Down comes the rain, like ice cold teardrops falling from the grey heavens, merely trying to remind me of what it feels like to be alive again.
A shuddering breath shook his form, and I held him closer. I could feel it in him, in the air. The fear. It was in me as well, but the dull buzz of alcohol permeated throughout all the gaps in my brain, leaving little space for fear to worm its way in, other than the uneasy feeling in my stomach.
"Henry, I..." He started, his voice hoarse from all the crying.
"It's nothing, don't worry about it." I finished for him, feeling something already starting to break inside me, before he could even finish the sentence.
"I'm... I'm so sorry this had to happen."
He kissed me, the warm touch of his lips becoming the centre of my universe for a moment before the world came rushing back with the cool touch of rain and a frigid breeze rolling by.
I could feel warm tears resting upon my cheeks.
His or my own may never be known, but I hugged him closer, unsure whether I was comforting him or myself.
"Put the gun down, Jewel."
I jerked my head to the side as a familiar voice rang in my ear, and suddenly more warm water was streaming down my cheeks, like sticky blood leaking from an open wound.
I turned my gaze to the heavens, letting the numbing rain wash the tears from my face even as they fell.
"Come on... We've got to get out of the rain..."
He stood, the crunching of soggy leaves underfoot reminding me that we were in the middle of Tolbur Park, named so after the great Tolbur Winchett who had defended this town from the demons during the invasion of hell back in '78.
Most of the small town of Johansburg had burned to the ground, but the park stood where Tolbur had made his last stand, and had ultimately been crippled by the demon Stregs. He was then tricked into a deal with him; forfeiting his sanity in exchange for his life.
That wasn't the end of his tale however.
What the demon Stregs hadn't accounted for was that some men didn't need such simple limitations as sanity to do good, and in the ensuing battle...
"Hun, you've been staring at that statue for the passed five minutes. I'm freezing my ass off over here."
His words pulled me from my reverie and I realized that they rang true.
The twenty foot pitted iron statue stood before me, Tolbur Winchett in all his glory.
He cradled a shotgun in one arm, and his legendary Sanguine Sword was held aloft in the other. The look on his face was probably once one of triumph, but now after so many years of corrosion, his visage bore a deep seated frown, as though he were questioning the lord up high on morbid subjects, and the answers he had received left him disconsolate.
I felt much the same as him, feeling lost and sad even as my better half entwined his fingers with my own, and softly spoke into my ear. "C'mon, Mr. Mcspacey, let's go home."
I turned my gaze to him, trying not to remember the blood that had caked his face, coated his fingers, matted his hair...
There were still remnants.
Flecks of blood on his cheeks, under his fingernails.
Enough to remind me.
Enough to remember.
He led me on, and I followed behind.
He could have led me anywhere, I would have trailed behind him as faithful as a blind dog on a short leash while I remained lost in thought.
"Do you still love me?"
He had asked, the blood on his hands even as he pressed the gun into my own, smearing the thick, vicious liquid across my fingertips. The red hadn't shown on the charcoal black handle of the Charter .45 semi-auto handgun, the rough slip-proof texture feeling unpleasant against my fingers as they curled instinctively around the handle, as though it were the RIGHT THING TO DO.
"We're home." He said as he stepped through the door, already pulling off his soaked hoodie.
I just watched him, admiring his soft, exquisite skin as it stretched and pulled across his beaten and battered frame.
Splotches of punished purple covered his side where a boot had kissed him multiple times, and lines of angry red where claws had raked him traced across his torso.
"What are you looking at babe?"
He asked, nonchalantly closing the door as he pulled me further inside.
I just hugged him, pressing my face into his shoulder and letting out a deep sigh.
I tried to find the words I needed, but they wouldn't come. So I just settled with,
"I still love you, Jewel... We'll get through this."
And he hugged me back, without a word.
***
"Do you remember me?"
I emerged from the turbulence of sleep with a start, half remembered nightmares clawing at me behind my eyes.
In the pitch black of the room, the solitary source of light was the lonely poison-apple green hued glow of the alarm clock.
Aloof as ever in its duty, it solemnly informed me of the time.
'3:37', it silently screamed at me; if not through words or electronic noise, then by the deafening ringing in my ears accompanying such stifling silence.
The only sound to be heard was Jewel's soft, slow breathing. He'd taken his self-perscribed sleep-aids again tonight, as he had every night since... What happened.
We hadn't talked about it since that despondent night in the park, after which I decided that even with... Everything that had happened, I would stick by Jewel.
I just thought the begining would be the hardest part.
I had started smoking again. Not in the house, like in the old days... When the ambient stink of cigarettes would permeate throughout our home like cheap incense, but of course back then I didn't think it stank. I thought it smelled like home.
Even as I lay there with a wistful frown growing on my face in the early morning gloom, I knew I had been thinking about those nostalgia inducing little sticks of paper for far too long, and that I needed one NOW.
I slowly rose from bed, carefully moving Jewel's arm from atop me as I crept from his warm and loving embrace.
I regretted it immediately, as the cool air licked at my skin, and the spot where Jewel had drooled on my shoulder felt as cold as ice.
But I was in dire need for the nicotine, and I'd come too far.
"D-don't go...."
I froze on the spot, my arm extended and reaching for the jacket that I knew my smokes were in the pocket of.
Turning slowly I came to face Jewel just as he let out a soft whimper, his eyes still closed in apparently not-so blissful sleep.
I kissed him softly on the forehead, putting a hand on his smooth shoulder with a reassuring rub.
"I'll be right back, baby."
I softly spoke into his ear, before grabbing my jacket and tiptoeing through the bedroom door, wincing at every creak the floorboards made on my passage.
Upon reaching the front porch, I sat on the rickety bench that had come with the house. Jewel had immediately dubbed it 'tacky' when we'd first moved in, but regardless he let me keep it because even he admitted there was a certain charm to the creaky piece of furniture.
I was thankful for it then as the wind blew by, catching me in its frigid grasp and snuffing out all memory of warmth, leaving me with but a longing for it in the hole the memories left.
The whole time the trees swayed as the wind whistled through them, eerily dancing to the low banshee-like wail as they showered the world in frozen dead leaves.
I lit my smoke, taking a long drag and sighing the relaxing smoke out of my nose.
I watched the smoke twist and whorl on the wind like a snake writhing in agony, blinking slowly.
And then I saw it.
Sitting between the trees on the far side of the road with it's mismatched eyes glinting in the pale moonlight was a tall apparently bipedal creature, covered in coarse black fur. Underneath those two, wild eyes was a sharp wolflike nose at the end of a long, gruesome looking snout.
I just stared at the creature, and it stared back. I blinked, and as did it.
With a long drag on my cigarette, I began to asses the situation.
It apparently wasn't hostile... Yet.
As it stood up on two canid hindlegs, my thought processes shattered.
"It's a fucking Vye." Was all I could say, all I could think even. I dragged on my cigarette harder, unable to muster the will to stand anymore as it approached.
It stopped at the stoop, staring at me with its wide wild eyes.
"Could I bum one of those?"
My mouth was hanging open, and the creature grinned at me with its brutally sharp smile.
"Uh, sure!"
I said dumbly as I fished the pack of black label Death Stix out of my pocket.
The grim reaper on the label smiled up at me with his flip lighter in hand, and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth as I placed the pack in the Vye's outstretched hand.
"Thanks a ton, man.
You haven't the slightest idea how hard it is to find a store that'll let you in this late at night with a mug like mine."
He was already offering the pack back to me by the time I managed to find the courage to ask, "Well, um, aren't vyes like, shape shifters or something?
Couldn't you have, I dunno, changed shape?"
The vye growled out a laugh as I offered it a lighter, it's surprisingly smooth asexual voice sounding almost melodic as it said, "Ooh, looks like somebody payed attention in their wildlife class! To answer your question: yes I could, but I don't like to because humans are itchy."
I just blinked at the creature, slightly taken aback by it's answer.
"Wait... humans are itchy?"
I could feel my eyebrows furrow as the confusion knotted in my brain, and all I could do was pick at the loose strings in hopes that it would come free.
"Tsk tsk, you must not've payed all that much attention in class, after all.
Otherwise you'd know that exchanging information with a vye is exactly that, an exchange."
With a sigh, I looked at the canid brute that was now quite smugly leaning against my porch's handrail. Taking a long drag, I mentally prepared to barter information with one of the most notoriously curious and mischievous creatures on this plane of existence.
"Fine... Ask away."
The words were simple. The creature's were as well, I suppose.
"Why is it that you look like a killer?"
Naturally i froze on the spot, before realizing that I had done so and hastily resumed dragging on my cigarette.
"Wh-what makes you think that?"
My hands were shaking even as I spoke.
The vye simply smiled, the words sounding eerily sing-song as they rolled off the creature's tongue. "Answer my question and I'll answer yours."
Deep breath now, Henry...
"Because I am."
My voice was flat, even to my ears.
I kept my eyes on the distant dark, listening to the creature softly chuckle.
"At least you're honest." It said.
I turned my gaze down to the slick wood of the porch, blinking away the tears stinging in my eyes.
"Ugh... Im such a pussy... I thought I was done crying over it..."
I sighed, wiping the warm tears from my face with the back of my hand.
I felt a claw trace across my cheek, and I realized the vye was beside me now, sitting on the bench.
".... The heart of a repentant killer..."
I heard the creature mumble, but couldn't make out the rest, because it clasped it's strong clawed hand around my face, painfully hard. Its other hand was slipping up under my jacket and shirt, digging into the flesh over my heart.
It was changing shape even as it kissed me, its lips becoming human as ours touched.
I was lost in the feeling of those perfect lips, so scared and confused that it just seemed natural to kiss back, while the claws began to dig ever deeper, fighting to snake between my ribs.
I gripped at the creature's wrist, pushing it away from my chest even as I broke the kiss. It didn't resist at all. The tips of its claws were red with blood. My blood.
I kept my eyes locked on the creature, betraying no fear now even as the smell of blood filled my nose, and the red liquid poured down my front in five small rivulets starting at the several pinpricks of deeper red on the left side of my chest.
He licked his claws, which were shrinking into fingers even as he licked them, the crude features of the vye's natural form turning into more delicate, pleasing features.
He licked his lips, smiling suggestively.
"Would you like to-" he started.
"No." I finished.
"But we-" he spoke.
"I said no." I silenced.
"But you seemed so into-"
"It doesn't matter."
With a sigh, the now quite nubile individual sitting before me stood, scratching his chin.
"Well... I'm Dante. While it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, I'm afraid this meeting must be cut short for reasons I'm sure you understand.... Sorry about your hoodie, by the way."
He started to walk away.
"Hey uh, Dante... You still owe me a question." I called after him. He looked back at me from the base of the steps, unable to hide his wolfish grin.
"I sure do." His reply was surprisingly reserved, considering the predatory glint I saw in his eye.
"... What were you talking about earlier when you said, 'the heart of a repentant killer'?"
"Nothing." I knew he had lied, because I had never heard of a vye literally running from an old-school question match. But he did. And before I could even consider telling him my name he was gone, disappearing down the street... But I knew that wasn't the last I'd see of him.
