Moonless - The Eternal Night

Outside

Orion

The last, deep, rich tones of the orchestra faded away, the final credits scrolled across the screen, and Orion found himself in the elongated, spacious room once more.

His breath caught. His eyes burned. His head was filled with the music, the impressions seared onto his retina, his heart pounded heavily in his chest. The emotions were a chaos. A heavy, crushing chaos, pressing against his ribs. He trembled.

And his face was wet. He couldn't help it. There was no other way. He had just seen what was taken from them. Withheld. The human folk, in all the most rugged, inhospitable places, how they persevered, fought, in harmony with the other living beings. How they once shaped this world. The world under the sun.

He saw what was lost.

Saw what could have been.

And everything inside him contracted.

If only they could see it.

My men.

The other human slaves.

All slaves.

They would unite behind him.

They would fight for it.

For sure.

"Hey, bud, everything okay?" Virion's voice came from beyond his tumultuous emotions, beyond his head, which raced, feeling too tight, he could only think about it. About the colors. About the cultures. The humans had once been so diverse! So different. Now there were only the breeds of vampires. And the Wilds.

Orion nodded haltingly, and within him, gratitude welled up. A bitter, heavy gratitude, burden and curse at once. As much as he wanted to hate Virion, to despise him, now he couldn't.

"That. All of that. One day. One day I will bring it back to them. What was stolen from us. This world." He spoke as if in a trance, still not recovered from the impressions, from everything, just everything.

"Easy there, cowboy, those are some pretty big ambitions," remarked the shapeshifter.

A jolt went through the man, he raised his hand and wiped his face, shaking his head. "Thank you."

"It's not me who deserves thanks for this collection."

Orion said nothing to that. He refused to feel anything other than pure disgust toward the vampire. Why were these things here? Locked away, just like these pleasure slaves? She could change the world with these, but of course she didn't want to. Of course not.

Damn vampire.

Parasite.

Keeping things hidden here, like curiosities.

"Thank you for showing me this, Virion." And Orion refused to be ashamed of the tears. Yes, as a man he shouldn't cry, but how could he not? Faced with this concentrated beauty? All these feelings inside him?

"No biggie. There's a whole lot more. Wait until you see animated films. And all the shifter productions. Oh, and those romanticized depictions of vampires." Viv turned off the television, and Orion refrained from asking to play something, turning away. "Morning, Red."

As he followed the gazette eyes of the brown-haired one fell on Kenji, who had just closed another door behind him, his eyes wandering from one of those present to the other. "Tried to fuckin' sleep," his growl sounded anything but pleased.

Viv grinned at the wolf, and just at the sight of that grin, Orion sensed that he didn't intend to improve the redhead's mood. "Sorry, I know how desperately you need your beauty sleep. Very desperately, really."