Melody of Eternal Night

Chapter Seven (TW)

((TRIGGER WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS SELF HARM!!! IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO READ THIS I STRONGLY URGE YOU TO NOT READ THIS CHAPTER!! IF YOU ARE HAVING HARMFUL THOUGHTS OR HURTING YOURSELF PLEASE SEEK HELP- DO NOT REPLICATE THIS CHAPTER IN ANY WAY!!!! I DO NOT CONDONE THE ACT OF HARMING ONESELF ESPECIALLY IF ITS SELF-DISCIPLINE!!! AGAIN- PLEASE DO N O T READ IF YOU ARE TRIGGERED BY SELF-HARM OR ANYTHING OF THE SORT!!!!!))

As Melodia rushed off in her flurry of anger, she felt a pain in her unbeating heart. Liked her better when she was silent, did he? Well silence he would get! A whole eternity of it! She would train herself to be silent, train herself harshly and never break that silence. Not for friends, family, prey, or anyone.  She would be silent as the air that people breathed into their lungs, quiet as the corpse she was, she would even go so far as to silence her very mind.

Hiding for three days in a dark hole, hunting on her own, and surviving alone... She had trained herself in the way of silence. Her green eyes dulled more each day as she would harshly scratch her own skin each time she would speak. Even going so far as to hold in each hiss when she did injure herself. By the time she was found, her dress was nearly in tatters. Her skin was scarred, and her hair was mangled and matted on her head.

It both devastated and enraged Louis to see his sister this way, practically torn apart over the words of the one who had given them a chance to be reborn. Her lovely dress was no longer pristine, her hair was tangled and uneven, her eyes.. they'd dulled to the point that she was almost like a doll. Empty, lifeless, and hollow. She stared at them with those ever watching eyes. However, the worst part of it all was that she wouldn't speak. Even once they had brought her to their new home in New Orleans, she refused to say a word. 

Even after introducing her to little Claudia, she refused to even say hello. Instead preferring to nod her head accordingly, which had confused the little girl. As she'd been told that Melodia had loved to socialize and make conversation. Lestat had longingly told the little girl of Louis' sister while they had been searching for her. How her eyes would shine a certain way when she saw something she liked, or how her thoughts could shift so frequently it was confusing. How hard-headed and bold she could be.. 

But Claudia saw none of that in the now mute and slightly damaged vampiress. She saw a broken doll whose music box had stopped working over time. She loved dolls, so Melodia was her favorite of the trio- other than Lestat, whom she saw as a father as well as the one who spoiled her rotten with trinkets and lessons.

Once she had been cleaned up and returned to what the two had seen as normal for her, they still couldn't help but wonder why she refused to speak. And what Claudia had suggested she wear of course. Which looked lovely as ever on her.

 Well, Louis wondered...

 Lestat had known what was going on, he had done this. And there was no denying that he knew it. Louis had caught on a couple of days after she had been found. Which was simply because the brother was so.. slow. In Lestat's mind at least. However, he didn't know why his words had made such an awful impact on her. 

 How just with words.. he had done this to such a strong woman. And then the guilt had hit him like a hammer to a nail. She was a strong woman, and loyal, kind, and genuinely seemed to care.. And yet he had hurt her with words. Now, normally this wouldn't bother him. But it was his own words that had hurt her. And somehow, he had never felt so frustratingly small. Which made him play up his ego even more than usual. Trying to deliberately frustrate her to get her to speak, begging in his mind for her to speak as weeks passed and still no sound came from her. 

Finally Lestat had had enough of the silence from her, his frustration and nagging mind had nearly made him angry and irritable.  And he was going to address it in the only way he knew how. He was going to confront her. And he was going to get her to speak... one way or another... he would do it.

Lestat had stormed to her room, and slammed open the door in the midst of one of Claudia's play-dates with her in the middle of the night. Louis had heard the door slam from the downstairs sitting room, then hearing yelling start up. 

"You think that this little game of yours is funny, don't you!?" Lestat yelled, angry and irritated by the silence she had responded with. Her expression didn't even seem to shift.