When the Ancient emerged from the bathroom, her face was dripping with water that slipped off her preternatural skin as if trying to escape her presence. Her eyes were slightly stained with a pinkish tinge only vampire eyes could notice, and the younger immortal frowned. He understood only that Nariko was gone forever into the next world, but could not think why.
�What did you do?� Gray asked, his voice shaking slightly.
She stopped and turned to him, �What I had to.�
�That�s not an answer!�
�Am I obliged to give you one?� Her voice raised slightly, and a subtle tone in it made him feel queasy and guilty about demanding to know anything about her.
The Ancient stared at him, scrutinised his alarmed and worried expression, and to the utmost surprise of the younger vampire, smiled.
�I�d rather not explain anything outside a dilapidated bathroom, much less tell a long story. Could you, O Impatient And Impudent One, please wait until we reach a more comfortable and appropriate place before demanding immediate answers from me?�
Her amused sarcasm didn�t bite as much as Gray thought it would, but then again, she didn�t mean for her words to sting.
�Er, yes.� Gray said, finally.
They descended the steps silently as only those well-accustomed to being predators can, though there was no particular need to.
Ingrained in vampires is the instinct of stealth and silence, the habit of passing unnoticed through any environment, and the need for such instincts exists because of the stigma against vampires.
The Ancient sat on Gray�s mattress of a bed, leaning back against the wall. Gray stood stiffly in the doorway. The older vampire stared at his tall frame, so impossibly thin it gave the illusion of fragility.
�Gray.� The Ancient said, amused at his surprise when she used his name, �Nariko told me. She has a knack for knowing names before she�s told. Must have been a little psychic while she was alive. Anyway, I�m Lys, and are you going to stand there gawking for all eternity?�
Gray, a little surprised by how she changed subjects so quickly, sat at the end of the bed, looking like an apprehensive six-year-old for all his years. Lys gave up coaxing him to relax, and began.
�When I was about five, I saw a boy, who had been my neighbour, beaten to death by his own gang for a ring his father had given him. After that, I saw his ghost wandering around the streets of our village, always searching for that ring. In broad daylight or at night, I would catch glimpses of him as he searched the houses and alleys. He never found the ring, because one of the other boys had taken it with him when his family left for Europe.�
Lys smiled as she continued, �I was thirteen when I realised how long he had been searching for that ring. I never realised it before, because he was just a part of my everyday life. No one else mentioned him, and neither did I, but I knew he was there. So one day, I tried to talk to him and somehow, I could reach him. I asked him why he was looking for his ring, and he told me that his father had told him to keep it as a memory of him. The boy didn�t want to forget his father, so he kept looking for the ring.
"What was strange was that I told him, he wouldn�t have to remember his father when he could be with him. I told him not to look for the ring, because it was long gone and thousands of miles away, but his father was within reach. I told him to let go, and he did, and he thanked me as he left to join his father. He was the first spirit I had talked to.�
Gray pondered how spirits could feel an affinition with someone so different from them, but the answer came to him as Lys went on.
�After I became a vampire, I could not only talk to these spirits, I could touch them as well. While they were once just faint outlines to me when I was human, they became near-solid beings after my rebirth.
"In the past millennium or so, I have sent no less than hundreds of spirits to the next plane. Somehow, even the most violent of them calm when they speak with me. Those who are malevolent find peace in themselves. It can�t be something in me, but in them, which changes them, because no one can turn evil in another person to good.
"I still haven�t understood why I have this ability, or how it is that spirits find peace in my presence. If anything, they should be jealous, because we are both dead, and yet I possess a body which is my connection with the physical world. Some, like Nariko, are grieving for those loved and lost, and they are not hard to help.�
�It is your fearlessness, your open acceptance of who people are that makes you different�Lys.� Gray said, still unfamiliar with her name, �You truly want to help them for their own sake and not anyone else�s. If these spirits can sense that, and they are very sensitive, then they would see hope in you.�
�I am told by a youngster half my age what I have always wanted to know through all these years.�
Gray turned pink and muttered, �Surprising, eh.�
�Someone once called me a ghost-buster. I thought it was a stupid title, so I drained him, but only enough to give him a marching band in his head for the next week. That was in the 1990s.�
Lys added, �Stupid movies,� as Gray laughed, the first genuine mirth from him since he had met the Ancient.
�I�m thirsty. Are you?� Lys asked after Gray composed himself.
�There�s a club down the road. A vampire-frequented club, though you would know that already, wouldn�t you?�
�My sister owns it.�
�Ack. You�re full of surprises.�
Lys laughed and got up.
As they strolled to Nine, Lys realised she hadn�t smiled so much in the company of any other immortal. This one was special, and she planned to make full use of the opportunity to have fun and forget she was fast-becoming a world-weary, cynical hag.
:: dream1050 ::
Chapter 1 - Waiting
Chapter 2 - Inside
Chapter 3 - Evanescence
Chapter 4a - Visions
Chapter 4b - Metaphors