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

Chapter X ~ ᚾ ( Nauthiz ) Part I - As Within, So Without...

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I watched the sun ascend after hours of dreadful darkness, painting the slumber-stained hills as well as the meadows at their feet a pale shade of gold & breathing life into what at this hour appeared to be a dead land; the waves were no longer roaring, only whispering, & the wild tempests from the night before had long moved on to different shores, leaving a tender & cool morning breeze to chase through the still empty streets of Santa Carla. 

Beneath my feet withered leaves & branches were cracking with each step, some of them so loud that I startled, at last sensing autumn's presence all around me. It was oddly cold yet I refused to wear my hoodie, allowing the forest's peaceful energy to enter my body through every single pore, the scent of dew-covered tree bark & moist soil cleansing my lungs. I stopped every thirty seconds, closing my eyes & feeling my surroundings with all of my being.
A bird sang its song not too far away from me, its voice crystal-clear yet unknown; maybe it was just my mind playing tricks on me, but something about this bird's song sounded so awfully pained, mournful. 

My eyes drifted open again & I continued my journey through the woods, drawing further away from the abandoned prison & closer to the city. My heart lay heavy in my chest, aching with each beat. Upon focusing on my forehead I could still feel Dwayne's warm lips against my skin, lips that had planted an invisible yet significant mark on my soul & in spite of the circumstances as well as the unanticipated goodbye I considered it a gift, a blessing. What most likely would have been nothing but a simple gesture of affection for most people had without a doubt turned my entire world upside down & only brought me closer to the one realization I had been trying to run away from for the longest time:

that I was in love with Dwayne.
Deeply.

So deeply that I feared it'd make me even more vulnerable than I had already become throughout my life. 

I paused next to an old oak tree once the pictures of our goodbye snuck back into my mind, causing my heart to drop so fast I had to lean against it & take a breath. This was the second time I had been forced to just watch him depart, bereft of any opportunity to somehow make the inevitable evitable & cast more light on that shadow that was his heart, so well hidden among doubt & fear. 

Him explaining to me what he was so awfully afraid of certainly made a lot of sense, even more now that I had more time to reflect on the most recent & admittedly fiery conversation with David, but a part of me saw neither reason nor cause to pull out all the stops only to keep me at bay, let alone make me leave the city. Had turning me into one of his kin really been David's ultimate intention he would have had more than enough time & opportunities to accomplish just that earlier in the watchtower, with or without the use of force, when the two of us were alone. Yet here I was - still as much human as before & unharmed.
As shady as David appeared on the outside, he could hardly be considered violent, not even evil in my eyes. If I had to be completely honest I was slowly beginning to realize that them being vampires had been - & to some extent still was - their most intimidating feature & the one thing to unsettle me the most about their presence. But looks could be deceiving, much like fairy-tales & myths, so what if deep at their core, the four of them were actually kind, perhaps even wonderful people? In order to remove every ounce of doubt I had to give them a real chance eventually, or not? 

Dwayne himself was the perfect example that a creature of the night could still harbour sunlight in its heart, & maybe he was not an exception… 

I rested my temple against the trunk, smelling the tree resin & the ivy that grew between the cracks in the bark when I heard the sound of leaves rustling close behind me, followed by the sound of branches breaking. I instantly spun around in my spot, seeing nothing but trees at first as well as a small but well lit clearing several feet away.