Midnight After Midnight - Nanowrimo 2022

Chapter 6 - A Long Story

The following day, with much hesitation, Adelaide entered the graveyard half an hour before noon, Lionel trailing right behind her. With no one else around them, Adelaide dedicated herself to thoroughly studying her surroundings. They weren't beautiful, far from it, but they were suitable for her vampirism. As it was the middle of winter, the air was releasing deathly freezing winds, and the sun only faintly shone behind the overpowering grey clouds, which made her feel that much better, for the skin of vampires vastly preferred coldness to warmth. 

Snowflakes fell slowly and gracefully, gently caressing her cheeks, her body mostly protected by the black cloak that she was wearing over her bright blue sweater with white polka dots and her dark blue maxi skirt with black rhombs. Her black rain boots with white stitches all over them had sunk in the snow almost completely, but it was nothing that she hadn't gotten used to over the years. Besides her and Lionel, no one else was there except for the occasional crow that would fly away with a cackle when it saw them approaching, which helped her lose herself in her thoughts and also set the atmosphere really well.

Beneath the thick layers of snow, there was only thin ice, which Adelaide had to walk over like a tightrope so as not to slip and crack a bone, and which Lionel walked over casually, presumably because it was mundane to him. Noticing what was going on with her, he held her hand tight with a smile, and her eyes gleamed when she saw what he did. 

Soon enough, they reached the joint graves where her parents were buried, all covered in snow the way the people that lay in them were covered in obscurity, their respective existences fleeting and forgettable amidst the uncaring enormousness of the universe. The flowers those who knew them had put on their tombstones were frozen and withered, and no one cared enough to put them away. 

Lionel hastily wiped all the snow from the edges of the graves, making enough room for her to sit near her mother and for him to sit near her father. Her eyebrows furrowed and her lips twisted in a frown, she placed her palms on her chin, staring at the muddy ground below her with a blank gaze. She did so for several minutes until Lionel nudged her, frowning because he couldn't ignore how sullen she was, making her slowly turn towards him with a stern facial expression.

"It's going to be alright," he said calmly, feeling like he'd read her mind. "If you told everything to me, I'm sure you'll find a way to tell everything to him as well, and although it may surprise him at first, he's going to accept it sooner than you think. With how you're feeling, you would've become a worse partner for him, shattering his fantasy, and it's why I feel you're making it easier for him this way."

Adelaide's veins began to boil with pressure. "It would've been alright if I weren't pregnant with his child, but now my choice's a bit questionable, to say the least."

He shrugged. "I know that he's got to know, but it's not like you're going to give the child to him, right? You're its mother, and you're going to spend the rest of your immortal life in a huge palace with lots of individuals, so there's no reason why you'd give it to a guy who lives with an alcoholic father and has to tape his glasses. It may sound a bit harsh, but life's all about being practical, isn't it?"

She glared at him. "It does sound a bit harsh when you say it that way. Besides, I feel like he deserves that child way more than I do."

He raised an eyebrow. "Explain to me why you're feeling that way. It confuses me quite a lot."

She let out a deep sigh. "First of all, I want the child to have a normal childhood. Second of all, I'm already taking myself away from him, and I believe that giving him custody of the child would be good enough consolation. Also, I'm sure that he'll find a way to raise it properly because I know him, and I know that he's a good person, so that has to translate to parenting at least somewhat, right?"