Requiem on Water [Book I]

Chapter 3

Because I could not stop for death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves and immortality.
-Emily Dickinson  

 

Chapter 3

It was cold.

Alice couldn't wrap her mind around how it could be so cold yet she didn't feel the discomfort of the low temperature. It was more of a pleasant feeling, one she could easily become accustomed to. It was a feeling that made her skin all prickly, and oddly enough, it didn't hurt. She knew she ought to be purple and blue because of the coldness, but she didn't care. She liked the unusual feeling of the comfortable coldness.

There was a thumping sound in her ears, and if Alice hadn't known the pace of a heartbeat, she would have guessed that it was her heart beating in her ears. But the thumping sound was too slow to be a heartbeat; she knew this because when she had been dying, when she had been ill with leukaemia, she had listened to her own heartbeat and had counted each beat it took. She did not remember her illness though, only the counting of her heartbeats. It wasn't her heartbeat, she then decided. But what could it be? The thumping sound startled her, because she heard it only every few seconds.

Her attention shifted away from the strange thumping, and as if she had been senseless all of her life, she could smell various fragrances, some of which she couldn't even begin to name. The air around her carried aromas of sweetness and bitterness, of dirt and nature. She could smell the scents of various entities and strangely enough, she could hear laughter and somewhere a child weeping for his mother's attention. She knew that her senses of hearing and smell had been amplified; something had happened to her, she knew it, but she couldn't remember what. She wanted to open her eyes, but she couldn't. She felt too weak even if she had never felt so powerful before.

"Alice?"

The voice was familiar, though Alice could not place it with a face. She forced her mind to go back a few paces, though everything in her memory seemed murky and misty. It was like watching something through a thick cloud of fog; she could see some things, diminutive things like the sunshine and the ocean, but nothing beyond it at all. She could hear the voice in her memory, though she could not make out his words.

It was all muddled up.

She tested her limbs, starting with her fingers. She found that she was able to move them, but it took a lot of strength; strength which she found she did not have. She sighed profoundly and was surprised when she heard the sound flee her lips, when she felt the air whooshing out of her lungs. She sighed again and a soft moan followed close by. Her throat was dry and scratchy, her lips parched and cracked.

"Hello," she tested the word and even though it escaped incoherently, she could still hear her voice.

It was guttural.

"Alice, I'm going to make you feel better soon sweetheart."

The voice was comforting. She relaxed her muscles and gave herself over to her numbness. She trusted the voice; she knew he would make her feel better soon. There was no doubt in her mind, and even though she had no idea who this man was, she knew she could trust him; she had heard the voice before. He parted her lips with his fingers and cold sweetness oozed into her mouth. It was the most delectable thing she had ever tasted, as far as her mind would allow her to remember. She swallowed willingly and eagerly, and reached out her hands to clasp whichever object detained the sweetness.

Alice's eyes opened wide when she grasped hold of an arm. To her horror, the face she knew the voice belonged to was smiling down at her, allowing his blood to seep into her mouth. But she didn't stop. His blood surged through her veins, and she could feel her muscles strengthen, she could feel her senses magnify. She wanted more, and as swiftly as only an Immortale could manage, she had Arthur pinned down on the floor. There was no inclination of fear or angst in his eyes. She was studying him intently; making sure it was alright for her to carry on. He nodded faintly and Alice sunk her fangs into his wrist, sucking and swallowing as much as she could manage. But there was no feeling of being satiated. Alice had no idea how she was going to stop.