All my life, I've heard or read people cursing because their days were numbered. Regrets of having more time, or more precisely, endless time possessed their minds, making them ungrateful. But little did they know how lucky they were?
They thought their lives were short, not enough and there was always a clock ticking. An angel of death was waiting to rip their soul out of their bodies when the very clock came to an abrupt halt. This made them feel anxious, sometimes even unlucky. But little did they know the torments and tiresomeness of living for an eternity and the actual misfortune that came with it?
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A dark figure stood still, like a statue ; on the edge of a twenty-three-story building's terrace. The darkness of the dense night hovered around him like a quilt and with the help of the brightly shining moon above, his appearance created a murky image.
The night was not young anymore, just like the boy who was standing recklessly at the edge of the terrace but for some undeniable causes, the fact didn't bother him much.
A sudden gush of cold wind whirled around the absent-minded boy's body, making his dark brown hairs scatter around his forehead.
He stood there still like a sculpture, while his deep blue eyes pierced through the night sky filled with stars and a brightly shining moon. It was a if he was searching for something among the stars.
Rayleigh let out a heavy breath that he had been capturing inside his rib cage for a long time now. But still the onus in his heart didn't wear off, instead it festered.
With a pained expression painted on his face, he looked up at the stars and mumbled, "Why mother? Why did you guys had to make sure that I live? Why didn't you think it would be a curse rather than a blessing?"
He kept his eyes glued to the sky , as if his question was directed at someone over there and he was expecting an answer...
"Why???", Rayleigh screamed in frustration as his question evaporated into the quiet night as if the question had never made it out of his mouth.
None seemed to be around to answer his desperate question, but he waited.
He waited with his sparkling blue eyes looking around reluctantly, as if the anticipated answer would come anytime now. But a hundred years old hope in those eyes was lost again.
Even he didn't understand why he would throw this foolish question every year, looking up at the sky as if the tales of his childhood were real. As if his parents had actually become stars and would somehow hear him...
Funny!
Living for a long time sometimes can fu*k your mind up~ he thought.
Rayleigh peeked down nodding his head with despondency hammering his heart. Will the centuries old disappointment ever go away?
"No, it won't. I'll rot over and over, I will die every day but I won't be able to emancipate myself from this bloody immortal life." a voice inside him mocked back, while a sharpening pain grasped his heart, as if sinking his heart into it.
With another long sigh, he jumped off from the peak of the tallest building of the city without even a single ounce of hesitance.
Against the wind, his body fell freely with an unimaginable speed making his adrenaline to rush crazily. The more close he got to the ground, the more thrilled he felt.
Finally, the time of landing came near and surprisingly like a pro, Rayleigh swung his body and made a soft landing on the ground as if he had been doing this all his life.
Critical wave of pain rushed through his limbs as his body touched the ground.
Landing on his hands and legs, Rayleigh balanced himself.
The pain felt amazing to him, and he tolerated the momentary pain smilingly.
Was he a masochist? Well, maybe not but this pain and these feelings were the only things that made him feel alive, feel human.
Everything except this freaking immortal life of his was relative in this world. He was tired, too tired of living for so long, too tired of this world, too exhausted of being lonely.
Within one minute, the pain went away and his body felt fully normal and recovered.
Rayleigh stood up and started walking forward with an expressionless face as if nothing had happened. He kicked his foot on the road as he walked, head high, one hand in his pocket.
The empty street gave his heart an incomplete feeling, and that feeling converted into sharp spikes, wounding his heart. No matter how much despair he was feeling inside, his face continued to appear blank.
Rayleigh walked forward while his eyes scanned the street ahead of him. He stopped and looked in a mirror hung in front of a shop, Rayleigh's eye-brows knitted as his facial expression changed from stoic into anger.
This undistorted forever 18 appearance, this never ending life of lies!!
Clutching his fists, he gritted his teeth as the anger tried to explode him from inside out. With all the frustration and anger gathering in his heart, he punched the mirror unable to control the burning rage.
The glass broke off with loud clattering, making his hand wounded with the shreds.
Another surge of pain hit Rayleigh, this time the smile broadened on his handsome face, as he watched the blood gushing out of his wound. Pulling out one of the shreds, he watched the wound healing instantly without even wasting a single second.
A smug look appeared on his face as he decided to let the rest of the shreds remain sunk in his skin, as it would at least make him feel something.
Sliding his left hand into the pocket of his jacket, he pulled out a $50 note and a handkerchief.
Wrapping the money with the handkerchief and he used a glass shred to hang it on the wooden frame of the mirror. The money should cover the damage he had made just a while ago.
After his work was done, Rayleigh again started walking with a smug expression visible on his face.
While walking ahead his mind wandered back to the night many years ago, that cursed night which changed his life, which turned him into a monster.
Almost three hundred years ago, his life had changed drastically in just a single night. He couldn't ever forget that cursed day of his life as long as he breathed, which meant the memory would eternally live within him haunting him to the core.
It was a calm night quite similar to this one, there was pin drop of silence lingering all around the dense forest except the grousing of an 18 years old boy.
Screams in a dry voice came out of his throat as he lied on the ground, not moving at all. A huge bite mark could be seen around his neck and, the surrounding area had turned purple while the color kept on spreading across his body as time passed by.
The upper part of his body seemed like it was getting rotten, while he felt nothing but pain and numbness spreading through his body.
The boy's once sparkly ocean blue eyes were now as lifeless as a dessert.
Not too far away, the boy's father was sitting anxiously inside a circle made by the boy's mother. He(the father) spared tensed glances both at the boy and his mother now and then as his heart churned with agony.
"Calm down, my lord. Have faith in me,"the blonde haired woman in his mid thirties spoke in a weak voice.
"Is this necessary? Are you sure there's no other way? "The brown eyed tall man spoke anxiously as his tiresome eyes gave off a helpless look.
"Not when the enemies have teamed up with the monsters and invaded our home, massacred our people in just one night," The woman who was called Valerie again put her concentration back on the ritual after speaking the sentence.
She seemed to be in a hurry as she continuously chanted some spell in an ancient language.
Fredrick, the father of the boy pondered over the thoughts of turning his own son into some monstrous being. His eyes moved desperately on the boy with pained expression, the memories of their happy times flashed across his mind making his heart quiver. How could he turn the apple of his eye into some kind of monster? Was it even fair to take up such a big decision of his life?
"No… No… I can't do this… I can't, this isn't fair for hi…" words of hesitation came out of his mouth only to be cut off by Valerie.
"This is the only way to save both our son and our family, our people. We have been attacked and lured out of our kingdom to die. The two of us barely have any time left, the poison in our system would kill us soon. And look at Rayleigh(points at the boy), the bite on his neck would give him nothing but a slow, painful death unless we turn him. Do you think...(cough)… That… (cough, cough) was fair?" Valerie started coughing vigorously as soon as she completed the sentence.
It Seemed like the stars were changing their directions faster that night, and the sand of time was quickly running out.
Fredrick quickly rushed by his wife's side and held her into his arms.
Teardrops gathered in his eyes, making it bloodshot red. Never in his dreams did he think his fate would drag him into a situation like this.
Fredrick found himself standing on a crossroad where both of the roads ahead lead to despair. Either the existence of his whole family would be wiped out tonight or his son would live, but he would not remain human anymore. His mind was giving him a logical judgement that it was not fair for him to take the decision of Rayleigh's life but his heart quarreled louder to save his only son even if it turned him into a monster.
Fredrick's jaw clenched as he looked at the tiresome, pale face of his beloved wife,"Do it,"he said in a stern voice.
Valerie's lips curved up into a small smile filled which was filled with pain, and she dragged her body to finish the last step of the ritual which was the sacrifice of two lives. She took the years old crystal daggers in her hands and looked back at Fredrick one last time.
"Make sure to put it directly through my heart," Valerie's voice came out as a whisper as she handed one of the daggers to her husband.
Fredrick gave her a slight nod while taking one dagger from his wife's hand. They positioned the daggers on the left side of each other's chests, right above where their hearts were and took a deep breath.
Valerie and Fredrick looked at the boy lying on the other side of the small fire one last time before looking into each other's eyes and nodded bravely.
It was time!
Both of them had a thousand of things in their hearts, that they wanted to say to each other and their beloved son which were sealed as the daggers sunk deep into their chest piercing through their hearts at the same time.
The clear sky turned cloudy in no time and drizzled covering the thud of the two bodies landing on the ground. At the same time, the small fire lightened middle of the circle which was irradiating the three bodies lying on the ground, suddenly emerged making the whole place obscure in darkness.
Three of the bodies lied on the ground lifelessly till dawn. When the first ray of the sun hit the bodies, miraculously a pair of eyes shot open.
That's how an eternal torture for Rayleigh began...