bic- It'd been two days since she had left Roan. Several times, the young she-wolf had thought about venturing to the Castille, but she wasn't ready to risk her neck that far. Yet. Roan's words were poison to her mind. Willow slipped onto the grounds in the dead of night, hoping to find Romulus somewhere. He had to be.
I have to know.
Why would Roan lie, Willow wondered, slipping into the crypt. The bones of the old didn't bother her, but the bones of the recent did. She knew which ones were of the students who had died here. Their smell was fresher, there bones not quite gone, loose. It was gross.
But all the rotting bodies in the world couldn't have kept her from here. Willow didn't want to think about why Romulus would be in the crypt. If was there, it was likely to be because he'd dragged some body down here to feed.....Willow shuddered, raising a hand to her neck. Even the lycan regeneration hadn't faded away the mark there, where months ago Romulus had fed on her.
Why would I scare you?
His words. His voice echoing in her head, one of the memories she still had from being human. The most recent memory next to her siring. Blood, followed by more blood. She was amazed to be alive. A monster...Roan....drugged. All of her packmate's words rumbled in her head. Willow shuddered again and stepped further inside, looking around.
"Rom?" she said quietly, holding her breath. Please be here.
Romulus sat quietly against the cracked marble of the inner Crypt, moonlight reflecting off the white surfaces and illuminating the mostly underground chamber. He clutched his knees against his chest, his pale arms reaching around them like a frightened child. His silver eyes stared blankly at the featureless wall opposite him, focusing upon the infinity that lay within his own mind.
Did the dead really even have the right to muse?
A sound disturbed him from his meditation, and his head quickly snapped towards the source of the noise. It was coming from outside the tomb, and clearly someone - or something - was making its way within. He quietly lifted himself from the cold floor and stood still, awaiting whoever was coming quietly.
He was not wearing a shirt, and his only covering was a very loose looking pair of pants. His pitch black hair was even more contrasting now than ever before, falling like night on his exposed stark white skin. Veins were invisible on his pale chest, giving it a paper-like appearance, devoid of blemish.
When Willow's voice finally introduced the intruder as none other than the Lycan herself, Romulus quietly called back, "Yes, I am here. I don't know why you thought to look for me here, but you looked in the right place."
Say goodbye As we dance with the Devil tonight Don't you dare look at him in the eye As we dance with the Devil tonight
She caught his scent, like death and decay, a beat before he spoke. The lycan almost jumped, taken aback. At least he wasn't eating someone. At least, not that Willow could see. Taking a breath, the young lycan stepped inside, eyes flicking to the pale form further inside the crypt. For a moment, she was glad to see him. Then, Roan's words came back. It took everything she had not to start shouting; she'd discovered she didn't have the best temper control. Perhaps it was his appearance that stopped her.
He looked ill, like the first time she had met him, but it was a different kind of ill. Had his veins always been visible? No. Willow bit her lips, her eyes flashing. What happened to him? she thought. His skin, if possible, was paler than ever, almost bleach white. Her breath caught in her throat, and she swallowed past the lump in her throat. Something's wrong with him.
Why didn't he kill me? Willow had never asked. It was plain now, after everything Roan had said, that he really didn't care. In her stories, Romulus was a very different person than the vampire she knew. But how much did she really know about him? They had met only a few times, enough that Willow was willing to trust him, at least to an extent. Sometimes, when she got bored and the night was no longer as exciting as it could be, she wanted to find him, just to have company. The Castille, however, was not somewhere Willow would venture to.
"You....Well." She smiled weakly. "Romulus, you look like you've been to hell and back." Then, "Is something going on?"
Confrontation words were fading away. She'd get back around to it eventually. Romulus's ill appearance couldn't be ignored.
And shortly after he confirmed his presence, Willow entered in. She looked as human as ever, but it was the smell of the taint that plagued her veins that always reminded the Vampire of whom he was dealing with. As she spoke to him with what could be construed as kind words, filled with concern, Romulus wondered to himself why she even really cared about him.
Since when, in the movies, did the Wolf Man and Dracula sit in a graveyard and discuss their feelings?
Romulus supposed the obvious - because this girl, judging by her appearance and demeanor, was still in denial over what she was. She still believed she was just some kind of ascended human, like some kind of warrior savage that could shapeshift into a wolf to defend her tribe. But it wouldn't be long before she came to realize she was damned as the rest of them...and maybe then she'd stop caring about his health.
"You didn't come here to ask me about how I'm feeling," Romulus responded coldly. "So get on with it. What do you want?"
Say goodbye As we dance with the Devil tonight Don't you dare look at him in the eye As we dance with the Devil tonight
He looked irritated. Understandable. Romulus had probably taken refuge in the crypt for a reason, to hide from those at the Castille..Why? His reply was harsh, something was troubling him. Willow bit her lip, silver-green eyes falling to the ground.
Natural enemies. Wasn't that what all the books said? She remembered his expression in the woods, when Willow had told Romulus why she'd come looking for Fenrir. He'd been unhappy, had offered her another choice. Willow wondered what life(or was it death?) would be like if she had taken it. The thoughts fell away as she looked back up at him, trying to find some of the creature she called friend in his face. There wasn't any.
"Roan asked me to move into Dovie's house with her...while I was there, your name came up...She-" The lycan paused, unsure what to say. She told me the truth.
"She told me about the hunt, she thought I should know." Roan had said alot of things. Suddenly, coming to find Romulus seemed like a stupid idea. The thoughts in Willow's mind were that of a child's, disbelief in something that was obvious truth. His face now made it easier to believe. "I want to know who you were. Who you are, I guess."
Romulus's feelings stirred deep inside him like a fire strong enough to burn through wet tinder. He resisted the urge to bear his fangs, feeling a quiet anger driving him to give in to wrath and do something he might later regret. Instead, however, he let it seethe through his words instead of through violence. "She thought you should know, hm?"
His silver eyes flashed, "And then you come here, I suppose looking to see whether I'm the monster that she no doubt says I am?" He approached her, his intent impossible to decipher. "I don't know who you think I am," Romulus continued, "but I have never once left you under the impression that I'm not exactly that...a monster."
With his quick reflexes, the vampire swung his arm around and -forcefully, but not violently- pinned the girl against the marble wall of the Crypt, their noses barely touching and his steel eyes looking deep into her own. "And so are you. So are your people. And your people just happen to not like my people. And every time I have ever tried to help your people, I have ended up beaten, destroyed, set on fire - God knows the suffering I've experienced because of your people!"
His voice ran thin into a whisper, "And yet you continue to act so innocent, like there's no blood on your hands...well I'll tell you what. You want to know who I am? Maybe you ought to know who you are first."
Last Edit: Jun 30, 2009 15:31:23 GMT -5 by Romulus
Say goodbye As we dance with the Devil tonight Don't you dare look at him in the eye As we dance with the Devil tonight
He hates me, Willow thought, barely restraining a wince. Romulus wasn't exactly right. There had been the time he'd taken up her offer for a 'date' to the Halloween dance. But that had been a long time ago. Perhaps it had been Felix's prescence.
The vampire hit her sharply, and the cold Crypt wall dug into her back. A bone skidded across the ground, the sound unbelieveably loud in the small space. His steel eyes burned into hers, seething, and she fought the urge to look away. That would have been a silly thing to do. Instead she looked back, pale green eyes holding steady.
Set on fire. That would be Roan's doing. She bit her lip, swallowing the truth. Her people, he called them. Wasn't that why she'd gone looking for Fenrir, to find a 'people' who she could really belong to. He was right.
"There's more blood on my hands than you can possibly know," Willow murmured, looking over his ill-ridden face. It wasn't something she would hide from him. After all, she thought, her people had done so much to him. He deserves to know. But...what did he know about her?
She looked him dead in the eye, the irises more grey than emerald now. "Then tell me. Who am I, Romulus?"
"You're an idiot!" Romulus shouted in response. Her eyes drilling into him did not scare him or lessen his attack. After all the vampire had seen, experienced, suffered...the stern gaze of an almost newborn Lycan could no longer be intimidating. "You did not have to be this way, and I wish you had just listened to me!"
In the midst of all the anger written on his almost sickly face, a weakening could be seen. An almost pathetic appearance of what could be construed as sorrow was present. "And not a night goes by where I don't regret killing you right then and there." The vampire let go of her and stepped back towards where he had been sitting before she had even arrived. He stared blankly ahead of him, clearly contemplating something.
"The only reason I didn't was because..." Romulus said weakly, not so much because some kind of physical pain barred him, but because it was something that was very difficult for him to actually say, "...I didn't want to lose you like I did her."
There was a brief silence before he finished, "...but apparently it was inevitable anyway."
Say goodbye As we dance with the Devil tonight Don't you dare look at him in the eye As we dance with the Devil tonight
He shouted at her, his words and tone stinging her more than anything he'd ever done, than something anyone had ever done. There was no fear, no guilt in his expression as he scolded her, and finally, Willow looked away. Maybe I should have listened...
So many times she wondered if it had been a rash descision; but she what she wanted. Somewhere to belong. Willow hadn't wanted to live forever, she just wanted to belong somewhere. And the lycans gave her that, although sometimes it was more drama than she wanted to stand. Romulus had been her quiet, calm escape from that. She never had to worry about him, he was a rock, he could keep himself safe. And in a way, he was reliable. Sort of.
Then his tone changed, and Willow looked up. God, he looked..is he caving? she wondered. Then...his words tore her apart like a knife, pressing into her heart. So stupid. She didn't mean to say what came out of her mouth, but it was what she was thinking.
"You think you've lost me," she whispered. "Well, now who's the idiot?"
She swallowed. "No matter what Roan told me back in that house....I never stopped worrying about you. You didn't lose me," she said, volume rising as her words came. "I came looking for you because I care, you..." She didn't even have a word to call him. "If you regret killing me so much, then why didn't you do it another time? I come looking for you, and now I'm worried sick about you because you look like you're dying. And you think you've lost me."
Romulus's silver eyes stared forward into nothingness, away from the lycan girl, away from life and into the arms of the dead. The marble wall seemed to give him a solace he could find nowhere else, her tender response, enough to make a man melt, could not soften the unbeating heart of the dead. He continued to stare, silently, away from her.
Then finally, he spoke, "you can't lose me." A pause followed that statement, and then, "I'm already dead." He got up again, and sat on the tomb that he had been leaning against originally. Romulus's head turned to face the girl who seemed to have so much emotion for him, "I would give anything to die like the mortals do, to just...pass away. That's what I wanted you to have - a normal life and then peaceful death. They say that God forgives all sins...but nobody, living, dead, or almighty, has forgiveness for you and I."
His eyes focusing on her, he continued, "It doesn't matter now if I - or anyone else - kills you. I wanted to save you...but there's no salvation for the damned."
Say goodbye As we dance with the Devil tonight Don't you dare look at him in the eye As we dance with the Devil tonight
"That's not what the Christians say, what the Bible says," Willow mumbled as he stared past her, looking at whatever he could see in the white marble walls. "You didn't choose this, right? I think God would forgive you if you couldn't help it."
There wasn't a cure, from what she knew. Maybe someday they'd find one. But to her knowledge...no, they were both damned, her by choice. Willow couldn't help but grin, thought it seemed stupid in the state they both were. He was looking at her, and for a moment, a spark flickered in her eyes.
"Hey. Here's a bit of rest for me. If we go to Hell, you're stuck with me."
Funny, almost. She his living hell, something he hated in his strange form of life. When they both left Earth and sat down in Hell, he'd get to regret it for eternity. Small amusement for the lycan girl who had a greater attachment to this vampire than almost anyone.
Almost. There was one other person she could think of that she wanted to see more.
Romulus smirked. "I never would've taken you for a Christian," the vampire said, "but then again, who else would be stupid enough to do what you do?" He got up again, and started walking towards her. "Well even if it is all true, you know," he continued, "I don't think that God is going to forgive me anytime soon...because even if he finds it in his heart to forgive me for not choosing to be...this...he'd never forgive what I've done by choice."
Standing next to her, he gently grasped her shoulder and then leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips. The warm that came from that, even in that split second, was something so very different than the vampire's damned kiss. This...this was something that only the living could enjoy. Still, however, the vampire felt just a little bit more alive for that moment.
Pulling away, the vampire whispered, "So I guess I have to settle for an eternity with you." Then he smiled.
Say goodbye As we dance with the Devil tonight Don't you dare look at him in the eye As we dance with the Devil tonight
Now he was calling Christians stupid. Did he want to go to hell or what? It was enough to make her smile at him. Then he stepped forward, his lips pressed against her. Her breath caught in her throat.
Torrid.
That one little name kept her from from kissing him back. She waited, and when he pulled away, she watched him. Torrid, Torrid. Always gone. Yet Romulus was around...She mentally shook herself. I waited for Torrid this long...
"I guess I am an idiot," she murmured, smiling. Willow sighed, and brushed her bangs out of her face. Well, lycan? What now? She should have smacked herself for thinking they could just be friends. An eternity. Torrid wouldn't be around forever, he was barely around now. But....
"Eternity, huh..." She grinned, the spark back in her eyes. "I guess I can put up with you for that long..." Willow kissed him back, lightly, and then looked to the opening of the crypt. Her eyes shadowed and she looked back at his pale, sickly face. "But first you should tell me what's going on with you. Okay?"
She was falling in love with a vampire. Roan was gonna be pissed.
For a moment, the vampire didn't know if he'd done the right thing. The quiet moments of silence following what he'd done led him to believe maybe he'd gone a bit too far out of hand. Then she murmured, and Romulus's expression began to return to his familiar frown. Then her eyes sparkled again, and she was kissing him.
And then his smile came back.
"Alright," he said, resigning himself to telling her what was happening. He owed her that, at least. "I haven't been sleeping lately. And that's bad, because sleeping is a bit different for vampires than it is for the living. We don't really sleep...we die, again. Just go back to being a dead corpse. The next evening, we rise again." He explained.
"And you see, I've been...I've been sleepwalking. That isn't normal for a vampire. Since, when we sleep, we're essentially corpses, when I'm sleepwalking I'm...technically a zombie." Romulus really didn't know how to describe it other than that. "And because I'm, theoretically, a zombie, I can't think, and I can't really act, and...and I think I can go out during the day, too."
He looked back at the Crypt. "I've been hiding here so as not to endanger my children and the other vampires...and any humans or lycans too, for that matter. Not only do I find a level of solace around the dead that allows me to sleep, but even if I did...get up and walk around...few people come to the house of the dead without a previous knowledge of them."
Say goodbye As we dance with the Devil tonight Don't you dare look at him in the eye As we dance with the Devil tonight
Willow listened with growing concern. What could have caused something so bizarre? She chewed her lip, as she tended to do when she was nervous, and listened, occassionally nodding to show she understood. It wasn't like she hadn't wondered what vampires did during the day. Sleep-walking. It sounded creepy, for a zombie Romulus to be walking around. The lycan glanced at the door of the Crypt. Maybe..
Perhaps Romulus knew something more to it. She wasn't sure she wanted to ask but..."Romulus." The vampire who had been on the grounds. With Shadow. She shied away from thoughts of Shadow, her Shadow. His words, sharp and hurtful...The fledgling. "There was a vampire. A girl."
If she was his 'child', he probably wasn't going to be thrilled with the rest of the story. Willow didn't want to lie to him, but making him upset when they had just...settled things, it didn't seem like the brightest idea. "She was on the grounds. I've never....known her scent." There were a few she didn't, but this one had been partially familiar. She'd smelled like Romulus. "Where did she come from? She's one of your children, right?"
Teagan Offline: This board is full of nostalgia.
Aug 22, 2020 8:39:09 GMT -5
Missing the old MH: gotta say missing when MH and all that was around.
Nov 6, 2019 0:02:30 GMT -5
Willow_lazy: why tf are there 400 posts about adidas
Sept 6, 2018 17:35:57 GMT -5
Azrael: I'm not hard to find, since I'm the only one there who goes by "Azzy", I'm pretty sure. XD
Feb 10, 2018 16:44:41 GMT -5
Azrael: Dunno if anyone still pops by here from time to time, but if any of you mofos do and still feel like gettin' yo nerd on, I've been hanging around this here place a bunch recently: www.roleplayerguild.com/
Feb 10, 2018 16:44:10 GMT -5
Azrael: hold onto your pantaloons
Jul 25, 2016 5:16:43 GMT -5