Hunted in Darkness

Hardest hearts

An hour later I’m still cursing myself as I sit huddled over the warmth of unwanted coffee in an all night diner, with yellow walls, watching the door with suspicion every time someone crosses the threshold. I see him before he sees me, his dark hair has gotten long and he is dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, but those eyes are impossible to forget and they stare into me the way they always have. The yellowed lighting from above makes his skin look sallow and I think I smell old dirt, like the cemetery on his skin. I briefly wonder if he was there too, but dismiss the thought. He sits down noiselessly and orders a coffee similar to my own untouched cup from the cheerful and very round waitress. I think he’s looking at his hands, but it’s hard to tell through the shock of hair that hides his normally refined features. When he finally looks back up, I understand why he was looking down, there are tears glistening on the edges of his eyes. Impulsively I reach out and put my hand over his, squeezing gently.

“Em?” I coax softly, trying to bring him back to reality so he can explain why we’re here. The crystalline beacons finally meet mine fully. “Kat, I’m so sorry, about everything...I love you, I really do.” I fight my anger and the questions brewing inside of me and instead nod quietly “Kat, I never meant for any of it to happen, I never meant to hurt you, or take that girl, or any of it. I was out of control and I didn’t know how to stop. It’s not an excuse, I don’t have any excuses for what I did to you, I only know that I love you, and I have to keep you safe.” his hand now cupped mine, I had forgotten how good it felt to be touched by him. “Emile, safe from what? You?” I pulled my hand back, even as every fiber of my being begged for it to stay wrapped in his. “No, Kat, not from me, from something much worse.” his eyes begged for me to believe him, and the pain from not being allowed to keep touching me echoed through our connection. “What could be worse than you, you’re the big bad wolf.” I teased. “No, Kat, I’m not even a little pig, this is bad, Kitty Kat, and when it starts huffing and puffing, it’s going to blow everything down. I need you to believe me, I need to keep you safe.” his eyes made me believe more than his words could. “What is this thing that you're so afraid of, Em? We’re both monsters, what could be coming for us that we should fear?” I tried to sound sure, but I wasn’t, my heart felt an uneasy dread. “The thing that made us monsters, and the thing that wants to destroy all the monsters like us. There is something out there, something old and dangerous, it brought us into this world and it’s been busy taking us out. It’s the father of us all, master of my master, and so on, and it’s coming for us, for anything like us. It will rip us apart because it has gone mad and thinks that we deserve it. Some of the others are calling it Cain, others The Father, but whatever it is, it’s destroying vampires by ripping out their hearts and eating them, it’s after me and it’s after you. I have to save you, you’re all I care about, but I can’t do it alone.” he was panting with the force of all his words, the heavy information sitting between us. I wanted to call him a liar, but I knew deep in my gut he was telling the truth. It explained the two bodies I’d gotten at work that presented as having been dead much longer than the witnesses who found them could account for, they were vampires, and they had been murdered.

Emile paid for our coffees. As I walked outside, I felt uneasy and the urge to run away and forget everything he just told me was overwhelming. I felt myself panicking and I just started walking. I looked only at the ground and kept moving forward as quickly as I could, I thought I heard his voice shout my name indistinctly, but my feet kept moving, walking faster and faster before sprinting into a run. Tears of confusion stung my cheeks, but I couldn't stop moving. I’m not sure what I slammed into, but it was hard and knocked the breath out of me. The lights from lamps on the street were spinning around my head and my chest felt so heavy, I felt a coppery substance in my mouth...blood...mine, I think..and the world felt like I was at the bottom of a swimming pool. Suddenly Emile was there, picking me up and cradling me in his arms. I heard his voice talking to someone else, and the other voice faded off. “What happened?” I asked, realizing I was against his chest, being carried. “You decided to run into a parked bus, Kitty Kat, you’re always running away from me, and I can’t protect you if you keep doing that.” I could feel a wave of mortification wash over me “Parked bus?”…He nodded and clutched me tighter. He approached an abandoned looking house and carried me around back. “Kat, I’m taking you to my place where I can look after you for now, it’s nearly morning and we both need to rest. We can figure out what to do later. I nodded, the memory of walking into a stationary object still as fresh in my mind as the bruises it would have left if I was still among the normal living. He rattled some keys and unlocked the door to a dark house, the musty earth smell must have come up from the basement because it reached my nostrils and seemed to cover everything. He laid me down on a bed in a room with boarded windows and then walked out. I could hear him locking the door and checking the security of the dingy little house before popping his head back into the room. “Kat, can I sleep in here with you? I’ll sleep on the floor, I just...I just want to be near you..is that okay?” I sighed gently “ Em, that probably isn’t a good idea.” I could feel the disappointment, but he left the room and closed the door. I heard him dragging something in front of the door and the squeak of springs as he laid down. I realized he was sleeping on an old couch and guarding my door from anything that might hurt me. The permafrost in my heart melted a little and I secretly felt safer knowing he was there.