Red Cloak (Part Two)

It was entrancing.  Anna's heart was pounding as her lips met with this strangers.  She had never kissed someone like this.  Especially not a stranger.  But she felt as if this was meant to happen.  There was no guilt, but a sense of fulfillment.  Her mind was burning with thoughts of how, who, and why... but was suddenly overwhelmed by a pervading sense of calm and contentment.  All the while, Emrys' mind was racing as well.  He could feel his hunger tearing at him.  His fangs slowly extending as he was forced to break the kiss.  He drew back slowly, letting out a long breath.  She drew him into a tight embrace, her neck so close... his concentration was fleeting, he barely heard her words as she spoke them.  "I want to leave this dreadful city.  Take me to this place you speak of.  If you would take me, then take me there now.  I wish so much to hear the whisperings of those stars..."1

Her words were like a song, dancing to the beat of her heart as he leaned lower, whispering against the skin of her neck.  "With snow on the roses..."2

"Yes." She replied.  "With snow on the roses." ... She felt a sudden and sharp pain in her neck.  But as soon as it was there it was over.  She gasped slightly, but was soon overtaken by the most glorious sensation... as if there honestly WAS no more world around her.  She was in ecstasy, her eyes opening slowly to reveal a clear and brilliant night sky.  The stars seemed to burn with an unnatural light, but they were beautiful none the less.  And then she heard them.  The whispers.  What words they said where unrelatable.  But she understood them.  She felt herself getting cold, but it was not uncomfortable... it simply was.  3

Emrys also, was in ecstasy.  The bite... her heartbeat pounding in his head... the taste of her blood running over his tongue was intoxicating.  Holding her tightly, he could hear her heart slowing... slowing... slowing... his mind screamed at him STOP.  STOP!!  But at the same time his hunger pulled at him for more... more...  But suddenly.  Oh so suddenly it was over.  The inner struggle ended oh so abruptly.4

She heard the stars... she heard them.  I'm sorry... they said... I'm sorry... The rain began... and she saw, as if it were the only thing in the world... a rose... a red rose, covered in snow against the starlit sky.  The rain didn't seem to touch the rose, or melt the snow.  Instead it sang.  It sang a very soft song... such a beautiful song... Her eyes grew heavy, and slowly closed.  The song lulling her towards sleep.  She felt cold...5

The thirst suddenly silenced, and his mind pushed through.  Emrys drew back suddenly, his eyes opening wide.  He watched her, limp in his arms.  Her breathing was slow.  Very slow.  But was it TOO slow?  She clutched his arm weakly, even in her state of sleep... and suddenly her breathing stopped.  He waited...  waited... but it did not begin again.  He suddenly fell to his knees, holding her, looking at her unmoving face.  He screamed.  Screamed so loudly that it could wake the whole of the city.  But it made no sound.  It was a scream within himself.  He could feel her soul, ripping him apart through her blood.  The pain of loss.  The sharp cuts of guilt.  Ecstasy faded into a deep and terrible pain, mixed with a horrible rage.6

He left her there, in the street, and retreated to the room that he had been staying in.  There, he stared into the mirror for the longest time.  His face stared back at him.  A reflection of everything that he hated in life.  A monster in the mirror.  His fist came in a blur, breaking the mirror into tiny pieces as he collapsed onto the floor.  Tears of blood streamed down his face as he grasped a broken piece of the mirror and began to deeply cut his face again and again.  But it was no use.  Just as fast as he made a cut it would heal and disappear.  He walked slowly to his coffin and crawled into it.  As sleep took him he was there.  In the place where snow lies on the roses... where the stars whisper... and she was there.  "Hello Anna... are you alright?"7

Her reply was soft, and wavering.  "I'm cold... but it is beautiful here... just like you said.  ... How long can I stay here Emrys?  Will you stay with me?"  Her questioned tormented him.  Should he lie?  Should he tell her what was really going on?  She wasn't even really there.  Or at least he didn't think so.  It was his mind using her blood to recreate her here... was she even real?  Were any of them real, these souls that tormented him after their deaths...???  Who's to say.  But something told him that she deserved the truth.8

"I'm sorry Anna.  I did not mean this for you... but you will stay for a while... perhaps a week... and after that I don't know where you will go.  This place never lets outsiders stay for very long.  They fade away, and then must leave."  Again, he felt the sharp pain in his soul... the pain of loss.  Guilt.  But she smiled lightly at him and nodded.9

"It's worth it, I think.  To be here with you.  Will you stay?  Please Emrys... stay with me."  He blinked, a tear glistened on his face.  So much pain contained in such a small vessel, the tear... it was scarcely comprehensible.  10

"I will stay with you as long as I can.  I will stay."  But his world began to fade away as the sun set quickly behind the city lights, and suddenly all he could see was the inside of his casket.  He could feel her, somewhere, silently waiting within himself, but he was here again.  In this city of dirt and stone.  He grew cold, quiet, and angry.  He walked through the city streets, looking for something.  Looking for anything.  He stumbled upon a man being robbed, and his anger overtook him again, as he struck down the knife wielding thief in a single blow, crushing his head with a mighty punch.  The crack and slow thump as the body hit the ground seemed to ease him for a moment... but it was not enough.  Nothing was ever enough.11

Weeks went by quickly, each day a beautiful but horrible, agonizing reunion with a fading, weakening Anna.  Until one day... she wasn't there anymore.  When he woke that night, he tore the lid off his coffin and burst forth in an anguished rage.  Anna was gone.  Truly, and forever gone... and the city again was buzzing with activity.  He threw on his coat, put on his hat, and quietly made his way out into the night clad city...12