I was watching The League of Exstraordinary Gentlemen & Dorian Gray, and the character really interested me, so like, imagine if he happen to have a descendant? And maybe his immortality wasn't a curse, but a supernatural genetic trait? And this trait happen to get passed down to a teenage boy who also seems to look uncannily like his ancestor?
This teenage boy is Alexander Gray.
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He stood in the doorway of the bookshop, observing.
The child couldn't have been more than five years old, and with dark green eyes and black hair similar to the woman's hand he was holding, it could be no doubt that she was his mother. He tilted his head, looking at the woman. She couldn't have been older than twenty, which meant she must have been a teenage mother, he swallowed, how would it have turned out if he had known her? He sighed, refocusing on the boy. The energetic child was pulling away from the woman, his eyes firmly on the darkness between the shelves of books, he wanted to explore.
The woman, his mother, looked down at him and smiled, releasing his hand. It was like a shackle had been unlocked as he surged away, running towards the shelves. He followed, walking after the boy as the woman began to fade away.
The boy had ran straight to the science fiction section, his delicate fingers tracing over the spines of each book.
It was then they both heard the commotion. The boys curious eyes turned away from the books and towards his mothers direction, moving forward slowly, he peered around the edge of the bookshelf.
Another person had entered the bookshop, pushing open the door, and walking straight up to the counter, he stood by the woman. She looked up, eyes widening as he grabbed her mouth. The man behind the counter began to reach under his desk, but the mysterious attack was too quick, he vanished, then in an instant reappeared behind the man, twisting his neck. The woman screamed, but her cry was cut short as the man reappeared in his former position, his eyes burned dark gold. The observer remained unnoticed by all. He looked down at the boy, who he saw was torn between fleeing and helping his mother, he knew what decisions the boy would make.
All the boy could see was the man's eyes, the rest of his body was swathed in black, including most of his face, regardless, the boy stepped out to meet his mothers attacker. The man eyes snapped around, and for a moment, the observer recognised a softness in them, almost like a twisted happiness, then the man pulled a pistol from tucked behind his trousers and without a word shot the boy twice in the chest. His mother screamed, he shot her as well.
Discarding the body he looked back at the boy, who somehow, was still standing..
His wounds, the observer noted, were healing, black dust crumbling through them as they did, and in seconds the scar had faded and the boy stood unhurt. The man grinned, revealing sharpened incisors.
“Oh how I've missed you” he whispered, his dark gold eyes seemingly filled with genuine emotion. He reached out to touch the cowering boy, but froze as a stake suddenly moved through his chest. The woman, gripping on to life had staggered to her feet, and impaled him from behind. The man's eyes widened, he coughed violently, then flickered away. The woman immediately collapsed. The observer stepped back, breathing quickly as the boy turned to look at him, his mouth open, screaming.
Alex's eyes snapped open. He was sweating, his entire body shaking from the shock of being brought back to reality.
“Idiot” he swore, berating himself for delving into such emotion-filled memories, he knew he shouldn't have, but his own curiosity got the best of him. He waited a few minutes, until his heartbeat had become normal again, then looked around his surroundings. He was in the same room, except it was 11 years later, and this time, not a memory.
The bookshop was abandoned now, it had been closed down after his his mothers and the store's owners bodies had been found. He was now sixteen.
“Done?” the door creaked open, his guardian, his mother's younger sister, walked in. He nodded, swallowing back his tears and picking up his rucksack from the floor. The day of his mothers death changed his entire life, he'd discovered something about himself that day that he wouldn't realise he had until a similar incident brought about the right circumstances for it to show. It was the attempt on his aunt's life that had made him remember all them weeks ago.
It was also what convinced his aunt to come out with the truth, he was different.
“So where are we going?” he asked as they walked out of the bookshop. His aunt grimaced, opening the SUV's back door. He climbed in to the back seat rolling his eyes, she didn't answer until she had closed the door and strapped herself into the drivers seat.
“A place I thought I'd never be returning” she said, biting her lip. He looked at her.
“That's not an answer” he said dryly. Her eyes looked at him through the rear-view mirror, they were the same colours as his mothers.
“A house, well, much bigger than a house, a castle I suppose” she said, starting the car. “It's not to far from here and you'll be safe there, they won't be able to get you” He nodded, not liking the way she kept saying 'you' like she wasn't coming.
“With you, right?” he asked anxiously. She remained silent. “With you?” he repeated.
She shook her head, “I can't, it's not safe for me, this place....no human can go there”
