My Dark Beloved - onc 2023 Ambassadors Pick-Longlisted

.1

The water has become blood.

Crimson swirls. Ripples become fingers that cause little waves and in those waves, I watch her dive deep. Further...further...further from reality.

Don't go, Lux, I call from somewhere in the back of my mind.

My eyes are needy creatures. I want her close to me. Now. Whenever I touch her I am electrified, like I've just sunk into the tub with a toaster as my rubber ducky.

Lux. My best friend. My sometimes lover. Hell, we all have itches we need to scratch sometimes.

She rushes towards me and pins her palms on the glass separating us. Her gaze sinks into mine. I love it when we drown.

There is a bite mark on her neck. It will not heal until it has turned the water into an aquarium full of scarlet gems.

I swallow and I find her falling into the pit of my belly.

Touching my palm to the glass, I am hypnotized. I want to feel her skin but all I feel is this damned barrier.

"It's so cold, Elio," she whispers and I nod.

"It's February after all."

"I never did like the winter."

I chuckle. "Or the fall, or spring."

She taps at the glass. "I am a summer child –"

"...sweet and wild."

Lux sticks her tongue out and licks along the glass making whatever is south of my navel pulse with its own heartbeat. 

"Come out again," I beg.

She shakes her long hair and it blends with the ripples. "No. You've fed enough."

"I don't want to feed again," I protest, "I want to fu --" but she's making faces at me. "So childish."

"I'm too cold. You could invite Mr. Palm and his five daughters for a date."

She pulls away until she's hidden behind a veil of red. Sometimes I think she's a figment of my imagination. Or at least that's what I've been feeling lately.

There have been times I've not really been sure if Lux is there. If she's talking to me. If she's swimming in the huge aquarium in her room. If she's slipping out of her watery nest as her mermaid's tail turns into a pair of legs that reach from the ground to the heavens.

"Turn up the heat, Lio." I hear her say from somewhere in that reddish murk. "Light the fireplace too. Hell, set the whole house on fire if you can."

"Don't go, Lux," I say out loud this time but she ignores me.

I watch the aquarium, the water ceases to move. There are no swirls. No ripples. Nothing but silence.

"Lux?" I tap on the glass but there's no reply.

Around me, the walls begin to breathe. This house is too damn big. Every corner whispers behind my back like a gossipy schoolgirl. It sounds like two angry bees are trying to rage war behind the plaster and paint.

I clasp my hands over my ears. The house has been driving me crazy these last few months. There are cracks in my brain.

I need a drink. Two. Yes, two...hell, maybe even six.

I take one more look towards the glass enclosure, then turn on my heel and exit Lux's room. Grabbing my jacket, I head out of the villa I have been sharing with my mermaid mistress for the past hundred or so years.

Outside, the winter is vile but I'm not sure I remember how to feel cold. Snow sprays from the ground like confetti and the wind howls like someone's stepped on its tail. The chill licks at my skin and threatens to eat my bones. I pay little attention. I will make a terrible feast for a hungry beast.

The sky is pink. I remember the water. Around me, the world opens its maw and cackles.

I walk further...further...further. I leave the villa behind me until the fog eats me up and spits me out five blocks later. 

Words: 665