sighed into him, wishing that I could do the same, but I found myself enveloped in my senses; I could feel the warmth of his human skin, hear his shallow breathing, see the quickened pulse at the base of his throat, smell the absolute deliciousness of both man and blood...

                But most of all, I could taste it.

                I could taste his sweetness, almost tasting how absurdly luscious William’s blood would taste on my unguarded tongue; sweet and thick and liquid ecstasy. I yearned for this, ached in every bone of my body. Even when in a perfectly blissful moment, my body was torn between its two sides; I was torn between my selfish human desire, the longing of the ecstasy of human flesh, and my desperate vampiric hunger, the absolute craving I had for warm blood.

                I groaned low in my throat, anxiously trying to control myself. I could let go my inhibitions of my human desires, but my vampire desires... they would terrify him.

                “Isabel...” He sighed. His cheek was against my own, his lips close to my ear. I could hear the thudding of his heart, feel it pounding against my chest. I wanted to make myself a part of him, satiate both my desires. I wanted to fulfill my human wishes, wanted to cut into William’s throat and taste his tempting blood...

                “What are you doing?” William sounded so alarmed. But why should he be...?

                Ecstasy filled my body. I was on a high; adrenaline rushed through my veins and sweet satisfaction encased me. I could feel my lips moving, drawing and sucking and lapping at something sweet and pure...

                “Isabel!”

                My eyes snapped open, and in that instant I froze in horror. It suddenly dawned on me, what I was doing. Oh god, I hadn’t meant to, I wasn’t supposed to...

                But I had. I’d been drinking William’s blood.

                Terror and guilt washed through me, and I ripped my head away from William’s neck. His neck was bleeding, but more than that, he looked terrified. Fear was in his very eyes, making me hate myself. How could I do this...?

                I made to reach out to him, to somehow comfort him... But he was so scared...

                William opened his mouth and screamed. It pierced the very heart of me, tore me into pieces. I moved to stop him, to explain; I’m no vampire, I’m a Dhamphir! I wasn’t killing you!

                But William ran. He ran into the forest, screaming for help, warning everyone of what I was.

                “No! No! Oh god...” I began to cry. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be...

                I gathered my senses together. I could hear movement, footsteps coming closer; I knew that soon William would have the whole village after me, they would burn me...

                In a moment of self-preservation, I gathered the violin and I ran. My eyes stung, but I wouldn’t cry, wouldn’t stop running. I had to move on...

*

                “Stop her!”

                I kept pushing forward, pressing my legs on even as they protested. This isn’t how I was going to die. I would not die at the hands of a human...

                -Thwip-

                Arrows. Of course. They really are trying to kill me! Oh god... Saiya...

                I ran, blinded by my own fear, desperately trying to outrun these humans and their weapons...

                Pain. It gripped me so hard, tearing at my abdomen, searing through me, making me cry in agony. I tripped over the skirts of my dress, falling to the ground. There was blood... blood on my hands, blood from my stomach...

                There. An arrow. I had been shot through my stomach with an arrow, and blood was pouring out of me. And not even my own blood.

                I began to cry, tearing at my hair and wailing to the heavens.

                “Saiya!” I sobbed, desolate. “Why did you leave me? I feel like death...”

                They were coming closer. Fire. I could smell the acrid smoke piling up in a column, see it through the trees. Let it end here...

                And then I spotted it. The violin. Saiya’s violin. No. I couldn’t leave it here. Not to burn. Not to let humans touch it.

                I pushed myself up from the ground, and grabbed it, clutching it closer to me as I ran...

                I cannot live like this...

*

                The vampire in me was enough to outrun the humans. But they would come back for me.

                Panting, my lungs feeling swollen and my throat tight, I slowed to a walk and stumbled around the forest. The pain in my abdomen throbbed and tore at me, a vicious, slicing feeling. I sucked in breath after breath, trying to ease the pain...

 The sun was very low in the sky now; the sky was faded from a misty lilac to a thickening mass of blue. Fallen leaves crunched beneath my feet as I walked closer and closer to a destination I had subconsciously chosen.

                My heart rate had slowed only a little as I came nearer to a wrought-iron gate. I opened it slowly and entered, silent tears still falling down my eyes.

                I am so sorry...

                With whisper soft steps, I passed through the abandoned cemetery, my body trembling with the despair and anxiety I felt. Every time I passed a grave, a mausoleum, a sepulchre, I thought of the gravestone I was inching towards... the grave that was empty of a body, but filled with charred ashes.

                Oh god, Saiya...

                I sat on her grave, my body giving away. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t live here, in this world, the way I had always been living. I was never going to be a part of anything – never going to belong properly with anyone.

                My lithe frame was suddenly wracked with sobs and I spilled out my tears. My bloody fingers stroked the violin that had fallen next to me, choking on tears and murmuring nonsensical words.

                Saiya, how could you just leave me? Why didn’t you save yourself? How could you leave me alone? I cried out in pain...

*

                Whispering. Someone was whispering to me. Groggily, I sat up from my bed, trying to make sense of the words.

                “Isabel, listen to me,” a soft voice hissed.

                “Saiya?” My brain felt muddled. What was Saiya doing here? Shouldn’t she be feeding?

                “There is no time for me to explain, Isabel. I need you to get up now, and run. I want you to run like hell.”

                I was beyond comprehension now. Saiya never said anything like that. Something was wrong. But I couldn’t figure out what...

                “Saiya, what is it?” I felt anxious, and I needed her to assuage my fears.

                “Go, Isabel! Just go.” She grabbed my wrist and hauled me easily to the door. She handed me a readymade bag and continued to move me outside.

                I stopped in my tracks and used all of my power to stay where I was. “Saiya, what’s happening? Why am I leaving?”

                In the short pause that followed, I knew what was wrong. Though her face was blank, her eyes held the most terror I had ever seen on anyone. In the far distance, I could hear walking, some running, the shouts of fright and anger that came from the mouths of the villagers close by. And then I was overwhelmed by scent; the acrid burning of wood, of fire billowing in the night, flaming and hot and ready to burn anything in its path – any vampire in its path.

                “Oh god. What happened? How do they know?” My body shook with fear – not fear for myself, but fear for Saiya. I wasn’t sure how I would react to the fire, but Saiya would smoulder and char...

                Saiya grabbed my shoulders firmly. “Look at me, Isabel. I don’t care what happens, when I tell you to, you run out that door and you don’t look back. If something happens to me, you still run. Don’t stop.”

                I swallowed the lump that had settled in my throat. “But I couldn’t leave you...”

                A tense moment passed, but then a lush feeling came over the two of us. It was a guilty pleasure in that moment right before death; somehow, facing death didn’t seem so bad when there was a delicious spark in the air...

                “Isabel...” Saiya sighed, closing her eyes momentarily.

                When she looked at me again, her eyes were blazing. Her cold fingers cradled my soft chin in her hands. “Isabel, I have never told you this, but know it now. I love you – in every way that you can be loved.” She smiled for a brief moment. “And now, because I hope so much that you feel the same, I want you to run right now, okay?”

                I barely remember what happened next. Everything seemed to happen in a daze... but the next I remember, it was dawn, our house was burning, and Saiya was dead.

*

Tears fell down my cheeks, burning like acid where they touched my pale skin. My body shook with sobs, and I gasped for air, desperately trying to breathe, desperately trying to calm myself. But god, I couldn’t. I couldn’t live like this. I couldn’t... I couldn’t...

                I am a Dhamphir. I am not human, I am not a vampire. I am neither, a creature cast onto the earth with no choice, with no hope...

                I clutched the violin closer to me, holding it to my chest – the glossy brown against my purple corset... I wanted to make the violin a part of me, make it one with my body and the soul I wish I had. This violin meant everything to me... Why couldn’t I make it a part of me?

                I slipped off the grave and onto the ground. The wind blew gently around me, the fallen leaves surrounding me, soft as if they were an earthly bed, begging my mythical body to decay... to give itself to death and let go...

                The wound on my body throbbed with pain, but I chose to ignore it. It was almost nothing, nothing to what I felt right now.

                I choked on another sob, choking on my breath, unable to catch it.

                Oh god, why had I been born this way? Why had I been born as an outcast, neither human nor vampire? One was terrified of me, the other mocked me; I am weak, I am terrifying, I am shameful, I am worthless...

                “Saiya...” I murmured her name pitifully, wanting desperately to still have her, to still be with her...

                Oh god, Saiya, why did they take you from me? Why didn’t I let myself die with you?

                My tears turned to blood, and I felt the liquid run down my face and into my hair – blood red in a mass of dirty fire... I could smell the rusty metallic of human blood...

                Saiya, Saiya...

                I moaned in sadness and regret, and I grasped the violin closer to me, pushed it against my breast, nearer to my heart.

                Let me die, god. Please, be merciful for once. Let me die here and be with Saiya...

                The tear in my skin burned, making me writhe in pain; I screamed in pain, screamed for release, screamed for something, anything, to make it stop... God let it stop...

                And as I lay in torment, the air left my lungs and if felt like my screams had been answered...

                The wind blew against my bleeding body, and I could feel it... I suddenly just couldn’t take any more of it, and I just... let go. I could feel my desperation weakening, my hold on life falling away...

                Desperately, I clung to the violin, but let myself relax, willing my body to sink into the earth, into oblivion...

                Thank you, god, thank you... Saiya, I will be there soon, love...

                My body shuddered, the pain of my wound melting away, clearing my mind, leaving it hopelessly and wonderfully blank...

                Saiya...

Author's Note

Right, so, what do you think of it?

Reviews

[THE LOST ROSE]

I am not a story reader per say. I have to admit I was captured in this one after the first 3 paragraphs. At times I did gasp for her because my focus was on the story and the visuals that you created that I was not breathing just reading. I enjoy your poetry but you are a great story teller. I think your story writing is probably your stronger style. I hope you never stop writing poetry because I don't want to turn into a story writer to keep up with you. I still love poems. Great write! Thanks for sharing!

[Jim Clarke]

You are an excellent writer, and I think you have mastered the vampire genre well. It is impossible to read a short story like this one and not think of Anne Rice's characters such as Lestat: The quintessential vampire conflicted between emotion and the need to feed via murder. Anne's characters are extremely well done, but I think they seem far more alien rather human on a supernatural level. Your writing, on the other hand, really mixes human sensuality and Vampire bloodlust on an ideal level.

On a constructive note, this piece seems more like an exerpt froma novel rather than a short story. After reading it, there was too much more I wanted to know about Saiya. Keep writing this one!

[Michael]

One of my favorite short stories I have read thus far. I found myself, much more enthralled into this story, than Stephanie Meyers Twilight. The characters exhibited the most true of behavior, reacting genuinely to the task at hand. Isabelle's being the daunting quest of evading capture and death, while the blindly one dimensional human antagonist, seeks nothing more, but to destroy her! The morbid truth, nothing could of averted this inevitable demise. Ultimately, she would of sunk her teeth into any man that caressed her skin. It was just about time she would exempt control from her natural impulsive behavior.

[Walkingblind]

I liked it, the imagery is nice you always tend to focus on the charactors
thier intense feelings, etc. I'm happy to see a bit more scenery in this one.
It makes me invision it alot more. I think it was great, and I can't thank you
enough for not having a sex scene. No one can read a good vampire/Dhamphir
story with out one, and I'm not talking about the first three books of Twlight.
Good Job.

[J.Black]

WOW! This was fantastic, I just loved this and found it to be gathered with such deep thoughts of emotion.

[Ashley]

Oh WOW!!! I love it so much. This is exactly what I was looking for!! Thanks for entering, I really enjoyed reading it. :)

[Kayleigh]

Amazing writing! Love it! =]
Such deep emotions, I could feel while reading this...
Great work! =)

[lAcEy_LoO's Poems Site]

wow.. that was great!!! I loved it is it going to be a story or just a short story???