Swan Song || The Lost Boys - & The One Who Found Them...

Chapter XIX ~ As We Fall Asleep; Our Souls - Entwined...

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" This... can't be real...", were the few words my lips formed without a voice to breathe life into them; words far too quiet for the hearing, unless one was a vampire & in possession of well-nigh otherworldly, exceptional senses.

Then, & really only then...

" It should not be.
And yet, it is as real as you & I. "

My gaze drifted upwards to collide with that of the man before me; a wide-eyed stare drowning in absolute horror & perplexity. He stood in the shadow of the peacefully swaying drapes of the canopy bed, every single breeze that slipped past the smooth velvet fabric erasing his features from my vision for a moment that felt far longer than it truly was & filled me with greatest unease as he appeared to merge with the darkness, long comforted by its presence & viewing it as his loyal companion.

In the end it was pure denial that caused me to shake my head.
" There is no way you heard what I just said... "

Kjetil's face spit forth a sardonic smile.
" Forgive me if I wasn't meant to, Lily, but unfortunately that's exactly what I did. And I could not un-hear it even if I wanted to. "

" It was hardly a whisper... "

" Yet your words rang oh so clear in my ears, my dear... Clear as fragile wind chimes in the sigh of a voiceless breeze, trapped in the grasp of a premature autumnal morning. "

As though he had awakened the ghosts of mother nature another breeze entered the lithoidal walls of the abandoned cave, their impact on the drapes causing them to indulge in a frantic dance that'd banish Kjetil's silhouette from my eyes & leave me staring at an empty spot in the midst of a sea of blackness. One of the flames was choked to death by the wind, feeding the ever-growing shadow on its way to my bed.

A low sinister chuckle tumbled from the walls, vibrating in the air like a thunder in the making & freezing itself into my ears until every single hair in the back of my neck stood upright.
" It's a shame you can not see your own face right now...
Such shock, such horror. I've only ever seen so much emotion in the tear-stained reddened eyes of my little brother, back when I told him that Santa Claus would no longer bring him presents.
Not because my brother hasn't always been a good boy, no... But because he died in a horrible, horrible accident the day before Christmas Eve.

Poor dumb little kids like him are easily devastated by such news... "

Kjetil's voice hung in the air like an airborne toxin, crawling into every corner & flooding the entire cave with syllables that consisted of nothing but pure spite & venom.
" Certainly, I could have settled for the truth instead & told him that Santa Claus was none other than our beloved father who happened to drive off a bridge that fateful night, a little too eager to get his costume just so he could surprise his favourite child, like every cursed year... However that would have brought death upon that kid's precious illusion, & I respected my little brother way too much to do a thing so unethical.

Back then I still had a heart, Lily... Not a big one, as you might soon come to discover, but a heart nonetheless. "

" Why are you here, Kjetil..? How are you here?!? "

" Huh. That might be the coldest & least welcoming way to express how much joy our beautiful reunion brings you...", he replied with little to no interest in my aching desire for answers, his voice now ringing so close to my right ear that I jumped in my safe little spot on the bed, eyes injected with unapologetic horror glued to the shadows as they continued to creep in on me, threatening to crush me. Where Kjetil had gone in the meantime was beyond my knowledge.
" But then again... I can not blame you for your resentment. I did you wrong. So, so very wrong...
As wrong as a human being can possibly do one of his own. "