A Ripple In Time | Captain James Nicholls

Addendum

I love her and that's the beginning and end of everything.

James sat on the bench at the piano, his fingers maneuvering over the keys with a skill that had developed and had been perfected for over a century and steadily Izabella danced, her nightgown flaring out as she spun to the jazzy piece he had improvised. He looked over his shoulder, watching her spin and move with the fluidity of water before returning his gaze to the ivory keys. A smile of amazement and joy stretched across his face. He never tired of her.

It was then it happened, the pang of despair in her chest that was suffocating, that seized her heart and squeezed like a constrictor. Her knees gave way and at the thudding sound of them hitting the floor the Captain turned, his brows furrowed before he came to sit by her. She felt as if she were being ripped in two, that a piece of her had left never to return; only there was nothing she could do but suffer through it. Izabella knew what was happening, her breathing had grown shallow and tears streaked her cheeks. "Adam." Her melodic voice had quickly turned into a harsh rasp and even though James held her in his arms, slowly rocking back and forth in the middle of the room it did not relieve the agony, she feared nothing would. "Adam." She choked out his name, wishing that she could have seen him one last time, wishing that she could have saved him from the self-destructive ways. He had been right, all those years ago, they were a dying breed.

A week later when James felt the same crippling pain they each knew that Adam and Eve had chosen to leave this life and now they were the last two vampires left, the only ones left of their kind. It had begun with Marlowe, a batch of bad blood, a slow and painful death but really there was no other way to die. The next had been Ava, which actually came as no surprise that she had finally succumb to the sepsis of the person she had feed from. Darkness descended in the midst of all the deaths.

But life grew good and green again, for years Adam and Eve stayed with her and James until they parted ways to see the world again, to nurture their relationship back to health. Even though it was certainly becoming harder to find pure blood there was optimism that eventually everything would settle out and they could live like they had been. There would be peace and opulence and they would be able to drink easily without the constant threat of death looming overhead.

It never got better and the gilded hopes she had been filled with only made everything worse, with the passing of Adam and Eve the days grew darker. At night James would kiss Izabella's temple regardless of whether they had been able to feed that night or not and say, "It's going to be okay Izabella, we can get through this."

Her answer never changed as she could no longer trust in false hope and promises. The vampiress would kiss him in return and as she pulled back would whisper the words that he knew to be true. "No, we can't." Everything passed slowly, time crept along and waited for no one, not even the immortals.

Izabella and James sat on an empty beach, shoulder to shoulder looking out at the vast ocean that remained constant. No matter how much changed the ocean remained and was consistent. She was tired, weary, exhausted. In her hand was a shell, unbroken and still white, untouched by the cruelty of the outside world. Her once vibrant red curls dulled before James's eyes and there was nothing he could do to help, even her eyes had begun to return to their original blue. "When I little the world seemed so vast." Her voice was broken.

"But now it seems smaller?" He questioned, realizing that like her he was no longer the same. The centuries had changed him as if reflecting the growing darkness his hair was more brown than blonde and his eyes were no longer blue but grey, now instead of the sea they held a storm. 

Sadly Izabella shook her head and turned to her darling Captain, her hand running over the stubble on his jaw that she had grown fond of. "The world is still the same size I envisioned as a child; now there's just less in it." It was a feeling she had felt for a long time, she had seen the world before the rise of everything, before industrialization, before technology, before all the hate and destruction. She remembered the vast forests that covered lands that were now bare, the rolling hills and mountains that had been cut down to make way for man and his machines. She could remember when the air was clean and crisp but now it was sodden with pollution and even the most remote places had been changed. Species flourished and became extinct in her lifetime. There was indeed less in the world for her and perhaps now she finally understood what Adam had been talking about. "Do you believe in reincarnation, James?"