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

Chapter XI ~ i ( Isa ) Part II - Frozen Among The Flames

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" Med den tridje du ris... "

By the third you rise...

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" Once you spend decades in the dark, you begin to forget who you truly are... "

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I awoke to the peaceful pitter-patter of autumn rain on the roof & the howling winds lurking in the trees, with distant storms rolling across the silent & deserted lands beyond the hills; a sound to scare the darkness itself. My eyes flung open, the night's countenance staring right back at me & smiling its barefaced smile. Faint beams of moonlight were dancing along the walls, deliberately scattered by the swaying tree branches in my backyard. Viewed through my still slumber-stained eyes they looked like fireflies at first, wandering aimlessly from one corner of the room to the next & back again. And the stronger the breeze, the wilder their dance.

Facing away from the window I felt the cold winds blow against the back of my neck, breathing into my hair & letting it come to life. With the winds came the memories, came the realisation what had happened before my involuntary little 'nap', the pictures one by one reassembling before my inner eye like a puzzle. My mind began to wander & I along with it, back to the unexpected reunion with Dwayne, the heart-felt embrace & then the kiss; first only timid & fragile, but soon turning fiery, passionate. The faint yet still very prominent taste of woodruff lingered on my tongue whereas the taste of sweet wine clung to my lips, immediately spreading inside my mouth the second I licked them.

In my bottom lip I noticed a small dent, one that I would touch with the tip of my tongue several times before tasting the blood it was still oozing with, quickly lifting a hand to wipe my mouth. I was halfway there when a blazing sensation in my upper back followed by a paralyzing pain between my neck & shoulder forced me to drop my hand, refreshing my memory much faster than I had desired.

Through my teeth I drew a sharp breath, glancing down at my shoulder to find a huge band-aid covering the area where the gash was located, fixed & held in place with various layers of extra tape so that moving my shoulder was already challenging enough. A dark circular spot under the white band-aid almost the same size as the patch itself gave me an idea as to how profusely the wound must've bled & how much it was bleeding still. Truth be told I had never intended to cut that deep to begin with, but my anxiety along with the extraordinary circumstances had quickly gotten the best of me. Something that, in retrospect, I was quite grateful for... Because it had prevented matters from becoming even worse.

I tried to move, gasping at the feeling of hundreds of flaming needles piercing every single nerve in my shoulder while my nausea threatened me with its comeback; I certainly could stomach a lot of pain, but only so much. This kind of pain was entirely new to me & it was literally making me sick.

" Take it easy ~
The wound was quite deep, it took some time to stop the bleeding. "

A voice rang out from close behind me, taking me by surprise despite its warm sound & familiarity.

My head immediately turned towards the window as my eyes lit up.

" Dwayne! "

There he was, sitting on the outer windowsill with one leg dangling outside & the other cocked to rest his arm upon, gazing up at the partially cloudy dome above. His moonlit features seemed relaxed, none of them reminding me of the hungry beast that had carelessly drawn the blood from my veins not too long ago. His long ebony hair looked shinier than ever now that it was at the moon's very mercy, his pecan-coloured eyes practically mirroring the stars above; small yet profound ponds to slowly drown in.
Unlike the other three of his vampiric tribe Dwayne was not pale at all, still his skin reminded me of ancient marble with a dull surface that would not appear lustrous at all until finally exposed to light.