The Midnight Within

Chapter 26

People and places change. Time marches ever onward as towns grow and thrive, going from hamlets to metropolises or vanishing completely, The people who live in these towns are born, grow up and eventually die. It's called the circle of life.

Black stood outside that circle, and sometimes, just sometimes regretted it with the bitterest passion. Had he not been the rebellious child would he have lived out his life on the farm? As poor as all the other family's struggling to eek out a living? Had he gone to church and been better in school? He didn't know and not sure he ever wanted to know. Had he not run with the James gang or been shot on that day in Northfield, would it have changed the course of his life? Would he still have chosen to live out his natural life, never knowing the pain that awaited him?

Shatter had been right to say that they should have stayed in the South instead. He had always been so careful to avoid the places that had hurt him the most, and Disdain was at the heart of it. His own ghost's seemed to be right behind him as they got closer to the city he knew so well. Time changes not only the people but the places they loved, He hardly recognized it anymore, or any of the towns that had sprung up around it like mushrooms.

He stood now on a moonlit dock looking out over a still dark lake that eighty years ago was almost exactly the same, except the painted wooden boats that had once dotted the shore were now sleek metal cruisers and fancy fishing boats. Disdain had been just a tiny hamlet with a general store, a tavern, a school and one church. It had been such a simpler time, a time before the twins, the rage and the hunger consumed him completely.

He held a distant memory of riding the street car downtown or spending the day out at Harriet Island. There had been no Mall Of America or even Valley Fair when Black lived here. It had been farm fields and resorts that dotted the lake shore. His memories of his youth never seemed to become real in his mind. They danced away from him, much like his transformation into what he was now. He held vague memories of pain, blood, more pain and loneliness. He could never be sure that what he could pull from the depths actually happened to him or not. Over time he was who he was, it wasn't worth thinking about. Eventually he stopped being afraid and began truly living.

After years of hiding and hating himself, hating the monster who had turned him into a monster, he at last sought out other Vampires. Still very much afraid he tried to blend in and fell in with a group of Vampires who had done quite nicely for themselves. Running an illegal speakeasy in the city. Luckily the money men liked him, he never asked questions or rocked the boat.

He was content at last secure with his position and content to keep his head down. Then She walked into his life.

She was the statuesque wife of a local doctor. They had come from Germany to run the state asylum. She had brilliant blue eyes and a hungry smile. She would come in late at night for a drink or maybe just to be in the company of other Vampires. It didn't take long for their flirtation to soon become something much more. Feeding and fucking she liked to call it, and they did just that every chance they got. Her name was Jade, and she was waiting for someone she wanted to hurt for leaving her, and what did he care? As long as she kept doing what she did best. Talking was never his best trait anyway so when she talked about her current husband or the hospital he tuned her out. He knew she had many other chylder out there and most of them wanted to see her dead. It didn't matter to Black what she did as long as she did it with him.

One warm night she flew into the room, dressed to the nines she was going to take him out. They were going to a carnival. He had never been to a carnival, it was amazing. Full of strange sights and smells and sounds. He never even noticed when Jade slipped away from him, he was so fixated on the stunning woman who rode the horses. He had seen her walking into the horse tent after her performance and followed, never knowing that his life was about to change forever.