I was sitting in a small stone house, a hay roof over my head as a fire crackled in the pit of sand before me. The air around me was cold, and the fire was my only warmth. I was almost bare, with only a tattered brown linen shawl and torn shift to cover my thin and frail body. My hair was wild, tangled and dirty. For a moment I was confused where I was, but at the same time it seemed all too familiar. A woman sat across from me, looking dignified and strong even though her clothes were rated, and scars from hard labor danced over her hands and arms. Her features were sharp, she was almost etherally slender. Her hair was let down and cascaded like bronze waves around her. Her eyes were like ice, almost like mine but with a silvery hue. Her sun-kissed skin was covered by a black sheer shawl almost glittering like the stars were trapped inside it. She was sitting on her knees, fiddling with a seven pointed thin star made of dirty iron hung up by a leather chord around her neck. The flames casted eerie shadows around her, like she was commanding them to bend at will with her cold stare.
"Mother," I choked out. Her eyes flickered over to me briefly, her supple mouth smiling sweetly at me.
"Will this kill me?" I coughed, my entire body shuddering with a hacking fit from coughing. She scooted over to me, wrapping me in her warm arms to shield me from the cold. Her skin was soft again my scraped arms, and her embrace was kind.
"No my little star. Its a rite of passage all of our people must go through. If you are strong, the darkness will pass." She placed a soft kiss on the top of my head, my eyelids becoming heavy and my breathing more even. I was filled with warmth, watching the fire dance in front of my eyes as everything became foggy and distant.
I knew it was going to happen. I knew it and I still pretended like it wouldn't as if words meant anything these days. Here I was-- on my supposed day off after switching shifts with Tiffany-- serving a table or snickering students as they eyed my feeble form as I placed their burgers in front of them. They were the only ones in the diner, the graveyard shift weighing on me.
"Do you need anything else?" I asked as they four young adults picked at their fries. It looked like a double date, with each heavily makeup wearing girl snuggling up to their Tik Tok wannabe, letter jacket wearing boyfriends. The girls shared a look, like they were sharing a grand joke between each other. The let boy with floppy brown hair looked to his blond chiseled counter part and grinned.
"This is cold," the brown haired man flicked his burger plate over to me. I narrowed my eyes, seeing the steam coiling up.
"I just brought the food." They started giggling, and his basic black haired girlfriend flicked her plate over as well. Her eyelashes looked like spider legs as they batted at me.
"Mine is cold too." Both of the plates were steaming and I felt like a internet page taking too long to load as I stared at it.
"Can you just do your job?" The blonde himbo sneered, elbowing his girlfriend when my face flushed. I had to compose myself and remembered that my tips were my lifeblood.
"I'm sorry about that, let me take that back for you." That was then my eyes darted over to the blond himbos Harley Quinn look alike of a girlfriend. I saw a sleek piece of rose gold plastic facing me. It was a phone, and she was recording me. She noticed me and sunk back and this was when her black haired counterpart stood. Her spider lashes and talon like nails trying to look intimidating as she slammed her hands on the table. Her floppy brown haired boyfriend was grinning as his Karen of a girlfriend began barking orders at me. She was saying nasty stuff like calling me dumb and rude, but all of it melted together as I grew disinterested. This was clearly a stunt to make a viral video. It was becoming more common for people to be rude to garner sympathy for the workers, or hate on themselves because any publicity is good publicity. She continued in her tirade for a good minute as I stood there stoic, and with slight annoyance and rage bubbling in me as she tried to get a reaction.
"Bring the food back and get us fresh stuff! Clearly youre going to stay in poor minimum wage jobs the reat of your life What! Go to school and get a real job! What are you--" Suddenly her olive skin turned pale and she shrunk back. All of them suddenly went quiet and their smiles disappeared. I was confused, especially when the blonde dropped her phone, turning off the recording as she did so. I opened my mouth, but a voice that came out wasn't mine.
"Are you done?" The voice was strong and smooth like church bells in a silent night. It made me stand up on end, recognizing the voice instantly. I craned my head around to only see a broad chest in front of me covered in black knit. I looked up only to see a very intimidating Elijah, looming over me like shadowly guard. He reached out and grabbed my shoulder as if on instinct, his razor talons dragging over my collar as he did so. I didn't seem to mind but the young adults pushed themselves farther away from him.
"You have your food, and it's piping hot. Do you need anything else, or can I steal the waitress?" His voice was cold like a Canadian winter and made the skin on the couples look like frosted snow.
"N-No. Thank you very much miss." The blonde girl reached out and pushed the food back to the other couple as they all shook wildly in fear.
"Do you need anything else?" He was venomous, pulling me back so I was in flush with him. It was strangely intimate and sent my nerves ringing. This was the most I ever heard Elijah speak, and suddenly he was super protective of me like I was a long time friend. They shook their heads and began picking at their food. They looked like they all wanted to dissolve like salt in water, and Elijah guided me away to the back corner. Luca wasn't there which was suspicious, and he kept me upright. We got to the booth, and I was getting ready go get his coffee but instead he lightly pushed me into the soft materiel.
"Sir!" I said, but he just went to the opposite side and sat. He was stoic and staring at me like I was a baby bird about to be eaten by a snake. I noticed his hair was freshly cut, his undercut a little more clean than before. He was wearing a black knit long-sleeved, a lump under his shirt. I could see a black chord wrapped around his neck and dipping inwards. His fingers were laced together and his eyes were narrowed as he pierced my soul with a glare. There was a fury burning in the red orbs, like he was barely containing himself from exploding.
"Do... Do you need coffee?" I asked him as he sat their vibrating, taking all of my courage to do so. I wasn't scared, I just felt like I was walking on eggshells around an active volcano. On wrong step or crunch and the mount would explode. He was silent for a moment, eyes darting back to the couples scarfing down their food as fast as possible to leave the diner.
"In a moment." His voice was serious and steaming with fury as he stared at them. I was feeling bad for sitting, and a little unproductive so I stood. My medical smoothie Chris had made for me earlier was by the pots, and I needed to finish it.
"Hey!" He hissed and looked at me like I had committed a sin.
"I am getting you a coffee and I am grabbing my smoothie." He looked like I had just reprimanded him but I hobbled past the counter and grabbed him the black liquid. I didn't even bother grabbing any cream of sugar because he never used it, but I turned to catch the eye of the fearful students. They were whispering amongst themselves and I couldn't hear them, but Elijah grew more rickety and cold and I was certain he could. His predatory hearing probably landed him in tons of situations like this, where he could easily and accidently eavesdrop. I turned to the kitchen staff only to see Morgan standing there on his phone, completely oblivious to me.
"Morgan," He flinched when I spoke, "Can you get me a slice of tiramisu?" He nodded and quickly darted away at my words as I stood there waiting. I put both the coffee and my smoothie on a black plastic circle tray, along with a dessert roll up in a stiff white napkin containing a spoon and fork. By the time I had everything assembled, Morgan pushed the most slice of cake onto the pass and gave me a small smile. I smiled back and grabbed it, giving him a small nod in response. Teetering back I noticed that the younge adults slapped something on the table and dashed out. There was a grey and black blur and I thought that my vision was going because in the blink of an eye Elijah disappeared. When I blinked again he was sitting in his original position. It was only seconds and I stood still to regain my bearings. I shuffled back over, noticing a yellow-bronze bill sitting on the table, and a sudden appearance of a full bin of dishes on the counter. I turned to the dirty table only to see it completely spotless and the dishes missing.
"You seemed a little busy." Elijah called out and I couldn't help the small smile crack across my lips. He was cold and callous, but deep down he was quite kind. Waddling over I placed the tray in the middle and scooted into the seat. His eyes landed on the cake as I began to sort out items out. I placed the cake, rollup and coffee before his closed fingers, and took my smoothie into my frail hands. I pushed the tray closer to the painting on the wall, pretending it didn't exist.
"Why do I have this?" His eyebrows were raised on confusion.
"You looked like you were hungry."
"I'm not."
"Yes you are." He curled his lips back into a displeased smirk as I took a sip of my strawberry and medicine smoothie. It was a little gritty but still tasted good.
"Eat it." He narrowed his eyes and looked to the coffee pastry, unrolling his rollup and using his spoon to gracefully cut a piece of the cake. He ate it and brightened up a bit, before returning to a stoic form.
"Its fine." He continued eating, and we began sitting in silence. I hated that Tiffany had broken our deal, and I was still wrapping my head around strange dreams. Sitting there in silence was very calming to me, the only noises being my drinking and his eating. During our silence I realized that I barely knew Elijah. I knew his name, and he came from Italy and that he was a ancient supernatural being. I didn't know anything else, not what he did for a living nor his last name. It was a sudden realization that made my stomach drop. I decided to muster up my courage and cleared my glass throat.
"Whats you're last name?" He looked at me like I had asked him what his greatest sequel fantasy of. It made me flustered and I looked behind him and not at his face.
"Romano." He rolled the 'r' when be spoke, something I noticed he did every once in a while.
"My last name is Cox." He seemed disinterested and I felt like I was a fool for saying anything. We sat there, the silence turning uncomfortable.
"Sorry." I squeaked, thinking he had grown upset from my words. He shook his head as he finished the cake.
"Theres nothing to apologize for." It made me a little happy, and I was filled with a strange warmth. I blinked my eyes, and Elijah seemed to flash in my eyes. His hair was longer and pulled back, and he wore a blood red cloak. I blinked again and he dissolved back to his normal self. I tried to brush it off as exhaustion but as we sat there in silence, something nagged at me. It was dark, and cold. It seemed like I was Alice falling down the rabbit hole, and I couldn't tell of the creature before me was a friend or foe.