Zenith

Dance upon the wind with me. Can’t you feel it? How it moves so delicately, so lithely. How could something be wrong, if it’s described as being the wind? I think all of these things as I stand on my balcony, feeling the wind blow through my damp hair. I sigh, heavily, as I am prone to these days. It seems a darkening grey cloud has settled in on my days like a plague. Nothing seems to be going right, and I feel as though I’ve been forsaken by everyone I cared about at all. Am I really that bad? Have I done something wrong? I feel so alone. I’ve felt so numb lately, no warmth, no love, no joy, no sorrow. I am hollow, and I will live, forever. Precious is life, especially eternal life. Or so the old ones say. I say there is nothing to this life, except numbness and pain. Should I go on? Or should I leave my fate in the hands of a cruel world, which could care less if my soul was devoured in the process of growth. Precious, ha, precious my ass. I stand alone on my balcony, watching the sunset, as so few of my kind get the privilege to do. These humans that stalk the earth like a foul disease never taking notice of the beautiful paintings that are created every day’s end upon the great canvas of the sky. I spy a small star come blinking as a beacon to welcome the creatures of the night to awaken. I am tired of watching the carnage that ensues after this first star appears. Is this the Promised Land that eternal life hath promised? I would have rathered died an oblivious mortal. Every night I stand upon my balcony for two hours, awaiting a safer time to hunt. Such brute creatures at this time of the night. You would have thought that they could be somewhat more appreciative of their prey, seeing as without them, they would lose what most of them fought so hard to achieve. But, no, they disgrace, disfigure, and mangle those poor souls. What a despicable lot. After the last few rays of the sun have terminated on the zenith, I walk back into my home, preparing for my appearance. All black, perfect. After I am dressed, I walk back out onto my balcony. I close my eyes and focus on a spot I have in mind for hunting: The Park. I open my eyes and I am there, an interesting feature that eternal life has brought me. After walking for about ten minutes, people begin to notice my presence. A few other creatures of the night use this spot for hunting, though none of them powerful enough to challenge me. I continue walking, to a park bench under a tall, slightly bent-over maple tree. I sit down and wait. After about twenty minutes, I feel the presence of someone walking toward me on the park lawn. I feel his aura before I actually see him. Darius, ahh, the name still brings a pleasant spasm to my stomach and a thrill up my spine. Darius was my first lover, while I was still human, though he wasn’t too keen on keeping up our relationship if I was the only vampire in it. He also wouldn’t allow me to actually change him. We had to find someone else to do the job for us. He said that we would be blood relatives at that point (he found this to be his first vampire joke, and thought it amazingly funny), and then he couldn’t make love to me anymore, and, as he put it, that was an unbearable loss, which he had followed up with a very large wink and licking of his very seductive lips. He had a certain preference for male domination, though a few breaks from that ritual were always welcome, he would always say with a wink in my direction. Darius was always in the spotlight, no matter where he went or the audience in question. He had constantly tan skin, which hosted numerous battle scars that he was always happy to show off. His body was muscular, in all the right places, and not so muscular in just enough places not to call him perfect. He was about six foot four, maybe six foot five, and he oozed sexual appeal. Even if sex was the farthest thing from your mind, he could bring it right to the fore-front without so much as a glance. His eyes were bright emerald pools that were deep enough to get lost in, if you had the privilege to look into them for that long. While I was remembering all of those things that I loved about him, he had snuck up behind me without me even noticing, which was our private little game. See if I can sneak up behind the other and catch them off guard. While I was still daydreaming about him, he snuck up behind me and brushed the back of my neck with his lips, then whispered seductively in my ear, “Hello my love, how are you this evening?” This sent delightful shivers up my spine. “Darius, you know very well what that does to me. I’m a tad, ahem, famished. Long time no see love,” I said reproachfully. “I’ve been working on our project, Hun. Very dangerous stuff. You know I could never stand to lose you,” he said almost apologetically, although I knew very well that Darius never apologized, even to me. “I still would have rathered to have heard something from you, even if it meant putting me in some kind of danger,” I said, finally giving in to his charm. He walked around the bench and sat down next to me, a dark look coming over his features. “I’ve found someone we could change, although he’s definitely not going to like it. He’s a Baptist preacher, who is in his late twenties. He thinks vampires are the Hollywood devil bloodsucker’s who sign the Devil’s book of damnation. Maybe we really should try to find someone else,” he said, then saw the look of defiance in my eyes, and added, “You know that there could be complications if we try to force the change on him. He could turn out like your last experiment, Tyron, I believe it was?” he said coldly. Darius hadn’t liked the fact that I had resorted to seduction to change Tyron. He could never stand to see me with anyone other than himself. And, at the time, I had reveled in it. I shivered, though not in delight. Tyron had been the first person I had tried to change, and it hadn’t turned out well, at all. He had been engaged, and thought he had all that life had to offer. I had seduced him away from his fiancé, though it hadn’t been easy. Then, while he was sleeping, I tried to change him. He had woken up too soon, and realized what was going on, and had fought me tooth and nail. It’s never a good mix when violence and the Change interact. I had eventually won out, although, to this day I still have a small scar on my neck from his teeth. After he was successfully changed, I taught him how to feed, and about himself. After I thought he had mastered the necessary skills, I left him alone, as I had been. I would find out later how much of a mistake that would turn out to be.