The darkness within us

The darkness within us

Leomi held both bags of groceries in one hand as she picked up her phone in the other and upon hearing her best friend’s voice she smiled slightly, she was actually really glad her friend had called. She had felt like someone was stalking or watching her for some weeks now but talking with Kate made the dark alleyways seem less scary.
“Leomi, Leomi!! You will never guess but Scott has asked me out! I mean I couldn’t believe it at first but it so true, we’re meeting next Sunday!” Leomi congratulated her friend even as a stab of jealousy shot through her, it wasn’t that she was in love with Scott but the fact that her friend had found someone to like, nay, to love and she herself had not.
Not once in her twenty years of life had she felt the described exhilarating feeling of a destined love or even attraction. Sure she could ogle Gerard Butler in Phantom of the opera like everyone else and drool over Takeshi Kaneshiro’s heroisms in The house of flying daggers but those men or rather those characters were merely characters in movies and not the actors true natures.
She felt as though she waited for her own story to enfold but waking up halfway through realizing if she never took a chance nothing would ever happen, no one would ever fall for her.
Yet that was how she was, laid back and sociably incompetent and it was hard for her to defy her nature and even if she did and allowed her girlfriends to drag her out on a night out the men that would approach her frightened her.
Her friends used to complain that she though to much as she couldn’t help but ask questions such as why would a guy drunk and randomly use a bad pick-up lie truly change if he were to say become her boyfriend? Would that type of person be what she desired in some one to like, nonetheless love?
For thinking these things and thinking too much she sometimes hated herself for not once taking the chance to be hurt instead.
“So are you coming with us tonight? It will only be our usual girl gang and by the way you can’t bail because I who am officially off the menu am going and if I go you will have to keep me in check so I don’t drink too much” Leomi laughed as she pictured the last time Kate had drunk too much and promptly ended up crying on some stranger’s shoulder and ending up spilling her entire drink over his implacable suit causing what one would call “quite a scene”.
“Sure I will come, Do we meet up at Bailey’s at ten o’clock as usual?”
“Yup and wear something sexy for once, no more of your grey suits, I don’t care if those are attractive for law students”
In the back of her mind Leomi pictured her red Prada dress that she had never used “I am sure I’ll find something fitting”
“Okay see ya later”
“See ya”

After putting away her phone she looked about her, she usually didn’t go home this late but after opening a book about laws that had it’s history from medieval times she’d been loosing track of time.
Somehow she’d always liked history but her parents were two very successful lawyers and they wanted their daughter to take over the firm when she’d finished her education. It wasn’t like they made her take the course forcefully; it was just that Leomi wanted to make her parents proud.
She suddenly thought she heard footsteps from behind her and turned around ready to swing her grocery bags if need be but there were no one there she faced the deserted street again and was just about to turn into her own street when a gang of four or five seemingly intoxicated males walked towards her.
Trying to seem indifferent she walked pass them looking straight ahead but just as she past them they seemed to notice her.
“Hey pretty lady will you have some fun with us?” One of them said, she didn’t respond by hastened her steps and just as she passed one of them grabbed her arm and wrenched her to a stop.
“Hey you should answer when someone ask you a question” She felt a little prickle of panic as she tried to tug herself free from his grip but was unsuccessful.
“I beg your sincerest pardon but I am in a haste, my boyfriend is going to meet up with me now…” She said in a shaken and very unconvincing voice and he just laughed in response starting to drag her with them.
“You speak so formally but we can tell when you lie, sweet, we can walk you home” She felt shivers down her spine, she didn’t want these men anywhere near her home or her bedroom and she knew it was there they intended to take her.
“Let me go this instant you bottom-of-the-barrel-drag-of-society or else I will scream” Apparently they weren’t drunk enough to miss the insult and the one holding her left arm lowered his head threateningly toward hers.
“I don’t think it’s in your best interest to insult us, little lady” He took hold of her chin and forced her fact up and as he bent over to kiss her she closed her eyes and struggled she didn’t want her first kiss to be with a violent drunkard.
To her surprise she never felt the impact and when she opened her eyes a tall very lean man with beautiful gleaming silver hair had literally lifted the man trying to kiss her of his feet. The weight of the man seemed to barely stir the long haired man and after bodily removing him he faced the five of them his gleaming yellow eyes emitting a hostile threat even if his face was impassive and emotionless.
“Let’s go” One of the guys said and without looking back they started off in full speed and the mysterious man turned to her, looking down he picked up her hand bag that had fallen to the ground in all the commotion and handed it to her.
She accepted it looking into his eerie eyes that captivated her and her artistic side, the side that loved to paint and the side of herself she’d denied for her parent’s sake ventured forth.
“Thank you” She said her breath caught and she found she couldn’t really look away from the yellow eyes that seemed to regard her calmly “I live just down the street, I suppose my timing was bad” She smiled as she pointed down the street towards the large but old apartment building she’d just moved into and she’d fallen instantly in love with even if it was a goodly distance from her school.
“I know where you live miss Beaumont” The hair on the back of her neck stood on end as he called her name and she found herself taking a step back from him.
“I-I think I should go now” She said while tuning around hoping with all her might that he wouldn’t follow her but he did “You don’t need to follow- eh walk me home” She mumbled cursing herself for not even carrying pepper spray in her bag.
“Well we are going in the same direction, Miss Beaumont, so it would seem impolite not to accompany you” She nodded and started walking again trying not to seem skittish but it was hard, she felt as if he made the slightest move she would run for it.
When they reached the door of the building leading to a cosy lobby-like room he stepped up to the door first as if hoping she would unlock it so he could open the door for her.
“You need not come with insi-” She stopped as he pulled out bundle of keys and after unlocking the door he punched in the code for the alarm and as she’d though held up the door for her but she didn’t move an inch.
“Who are you exactly?” She said rather rudely but there was a high note of fear in her voice, could he be a depraved stalker or something?
The man smiled rather dryly at her as if amused by her “I’d thought you’d know your own landlord but then again I should probably apologize as well as I rudely did not introduce myself, though admittedly I partially didn’t mention it for my own amusement” He gave her a repenting look “I am Zevrek Lamotte the owner and land lord of this building and several other establishments and of course I know the name of all my tenants” Leomi felt herself flush a little, she felt very stupid for assuming he was some crazy weirdo but she added it to the creepy feeling she’d all since she’d moved in, someone watching her.
She entered the lobby and when she turned she saw that Lamotte’s eyes no longer looked yellow but blue and his hair light blond and not silver, it was probably a trick of the moonlight.
“Well then thank you for the rescue earlier, by the way which room do you live in, I heard that the landlord did no longer live here”
“My house is currently undergoing renovation so I will live here for the duration, I always keep the top floor uninhabited for my occasional usage, the best view and so on” He added and smiled but she found his expression forced and insincere as if he forced himself to take on an expression he did not feel or use often and it felt acutely half-hearted but she smiled back and saying goodnight she stepped of the elevator at her apartment floor, one of the three directly under his.
Once inside her apartment she caught sight of the clock on her mantelpiece and saw that she still had some time to change and order a taxi, in all the commotion she’d almost forgotten she’d promised to go out with the girls.
Somehow she couldn’t get the picture of Lamotte out of her head, under the moonlight he’d not looked human exactly but at a second though that was rather rude as rather a lot people said she didn’t look human just after waking up and as a rule everyone in her old dormitory had avoided her in early mornings until she’d eaten breakfast.
She stopped before her wardrobe her hand lingering over the red dress, would she dare to wear it? She wondered if Lamotte would have recognized her in that dress, her hair released from her permanent tight bun and without her glasses. Why was she thinking that? Why would she care what he though she didn’t even know him but there were something… She couldn’t describe in words exactly what she felt but it was something between curiosity and a need capture those eyes on a canvas.
Unconsciously her eyes wandered over to the cupboard she stored her art supplies, she had not pained in years but as a habit from her psychology sessions she always brought the materials with her. She closed her eyes at the unwanted memories that flooded her vision pushing the depressing thoughts away she wondered why in the world she’d bought the red dress at all.
Leomi pulled out a beige high necked and long sleeved dress that ended below her knees, she donned a pair of shoes in matching colors and pulled a pendant, a silver chain with a yellow stone. She always wore that necklace but now as she looked in the mirror it reminded her of Lamotte’s eyes.
“Stop thinking of him, men are all bad, you are doing this for your friends and after drinking a margarita or two you can go back home” Speaking to herself always calmed her down and it had become a habit she only indulged when in solitude, she tried to appear and sound sane, or saner when she hung out with her friends she was half afraid they wouldn’t accept who she really was with all her emotional problems and they already thought her weird for not hanging out or date men as it was.
She sighed and after a final looking in the full-length mirror she picked up the phone on her bedside table and dialed a taxi.

From his apartment window Zevrek watched as Leomi entered a taxi “What a strange woman but then again who am I to talk?” He said to the darkness as he rubbed his tongue against the perturbing fangs.