Tirgoviste The Order of the Dragon

I went in search of death. This alley was the perfect place to find it. I didn't care in what guise it chose to come to me. The only thing I wanted, was an escape from the endless pain and suffering I had subjected myself to for the last six months. I staggered into the rain-drenched darkness; the wet brick walls rising on either side of me like the Red Sea had risen around the ill-fated Egyptians. Let them fall on me, let them crush me! I had nothing to ease the pain, nothing to take away the craving that made me wrap my arms around myself and shake uncontrollably like a dead tree in a wind storm. I fell against the wall to my right next to an overflowing dumpster and slid down onto my knees into the foul-smelling puddles of dirty water. The pumping bass from the club behind me was reverberating through the wall and vibrating my chest. Death knocking on my heart; come, I'll open the door for you! I looked up at the street lamp overhead with the slanting rain silhouetted against the halo of light and stretched out my shaking arms in front of me. Scarred with the track marks of my addiction and painfully thin they were. Lost.., I am lost. I went in search of death but it was something else entirely that found me. I wasn't sure at first that I was really seeing him. I mean it's not every day that you see a young man walking vertically down the side of a building! I swiped my wet hair out of my eyes and strained to clear my vision. At that point, I was fairly certain that I was having a flashback. There could have been no doubt, however, that he was real when he jumped from the wall and crouched down on the pavement in front of me. I remember that I just sat there staring at this maybe there, maybe not there boy and despite the haze I was in at that moment, I had become aware that I was no longer thinking about death. In fact, I forgot all about death, I forgot about the pain of withdraw, I forgot to breathe. He stayed crouched in front of me with his head tilted slightly to one side observing the situation. "Are you the devil come out of Hell for me?" I asked. The corner of his mouth crooked up in a mocking half grin and he advanced toward me in a slow crawl. Oh yes, the devil for certain! Only Lucifer could be both menacing and beautiful at the same time. But beautiful he was and let me tell you why I thought so. He looked to be about as tall as me, maybe six feet or so. He had shoulder-length, jet-black hair cut in long layers that hung into his eyes somewhat. Very pretty eyes they were, dark brown and slightly deep-set into a strong brow, with long thick lashes. His skin was dark as well, a seeming mixture of olive and honey, quite smooth looking and flawless. He had high cheekbones and a sharp jawline, chiseled I guess they call it. But what I noticed most about his features was his mouth. It was distractingly sensual looking. His lower lip was slightly more full than most and he kept biting it and running the tip of his tongue over it. Yes, most distracting indeed! The only feature that was a little off about the face was his nose. It seemed a bit broad at the base and looked like maybe he hadn't quite grown into it yet. But overall, it didn't detract from his looks at all. He was of course dressed impeccably as well, black t-shirt, dark wash jeans, hiking boots, thigh-length black, leather jacket, and some kind of medallion hanging around his neck. Maybe he was younger than me, possibly in his twenties, up close I would have thought so but for his imposing physical build. It was obvious even through that jacket that he was a lot buffer than me. Well, no matter "You're beautiful!" I whispered. He just smiled that same crooked close-lipped grin from before and reached out to touch the side of my face. I was suddenly aware of so many sensations all at once, his soft touch, the scent of leather from his jacket, the coolness of the rain against my skin. His fingertips grazed my cheek as he leaned forward and took my chin in his hand, tilting my face up toward his. I became weak, dizzy, I was aware that he was somehow making me look at him, using some force of will against me. God but it was strong! An ordinary person wouldn't have even noticed it perhaps but I am most definitely not a normal person. I have always noticed things other people don't. I mean anybody in their right mind would have been totally flabbergasted by the sight of a person walking upright down the side of a building but not me. It only made me morbidly curious. I was labeled as psychic when I was a child and could see and talk with people who weren't there, move things with my mind, start and put out fires just by thinking about it. Yeah, there are lots of things I can do but to others, it just makes me a freak. I'd spent my life trying to find a way to shut it out, that sixth sense if you will and the drugs did dull it a little. But it always came back. Well, it was back now baby and it was making me wonder just who or what the hell was this powerful "thing" crouching in front of me, with my chin grasped firmly in its hand. Was it a ghost, a demon, an evil spirit of some kind? It didn't feel that way to me. Ordinarily, I would have just used a little of that good, old, psychic ability I had so much of, to fight against the force of will he was exerting on me. I could close my mind against anyone who had ever tried to get into it. Tonight, however, weakened by the drugs and miserable with craving, I couldn't have fought off a child. He was certainly not a child. Although he spoke no words to me, I knew his mind as clearly as if he were shouting his intentions. I could hear his voice, speaking some foreign language that I couldn't have understood if he'd been saying the words out loud but hearing them in my head as I was, I could easily translate their meaning. "Look at me, look in my eyes, you're in pain, I can ease it. I can erase that ugly longing forever. I can give you something so much better than any drug you could shoot up or swallow. I can make it all go away." I had gone into that alley in search of death but what was this that I had found? I raised my eyes to meet his and was hypnotized, lost instantly in the dark brown orbs. I could feel his thoughts coming to me through the haze of confusion. "Please don't be afraid of me!" I wasn't. He leaned closer to me still and I could feel his breath warm against the side of my face. He pushed my long hair behind my shoulder and gripped the back of my neck firmly in his hand. "I'll make it all go away". I clutched frantically at him. "Please, please!" I begged him but please what exactly? He brushed the side of his face against my neck and breathed in deeply as if he was smelling my skin. Then in an utterly indescribable instant, I felt the worst pain that I had ever known. But it was blessedly brief and what replaced it was infinitely better. I had experienced the sensation of giant hypodermic needles piercing my neck and I had wanted to scream. As soon as the notion to do so occurred to me, it was replaced instead with the desire to moan in pleasure, the greatest pleasure imaginable. How to describe it? It was like floating or flying and yes, it was erotic to be sure but a thousand times better than any orgasm I had ever had. I could feel my arms tightening around him as I tried to keep him there. I knew that his arms were just as tightly wrapped around me. I was no longer certain that I was on the ground. I didn't notice the rain that was still falling cold and wet on me. But most importantly, I couldn't feel any pain at all, not the pain I'd experienced earlier and not the awful, aching, searing pain of withdraw. I knew only the bliss I was drowning in at that moment and all I was aware of was him. I felt the leather of his jacket, the softness of the t-shirt he wore beneath it, the rough texture of his jeans, and the strength in his body. Over-riding all of it was his scent, like something familiar and yet not so, almost like cloves and cinnamon but not exactly. "Don't stop!" Yet I knew if he didn't stop I would die. Wasn't that what I'd wanted? I'd forgotten. He had become my new drug, my new anesthetic, and oh what a powerful one indeed! As I began to lose consciousness, my last thoughts were of him. What are you? What are you? I floated off into the darkness, euphoric, and sated. If this is death, then let me die a million times. It will never be enough.