He waited for the day to turn into the indigo color everyone knew. It was an hour where all humans must rush to their houses. The rules were clear. After eight of the night, everyone must be behind their doors. Anyone caught outside would be sentenced to jail for a long time until they would crave a single drop of the sun.
Duncan scratched his head seeking an answer for the multiple questions e had about her but his ideals didn't give him a shred of medicine to stop them. She just left him hanging around as he was about to leave. He expected her to hold him behind, to keep each other's company but she just returned to her usual seat.
From the way she moved so easily around the fence, she was used to sitting there. It was a strange coincidence that he didn't notice her before. Her ginger hair was something no one would look away from. It was like a single flower in a long deserted land.
His legs walked around his garden while his head was in the clouds. His eyes turned to the golden reminiscence he cultivated in his garden. It was a flower that he didn't like but kept cultivating for a strange reason. He found it on the end of a cliff, growing alone and he found himself in it. It was one of those days when he had to kill innocent humans because they broke the rules.
The flower was, as its name suggested, in golden colour with a slight taint of brown in the middle. It was a rare flower that didn't grow anywhere. It often symbolized the lost memories or memories left behind by people who died. Because what people keep remembering, after the face they used to see is under the ground, are the actions. No one remembers your tomb or your name but the memories stay behind. One way or the other, if you were a warm person, you will be remembered.
It was like a fortune he found it and cultivated it. It was an experiment that succeeded and was used to his own benefit. He only brought them to tombs. Today as well, he killed someone after he returned from school. His hands grabbed the flowers he spent so much time cultivating and a bag of human remains then moved to the destination no one visited.
There was a cemetery around the capital; a place he built for the humans that he killed with his own hands. Every tomb there was built with his own hands. The Empress didn't mind it, as long as it was deep inside the forbidden forest. He called it the unnamed stones because he doesn't remember all their names. He killed far too many to remember all of them.
He was a monster and it was disgusting he acted like a normal high schooler.
The capital had a huge fenced wall with two gates opening to the outside. The vampires made humans believe it was for their own safety but it was simply a huge magical circle to know where their preys are moving. Around the closed walls, there was a thick forest called the forbidden forest. The road to there was an easy one and the vampires left a part of it for humans to spend their intimate moments and go for an outing with the family. However, it was only on weekends.
As he jumped on top of the building with his speed, taking care of staying in the blind spots for humans to not notice him, a familiar scent attracted him. It wasn't because he was thinking about her that he got attracted to her scent. He stopped on top of a huge tower, searching between the masses of moving human machines doing their usual work.
She was wearing adult clothes and had her hair arranged in a way the adult working did. She must have taken her mother's clothes. She took a deep breath then walked casually like the others but she was walking outside.
Sierra felt someone was following her but showing it would only aggravate her situation. She had a mission as usual. A mission she gave herself since her teacher died. She knew of the unnamed tombs and she visited them on weekends, but it wasn't the weekends. Still, she intended to go and visit her teacher's tomb. It was the only tomb in the unnamed stones that had a name.
Duncan watched her as she successfully got past the gates and walked towards the forbidden forest, going to the cemetery he made with his own hands. He didn't know how to feel about what she was doing; she was breaking the rules and treading on dangerous grounds. He followed her jumping on the trees.
Sierra had a basket in her hand, containing flowers, a book and a bottle of water. Previously, she made a tomb on her own in the forbidden forest as no one approaches that place. However, in one of her ending her life attempts, she ventured further inside the forest and found the cemetery. It was meticulous and organized. The care it was shown in how the tombs were made was astonishing.
Duncan built a tomb with another name; it was the Darkcrow's name. He couldn't get the ashes of his mother but he bought the remains of his father and buried them with the momentum of his mother. While his father was a human, his mother was a vampire. She fell in love with a human and married him but their reunion was forbidden and they were punished because of it.
"Here I am again!" she smiled and stepped forward. No one would look for her either way. Her mother will be in front of her Buddha statue, praying, and her father would be still in a bar, spending another night drinking. Her father belonged to the fifth rank and the rules applied to all his family. They could stay outside until midnight.
She sat down in front of a grave after putting the flower she brought with her, opened the book and started reading it out loud. It was a book her teacher left for her. A book she cherished and read in front of her grave each time she came. A book that caused the tragedy of his life…
Duncan watched her from afar. She was the one being weird. Who would come to a dangerous place like this? She was lucky enough to avoid vampires' eyes. However, till when it will keep going? When she will be found out, they will torture her and because he talked to her, he would be the one to kill her. What kind of face she would have done by then?
Seeing his red eyes and his sharp nails piercing her heart as he was careful with it, this was a form of torture he was forced to apply. He had to keep the body intact… for the business…
"I guess it's another day without you teacher. I am sorry… I read this book every time I come to see you. Can you see me from that place? You were the only one who showed me warmth besides my father. I still have those nightmares… I know what you would say," she laughed softly. "It's not worth it. Time would heal everything. Yet, time didn't heal my painful heart."
She was hollowed. Time doesn't move backwards to fix the mistakes of young flesh. All humans had to do was walk forward. Choosing another reason to live, he was the light that died the gloomy sky she existed under, a trite form of happiness in her world.
Sierra was a big liar, with a beating heart that was like a machine. Words become worthless feelings, causing worthless consequences. She couldn't do anything about it. She couldn't understand why knowledge was a forbidden thing to know. She couldn't change even a single thought by being positive. If it wasn't for her father, she would have been another condemned. It was why the boy who she talked to knew about her.
She was a condemned for a day and was removed because of her father's plea and begging. No parent wants their child to suffer. There are examples of children with their own parents who had to give up on their own children, for the condemned policy, and make another child.
"What should I do? I am merely living like a corpse and I can't even follow you," her voice shook. His memory was ecstasy in the middle of all the bad ones. Everyone reminded her of what happened to him, for the sake of not repeating the same thing.
Her voice was full of resentment and regrets, towards herself, the world and all the bad things that existed.
Duncan didn't want to listen since it was her privacy, but a vampire's ears are enhanced and he can't change that. Technically, she thought no one heard her. She hovered over someone who impacted his life as well. He was a valiant man and to think she knew him, it was sad. He was the first one he killed.
The man didn't fear death; he believed that sacrifice must be made for greater changes. However, nothing changed because vampires were powerful. He was just a tiny spark that did nothing and his life was wasted.
"What a shame! I feel bad now," he whispered to himself as she left and forced himself to follow her, repeating in his mind for her own safety. He would leave the flowers and visit the graves for later.
There were scary stories about this part of the forest, especially at night. It wasn't called the forbidden forest for anything. The stories were meant to scare everyone but children were the most impacted ones. The forest turns into giant shadows swallowing every soul it finds; whoever came at night returned dead. However, she walked so used to the darkness.
He wanted to ask her for the reason for her confidence. He wanted to warn her as he was part of the executors… That she would be tortured. Her heart will be sold for a high price, her flesh will be meat for ghouls, her eyes and tongue will be used for potions, her internal organs would be turned to ashes for female vampires who believed in the supremacy of the ashes that helped in the skin staying young and dazzling… He was part of all this and he wanted to warn her because she didn't mind talking to him.
Because she was warm to him. Because she proved that somewhere in the kingdom, there is always someone who didn't believe in the absurdity of what the vampires taught humans. They taught them lies and were asked for lies in exams. It was ironic but he didn't want her to die for a futile reason like disobeying the rules.