Kill Me, Kiss Me

FOURTY ONE

      BLACK hair hung around Theo, and above him, eyes of crystallised night, deep-set and tragic. Keir's fingers traced his face continuously, drawing wet lines from his temples down to his jaw, then back up again, forehead - bridge of nose - chin - Adam's apple. Slow and torturous, the feather light touch seemed to carve a path right through him, past the skin and the flesh, blood and the bone.

      "What are you doing?" Theo croaked.

      Keir just smiled, a glimmer of stars and comets shooting across the darkness of his gaze. This smile was gentle, rare. For a second, Theo forgot about the wet finger and tickle of hair slipping across his cheek. There was an immense peace, lying here silent and still with those eyes fixed upon him. They felt almost immortal - this, a moment encapsulated in eternity. Firm yet tender, Keir's fingertips pressed against his face, soothed back his hair, caressed the edge of his jaw.

      A buzz sounded distant in his ear, first like the whisper of a disconnected call, then, like the drone of an engine, growing louder and more insistent. It marred the serenity. He tried to move from beneath Keir, push him back, but he could only rock weakly side to side. There was no control in his arms, they lay leaden by his side, two weights detached from his body - dead. The peace shattered.

      "What's going on?" He searched Keir's eyes, "Let me go!"

      Only that deceptive smile graced Keir's face, "Shhh, it's ok." He whispered, bending down and planting a small kiss on the tip of Theo's nose, "We'll be beautiful in flowers."

     I dressed you all up in flowers, and you were beautiful.

      Theo twisted his head, struggled beneath Keir, but even though his heart was raging in his chest, the blood pounding in his head, he could not move an inch. He watched as Keir leaned back, a pure white chrysanthemum materialising between his fingers. Only now, with the veil of black lifted could he see that they were lying on a bed in a completely dark room. The only light source was thin and watery, seeping from under the curtains that hung heavy and stagnant.

      Threading the chrysanthemum over Theo's ear, Keir kissed him sweetly on the lips, and rose to pick another flower from beyond the darkness, humming a soft folk tune. Theo could only look ahead, and bile rose up to his throat. His heart wrenched, stopped. Above him, fixed to the ceiling was a mirror extending from the bed into oblivion. White chrysanthemums, roses, lilies, flowers of all kinds twisted beside him, but that was not where the fear came from. It came from the silver tail that rippled from his torso to the end of the bed.

      Instead of skin, scales lined his hips, converging into a long, winding fish tail that trailed across the duvet. It had none of the grace and beauty portrayed in mermaids of movies. No, the tail was stuck to him like he'd been cleaved in half and sewn back together with the other half of a deep-water fish - a chimera.

      Theo gagged. Keir just smiled, returning not with a flower, but the white gleam of a cleaver.

      "We'll never be separated." He said, "I'll devour everything, and I'll carry you forever with me. Because I remember everything now."

      The tears would not come. Theo came to know that fear, at the extreme became peace.

      "Keir?" He said, voice barely a breath.

      "Yes?" Keir answered, raising the clever above his head

      "I'm scared."

      But the blade still came whistling down—

      THUd! Theo jerked, gasping for breath. His eyes shot open and wandered wildly over the room. Everything blurred, shifted, merged as a kaleidoscope of light and dark. He swallowed, flopped his arm over his eyes and turned on his side. It was just a dream. It was just a dream. He was alright. There was nothing to fear. Yet, the sweat still came pouring, his heart still thundered in his chest.