He was sitting at his workstation where he'd fallen asleep while “resting his eyes" when something gently brought him awake. His left arm still rested on a chair arm but his right dangled off... and someone was holding it.
With his eyes half opened, turning his eyeballs to the extreme, we was able to look downward without moving and he saw that it was Beatrice sitting on the floor with his forearm in her hands. One side of her face was pressed to his wrist, her eyes closed.
At first this seemed frightening and he felt the hairs rise on the back of his neck but as seconds turned to a minute, then that passed and nothing else happened, the situation began to seem comical. He was trying to imagine how he ought to interrupt Beatrice's strange meditation when he felt her gentle breathing was interrupted by a little gasp.
“You're awake aren't you?” she whispered without moving.
“Yes,” he whispered. The moment seemed to forbid more than a whisper.
“How long?” Her whispery voice seemed to take on a tremble as the awkwardness of the situation grew. Yet he held his arm still and did not move.
“A minute, no more,” he lied. “We don’t need to keep whispering, do we?”
“No.” she said. “You want to know what I'm doing.”
“It seemed to be an obvious question to me.”
“I… came to confess and apologize.”
“Oh?”
“Remember that first night when they made you choose? I sneaked into your room and tried to influence you while you slept. I tried to talk to you in your dreams. I kept telling you that you wanted to live again and that it would be nice to stay with us. I'm not that strong, though. I didn't think it would work but I had to try. You see? I had to try.”
Seconds passed as tried to recall anything strange about that night. He continued to look down at her where she still cradled his arm, eyes still closed. “Can you forgive me?” she finally asked.
“Are you sure it was you that changed my mind? I'm not. Anyway, nothing needs forgiving because I'm happy to be alive still. But… there's one thing I don't yet understand... what does my arm have to do with all this?”
She gently released his arm but he left it where it was. She opened her eyes but she stared at the floor. “Now you’ll hate me.”
Many heartbeats passed as he waited for her to continue.
“Your door wasn't closed all the way. So I came in and you were sitting there asleep. I was very quiet. I came and stood behind you and you were so... vulnerable. I imagined... I... imagined biting you. I felt strange. I could hear your breathing, your heart, and your blood... I could smell your blood. But I couldn't hurt you. So I sat on the floor and I carefully took your arm so I could keep listening to your heart and smell your blood. It smelled good. Then you woke up. I'm sorry. It was wrong.”
“There's no harm done. Do... do you want to do that some more? I won't mind.”
She shook her head. “I’d better not. If I keep on, it'll make me want to do more.”
“More? Like… what?”
{to be continued}
Comments (0)
See all