Eternally Dark

chapter 9: dying moments

“Sometimes,” I’d finished the main outline and structure of him. In the drawing he was sitting on the bed, gripping its edge, shoulders slumped forward, one leg extended and the other brought in.

“You any good?” I shrugged again,

“Don’t judge my own work and I don’t let others see it,”

While I drew James stayed sat on the bed, and we talked switching from topic to topic, just getting to know each other. It was three hours before I was done. I flipped over the page and wrote the date. My hand hurt slightly but not enough to really bother me.

“Are you going to let me see?” James asked, from his spot -still- on the bed. I picked up the piece of paper, walked over to the bed, and handed the drawing to James. He studied it for a moment, not saying a word. My stomach twisted and knotted while I waited for him to say something, anything.

“This is beautiful,” He eventually said, looking up from the page and at me. “Where did you learn to draw?” He likes it! My heart was once again dancing, parading around in my chest.

“Self taught,” I told him, feeling my cheeks heat up as I blushed. He smiled at me, took both my hands and pulled me onto the bed. I wriggled up to a sitting position, smiling profusely. James cupped my face in his hands, and kissed my forehead.

“You’re blushing,” He whispered, that made me blush even more, making my cheeks feel like they were burning. He kissed my nose gently, both our smiles grew and our foreheads pressed together.

“Am I making you nervous?” He whispered,

“Now why would you think that?” I asked in the same quiet tone.

“You keep blushing, and your heart races when I touch you or compliment you. Like right now,” He was right, my heart was racing still and my cheeks continued to heat up. I lost a battle (though I didn’t mind). Our lips met, the kiss started out gentle and almost hesitant, but changed to be more. It made me feel hot and cold at the same time, the rest of the world faded out of existence leaving just me and him. Keeping our heads together, James ended the kiss, as we both gasped for air. It felt strange to know that while tonight I’d had my first kiss, he’d probably lived life times and kissed plenty of other girls, prettier, smarter, talented girls. James was watching me, even being so close together he was able to see the thoughts playing out on my face.

“I’m here with you,” He reassured me, keeping his voice low, “Only you,” He kissed me again, making my mind go fuzzy and my worry melt. Still I felt a little awkward, what do I do with my arms? Am I doing this right? Never let this moment end!

“You're beautiful,” James told me, leaving me breathless. He pulled away, dropping his hands down to his side. Seconds before Dad knocked on the door. Could he hear him coming?

“Bed,” Dad said before returning the way he’d come.

“Could you-?” I began, James put a single finger to his lips. “What?” He smiled, and shrugged.

“Nothing, and yes I could hear him coming,” He kissed my forehead, and climbed off the bed. He offered me a hand that I accepted, letting him pull me to my feet.

“You need me to go out so you can change?” He asked, I nodded

“If you wouldn’t mind,” James let go of my hand and left the room, closing the door behind him. I quickly kicked off my shoes and socks, along with the rest of my clothes leaving only my underwear. I took the nightgown out of the draws and threw it on. I grabbed the pile of clothes off the floor and dropped them into the washing basket. I moved over to the door and opened it, James stubbled back, having been leaning on the door. He steadied himself, and straightened up, I was giggling while I watched.

“You find that funny do you?” I couldn’t get out a response before I was wrapped in his arms being tickled. I squealed and laughed, trying to escape from him.

“I surrendered!” I gasped between bursts of laughter. The tickles stopped at my surrender leaving me gasping for breath, the smile still plastered to my face. James stood there smiling and enjoying his victory. I grabbed a nearby pillow and threw it at him, hitting him square in the face.

“Hey!” He called, picking the pillow up and throwing it right back at me. I let out a little squeak and ducked out of the way, the pillow hit the wall behind me and fell to the floor. I looked behind me at the pillow for a moment and when I turned back around James was there, standing so close to me we were almost touching. He was looking down at me and I was looking up at him. He moved his hand up and cupped my face, I buried my face into his hand, but didn’t look away from him. His face only held the singular emotion that I couldn’t identify. It was always there when he looked at me, I realised.

“So beautiful,” He said, so quiet I almost didn’t hear him. He made my chest hurt, it was a good hurt though. I blinked and my viewpoint changed, it was no longer James standing in front of me, but instead a dark hallway with a man standing at the end of it. He was tall, really tall,his head almost touched the ceiling. He turned to face me, he had cold blazing blood red eyes and a cruel smile that showed not just teeth but fangs. No, no not now, not today!

“Elizabeth? Elizabeth, what's wrong?” James sounded so far away, his voice was muffled as if he was underwater. I kept my eyes on the man in front of me.

“Who are you?” I asked him, the man tilted his head slightly.

“I could ask the same question,” The man replied. Then it felt like I was falling, I was cold and the world felt too big and confusing, nothing fit together or made sense. I couldn’t think, couldn’t focus. James. His name echoed through my head, the only thing that made sense, the only thing I could recognise. I needed him, I was scared and alone, he could fix that, he could make it all better. I knew deep down that it was the bond we shared telling me this, but I ignored it.

“James?” I tried to yell the word, but it came out as a faint whisper.

“Yes,” He said, sounding relieved and worried, “Yes I’m here,” Hearing him made the rest of the world snap into focus. I was on the floor, and my head hurt, I winced at the pain. James came into view and emotions washed over me; Happiness, fear, longing, relief and love?

“I scared you?” The question seemed important before I said it, but now it seemed silly and awkward. James nodded ever so slightly,

“Yeah, you did,”

“Sorry,” My voice was stronger now, just about back to normal.

“Why are you apologising?” He sounded confused, “What happened?”

“There was a-” I stopped and sat up.

“Hey slow down,” James said, he put a hand on my back to make sure I didn’t fall back. I tried to stand but my legs wouldn’t support my weight, and I collapsed, James caught me, now standing beside me.

“Desk,” I said, James looked hesitant but carried me over and set me down on the chair. I grabbed up the pencil I’d left there earlier and took a page from the stack of blank paper. Quickly I drew out what it was that I’d seen. Within thirty seconds I was done, the image had way more detail than I remembered doing. James was looking over my shoulder and at the drawing of the hall, with the strange man at the end of it.

“I saw this,” I told him, “Sorry I didn’t warn you,” James’ attention flicked to me,

“This has happened before?” I nodded,

“Six or seven times,” I grabbed a small pile of paper and handed it to him. On each page was a drawing depicting what I’d seen the previous times. As James saw each image his expression of concern deepened.

“What?”

“Nothing,” James said, a little too quickly and too cheerily, he put on a smile I was pretty sure was fake. He put the paper down and picked me back up.

“Bed,” He said, letting me down. He pulled the covers over me and went to turn of the light,

“Wait,” I called, he paused and turned his head to look at me, “Leave it on, please. I don’t like the dark,” He nodded and left the light on, sitting down on the end of the bed.

“Do you sleep?” I asked, in the moment before he answered I wondered if that was rude to ask.

“I can but I don’t need it to function,” I nodded, and smiled. I was exhausted, and my bed felt so comfortable after my time in the dungeon. I closed my eyes, and let myself drift.

“Did you get the pictures?” That sounded like James, I opened my eyes wondering who he was talking to. The light was off now but the room was still fairly light, thanks to a couple of lamps scattered around the room. He was on the phone, pacing back and forth by the desk.

“Yeah, the last one was an hour or so ago,” A pause, “No, it was like she was completely passed out,” Another pause “You think she’s having visions,” Long pause “Yes I know nobodies had visions since the fifteen-hundreds,” Pause “Ok. Bye,” He hung up the phone, and put it into his pocket. He moved over and sat on the edge of the bed. I closed my eyes quickly, so as not to let him know I was awake.

“We’ll figure it out,” He whispered, “It’ll be okay, We’re bound so they can’t hurt you by law,”

“James,” I mumbled, opening my eyes. I was doing my best to look like I just woke up which wasn’t hard as I pretty much had.

“Yeah?” I wriggled over in the bed and pat the newly made spot next to me. “Okay,” James kicked off his shoes and socks, flicked back the covers on my bed and climbed into the spot I’d made. I curled into him resting my head on his chest, and he wrapped his arms around me.

“James?” He made a sound to indicate he was listening, “How old are you,” It was a minute or so before he finally answered,

“I’m seven-hundred and fifty-four,” Holly s**t! “And you?”

“Eighteen next week,”

“Oh yeah, what day?”

“Sunday,” I still couldn’t quite believe that in three days I’d be eighteen.

“That must be exciting,” I made a noise of agreement, and yawned. “Go back to sleep,” James told me, I was happy to comply. In the moments before I fell asleep I ran how old James said he was over in my head continuously. Seven-hundred and fifty-four!

When I woke-up James was gone, I sat up pushing out the drowsiness and looked around the room for him. A note stuck to one of the lamps caught my eye, I swung my legs out of the bed and moved over to grab the note. It was from James and read

Sorry to have left so early, needed food. Be back soon.

James,

I knew what that meant he’d gone ‘hunting’, there was a small knot in my stomach. Not so long ago I had been the one he was hunting, our bond was what saved me, the next person wouldn’t be so lucky. I turned off the lamp and moved around the room doing the same with the others. I left my bedroom clothes in hand and moved into the bathroom. I closed the bathroom door after turning on the main light. I quickly had a shower and changed into a pair of comfy blue jeans and plain dark blue long sleeve shirt. Once dressed I threw on a pair of runners, tied back my hair and left my room, out the back door and into the back fields. The fields had been recently mowed, leaving the smell of freshly cut grass fading in the air. I followed the foot made path down the length of the fields and out onto the dirt road.

“Where you going?” I jumped and turned my scream into a small squeak, I spun around to see who was there. James. He was wearing gym shorts and a grey tank top.

“You scared me,”

“Sorry,” He smiled, “So where are we going?”

“We?” He nodded,

“Yep, I’m coming with you,” I shook my head no.

“Not happening, I run alone,” Before he could answer I turned back around and began my run.

I followed my normal route, down the dirt road, behind the abandoned paddocks and across town, before circling around and heading back to the house.

By the end I was hungry and wanted breakfast. I slipped back into the house through the back door and walked into the kitchen. I stole a piece of toast from dad's plate and sat down across from him.

“Morning,” He said, not looking up from his newspaper.

“Morning,” I mumbled around a bite of toast. I quickly finished my piece of toast, and stood from the table,

“Only one piece today?” Dad asked, “Normally you steal two or three,” I shrugged,

“Not too hungry today,” That wasn’t true. I was still hungry, but I needed to talk to James about last night. I’d ignored the phone call he’d had but now that I was fully awake it was bugging me.

I found James in my bedroom sitting at the desk, he was looking at the drawings I’d done after my black-outs. He’d changed again, and was now wearing blue jeans and a short sleeve black top. The moment I walked in the door he -way too fast to be human- put the papers back on the desk in their original stack.

“Well that's not at all suspicious,” I said moving across the room and over to the desk. I leant against the desk and picked up the drawings. James was watching me, following my expression.

“Why were you looking at this?” I asked, looking through the pages. When he didn’t answer I tried a more direct tactic, “Who were you talking to last night?” His expression took on the slightest bit of surprise.

“I called Maria,” I nodded,

“Okay, and why did you send her photos of my drawings?” He opened his mouth, but I quickly shot in “Don’t lie,”

“I think you might be having visions,” He took the pages from me and looked through them and pulled one out. It was a drawing of the park and, Oh my god! Standing in the middle of the drawing was James crouched down next to me in the rain and a faint bubble surrounding us.

“That’s-” I trailed of, then tried again, “That’s the park on the day you took me,” James nodded,

“Liz,” He paused and corrected himself, “Elizabeth, you drew this three weeks before it happened,” He pulled another page from the stack, and held it up for me to see. It was a crowded room full of people wearing expensive clothes and holding wine glasses.

“The clan ball,” He said. He pulled a third page from the drawings and held it up. It was the one I’d drawn last night, the one with the impossibly tall man in the hall.

“This is Victor. He hasn’t been seen in over six hundred years,” James was still watching me for my reaction, “So why did you draw him and where is he?”

“This one was different,”

“Different how?”

“He could see and hear me. In all the others it was like I was invisible and no-one could hear me,”

“Hu,” James put the back on the desk and stood up, instinctively I took a step back. That clearly hurt him, so I took two steps forward. James took both my hands in his, looking down at me.

“We’ll figure it out,” He told me, and kissed my forehead. “Promise,”

The rest of the day went without incident, lunch was awkward, and so was dinner. James and I had to almost constantly avoid questions from my parents. With each passing second the bond strengthened between me and James. It became a matter of near constant affection with bursts of disliking and distrust when I won battles within. James switched to calling me Liz which made my heart flutter every time for no reason. After dinner mum and dad once again went out though this time to actually go shopping.