The Reunion

He watches her from atop his perch on the roof of her apartment building. With normal senses he wouldn't be able to see her or even hear her footsteps from this distance but he can see the warmth of her breath as it leaves her body and hear the rhythmic beating of her heart. With the cold fingers of one hand gripping the edge of the roof, he dangles six stories above the ground. When he knew her before, his heart was still capable of love; now his body and soul yearn for her in an entirely different manner. His desire for her is driven by a supernatural yearning for revenge amplified by the need for her blood.

The bitterness of the wind is uncomfortable but he has no need to cover his impervious skin with a coat like she does. He can smell her scent drifting up in the cold air and once again taste her skin. She's the same as he remembers, like the smell of a newborn. The analogy almost makes him laugh. She is anything but a newborn. Within that body of beautiful skin and perfect bones lies the only heart that he considers blacker than his own. If only he could have seen the darkness within her heart when he first stared into the deep sapphire blue of her eyes. She's getting closer now, she's almost under him. He ponders for a second what she's like now; if time has changed her at all, but it really doesn't matter to him now. She no longer needed him. She had used him; every bit of him. She fed on him as he now feeds on others.

The thundering of her heart drills into him like great drums playing to the beat of some evil and twisted tribute to the man he once was. It was because of her that he lost hope. She darkened his heart long before an evil beast made his body nothing but a cage for his soul.

He concentrates on her movement and is taken in by her essence. The black heart that burns in his chest feels no pity for her. He'll never forget what she has done. Her name finally blows from his lips and echoes through the air from everywhere and nowhere. She stops and looks around, knowing the voice but not remembering.

"Who's there?" she asks, just barely more than a whisper.

He descends to the shadows on the ground faster than gravity would carry him. She turns and sees the figure.

Isabella, he calls to her.

This time she remembers the voice but doesn't believe her ears. It can't be him, they're separated by mountains and oceans. She made sure of that.

He takes a step out of the darkness, light falling across his face, and she gasps for air. It's the face she remembers; the same lines, the same brow, but it appears to be chiseled from stone. The eyes are also stone; but carved from the deepest green she has ever seen. His hair is as black as it ever was but it now reaches his shoulders. Could this stone figure in front of her be the same man she knew only two years before? She blinks her eyes and he is no longer standing in front of her. He has moved so quickly that, to her eyes, he simply disappeared. She turns around and he is so close she can feel his cold breath. She is petrified with fear but can't scream. She can't take her eyes from him.

She blinks again and she's pulled so violently from the ground she almost loses consciousness. Seconds later, her head clears and she is surrounded by darkness. She turns her head from side to side and sees no buildings, no ground; only him. The lights of the city seem as far as stars in the sky. His arms are around her and she looks up into his eyes.

Do you see what I've become? he asks to her. Can you fathom the pain? Can you possibly understand the loneliness that you've condemned me to?

She once again hears the voice that she'd heard a thousand times before she left him. The voice that was once so kind, that once sang only praises for her love is now made of ice. She hears his words but they're like a dead wind that blows in winter. They chill her to the bone and course through her mind and body like evil music.

His eyes cut into her like knives but she can't turn away.

I have to let you go, he says to her. I have to let you go before I spend an eternity of hell with you in a blackness of solitude and despair. She sees a tear of blood slide down a cheek made of stone. My soul has already been condemned to this existence, I can't sacrifice my sanity too.

He can see the fear in her eyes replaced by a new softness. Is it pity? How ironic that she realizes how much she meant to him just as she realizes how much life means to her. High in the skies above her city she learns that life is full of bad decisions.

I have to let you go. Not even my need for your blood can hold you any longer.

He releases her.

His eyes follow her slow, agonizing descent. Her eyes are wide with terror and her mouth open in a silent scream. For a split second he thinks of saving her.

But why should I . . . for amusement? . . . Maybe.

For love . . . ?

He wonders: Do I still love her? Silently he questions himself: Is the opposite of love really the passion of hate and the lust for revenge . . . or is it simply indifference? He looks down again and sees her crooked form on the pavement.

Oh well . . . it's too late anyway.