Obscura Fabula (Dark Shorts)

Never More

Never More

It was a dark winter night. Sitting on the red velvet upholstered arm chair in the living room, I dozed over the yellowed pages of a thick old book of occultism. The reddish coals in the fireplace glowed and drew ominous shadows on the wall. Trying to understand the mysteries of life and death, I cried... I cried as I remembered my beloved Lenore. My aching heart longed her while my mind deceived, hiding behind the bittersweet and dry flavor of red wine, the tortuous memory of that forlorn night when the angels took her to heaven.

Slumber defeated me, playing unfairly to match with drunkenness and sorrow. My eyelids fell victim of gravity and fatigue. The gelid breeze flapped almost in a sensual manner the crimson satin curtains; Lenore hung those drapes to embellish our house a month before she died... Oh, she died! I recalled and goosebumps rose all over my skin and a cold stream went up my spine. My anguished body refused to move to close the shutters but I had to do so.

I sauntered across the living room, dragging my life with every heavy step taken, muttering expletives to the night. And was in that moment when I heard a knock on the door.

"Leonore", I whispered. Laughing at my own stupidity, I reached the door. It has to be a traveler, a lonely soul, and nothing more.

I opened the door to find myself staring into the darkness of the night; Black night, black vastness of the plutonic night and nothing more. The dim and cold breeze caressed my face with its icy fingers and the memories of the last stroke of Lenore's hand on my face the night she passed away came to my disturbed mind. Feebly, my beloved placed her fingers on my cheek just before exhaling for the last time and her eyes closed forever.

I sighed and shut the door to watched the fatal gap in the sitting room. A heavy lump in my throat choke me to the sight of this emptiness and loneliness that filled my house. I cursed a thousand times the emptiness, the night, the winter, life and death and the farewell itself. "Oh why have you done this to me! You had no right to take her away because she was mine!" I protested and cried.

Once again I grabbed the half empty bottle of wine resting on the stool and filled my glass. "Salut!" I toasted sardonically pointing to an imaginary God drawn on the plastered ceiling; a God that I already hated for stealing from me what I loved the most. "Lenore", I moaned.

Then I heard the knock on the door again. Staggering between alcohol and sadness I went to open it. "I beg your pardon, oh night passer, but I fell asleep after having some glasses of wine and I didn't hear you calling to my door." I answered, disguised as I turned the knob.

The glass in my hand dropped breaking into a thousand pieces and the dark carmine liquid spilled on the marble floor.

"Lenore!" I cried out loud.

The air carried the smell of incense and flowers; jasmines. Those were my beloved favorite ones. He curvaceous silhouette appeared amidst the dimness. She wore the indigo blue dress that I suit her so well, the one that outlined her tiny waist and let her presumptuous round and firm breasts show through its low décolletage. The woman's dark hair like night itself loose, fluttered in the breeze and a pair of enchanted emerald eyes glowed at me.

"Oh Lenore, You're back! The night has brought you back to me! Come! Come into your house!" I invited her excitedly, reaching out my hands to her.

She stepped in and we stood right by the doorway, right below a bust of Pallas placed on the lintel and there we stood face to face. She smiled to me and in her beautiful pink mouth protruded two elongated and sharp canines.

"Will you leave me again?" I asked, sounding like a plea.

"Never more!", she replied in her melodious voice.

Lenore embraced me and buried her fangs into my collarbone. She drank my blood until darkness enveloped me and nothing more.

This is a direct translation from a short I wrote in Spanish. It is based on the poem The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, but it tastes more bloody than the original. I hope you enjoy the twist at the end. This one is dedicated to CottonJones who took his time to read the original one in Spanish and his kind comments encouraged me to do the translation.