Her Midnight

Her midnight-black hair remained completely static in mid-air as she watched the forest burn before her eyes. The fire warmed her flesh – a sensation she had not felt in many years. But that was not all: no, something was happening to her. Moving through continents for years, searching, she was finally at her location. So she stood there; savouring the feeling; letting the flames burn in her completely black eyes. Empty monsters enter the forest, Rose someone in the depths of her memory – her history – spoke out Empty monsters enter and they never come out.

“I will enter empty and leave whole. I swear it, Richard,” she spoke under her breath, the fierce crackling of the inferno blocking most of the sound anyway.

Dusting off whatever dirt attracted to the completely black, leather attire (composed of a long black rain coat, leather trousers and a tight leather top) she set off towards the woods. Suddenly Rose’s pale, almost worn face lit up in such a way that she seemed to turn into a totally different person. Beauty that only the immortal soul could possibly bestow carved her face into that of an angel. Then, as swiftly and as elegantly as it came, this powerful, heart-stopping wonder faded away into nothingness.

“Rose stop!” That same voice shouted, seeming to echo throughout the forest. Rose screwed her face up, looking around her as if the voice inside her head somehow resurrected itself. “Rose, don’t go in there!”

She continued, her black boots crunching against the burnt earth. The heat intensified – though not enough to hurt any normal person, Rose’s skin exploded in a flurry of pain. A million cigarettes seemed to be extinguished up and down her face, destroying her pale face. Still she continued, moving faster this time, trying to block out everything with the sweet, redeeming sensation of pain.

“Fire is my salvation...” She said, though not in her voice. This was another memory: her old ‘mentor’. “In the ashes of destruction I can finally be at peace.”

“That is a lie! There’s another way, Rose, there’s another way!” The voice persisted, somehow managing to calm the pain across her body. “I found the other way!” For those magnificent few seconds, all the pain disappeared in a poof.

Her entire chest squeezed together, tensing so hard that she had to hug them with her own arms. However, those long, muscular legs buckled underneath, bringing the woman crashing to the floor. The collision was not strong by any means but the fire made it stronger somehow: it seemed to drain all energy out of her like a plug for a bath.

“Go away! Leave me in peace! Allow me this one time to establish some salvation!” Screaming at the top of her lungs, she tried to pull herself closer to the inferno. The long, fire covered trees loomed over her, leaning in like titanic boxers.

“Rose no!” Footsteps this time, approaching swiftly. The noise drained away, leaving only the fierce crackling of the fire and the ferocious footsteps of her imagination. Or was it her imagination? It seemed so real.

“No! You are not real! You are just...” Her sight disappeared this time, leaving only Rose in a field of oblivion. Complete nothingness with just the echoing of the two opposing forces – because that was what they were: actual physical forces which tugged on her emotions. At first, everything seemed so clear but that voice... That voice was changing things.

“Rose wake up!” Two hands gripped her toned shoulders and shook her, twirling the oblivion away in a whirlwind of colours. Everything around her fell into place and she stood staring at the dark night’s sky. Opening the black eyes, she stared into the dark-skinned interferer’s. Sweat ran down his face in salty beads followed by something else. Tears were they? Rose couldn’t tell. All she cared about at the moment was going into the fires... right? “Rose I found another way! One that won’t kill you!”

“There is no other way for me! I’m ungodly! I’m nothing!” Slapping Richard around the face, her hand was caught on his young stubble. “I bring only pain!”

“I can get your soul back! I can make you human again! You don’t have to die a vampire!”

For a split-second, her entire body rushed forward. Her lips connected to his dark ones and that strange emotion she only experienced when Richard was around bubbled up in her stomach like an erupting volcano. Then she pushed away. Getting to her feet, she sprinted with all her might towards the fires, not once looking back. The heat absorbed her body, entangling her in its godly presence. The oblivion absorbed her, this time leaving a sound Rose had not heard in years. The sound of her heartbeat.