Blood & Bone [Olwen]

It was a bright, starry night on Foresta island. Nocturnal creatures stirred the trees on the path between the academy and the beach to create a lively, yet desolate excitement to the night. The warm, humid weather was settled by a comfortable breeze that firmly graced the leaves of every tree, but beyond the soothing rustle was the sound of harrowing laughter.

Between the forest and the beach, a spattered trail of blood became obvious. The glistening red trail ended where the dry sand met the wet, and along the water line was a freshly bloodied black shirt and red scarf. Each wave of the heavy night tide crashed against the shore with the threat of pulling anything caught in its wake back out and under, and yet inside the influence of the raucous water was the silhouette of a tall student against the distant night horizon. The student struggled to stand his ground, but laughed about it anyway.

Nathaniel Morosec's shirtless body was drenched from head to toe, dressed only in what would pass for black knee-length swimming trunks. He felt the blood and regrets of an old life wash away with each passing tide, yet the vampire had so much to answer for he had come out to this beach every summer night to be cleansed. Each night the water diluted the metaphoric blood on his hands, but it would never be enough.

  Small hands wrapped tightly around her slim figure, shaking at the slightest breeze. The cold had gotten to her hours before and had yet to leave her bones since. It seemed as if no amount of layering could protect her from the eternal frost that lived within her body. Perhaps this was another curse.

  She crept along the moonlit path with her eyes cast upward to the stars. For some reason they seemed to be particularly bright tonight and if that wasn't poetic in some sense, she didn't know what was. Sleep had been evading her lately and no intensity of exhaustion would let weary eyes rest. The night would be long and there was no use in spending locked up in her dorm room as she had done so many nights before. So she walked. There hadn't been a destination in mind but when the gentle crashing sounds of the waves had come in range she couldn't help but be drawn to them. The dirt faded into sand and before she knew it the path was gone and only water stopped her from continuing onward.

  Olwen fell to her knees and tore off her shoes and socks. Pale, veiny flesh appeared from under the protection of fabrics. Trembling fingers caressed the scarred skin slowly, recalling the stories each mark carried. She gradually straightened her limbs and let the waves do all the touching. Her head descended backwards and fell comfortably into the sand, her black curls sticking to the fine grains. Olwen did not close her eyes, despite the longing desire to sleep, but instead turned her cranium ever so slightly toward the sound of laughter. "Nathaniel?"

The familiar voice disrupted Nathaniel's meditation, but a quick smile suggested he was happy for it once he recognized the girl. The dripping wet vampire awkwardly closed the distance to sit beside the friend he had neglected since the coffee shop. Nathaniel had intentionally missed out on the Spring Formal, so it had been some time since the two had spent any time with each other although this was an odd time and place to cross paths.

"Soul in need of a cleanse?" he gestured toward the water. "I keep trying, but it seems my people aren't eligible for a baptism."

There was a new fire in Nathaniel's focused eyes that had not been present during their last meeting, but for all the intensity of his gaze his body appeared sluggish tonight. The vampire's gaunt, dehydrated face that betrayed a death by blood loss had been very recently bruised at the left cheek, and uncharacteristically he wore nothing to conceal these features. The deathly pale creature shifted on the sand to bring his knees up to his chest, which partially masked an unhealed cut on his lower rib.

"I think you'll fare better than me," the vampire grinned without guard of his fangs. "Unless you're here for a confession, in which case you'll have to settle for Father Morosec."

It was next to impossible to lift the dead weight of her skull, so she didn't. Watching him come jogging up to her was amusing at this angle, but for some reason she couldn't stop wondering whether or not he sparkled in the sunlight. The sand beside her shifted as he took a seat, his body was surprisingly uncovered and the amount of flesh at her disposal was somewhat.. pleasing. Her eyes rested on his and found something to be there that she'd never seen before. Small fingers ran across his cold bruised flesh but she said nothing about it. "I've heard that atheists also have a hard time cleansing their souls; maybe we're both doomed," she said with a smile.

Olwen's eyes stared at the distant horizon, the feeling of his skin still lingering on the tips of her fingers. Being with him made her feel good. No one had done that before. The waves licked at her toes, sending shivers down her spine. She shook off her sandy toes and sink deeper into the layers of clothing she had worn. Her knees snuck into the body of her oversized sweater and her arms were sucked through their sleeves. She glanced over at him with that same grin stuck on her lips, "Forgive me, father, for I have sinned, I just can't remember what I've done at this exact moment." Her words were true; there was definitely something she had done or maybe something she was going to do that would need forgiving. Time would tell. "What of you, Nathaniel? Have you sinned?"

An animal howled from the forest, so the nearby birds sprung from their trees to find a new place to nest. The physically sensitive vampire froze uncomfortably when Olwen touched his fresh bruise, but otherwise toughed through the discomfort. His eyes followed hers out to the horizon, then he let out a slow breath as he found peace with her by the water. However, when Olwen asked if he had sinned, Nathaniel immediately checked under his fingernails to make sure they were clean.

"Well, my mind has wandered about that blind teacher, Ms. Hikaru. Except I always get the sense that she knows what I'm thinking and I think she's actually into me, so that's pretty unsettling all around," he shuddered in disgust. "Blind people always know more than they let on, they've always got some trick up their sleeve. It's best to steer clear."

It was obvious that he had evaded her question, so in recognition of their friendship he continued after a short pause. "To be fair, I haven't sinned as often as I've broken the law, if that earns me any points. I've made some money in town, which I need to because I'm getting older and the school isn't going to host me forever, but maybe it's best I don't incriminate myself beyond that. Telling you might get you into trouble some day too - You're neither ordained nor sworn to secrecy."

Nathaniel planted his hands in the sand behind him and stretched back to relax. His gaze returned to her when he spoke, "But, that's no excuse for not keeping up. I'm sorry I haven't been around to see you much. What are you doing out so late, anyway? You look like you haven't been sleeping."

  Olwen listened to him speak but found that it didn't sound much like a confession. She nodded faintly when he stated that blind people had a knack for being mysteriously omniscient. She'd never met this teacher of his, despite her many years here, and wondered if she was truly this perceptive. It felt like none of the teachers here ever went beyond textbook analysis. No one dared look beyond.

  Her skull tilted toward him as he spoke of his crimes against humanity. He mentioned something she tried not to think about, graduation. Life was constant and comfortable now, she had a friend, and the summer was going well. Starting to think about moving away from Foresta and all the people who could relate to her was repulsing. Her time was coming just as quickly as his; perhaps they would see each other out in the real world. She would miss him too badly if they didn't.

  Their eyes met once again and she listened to him apologize for his absence. She got stuck there, staring into his eyes, before Nathaniel commented on her sleepy appearance. So it is noticeable. Olwen leaned forward to wrap her arms around her legs and to slightly hide the dark shadows beneath her eyes. It was hard to explain why she couldn't sleep when the answer evaded her as well. "Sadly, you're right. I haven't been sleeping right for a while now. I don't know how to explain it, I can't sleep five minutes without waking up in a cold sweat. I might be subconsciously nervous but reasons other than that are beyond me." 

"Ah, classic. I've seen it a million times before, I know exactly what's wrong with you," the vampire nodded solemnly.

"Ghosts. You're being haunted. There's a... A thing in my dorm, I don't like to talk about it much, Yokasf. Maybe that has something to do with it. Or else that Kaeru girl," Nathaniel rolled his eyes, "another person with a weird fascination in me. Anyway, maybe it's those all those radio waves coming out of her room disrupting your sleep, like some kind of high frequency sleep breaky thing."

It probably wasn't either of those scenarios, and something in Nathaniel didn't like to see Olwen unwell so he followed up with a more useful attempt. "But really, if you can't remember what your sins are, and you don't know what's keeping you up at night - Batman always said there are no coincidences. Also one of my dads said that, but I prefer Batman."

Nathaniel could tell that Olwen had been huddled up and cold, and he had been out of the water long enough to become reasonably dry so he scooched closer to rest an arm around his friend, not that he was particularly qualified to warm anybody up. Some sand had stuck to his hand and that dirtied the shoulder of her sweater, but an unspoken invitation was there for the tired girl to lean on him.

"Maybe if you unravel one secret you'll answer the other."

  A sleepy smile blossomed on her lips, she'd never been haunted before. Nathaniel shot out another idea, one that was almost as outlandish as the first. She had listened to some of Kaeru's broadcasts before and it was only long enough to hear her make awful puns about her powers. Then another time she'd heard her announce to everyone that she was afraid of closets? Perhaps the journalist was the source of her problems. 

  With her chin resting heavily on her knees she listened to him quote the wise Batman. Olwen's arms tightened around her legs in an attempt to keep warm and not much later did she feel his arm across her shoulder. She let out a small sigh and let herself lean on him. Nathaniel's skin was smooth and cold but none of that bothered her. "If Batman says it, then it must be true. Maybe my sin is that I haven't been acting as a good house leader? Or maybe I've neglected my violin so long that it's torturing my subconscious?" A look crossed her face for a moment, filled with an idea that made more sense that it should've. She held her tongue for a moment since the thought would lead to embarrassment, but finally decided that they didn't need secrets in their friendship. "Maybe I've missed seeing a good friend?" Her eyes rose to his and wondered what he'd think of this proposal. She hadn't thought about it too much, but she had missed him in their days apart. Perhaps Nathaniel was the source of her sleepless nights. 

An all too quiet pause followed Olwen's proposal, and Nathaniel's eyes drifted back out to sea. Did the human girl really lose sleep over him? She had never been far from his mind, but the vampire hadn't expected to make a friend like Olwen so soon after arrival. A girl who wasn't turned away when she learned about his past life - A friend whose heart he was afraid he'd break.

"Well, if I'm what's keeping you up at night, then I know what your sins are..."

Nathaniel held her tight with a grin, but felt guilty. Olwen was far more open about her feelings, and he had regressed to an old lifestyle that warranted secrets. For as vocal as the vampire often was, his expression turned distant as he found little else to say for the moment.

The fire in his eyes withered as he relaxed beside her. The vampire checked his exposed wounds, careful not to cause himself any undue pain. They would heal, as they always did, but time had proven that a vampire's heart healed no faster than a human's. The pain attached to losing a friend could linger indefinitely, and so Nathaniel was hesitant to show much reciprocation to the human girl he would surely outlive.

   A gentle squeeze pulled her from the distant thoughts she had fallen so easily into. He seemed to be alright with her confession but there would always be things they could hide from one another. Olwen feared that her words would bring a sense of uneasiness into the friendship, but it was too late to take it back now. 

   As they sat there in silence, she felt the sky calling to her. White caps rolled and tumbled in the distance, the stars lit up the sky iridescently. Olwen's head shifted back and forth, trying to find her favorite constellations. "Do you know the stories behind the stars?" she said softly, her gaze turning back to him. It was a terrible excuse for a sudden change in topic but there was nothing else she could think to say right now that wouldn't make this anymore quite.

     One hand broke free of the fortress of layers she'd put together and rose to point out one of the most obvious constellations, the Ursas (her favorites too). "You see, the larger constellation was said to be a beautiful huntress. One night she grew tired and slept in the forest. A god in the heavens saw her beauty and couldn't stop gawking at her, and as most greek tales go, a nearby goddess became jealous of the attention she was getting. Some time later the huntress became pregnant and the goddess was sure that the god had done it, so she turned the woman into a bear. Her son grew up to be a hunter and one day the mother saw her son; being so happy to see him, she ran towards him and was nearly killed but by the love of the god. The god then turned the son into a bear and threw them both into the stars where they would be safe from the goddess's wrath." Olwen smiled faintly, remembering the first time her father had told her the story. They were momentary distractions from the violent lives they tended to live. In this moment it served a similar purpose, though the effectiveness could be brought into question.