Lethal Lullaby

Matthew's story

He waited very patiently for my answer.

"Yes, I do."

"Aren't you afraid?" he almost whispered.

"No."

He didn't seem convinced, "What exactly do you know?"

"You're a.... a.... a devil. You are a devil, you have super hearing, you're super-fast, you're indestructible and you........suck....... human....... souls," I trailed off at that last part.

"And that doesn't terrify you?" he asked shocked.

"I know it should but it doesn't, I love you nothing else matters. Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know that we cannot live within. I don't care what you can do, what you are and I think I could try to get over that last part."

He leaned in closer, "I can feel your soul and I want it so badly," he said as he licked his lips.

I drew back from him in that moment, he was beginning to scare me. Is that all I am to him a source of life? Had he just been playing with his food when he came after me, and now he was going in for the kill. Had he saved me so that he could be the one to see the life leave my eyes as he took my life force from me? I gulped as I felt my body sink into the cushions as if they were quick sand.

"Good you should be scared I need to understand just how dangerous it is for us to be around each other. It would only take one moment for me to lose it with you and you would meet your end."

He pulled away from me in that moment and began to pace up and down the forest floor. He looked like he was deliberating on what to do with me. I trust him and I love him is that enough for me to diminish my fear of him? I don't know whether he going to be the one who kills me or the one that saves me. I owe it to myself to find out whether he killed me or not, I was dead without him anyway.

"I won't leave you, I love you and I trust you that is reason enough to stay."

"You astound me, you really do," he continued, "but I don't suck human souls. I am different from others of my kind. When I was turned, I went through an immense change instead of being human I was now a killer worse than a killer. I didn't want anyone else to go through the pain and suffering that I went through. My natural instincts began to fade and I knew I could never harm humans in anyway whatsoever. I opted for an alternative, I suck souls available to me in the woodlands of other mythical creatures."

I stared up into his eyes for a moment processing all this new information, "I think I can live with that."

"You know of all the ways that I thought you would take this, this wasn't one of them."

"I guess that means that you still haven't figured me out then?"

"You guessed right," he took a deep breath, "you do understand that if I ever lost control with you, then you wouldn't survive. Your soul calls to me like a siren song, it's something that I just can't ignore I certainly did try to."

"I trust you," I smiled.

"You shouldn't," he turned away from me in deep disgust with himself. Now I understand why he wouldn't take a compliment before, it all makes sense now and it goes a lot deeper than basic insecurities.

"Maybe you just need someone to believe in you, someone who trusts and loves you," I persisted.

"Maybe."

"For those few weeks, you ignored me and I couldn't understand why. I couldn't recall anything that I had done or said to upset you. But, it all makes sense now."