Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Wednesday Brief: Your Hump Day Dose of Flash Fiction

Greetings dear readers! Welcome back to another Wednesday Brief :) I've been a bit absent from these lately because I've been working on a longer piece for a Valentine's Day submission and getting ready for my upcoming release, Book 3 of The Mercenary Tales, The Lost Mercenary.*g* 

As for now, I warn you, when I wrote the flash below I was not in a happy mood. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy this dark little story! As usual, don't forget to visit the other great flashers (links below). And do come back tomorrow, because author Doris O'Connor will be back with another fun paranormal giveaway just in time for Halloween!!

Elyzabeth 




Meanings 

“Look into my eyes and tell me you’re not tired too.”

Samantha glanced into Derek’s azure gaze for a fraction of a second before looking away. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t look into his eyes and tell him she wasn’t tired because she was. She was weary, fatigued from the endless chase. She was tired of hoping for things which she knew would never come. Taking one breath after another, one step at a time had become draining. She did it out of force of habit. Even her dreams exhausted her. Lying to sleep was no longer a relief. Sleep meant fitful dreams of a blurry past which she pretended to have forgotten. A single life span was too much for many. If you’d lived hundreds of years like she had…then… you became dead inside.

Yet, she couldn’t make herself say goodbye. She couldn’t step into the sunlight and dissolve into nothingness. She couldn’t cease existing. She had friends, family, both human and vampire that cared about her.

At least, that’s what she’d been telling herself for ages. However, they could survive without her. They were well and alive before she came into their lives. They could certainly move on without her and they would. That was one of the things she’d learned about humanity. Human beings always found the will to live. There was no clear meaning to their lives but they had to live. They had to keep fighting for survival. It amused her because though they despaired about this lack of meaning they always claimed to find it at sometime. The meaning of friendship, of family, of love… there was even some meaning in that song they played relentlessly on their mp3 player. They searched and searched for something that had no solution, no answer. After hundreds of years of existence, she could state quite simply that life was nothing more than an endless search for a meaning that would never make any sense.

“Sammy.”

Derek’s hushed whisper erupted into her thoughts. She glanced at him, the towering presence at her side. Something akin to butterflies danced in her stomach as they always did when he was around. If she had had a pulse, she was certain it would have accelerated and color would have risen to her cheeks. He had that effect on her. He made her feel alive all over again. Yet, here they were, 200 years later, wandering through a moon lit forest, asking each other if it was worth living another day.

“I am tired,” she admitted, pausing to glance at the white orb in the sky. What would it be like to feel the sun on her skin again?

Derek grasped her hand, his grip strong, steady and comforting. She stared into his eyes, and her doubts vanished. She had chosen him as her meaning. In a meaningless world, he was what made everything make sense for her.

Before she met him, she was a stray, a lonely vampire, powerful and content with being a single individual. Then, she’d met him, the brooding vampire with soulful eyes. He was older than her, wiser than her, stronger than her. Their connection had been instant, fast, heady. Together they’d lived adventures which could easily fill hundreds of libraries. She’d never lost her sense of self in his presence, she simply chose to compliment it with him.
Derek searched her eyes, love, intense, deep and fierce swimming in the depths of that midnight blue gaze. Samantha hoped he saw the same in her. Words had long ceased to be enough to describe her feelings for him. A shadow of a smile crossed his features, reassuring her. Leaning into his strong psyche she stole a kiss. Soft, tender, sweet. The sort of kiss that still made her soar after so much time. The sort of kiss she’d remember forever. Smiling, she swung his hand playfully.

“Are you sure about this?”

“As certain as my love for you.”

She nodded. It really was time. It had been for a while now. They walked further into the forest, their bare feet almost gliding over the cool grass. The moon shone brightly above them, allowing them a well-lit passage onto the top of the cliff. They finally reached the crest as the sun began to rise from behind the mountains. Samantha’s breath stilled at the beauty at her feet. Grasping her chin gently, Derek tilted her face to his.

“Look into my eyes.”

She smiled, drowning in his gaze as the sun burst into flames over the horizon, dissolving their existence into a faded meaningless memory.

 Wednesday Briefers


Lily Sawyer      m/m 
Tali      m/m
Nephylim     m/m
Michael Mandrake     m/m
Michael Barnette     m/m    flash virgin!!!!!!
MA Church     m/m


6 comments:

  1. Aw. What a poetic and bittersweet end. I've often wondered if true love is enough to fill eternity. I like to think so, but I can understand being tired of being a vampire. Lovely flash.

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    1. Thanks Tali :) I usually like to think that true love can fill eternity, but the mood I was in when I wrote the flash wasn't even contemplating the possibility.

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  2. Wow. What a tragically beautiful story. How long is too long? How weary can the soul become if the body doesn't wear out first? I liked this, a lot, even if it wasn't a traditional happy ending.

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    1. Thanks Cia :) I'm glad you liked it. It does pose some interesting questions not only for immortal creatures but for us humans too. How much can our body and soul resist? How much tragedy, pain, suffering can we go through before tiring out and saying enough? We are a pretty resiliant breed but would we be able to survive eternally?

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  3. Good Lord what an intense story. It was SO beautiful. I can understand the weariness of having been alive for so, so long. Beautiful, tragic and inspiring. The end was perfect.

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    1. Thanks Nephy! :) I'm happy you liked it. Sometimes it must be marvelous to live for hundreds of years, but at other times the sheer inmensity of it all, of the constant ups and downs of life has to be too much.

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