Once Upon A Chance

Chapter Two~ Olivier

             Her small frame made it hard to believe that her heart could beat so fast without tearing through her skin. But just the thought of her sweet, exotic blood made my teeth bulge slightly, and I silently begged them to stay in place. If she knew what I was... If she ever found out...

             “Where exactly are we going again?" she laughed.

             I smiled as I gripped her hand tighter and lead her away from her ignorant boyfriend who was yelling at her to no prevail behind us. He didn't honestly think he deserved a girl like precious Anya, did he? If he did, he was completely off track.

             “To Neverland," I teased, watching a small smirk make its way across her face. “I'm showing you my view on this world."

             “And what exactly is your view on this world, Olivier?"

             I thought for a moment. After countless years, millennium after millennium, I still didn't know my view on the world. I'd watched so many people I loved and hated alike die before my eyes. I'd escaped death more than once when I was found out. I'd searched the world for a girl like Anya here, who could see through me without trying. I saw it in her eyes earlier. She saw my pain. She knew what it was like to hurt this badly. And yet, my entire life, I had not found one girl like her. No one's hair was as wavy and black like Anya's, no one's eyes as dark a brown, nearly endless in their fall of color. Her figure so perfect, and yet I didn't care about that. I cared about her personality, her pain, clear as day. And the world made me wait out on the sidelines for her for countless amounts of exhausting years. So how was the world? Cruel? Fatal? Merciless?

             “Tempting," I finally answered, surprising both her and myself.

             “Tempting?" she asked innocently.

             “Very much so."

             “How is the world tempting?"

             I paused for a moment, thinking of examples. “Well, you can always tempt fate. You know, jump from an airplane, play with knives, things like that. But, you can also be tempted by people. Seduction, befriending, even murder." I paused again, taking in her sweet laugh that rang in my ears. “There's also things like eating food, helping an animal in need, buying things... The world is tempting without even meaning to be. You just have to look for the little things."

             Anya's small smile was hidden from human eyes behind her dark curtain of hair. “And you?" she asked without looking up. “What's tempting you right now?"

             I stopped walking, turning to face her. Her cheeks were flushed as if she wanted me to say it was her, but I couldn't do that. The moment I told her I wanted her, she'd leave. She'd walk off and never come back. Precious Anya would be just another cruel joke the world desired to play me with.

             So instead of answering, I simply gestured towards the huge, red building beside us with a nod. “We're here."

             After a moment, she looked towards the building-er... castle and gasped.

             Vines with purple flowers ran up and down the red monument, the chains on the wooden drawbridge thick and rusted. The huge gaps for windows revealed inches of the elegant rooms inside. The tower-like structures at the top made the whole scene that much more perfect, and Anya spent a while staring with a gaping mouth.

             I held out a hand and bowed slightly. “Care to join me in a journey amongst the royal?"

             She smiled slightly, taking my hand with wonder in her eyes. “I'd be delighted," she breathed, following behind me with shaky legs.

             Merde, it was going to be hard to stay away from this girl.