The Story of the Vampire, L (Completed | Featured )

Part 4 - Adrenaline and Ecstasy

Outside of the steward's quarters, three frightened frogs were crowded around. They looked up as I approached, eyes wide, the three other boys who were training for house duties, between the ages of eight and eleven. They were holding onto each other, a unit, which I noted, and when I looked on them, they quailed together. 

"What happened, children?" 

One stepped forward, untangling himself from the arms of his brothers. He took a deep breath in and crossed his arms behind his back.  "Master, he hit one of the guests. He slapped one with his left hand."

"And then?"

"Our praeceptor, Vasvius, tried to drag him out but he wouldn't go, sir. As soon as Vasvius touched him, he started screaming and throwing things. He dumped wine and garum on the guest who touched him, and the guest jumped up then to punish him, but they fought. We couldn't pull him down, sir. He was as if possessed by spirits. He rages yet."

"Your name, young orator."

"This is Nonus," he said, pointing behind him at a vaguely feline boy, younger than himself, "and Cassius," the oldest, who looked on me with shock and horror, "and I have no name, sir."

"Aulus."

"Oh," he said, eyes widening, "oh." His brothers pulled him back, as the sound of breaking pottery sounded from the steward's room. "Oh, oh, thank you, oh, sir." 

"Barricade yourselves in your room, children."

When I pushed aside the curtain which opened into the stewards' quarters, Vivacio was standing very still with his back to me, but I knew that there was a knife in his hand. I stepped around the sharp shattered ceramics, and put my arms around his waist, squeezing him from behind. He burst into tears, hand with knife shaking, pointed at himself.

"No, no," he moaned, hand tight around the handle. 

"What are you doing, little ship," I whispered, calling him by the name I'd called him when he was young. "Come back to port from your sea, little ship. Come back to the warm, calm water. Calm. Calm. Where it's warm."

His knees unlocked and then I was holding him up. 

"Come back, the water's too rough, little boat," I hummed to him, a song we used to sing when he felt far too overwhelmed as a child, so sensitive, so easily hurt. He began to whimper, keening like a young dog through his tears. "It's alright. It's alright."

"Faya," he gasped, unable to control his breath.

"What happened?"

"He touched me," he wept, "the senator's son. I know what I'm supposed to do. Faya, I couldn't do it. He called me 'lover' and tried to take me to the kitchen. He grabbed my arm. I didn't mean to slap him with my left hand, but he was holding my right. Faya," he swallowed, chin tipped back, cheek against my cheek. "I'll just kill myself. See?"

"Why, Vivacio?" I asked, knowing very well.

"Because then, your honor will be restored, and I won't have to feel like this," he swallowed again, nodding, "and it will all be put right."

I sighed out a breath. "Vivacio, do you know why I do what I do?"

He shook his head, breathing too quickly, trying to stop his tears.

"We are giving those boys a better life. Do you understand? When you teach a boy to use a sword, they let him join a company, rather than using him on the front line, where he will certainly die first. If you teach a boy to read, and recite the words of the muses, they put him in the house, where he will get to keep his soft hands. And sometimes, young masters might want to sleep with him, but that is his price. That is what he pays the Fates, and it is better than his life. Don't give them your life when all they ask for is a little innocence. Their scissors are sharp, and there is no sewing back together what they've cut, little boat."