Wednesday, August 13, 2003

					Just Shy of the Sun
					   Expressohyper

		The moon had risen high in the night's silky sky, a ball of liquid light, casting its serene glow over the mostly deserted grounds.
	Movement of tree branches was the only sign of the wind, for no sound whistled in the air other than the rusting leaves.
	Disturbing the eerie peacefulness, a tall form of a man rushed onto the manicured lawns, running quickly, fleeing from an unseen force.  Normally, he would not run, but something had stirred him to stray from his normal rounds around the city, and that something was following him.  Passing an occasional street lamp and checking over his shoulder, he found nothing, only experienced cold chills causing the hair on his neck to stand on end and shivers to course through his body.  These sensations were not new, which puzzled him greatly.  When had he felt them before?  It was such a strong force, like a powerful being standing behind you.  But unlike him, he had tried to escape the feelings he was sensing.  The power he had felt before.  
	The urge to flee was stronger than the temptation of knowledge, and he continued to run.  The internal battle was waged, and the temptation finally became too much, his body forcing him into an alley, laying flat against the grungy surface of the brick wall.  This part was the old city.  What had possessed him to come here?  And then the clouds shifted in their velvety cloak of night, allowing moonlight to drift into the darkened alley, draping him in the veil.  His chest heaved, his heart pumping blood through his body as fast as it could go, nearing the point of arrest.  But his lungs were the first to fail, as soon as the source of his confusion appeared.  
	First, he thought his eyes had deceived him, but the tingling in his spine increased and he forced himself to calm, slowly. 
	She was beautiful, standing before him as if an angel somehow tainted by the darkness, which lingered in her ocean blue eyes and the black coat she wore.  Pale hair fell softly past her shoulders, and he marveled at how much the locks resembled the gentle moonbeams.  All he had dreamed and all he had feared, in one tiny body so thin and fragile looking; his mind told him not to move, for fear she would break.  Pouty light pink lips set in milky white skin, as if a porcelain china doll, were taunting him, while her eyes deceived her thoughts.  His heart cried out for her with her sorrowful eyes gazing into his.  Her presence was a drug; morphine for the wound in his heart that had been chopped up and returned to him, only once, but one time too many.  And then she spoke, her soft voice drifting through his ears and through his mind, gently caressing and soothing the beginnings of a headache.
	"Hello, Darien."
	He stared into the eyes of the angel before him, searching, wishing, and hoping he could memorize every detail in the depths of her soul he saw inside the blue orbs.  But, the pleasant feeling was not to last when instead of encountering the spark of life most beings possessed, he found only a sad drop of liquid, the one tear she had ever cried, and the only tear that would ever be shed by her; the only tear he had ever remembered through the tortures of life and trials of love he had encountered throughout his long existence.
	"Serena."  He breathed.  And then the kissable lips moved into a gentle smile, eyes gleaming with something akin to the happiness he was experiencing.  His mind and heart both told him that she had not felt happiness since they had last parted, and there was something in his heart, that whispered faintly of hope.  She merely gazed up at him, the smile somehow taking on a knowing, humoring look, as if she pitied him and his belief in her.
	"Do not hold me so high in your heart, Darien.  I am nothing special to hoard so."  She gently lifted a hand to his cheek, running her thumb across the tanned skin.  The feel of his heat was all she had yearned for in their time apart.  It was taxing on her heart each time he was taken from her, but she would gladly give up everything she had been bestowed with, if she could stay beside him for more than a few months, before she had to leave again; rather than he leave the earth.
	"You know I will always love you.  I knew you better than anyone else ever did or could." his eyes pleaded with her to listen, but he knew that no matter how hard he tried, she would leave him again, with all the pain and sadness of a broken heart.
	Once, he had tried to make a different ending.  That decision cost him his throne and his pride, and several million people their lives.  But his love for her still remained, never to diminish, yet never to grow.  They were bound, in heart and soul, for all eternity.  The curse for their betrayal to the silver alliance, though it was no longer in existence, the spell was.
	"You know me as I know you, but our love was never to be allowed, Darien.  Our lives are in a vicious cycle."  There was immense pain in her voice but no sign of tears in her eyes: only the knowledge and acceptance of her fate.  He suddenly wanted to hate her, for her weaknesses, her lack of spirit he had remembered long ago, when they were happy: before the wars, before the decisions, before destiny.  He cursed Destiny, Fate, and their kin, knowing they were long gone now, but did not care.  He was tired of this running; this prolonged torture, and the prison of life the council had created for them as punishment for their love, which he still believed was right, and would until he could no longer think.  And then he dipped his eyes down her figure, admiring, savoring her image of perfection, and took both comfort and sadness knowing that nothing of her appearance would change.  She would never age and they could always be together; yet he could never grow old with her nor experience the contented happiness when they would welcome their daughter into the world.  Remorse and sadness seized his soul at the thought of their unborn child that was stolen from them, as the final punishment for their sins.
	"We've lost everything but each other, Serena.  Can you not see that they cannot take anything else from us that they have not already taken?"  He grasped her arms gently, willing her to feel his love for her through his touch.  She pulled away slowly, her eyes boring into his, stopping his heart in her gaze of complete and utter love.   
	"They will take us from each other, as they originally intended." she whispered with her head down, chin touching her chest.  Time and regret had worn down her vitality, until she felt there was nothing left for her to do, or say.
	Tears welled up behind her eyes, but they were never to be shed, never to be released from the prison in her eyes.  Food wasn't necessary when there was eternal life to survive through, and she had long lost her appetite.  She bitterly smirked inward, knowing that this was her life.  For two thousand years, she had run from him, because he reminded her of someone very precious she had lost.  Her child.  Deep down, she knew it wasn't his fault, but for the first three hundred years of their sentence, she had blamed him somehow, for what she'd lost.
	"I lost her too, you know."  He sighed, it was the first time she'd heard him sound so defeated, and her head shot up, blue meeting blue.  She opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out.  His face was hovering above hers, their lips inches apart.  There was no time to move, no time to resist, as they met in a gentle kiss, similar to the kiss, which had brought about their troubles.
	The loud buzzing sound of his alarm clock jarred him from his disturbingly peaceful sleep.  It had to have been a dream, why else would he have seen her again?  Rubbing a rough hand through disheveled hair he put an end to the annoying racket and sat up in bed, exposing his bare chest as the blanket fell.  His back opposed to his stretches, but he had long learned to ignore his body, most particularly the heart.  There was a peacefulness in his heart that he knew was not the best thing to be experiencing after the wonderful dream.  The emotions had felt so real, her image so vivid and life-like, that he found himself questioning if he hadn't actually seen her.  And then there was movement.  He shifted his gaze to opposite side of the bed, where a mass of gold was laying, and saw the most beautiful creature he had ever laid eyes on.  Crystal blue eyes stared up at him from the angelic face of the only woman who had ever captured his heart and her loving gaze warmed his heart.  All the hateful words they had exchanged over the two thousand years they had been on earth were forgotten, wiped clean from his mind and the wound in his heart was stitched up, forever healed at the mere sight of her in his bed.  Her eyes betrayed her, showing her love for him, true as the first time they had woken next to each other, love that had stood the test of time, and would continue to defy Destiny, Fate, and the other forces who had dared to destroy the bond of their souls.  The thick curtains were drawn against the sun, shutting out the dangerous rays and protecting the two lovers from the eyes of the world and harshness of the eternity, which waited for them.
  	She sighed inwardly as she lay in the embrace of her prince, being at just the right angle to see the curtains that stood between herself and her father.  He had been the one to change the way she lived, ate, slept and existed.  He had taken the life and energy of her world, he had banned her from the sun, damned her blood and body.  She was a vampire, in every sense except death.  She could not die and would forever live with the pain of her desires.  A crystalline tear streaked down her cheek and was absorbed by the silk sheet.  Her lover shared the same fate, though he had accepted it much better than she.  No matter how much she wished and hoped, begged the stars for forgiveness, they would always be...just shy of the sun.