Blood Runs Thicker Than Water

Chapter 8

Athanasius's Point of View:

It has been two weeks since Day went missing. It feels as if my hope of finding her diminishes little by little as the sun faded behind the horizon every night. 

I was worried if she was still alive. That was my fear. That I was too late and that she was dead. The thought plagued me every chance it got, haunting me of my worst fear. 

I would feel so much guilt if I found out that she had not survived. Guilt that my kind robbed her of her family, and then her own life. 

I did not know how I could become so infatuated with that girl so quickly. I do not think I had ever cared for someone the way I do for her. I wanted to protect her, shower her with the respect and awe she deserved. 

Had I ever romantically been in love before? Yes, I had been. I was far too old to not have already experienced being in love. But, normally it had been with women who, like me, were immortal. I never had to worry about their life or how delicate they were. Not until Day came along.

She was the first human I had ever had romantic feelings for. Falling for a human was a hex as there would come a time that she would die; and I would not. I would have to endure watching her body being lowered into the ground on a day where the clouds were as dark as my grieving heart. 

I wanted her to live forever. I could make that possible. But, what I wanted and what was morally right were two very conflicting things. 

Wanting her to be immortal was selfish of me. Wanted to hold her hand and gaze into her eyes forever was a selfish desire of mine. 

Throughout my whole life, selfish desire is what drove me to keep going. There was a time when I was less disciplined, where humans were disposable to me and women were just items. My perpetual thirst for blood was unsustainable and humans were things that I used and then discarded like a rag doll in empty alleyways or dumpsters. 

Women, with knowledge of my royal status, were always around me. Batting their eyelashes, giggling coyly, wearing revealing clothing and sending me seductive looks. There was a time when I could have my way with any woman I wanted.

Then I saw Day. She was not one of those  women. She wore a modest outfit and had this innocent gleam in her eyes. She was oblivious to the attempted flirting many of the men did with her. 

Maybe it was her innocence that drew me in, enthralling me. It was so rare to see innocence those days. I was attracted to her because were were so opposite. I was not innocent, not the slightest bit. I had killed more than I ever wanted to admit to myself, I had been with so many women, and seen so much horror and darkness that a piece of me could never be repaired. 

I watched yet another sun set behind a skyscraper, painting the sky a celestial hue of citrus fruits.

Woe seeped into my soul, ever so slowly like water filling a room. This sadness was filling me whole, drowning me.

I guess this is my payment for all the sin I had committed in my lifetime. 

This was my purgatory.