For five days now the wind had been raging, whistling and driving the rain into a frenzy, turning each drop into a small stone.
But it didn't bother the Vampire. She sat on the balustrade of that centuries-old, crumbling balcony, gazing out into the twilight as the rains' song pelted down on her.
She looked into the abyss below; the gaping maw of a beast. Yet she was fully aware that had she still been human, she would have plunged to certain death, for the porous balcony was long unable to bear the weight of a normal person.
She breathed calmly and let the atmosphere of the impending day wash over her. Soon, the rain would cease, the clouds part, and the rising sun banish the colors of the night from the firmament.
There were days when the rain-filled clouds offered enough protection to linger a bit longer than usual and watch the sunrise without succumbing to weakness and pain. The spectacle was always the same: From deepest black came a rich dark blue, growing ever brighter until a soft gray adorned the cloudy sky. Sometimes the Vampire still longed for the warmth of the sun, for the play of colors in yellow, orange, rose, and red. It had been a long time since she had last seen it in its full splendor. Time and again, she had tried after her transformation; the memory of it was vivid, like the pain it had caused. It had left scars, both outwardly and inwardly.
There were things that could not be changed. Not anymore.
The rain became finer, until it finally subsided completely and so life returned to the surroundings. The Vampire closed her eyes and let her senses wander: Through the small castle garden right in front of her, a deer ran, eventually starting to graze; the leaves of the apple tree rustled in the freshening wind, and the deer listened as one of the overripe apples fell from the tree. Behind the Vampire, two ravens settled on the battlements and greeted the morning with their cawing, a cricket chirped on the castle wall covered with wild ivy a distance away. Snails crawled out of the cracks and the remnants of last autumn's leaves, feasting on the dark strawberries on the ground, while butterflies flew to a nearby broom bush emitting a sweet scent that was faint but constant, carried over to her.
The wind roared again and again, coming from the west and steadily dispersing the rain clouds. It would be a beautiful morning.
YOU ARE READING
Last Light
ParanormalIn a world where a war devours the last remaining humanity, violence, hunger, and fear dominate daily life - women are burned as witches at the stake or impaled with their children, while men on the battlefield lose their lives or their sanity. Amid...
