“Able, I care for you and I wish you only happiness. I wish this was not the truth… but if you stay with Amica, you will kill him. Love is a hard tale to live, like being stuck over and over with a shiv.” I crumpled into Zuhara O Kande’s chair and simply zoned out.
I didn’t want to believe it. I couldn’t believe it. I was killing the thing I loved most in the world and I couldn’t do anything about it. I didn’t want to hurt him, but to give him up… I wasn’t sure if I could. He was mine and I was his. I only had eyes for him and his body… I ached to be near him but… I felt a tear leak out but it wasn’t a tear of submission. I would find a way to end this.
“Amica.” I called, heading towards the kitchen. He was sitting on a stool with an icepack on his arm. “What happened?”
“Tripped over a box in the equipment room.” He lied and I flinched internally as he ruined my plans to tell him our problem and sort it out together. I would have to make the plan and I would have to execute it.
“Amica…” I grabbed his good hand and captured his gaze. “We need to talk. I’m hurting you.”
“You could never—”
“Amica.” I touched his arm and he flinched. “This isn’t the time for you to act like I’m perfect and everything is perfect. That’s how relationships dissolve or explode. As it’s going, I’m going to kill you. You’re getting sicker and sicker.”
“It’s just a cold, I’ll get over—”
“Amica, I’m feeding from you too much and too often. If this continues—”
“No! You can’t! I won’t let you!” He screamed and I had to silence him with my hypnotic gaze to stop from alarming the others. “I see the way she looks at you. She wants you; she wants to take you away from me. I’ll kill her before she takes you away. I’ll kill everyone!”
“Amica,” I snapped and he fell completely silent, “that isn’t something my Amica would say. I wasn’t even proposing that I feed on anyone onboard. I know how much you would hate that. I think that if I feed on a human whenever we dock, I can probably take enough so that I don’t have to hurt you when I bite you during sex.”
“No sex.” Amica pouted and reached purposefully for my junk to change the subject.
“Not no sex.” I removed his hand. “No biting and a reduction of the amount of sex.”
“But…” Amica fell silent, but I could tell he wasn’t happy with what happened. He was beyond unhappy; he was almost mad at me even though he would never say so.
The holotrain let out a loud whoosh as we stopped in The Mansion’s docking area. I left Amica sitting in the kitchen as I went to find whoever was in charge. As I walked around the small courtyard that served as their docking area, an elderly man dressed in a suit approached me with a raised hand.
“Hello, are you the conductor of this holotrain?” He had a deep voice that was scratchy, but up close he couldn’t have been more than fifty.
“Yes sir. We’re just stopping so we can stock up on provisions.” The man sucked his teeth at that and folded his hands.
“That might be a problem. We have a no re-provisioning policy. The Mansion is a private academy that houses youths of all ages and gives them a proper education before arranging jobs for them in their destination of choice. There are no exceptions to this rule. I am sorry, but once your train cools down, I must ask you to leave.” I blinked and forced the power of my eyes on him. I hadn’t expected this kind of resistance from a human. He was all but immune to my hypnotic gaze.
“Well sir, I think you might be in luck. We are a band of traveling circus performers. We would be honored to put on a performance for your children in return for you allowing us to restock while in the docks.” I had hit the exact right point for him. He cared about these youths to the point that it inhibited his resistance to my manipulative powers.
“I don’t know… You could be anybody and I don’t want the children to be harmed.” He only needed a push and I had the exact one.
“But wouldn’t this be an unforgettable break for the children? I can supply you with references from around the world. We’re a professional group and we will stay within the confines of our train for the entirety of the stay.” I smiled at him and pushed a little harder with my powers. “Just give us a chance. It would be a wonderful treat for the children. There aren’t many traveling performers now a days.”
“Well… all right, but you must stay on the train and pay for any provisions you take. I assume you have a list?” I handed him the list the twins had prepared and headed back to the train and my eagerly awaiting crew.
“Good news and bad news. We are allowed to dock and replenish our provisions, but we aren’t allowed off the train. Also in agreement for our docking here, we have to put on a performance for the children who study here.” I was startled as Dexter whooped and pumped the air.
“I’ve been itching to fly! Damn, this is good news!” Siniste looked equally happy and even Nihilo had a slight joyous tint to his face.
“I will prepare the cannon!” Raven twirled and flourished her hand. “This shall be the show of a lifetime!”
“I’ll help get the stage ready.” Amica jumped up and I was surprised by the amount of energy he seemed to have. Normally, even though he was eager to please me, he moved slowly, almost sluggish.
“All of you know exactly what to do,” I decided to get right to the point, “now which one of you is going to explain my duties?”
Siniste shared a look with her sister and I groaned inwardly as Dexter moved toward me and clapped my back. “I’ll teach ya. I’ll teach ya real good. After all, I’m the one who started all this crap. Now, what do you know about ringleaders?”
Two hours, a lot of screaming and a few bruises later and I was allowed to leave, thankfully without Dexter. She was just as vulgar and crass while teaching a she was in conversation. I sought out Amica as the moon sunk lower in the sky, knowing I needed to replenish myself and that if I fed without him, Amica would feel that I had betrayed him and I wanted anything but to hurt him.
“Amica,” I called as I noticed him unhooking and moving our equipment car that doubled as a stage across their nicely trimmed field by himself. “You shouldn’t be doing that by yourself. You’re not well.”
“I’m well enough to move a working holocar.” He snorted and I felt the embarrassed anger wafting off of him worriedly. I knew he wasn’t weak, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t sickly right now.
“Well, can you take a break for about an hour?” I asked and he dusted his hands off with a nod. “I plan to find someone to feed off of.”
“I—” I flashed my eyes in a very obvious ‘no’. As much as I wanted to shower him with my attention, I was not going to use him like a human blood bank or face the consequences when I emptied my account.
“I wanted you to come with me so that you can approve of whoever I grab and make sure it’s nothing more than a meal. If you don’t want to—” He twitched and I knew I had him hooked. He followed me as I headed towards the school.
I whistled under my breath at the true beauty of the structure. The building was old but had been rigorously kept in prime condition so that even though it was a real Victorian piece of architecture, it looked almost brand new. I walked inside the massive castle and whistled again as I stared at the murals and paintings. They were spread across the walls to the ceiling almost a hundred feet above us and not a single space of wall was left without an epic scene of angelic war. I touched the marble staircase with a very strong appreciation for whoever had built this masterpiece. This was the kind of house I would adore to live in.
“Beautiful.” I was startled by the breathlessness of Amica’s gasp. Amica liked music, of that I was certain, but I thought he wasn’t overly fond of paintings or the visual pleasures.
“I couldn’t agree more.” I tapped the wall and after hearing it echo back formed a brilliant idea. “You should perform for me in here. The acoustics are wonderful. I can easily—”
�
�I can’t!” He protested, turning beet red and nearly stuttering over his words. He would probably faint if I told him I listened to him practicing from my room. The walls of the holocar weren’t thick enough for my Skypian hearing not to catch his cello. “I’m not good enough! You don’t need to listen to such horrible—”
I kissed him to silence and my throat squeezed as I smelled his lovely scent. I doubted I could last much longer so I grabbed Amica by the arm and dragged him up the stairs. I looked around the empty hallways with a sigh. I had not taken into account what the headmaster had said was a strictly enforced curfew, not that we were allowed in here anyway. I wandered around the enormous, arching hallways, annoyed. Normal children would be sneaking around and getting into all sorts of mischief, but these children seemed to be obnoxiously well behaved.
“No one is awake. We should just head back and you can take a little blood from me. I’m telling you, I am fine.” I heard the subtle sounds of movement and my face twitched into a really large smile.
“I hear someone.” Amica frowned, but didn’t say anything against it as I headed into the slightly cracked door. I balked and stopped in pure, absolute, delirious bliss. Books, books everywhere. There were books piled all the way to the top of the ceiling probably fifty feet high and the shelves stretched as far as the eye could see. Even the stairwells had books under them, lacing the twisting walkways and laying almost strewn about their steps.
“I’m in heaven...” I whispered to Amica and he smiled, hoping I would ignore the girl currently replacing the books behind the stairwell to the right. I motioned for him to stay as I browsed over to her. She was pretty in a mousy sort of way, but definitely not my type.
She was replacing books she had already read during her midnight journey to the library. The books still smelled of the lily scented perfume she used. As I watched her move, I noticed her hand itching to grab a volume just out of reach, but she knew if she pulled a stool over to assist her, it would make too much noise.
“Here.” She jumped, but I ignored her quickening pulse to grab the book and hand it to her. “You wanted this one right? It’s a bit old fashioned and some of the information has been proven otherwise in recent years, but still a marvelous read. He’s a fantastic author, wouldn’t you agree?”
I smiled at her and with my hypnotic eyes latched onto hers, she gave way instantly. “He’s brilliant! Oh, how he describes things! Vibrant colors explained with everything but sight! The smell of orange, the taste of red, the sound of blue... He looked at the world in a way I can only dream to see it!”
“But you already do.” I cooed, grabbing a book she had already read. “To appreciate his work is to connect with it, but in order to connect with something you must understand and feel it. You should read this one. It—”
She started talking so fast that her words garbled and even with my Skypian hearing and intellect, I couldn’t decipher them. She realized that she wasn’t making any sense and calmed down to only a small nod. “I’ve read it already.”
“Then did you know,” I smiled at her as I replaced the book, “he wrote that for his wife. It was considered his first true masterpiece. She was blind and he wanted to find a way to share with her the beauty he saw in everything. He started off as a painter, but once he met her… he changed. He turned his art to words.”
I had her captured in that instant. I didn’t know what it was about these people, but they resisted me with iron intellects. Maybe it was the level of education they were subjected to, but once I wormed inside, they couldn’t resist my gaze. I grabbed her shoulders gently as we walked towards the outside. If I bit her in here and blood dropped, it would be all over.
Amica followed us silently and stayed out of sight but still close at hand. As we entered the chilly night air, the girl shivered slightly and broke my control. “Why are we going out here?”
“I just want to show you something,” I muttered and as she turned I grabbed her gently. I moved in and my mouth ached but not for her. She would have to do though. Then, just when I had pierced her skin for the first drop of blood, the dawn broke and I withered into my human form.
Goodbye
I moaned slightly as the sun hit my eyes directly and I searched for my sunglasses weakly. I put them on and turned to the girl, annoyed. She was still staring at me without saying anything. Maybe I had traumatized her, maybe she would stay quiet.
“What are you?” She asked and I was surprised by the pure curiosity, not fear in her voice. She was a rare find and I found her here of all places. The idea to steal and ride a holotrain around the world was the most brilliant idea I had ever had. I had met all kinds of people, not mindless drones but intelligent, beautiful people; I had even found love.
“Able!” Amica tried to run to my rescue, but he didn’t need to. This girl was the intellectual sort who cared about information rather than reality.
“Skypian,” I answered her and Amica balked, but I just raised a hand to keep him silent.
“Really!? So wonderful! I found an intellectual match and a Skypian when I was almost caught for being up and about during curfew hours. What’s Skypia like? Do you have any other powers? Where…” We all jumped as the bell rang, signaling the start of a new day.
“Oh! I’ll be late for orchestra.” I opened my mouth to warn her about telling anyone, but she patted my shoulder as she walked past. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. I’m a bit of a recluse here. I do have a couple of friends though and now I’ve met a Skypian. Good day to you.”
“Your name?” I asked, walking after her. I mainly did it to see the jealous glare of Amica, but I was also interested in this orchestra. Amica needed to play with people, to express himself fearlessly. He needed to make friends other than our peculiar Skypian family and me.
“Mary Jane!” As she moved her hands, I noticed calluses from where she played a string instrument.
“Hello, Mary Jane. I am Able. What do you play, if you don’t mind me asking?” She shook her head with a large smile that revealed perfect teeth that were the result of heavy dental work.
“Violin. I’m not that good, but since we’re a small school I managed to be third, third violin. We have players from mediocre all the way to professional level.”
“That’s interesting. Amica here plays cello, maybe he could play with you a little sometime.” I didn’t need my hypnotic eyes to manipulate people, especially when they were willing to be manipulated. I wanted Amica to play with them, to make human friends. After all, I was going to have to…
Amica jumped and for one horrible second, I thought he could read my mind and the painful thought I had just had. Then he turned red in the face and I realized he had jumped because a beetle had climbed on his leg. Amica wasn’t afraid of them per say, but he wasn’t fond of them. I picked it off of his leg and he opened his mouth to make an excuse, but I just pressed my finger over his lips.
“That would be awesome! We need a new cello player.” Amica jumped again, having forgotten that we weren’t alone. I knew what his mind had wandered to and it hurt me. No… I couldn’t give him up. I would find another way and keep Amica all to myself.
“I’m not that—”
“I’ll go ask my director.” She turned to run, but then stopped to ask us one last thing. “Ah, do you have your own cello? I don’t think we have a spare.”
“I’ll go grab it.” I answered for Amica and left him to chase after the inquisitive girl.
I sighed with annoyance at my headache and the fact that I was awake. I wanted to go to sleep, but I wanted to see if Amica would be able to live here happily. So when I delivered the cello and listened to the surprisingly fair playing outside of the door, my mind was already half made up. Then he came out and the look on his face finalized my choice.
“Yes! I’m serious. It’s not dyed. I was born on Skypia. Right now I’m the stage manager for our circus group.” The group of four was walking sluggishly down the hallway and I followed quietly.
“Then how are you so good at playing cello?” For a second I thought Amica was going to truthfully answer the small boy’s inquiry, but he just laughed.
“It’s my hobby,” he laughed a bit more to cover his bad memories. “I play when I have free time. After all, we spend most of our time riding around on the holorails.”
“Hey Saint,” I stopped walking and turned around. Even as I walked away, I couldn’t miss the sound of Amica’s true laugh. I had never heard it. Not this laugh, not the smile that had curled his face without me, not the happiness he was exuding.
I didn’t doubt Amica’s love for me, I could feel it like a constant presence whenever I was near him. I also couldn’t doubt that Amica was sick and I was the origin of the sickness. I would try one last time to try and feed off of someone else, to keep him close. But if… I still had a chance and I would fight for it.
“If only I was stupid enough to fight a losing battle…” I muttered as I opened the door to my room and crawled into bed.
“Able?” I opened an eye slowly and couldn’t resist pulling Amica down beside me. He yelped and I couldn’t help laughing a little at the expression on his face. He smiled back, but it wasn’t the same smile as before. “Is now really the best time for this?”
“Now may be the only time. Anything can happen at any moment. So why don’t we just enjoy our breakfast alone, in here?” I purred and he caved and we spent our breakfast eating each other.
“Able! Hurry up and finish darling! You need to eat before we perform. Can’t have our hypnotist collapsing during the show!” I opened the door and pushed Raven’s ridiculously poufy dress out of my way.
“I’m finished. This isn’t what I’m hungry for anyway.” Amica tensed behind me and I could feel his unhappiness coming off in waves. Just the feel of having him so close behind me constricted my throat. I had come too close to eating him during sex, but I had resisted. He wasn’t happy about that either.
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