Better as Bones

lifeblood - I

Nyx

They're coming.

They're coming for me. I can hear them. Their whispers are carrying through the air. Hushed and hurried. Can't you hear them?

They're coming. My life is going to come to an end soon. That close of this story has been known for years, don't you know? Of course you don't. What did I expect out of you?

Listen closely, I'll only tell this once. The secrets of a god are vibrant and painful and you will hear me tell them all. You will listen to my story and feel my pain. Be grateful I'm allowing this. They're coming. I have nil of time.

Little Me had listened to Mother.

"Nyx darling, you strong kitten," She drew lightly into the dawning skies. I was but a kitten still, my confusion brimming as nothing mattered but milk and the days spent jostling spirits with my brother. Cassius had been curled against me the morning she had whispered this in my ear, her sticky hot breath beating down my ear-fur. "You darling Lendro, blessed to transform. And your eyes my love."

Mother liked my eyes. Glistening as blood on sunny days, it was. The whispers she told.

"You are stronger because of them. Because of them." Yes, my eyes. My strength. My life. Without them I would be nothing. I would be some dirty little Lendro somewhere in the world, scraping through like how my brotherblood live. Disgusting, aren't they?

Ah yes, my lifeblood. My eyes. The gold. The source of my god-ness.

I revel in my eyes. They make me strong. When Little Me had pangs of sadness, when my flesh crawled like maggots in wounds, I remembered my eyes. Mother said they make me strong. She is right. For them I feel no doubt, I have no sadness. I just am. I only indulge in the closeness of bodies and pleasures of that sort.

It was of my sixteenth year that I discovered the joy in indulgence. I lived in my cat form on a fire escape. I slept in silence, cold slithering into my bones. The metal burned my pawpads cold. Early autumn in the East Sector of Maylea was harsh.

On a particularly bone-biting night I crept back to the fire escape. The dimming blaze of sunset was dripping over the buildings that caged me. Decaying leaves littered the ground. I crushed the life of them happily.

The food I had eaten had been particularly delightful. Stolen from an old man's vendor of a nearby family. I had watched them bake bread the days before. It was just as delicious as I imagined.

She stood there, partially curled in, as I stopped. Ahead of me her eyes glistened in the gleam. It lighted her features a sickly yellow, eating away at her flesh. If she wasn't doing so herself, her body was killing itself slowly. I could see this in the way her bones moved in crooked, popping manners. Her deep circles around her eyes and the way her hand reached out to me.

Her dirty brown hair was matted behind her. Her green eyes tore into mine. I stood rigid as she clambered to me. I was just a child. Mother and Cassius had left me. But I found that quite fine. I could survive on my own. I was stronger, smarter than them. They were weak little cats. I am a Gold-Eyed. I am a god.

"Please," Her voice shook. My body splintered aches as I turned human. Her spindle fingers latched onto my arm. Her fingernails dug in, piercing dots of blood in my flesh. Fever raised in my throat. I lashed my arm away. Air hissed through my gritted teeth. She heaved quietly. "You're the seer, no? Please..." Her head dropped, hooking through my elbow. Air brushed my lips. Her flesh was sticky on mine.

How did she find me? How did she know I am a seer? I had never uttered the words to anyone. My power was my own and I was out to use it on others. How dare she believe I would help her? A commoner? A pathetic babbling woman? I scoffed as her hands drew up my arms. Her dull green eyes met mine. I remember fighting away a scowl.

"Seer," She begged. "Tell me my future. Please, I beg of you." Her pleas turned hurried as her face neared mine. I clamped my lips shut as my insides squirmed. My chest felt alight as my guts twisted. What a peculiar feeling, I thought. I haven't felt it in quite a while. The blinded pleasure of being praised. My flesh tinged as she pressed, her body nearing my own.

Her fingers twisted desperately into my dark shirt. She tugged me forward. Tears pierced her eyes as she blinked. Her eyelashes were heavy with the clumps of wetness.

"That's not how this works," I told her, looking down. Her mouth peeled open. Her eyes flicked down to my chest as she clamped her teeth shut. Her body shook. My fingers twitched at my sides. She was so desperate for a glimpse, anything to soothe her. My chest lapped flames.

A pressed breath scraped my teeth as she dropped her head into my chest. She stifled a sob, her hands tugging at my arms. My body squirmed. Her body against mine lit a flame I had never felt before. A grin played on my lips as she sobbed into me, her pleas ringing pleasure in my ears.

My fingers found her shoulders. Her body shook harder as I tangled my fingers in her knotted hair. The silkiness of human's hair has always been peculiar in my mind. How odd for a species to allow their hair length like hers. My own was messy around my ears, shadowing the black onyx of my fur. My fingers slid through her hair as she pressed close, her chest flush against mine. Heat bubbled up from the licking flames in my chest. Sounds become lodged in my throat.

"Please," She whimpered. Her hair slid through my fingers, one caught on a knot. My hands fell as she glimpsed up. "I'll give you anything. Money? I'll-I'll work for you, I'll find money, anything! My body!"

Hot breath escaped my lips as she begged. A grin played on my lips as I gritted my teeth, feigning fury. My hands pressed shoves against her. She stumbled back, mouth hanging as her watery eyes met mine. Her eyebrows drew together, her mouth pressing down. She sniffed, tears spilling heavy.

"Get lost," I growled. Warmth was overtaking my body. She heaved a sob, collapsing to the ground on her knees. Her palms pressed flat into the dirt. My footsteps thudded. I knocked my foot in front of her, my toes hooking under her jaw as I pulled her vision up. Hot tears slipped out as she gawked up at me. "Think twice before asking a Gold-Eyed for such privy."

Kicking my foot out, her face smacked the ground. I stepped next to her as her palms turned fist against the ground. Out of the corner of my eye I watched as she pushed herself up. Her spine clicked into place as she turned away from me.

"You're a monster," She muttered. I cast a glance over my shoulder. Her fists pressed white into her palm. Soon there'd be red. Her shoulders clipped her ears. "You act so high but you're nothing more than me." She choked a sob, running out of my alley.

I listened as she ran away, her choking sobs growing silent as she grew farther. My body relaxed, a stifled sigh filling the emptiness of my home. She had made me feel such a way I've never before. Her pleas...oh how I long for one more person to beg for me. Her tears and begs twisted my guts in a fierce pleasure.

I wondered what I felt inside of me. The twist and heat deep in my body. I stayed with me until my palms itched and my breaths were sticky hot. She had given me something I never thought I would desire. And I didn't realize until I became trapped here on this island. Oh how I long for someone to beg for me....

I had climbed into my fire escape that night, the moonlight flicking hastily over my body.

"What a pain." I sat back, bathing in my moonlight.