Chapter Six
Over the next few nights, things became stranger. Or perhaps they became more comfortable. It started small. Theo was somewhat obsessed with my education regarding classical music, mostly piano composers. Many times, he'd set me down on the edge of his bed and place an oversized headset over my ears before drowning me in the melody of classical tunes. I was introduced to all the great composers, including tons more Theo hadn't mentioned before. Within the melodies were also great pianists, who all had their own emotional variations of many works. I was in Heaven.
Over time, Theo had given me a blanket and pillow for my still uncomfortable sofa, but more than that, he had begun to light the fireplace in an attempt to help give me warmth. Some days I had taken to ignoring the oatmeal and so he began to bring me other foods. It began with soups, sometimes sandwiches, and then he began to bring bits of other gourmet foods and asked my opinion of each of them. It was important to have opinions, he told me. It was important to know what I want, what I liked, and who I was as a person. I wondered if most people were this concerned about individuality.
I found I liked chicken. In fact, I liked chicken everything. Chicken sandwiches. Chicken salads. Honestly, if Theo were to give me chicken in that dreadful oatmeal, I'd probably finally enjoy it as well. Otherwise, I preferred fruits. My favorites were the melons such as watermelon and cantaloupe.
Theo would allow me to listen to music on his bed sometimes where it was much more comfortable. It was here I came across a new favorite; a piece composed by Erik Satie called Gnossienne No. 5, though I wasn't sure what exactly about it intrigued me so much. It was slow, peaceful, but joyful at the same moment. It reminded me of how I was beginning to feel around Theo over time.
It was also here where I found him to be most intriguing, when during one of my listening sessions I drifted asleep on top of his bed and awoke to find myself safely blanketed and Theo the one sleeping on the uncomfortable couch. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why he hadn't kicked me off the bed or at least picked one of the other more comfortable sofas. Did he think the one he'd placed me on was more comfortable? Was it because he didn't feel the cold like I did?
One following night, I was tapping away on the piano, playing the tune Theo had created himself. The song was slow at first, confused and almost monotone. Then as time went on it became lighter, filled with life. There came tones of dark aggression followed by small bouts of joyful grace. It ended with a slowed variation of notes and a quiet high ring that left it open to continue, if that's what Theo wished.
Once the piece was played through, I waited for a response from Theo. Usually he either continued writing or stated we were done for the night. In this case, he only stared down at the floor in deep thought. I watched him for a moment, my eyes trailing over his messy black hair down over his jawline and flawless pale skin. The other vampires within his family had a certain addicting aura that drew me to them. Theo had no such temptation. But as I watched him now, I felt a separate warmth flourish within me that heated my skin quite randomly. I quickly looked away in confusion.
As he thought, I began playing with the keys on the piano. I was trying to reconstruct my favorite piece by Erik Satie, but I wasn't quite skilled enough to play without a music sheet instructing me along the way. It was a good way to sound terrible and waste time.
Suddenly, Theo's hands were over mine, striking the proper notes with ease. He played only the first few notes before pausing and pushing me forward on the bench enough for him to sit just behind me. Then he leaned forward against me, his chest against the length of my back most intimidatingly, before reaching around me once again and playing Satie's piece from the beginning.
I watched him play with fascination, not even trying to trail along. My skin tinged curiously at his proximity despite the cold of his own flesh, but still I felt comfortable. I watched his hands glide over the instrument in attempt to memorize the key strokes before leaning my head back against him contently.
"It's my favorite," I finally said, pleased.
"I know," Theo responded simply. "I'm finished with my piece." I was startled, though I wasn't sure why. Some part of me had assumed he would never actually complete his work and we'd play together for the rest of eternity, but I knew that to be foolish. I hesitated.
"What are you going to name it?" I asked curiously. Theo shrugged, ending the piece gracefully before placing his hands over his own legs which were caged around mine. I looked up over my shoulder at him. "What are you going to name me?"
He watched me a moment and for once it felt like he could actually see me. His dark eyes were focused intensely, taking in my features and everything I was. But then the moment was gone when his eyes became guarded and slid away carefully.
"I have a name for you," Theo stated, recalling within my mind that dreadful word he liked to refer to me as. Void.
"Not that name," I spat, utterly annoyed. The venomous tone that had creeped into my voice caught Theo's attention once again and his eyes were on me with amusement.
"I don't see why not. There's no point in naming or keeping something around that matters nothing to me," Theo said apathetically. "After all, you're empty, are you not? You have no real feelings. No actual opinions. What does it matter if you're named Void... Dog... Doormat?"
I seethed quietly. And then I shoved myself away from his cold embrace. He didn't try to stop me. Instead, he only watched me with hooded, dangerously dark eyes as I paced a section of his room in thought.
"Feelings," I said in a hushed voice. I felt... irritated beyond belief, but more than that. I felt hurt. He had stated that I didn't matter to him at all. But why did that both irritate and hurt me? His touch didn't bring any warmth and his words were unkind. He only saw me as some empty figurine; moving and yet lifeless. My eyes caught on the figurines propped around his room on various tables.
In rage, I suddenly stomped towards a vase and picked it up. I stared at it, feeling the hot anger build up to rash courage, and then I deliberately threw it on the ground below me hard enough for it to shatter into several pieces. I looked at Theo who was only watching me with a bored expression and reached for the next nearest object before throwing it to its damaged doom in suit.
"What are you doing?" Theo finally asked, shifting in his spot on the piano bench.
"What does it matter?" I asked viciously, breaking another object on the solid ground angrily. "They're just objects. Empty. Pointless. Opinionless. Nameless. Objects!" I threw a glass orb that had some image of a city etched into the center at Theo, missing horribly and instead causing it to smash against the wall.
"Stop your tantrum. It's childish," Theo drawled, irritation beginning to paint his mood.
"You're childish," I snapped defensively before recognizing the weak comeback and hesitating. I drew back into myself momentarily, gathering my thoughts, before launching another attack. "You're mean to me. You call me names and it's like... it's like you want me to get angry. You take joy out of... pissing me off. Well, I hate you, Theo. I hope you're happy."
I gripped an obnoxious three prong candlestick holder from one of the tables and stormed towards Theo angrily. Just before reaching him, I turned to the side and aimed for the piano. I meant to try to destroy it somehow, but when I targeted it I found myself pausing. My anger was diminished to a cold thought, that the music would go away and I'd fall back into that empty girl lying on an uncomfortable sofa without warmth. I lowered the candlestick uselessly by my side, looking around at the room where smashed objects and glass were now scattered about recklessly.
Theo had only watched me carefully; his body tensed as though for a moment he thought I would actually try to damage his rather expensive instrument heartlessly. And then he sighed. He reached for his composer journal, scribbling on top of a page delicately, before holding it out to me. I watched him suspiciously before grasping the journal uncertainly. On top of his newly finished piece he had written the title: Katia Ava Genesis. I stared at it blankly.
"When I said I had a name for you, I didn't mean Void." Theo stated boredly, watching my features as I took in his words. "I've had to listen to you obsess over that Gnossienne 5 piece performed by Katia Labèque for several nights now. You're of Genesis, but Von, Van, De, Av, and such doesn't sound right. Ava will work as a form of Av, in a sense."
I felt strange. I had a name. "Katia," I tasted the name on my tongue curiously and found that I liked it. Not only did I like it, but the title of his newest piece was the name he had given me. I couldn't help but recall his words that he only named things which mattered to him. I felt my body humming with newfound joy.
Theo looked around the room and made a noise of irritation before moving to clean up what mess I had left behind. "At least you didn't damage any of my systems," He submitted darkly, making me wonder exactly what he would have done if I had attacked something with more value than a vase.
When the daylight had risen outside, I found myself curled comfortably on Theo's bed while he rested on my old sofa in nothing more than loungewear pants. Even with a flame flickering in the fireplace the room was cold to me, so it astounded me how easily he could sleep with such light coverage. Overtime, everything felt colder to me, though I considered the chill to be a part of my soul fated to me for eternity at this rate.
I slipped from the bed before I even realized it. For a moment, I only stood in my own oversized clothing and light blanket. I hesitated a moment, but then I made my way to the sofa where he was already drifting out of consciousness. It was as if the sunlight made him seek darkness deep within himself, casting him from the conscious world and the warmth that came with it.
I crawled over his form none-too-carefully, deciding he would probably know what I was doing no matter how much care I took. Instead, I all but collapsed roughly over him, causing him to yelp most uncharacteristically. And then I squirmed viciously against him and the back of the sofa, fitting into the space as comfortably as it would allow. When I was settled in my spot with the blanket over the both of us, I sighed contently, hugging against Theo informally.
"Katia..." He muttered, no doubt about to kick me off of him.
"Shut up," I responded drowsily and despite the chill of his skin against my own, I drifted into a steady sleep which meant he had accepted the strange new situation without the rejection I had momentarily feared.
I awoke the following night colder and later than usual. The flame in the fireplace was still flickering brighter than before, as though Theo had coaxed more heat for my sake. But still I had to suppress the cold that trailed along my flesh.
When I pushed myself up, I noticed I was on the sofa I had crawled into, except Theo was nowhere to be found. It wasn't unusual for him to leave me alone. He often left to do things unknown, though I believed most of it had to do with errands. I had only been invited the one time, probably because after that the opportunity of being left completely alone in the entire mansion never arrived.
I felt only a fraction more exhausted than the night before, but still my legs felt like lead when I made my way into the bathroom. I convinced myself to continue with my nightly routine which included bathing, brushing my teeth, caring for my hair, and etc. As I gazed upon myself in the mirror, I found I looked even paler and more tired than the night before. But still, I felt more complete than usual. I had a name. Katia.
Once I was dressed, I stepped into Theo's bedroom absently. I almost didn't spot him at first. He barely shifted, catching my eye from the doorway. Theo stood guarded in the threshold with only half of his body visual to me, the door opened widely behind him. He peeked at me from the corner of his eye, his face cast to the side as if he didn't want to look directly at my form. I thought about asking if he was okay, but something told me he wouldn't answer.
He abruptly left the room, moving deliberately slow enough for me to catch which direction he went. The door remained opened enticingly. He obviously wanted me to follow him, but the way in which he invited me seemed dark and ominous. I wasn't a curious soul. I didn't care to know what monsters lie within another's closet. But I also wasn't afraid.
I stepped into the hallway carefully, turning down the direction Theo had disappeared to. I had only walked this route two times in my existence, but because of my lack of past memories, I found I could remember recent things quite clearly. The direction Theo went would lead me to the front entrance of the mansion where I had met him, among the others.
I could hear them once I stepped onto the balcony of the stairway. Voices echoed through the otherwise empty mansion, striking my soul quite unexpectedly. I hadn't heard another voice beyond Theo's for weeks, but it wasn't the isolation that had the hair along my skin rising so suddenly. It was as though my soul recognized those voices as belonging to those I considered a piece of me, pieces I had been starved from for far too long.
I followed the voices as though I had been struck into a trance. Never before had I considered myself more of a mindless doll than when I had been presented with a chance to feel their touch. I didn't even recognize the hall I had been pulled down screaming when I'd first arrived.
As I approached, I was presented before another opened door. The voices had dimmed down to focused quiet among shuffling and tearing sounds. I stepped through the doorway; unsure of what it was I planned to do. Whatever words had been forming on my lips were lost when presented with the sight within the room.
It was something nightmarish at best. I had been in this room before, only now there was a man lying on the center table instead of me. His hands were free from the shackles I had been placed in. I tried to identify any recognizable attributes to the stranger, but all of his features were painted in blood.
Surrounding him were the men I had met before. Each of them had buried their fangs into their chosen part of the man. Their identities were drowned behind the blood that had caked their face, chest, and hands. The sounds of ripped flesh, growls that bubbled from the vampires like animals, and feeding were echoing around the room at a deafening rate.
The man hadn't been killed yet. His blank eyes closed and then open again slowly. He was dazed, as if he had no idea he was being devoured by these vicious creatures. One of the vampires turned his eyes on me dangerously and for once I could recognize an individual among those identical eyes. Theo's face was covered in blood. He had all but happily participated in the feeding; his part of the victim being nothing more than mangled bleeding flesh. Without addressing me, he turned back to the man, catching his still living eyes in his own.
"I release you," He merely stated, the words seeming harmless enough. The man blinked, confused. The other vampires had continued their feast uninterrupted, ripping at his flesh to better allow the flow of nourishment they so desired. The man acted as though he couldn't feel it. But then he began to pant quickly, looking down at his mangled body, and he screamed.
The sound was the most horrifying thing I could have possibly heard, but at the same time it was a sound I had heard before. Behind his scream, many others echoed in my head. I could smell smoke and feel the flesh being torn from my own skin. It was like a memory, only I wasn't sure it was mine. The memory was only there a moment before the man was silenced by Theo ripping into his neck with a loud snarl.
A big part of me was completely stunned and horrified by what I was witnessing. I wanted to scream and run far away, though I wasn't sure where I'd go. But another part of me wanted something else altogether. I felt as though I couldn't move. Something inside cried out for them. It could ignore their horrors. In fact, it craved that horror. That part of me wanted to be that man; to have their hands ripping into my flesh and their mouths devouring my life.
I gasped; the fear of my own desires overcoming whatever allure had shocked my body. It was enough to bring me back into my senses. I was able to look away and more than that, I was able to run.
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I thought I'd add a bit of horror in honor of the holiday, hehe.
Music: Gnossienne No. 5, composed by Erik Satie and performed by Katia Labèque
Character portrait of Katia will be in the next update. Have a great Halloween! And as always, thanks for reading. ^^
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