Murderer.
“Nothing?” Sol deflated. Eyes cracked open. “Wait.”
A something.
He robotically approached.
“What are you?”
The rope and leaves released, spilling the nameless. A young woman. Wrong color skin. He yearned for cloud white.
Wrong. All wrong.
Birdlike, he twitched fascination, curiosity. No emotion, never any.
She is unseen, alone, new.
He carried her inside. Placed her in his bed.
Effortless power. Strength of the gods. Speed stolen from wind.
Was this act compassion?
No. Never any.
This was wonder. Emotionless.
Six
With the sun awake, watching, he stayed hidden beneath dead leaves, dead bark, dead dirt.
Separated from the other hunters. There could be no witnesses.
Coward.
“Whore thinks she can run away and we’ll just forget about her. Fucking freak.” Psychotic laughter fell off worm-wet lips and wrapped around the knife. His knife. “No, no, no. We weren’t done playin’. I say when it’s over, an’ it ain’t over yet.” He slept with the stink, waiting for the moon.
Killer. Coward.
The torture tool whispered, sadistic. Craving. Happy. Kill her.
We will kill.
Bleed her.
Bleed her, taste her, lick her dry.
She asked for it. For us to kill.
Born a freak.
Kill kill kill kill killkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkillkill. Yummmmm.
Seven
The girl awoke to touchable sounds.
And sun.
Thick vibrations twisted in its heat, comforting waves uncovered consciousness, washed over her body, healing, empowering.
Black pulled back from her eyes, revealing alien surroundings. She sat up. No words could roll from her mouth. A mind sinking heavy and blank. The music that had pulled her back to life ceased. Allowing pain to drill holes, invade from skull to spine. She winced, teeth grinding, reality fading, sleep racing to catch her. It was interrupted, cut off by deep molasses.
“You are safe here.”
Emotionless wonder.
Safe. You, girl, nameless, unwanted, abused, discarded. Are safe.
She turned to him, corking pain. Every beat of her heart matched a blink of his eyes, eggs dipped in emerald mystery, suspended in a face smooth and unlined. Below could be consumed, wither in those eyes.
Sol nodded and continued to play.
Music. But this was different from the harsh beats from Below.
This was passion.
The Other’s smooth black frame melted into the female-shaped string instrument, becoming fluid. Ink plucked off the pages he played from, constructed as man.
His music choked her insides.
Reshaping.
Making new.
Tears pricked her eyes, jumped from her chin, slid through her neck. Seen by the sun. Nude. New. Exposed.
His song ended and his eyes toured the wet face. Innocent, beautiful.
Beautiful. You, girl, nameless, unwanted, abused, discarded. Are beautiful.
“I have upset you?”
Pause
only the leaves rustled in reply.
“You need not be frightened. I will do you no harm. You are too…changed.”
Emotionless wonder.
The girl blinked slowly, pushing doubt from her eyes. He was next to her. An Other.
Five feet took only a moment.
Cold blew from his smooth frame. Sewed chills through her arms.
“Well, I should be afraid, but…”
I am too changed?
“But I’m not.”
Pain from the journey upward, to protection, sprang active. Her head burned hot, angry.
Eyes closed
she coiled her legs to her chest.
Sinking again
into opaque sleep.
Sol caught the nameless new girl, kept her from crashing.
A mistake?
Their species was not destined to feel without murder. Not designed for natural emotion.
With her touch he now felt all.
Sucked hurt and burn from her body
filtered through him
leaving shadows of emotion.
Green crystal eyes shook with her pain
her wants
her needs.
Let go!
She is unique.
The Other looked at her
alone
unsure
beautiful.
Not knowing what happened.
Wanting more.
Wonder fled.
Desire consumed.
Eight
She had felt the connection.
Her life, a puzzle.
Pieces hidden.
One found.
The Other blinked, stood. Again empty of emotion.
Rational.
“I am Sol.”
He wanted her touch. Not her words.
“Oh, umm…”
Peeling her eyes from his,
she searched for a new identity,
not wanting to be tied to the harshness of her given name.
“Aurora. I am Aurora.”
She pointed toward her chest as if forcing the name within her heart. A cool, sun-scented breeze played with the ripe auburn of her tangled hair as she looked around the small room. Her eyes lifted to the windows, and she could see that she was no longer near the earth. Aurora jutted her neck forward and rushed past Sol to the line of windows opposite her.
Her body tense with excitement and wonder.
“How did I get here?”
Her dangerous journey to his place in the trees had warped memories.
“I caught you. You were unconscious, so I brought you in here and waited with you.”
Rational.
Emotion?
Never. Not any.
Except
with her touch.
“You caught me?”
She turned to him. Her positivity turning to annoyance and fear. Pictures of her past becoming clear.
Could this be the end?
No. She had felt something. They had felt something.
A beginning.
She believed what he had said. She was safe. There. With him.
And
she was too changed.
Aurora let her question, her doubt slide out her ears
down her shoulders
out the window.
She wanted nothing to get in the way of what she was feeling.
Finally feeling.
Finally trusting.
Finally happy.
But still, curiosity lingered.
She crossed the room. Back to him.
“Tell me why you kill. I want to understand.”
Nine
He had listened to her words, but could only focus on her lips.
They had barely moved
yet said so much.
Sol wanted to press his close to hers and feel. Block out words and let bodies rush together.
He let his fantasies mellow before speaking.
“Come with me.”
He led her deep into his home and gestured for her to sit at a table covered in papers. Musical dots and tails flicked across the pages.
He took a seat across from her.
“The people you are from, their bodies are luminescent, their pupils consume and reach out for light. That light that courses through them gives us something here, Above.
Something that we must drain.
Something that we must drink.”
His lips parted. A row of teeth revealed. All the same.