Nothing Stays Forever- The Catalyst of Change

[One Thread in a Tapestry]

The door to the tavern swung open, bringing the wind and cold, and the usher that let them in.

Inside, Annie was busy doing her last cleaning of the night. She had been quietly awaiting the return of her partner scribe, silently happy for him. The guy seemed like he could use some outdoors and sunshine after all. She had never asked about something like his orientation though. Running a tavern and inn, she learned long ago it was better not to ask and just take the obvious signs for what they appeared to be. And boy, was that guy thirsting over that bard. Hopefully, he had fun.

"Lyric?" She called out, glancing over excitedly. the moment she saw his silhouette, she immediately made for greeting him. "Ah, so glad you're back! You-"

Oh, how quickly tones changed upon laying eyes on the man. Lyric had this look of death and fear in his eyes like coming in from witnessing war. The poor man froze upon realizing she saw him. He looked to be in shock. Annie, shocked herself, stood unmoving as she blinked, as if the sight before her was a trick of her eyes. Her scribe, this gentle, quiet young guy, came back covered in blood and snow. So much of it too, particularly, on his chest and face. Being the first to break the stupor, Annie rushed to Lyric immediately with all the energy of a concerned mother and worried friend.

"Oh gods- Oh-! What happened!?" She immediately grabbed him, Lyric staring at her like she had grown horns. He was scared of her. Well, sort of. His mind was still in a heightened state, moving so fast it drowned out the lingering pain in his chest from where he had been impaled to the tree. As he looked up at her, it waen't that he didn't know what to say. Rather, he didn't know what to say first. Her hands immediately traveled to his chest; "Are you hurt!? C'mon say something!" But, he wasn't responsive.

For Lyric, he felt his dead heart beating as if it would in life. Panic. What could he say? How could he tell her? How could he phrase it in a way that still... Would allow him to remain here? To hide himself? What about all those poor dead people? All those guests who stayed here? He wrote down everyone in his book, they must all be there, right? What terrible thing possessed the bard and the corpses to sing? What horrors were in those woods? Was the bard even acting on his own volition? Had he killed someone innocent? Could he have gotten away? If he told her how to find the bodies, how could he explain how he escaped? What would everyone think of him? How could she believe him? How could he explain... The bite marks on the bard's neck?

He could feel it... The spiraling feeling. This cascading sensation. The feeling of it all starting to come crashing down around him. That everything he loved here, it was all slipping away.

Without realizing he had been standing there unresponsive, he felt her touch his face. While he was lost among his own mind, she had pulled out a cleaning rag, and set it to his face to wipe off the blood.

"No-!!" He suddenly blurted out, eyes wide with terror, but Annie was quick and grabbed him by the chin.
"Hush, just hold still."

"NO!" Lyric swatted her hand off him in a panic, but... It was apparently too late. As he did, she had already gotten a spot of not only blood, but his own make-up off.

"Calm down! You're in shock! Let me help..." She seemed to speak calmly in stark contrast to his own fearful tone. But, as she noticed the dark skin tone makeup that had rubbed off onto her rag, Lyric... Froze. He wanted to cry. He could only look her in the face, seeing the subtle movement of her eyebrows and expression. Confusion. Surprise. Inquisitiveness... Lyric didn't even resist, a growing ringing in his ears as she gently brought it back up to his face and took off some more. She dragged it gently over his visage, and as the make up came off, the white noise just got louder and louder. He could see Annie's face of confusion and concern and, with a rub that pulled back his cheek just a bit, she seemed to have spotted something else from his parted lips among the sickly white skin. Manipulating his face, pinching his cheek softly, she pulled the skin of his lips open a bit... And saw his pearly white sharp fangs.

The look in her eyes as she saw them, putting dots together in her head, it broke Lyric's heart. All he worked for, shattered. She saw them. She saw him. The secret he worked so, so hard to hide and she knew now. The ringing in his ears became so so loud, he couldn't hear his own thoughts. It was over. It was all over. This... White noise. It was a manifestation of his fight or flight response. And he went into flight mode.

He pulled away and ran. He could see her suddenly react, mouthing something, but he couldn't hear it above the noise. Above the fear. This familiar, unwelcome sensation that everything he took for granted here was finally over. Worse, this wasn't just him worried someone might suspect them and THEN making his way out. Oh no. This was straight up a reveal of his true nature. And, he had actually literally killed somebody.

He bolted for his room. This was the kind of red-alert scenario he had always mentally had nightmares of, but this was real to him. He grabbed his backpack, and other meager things, and didn't even leave back through the door. Annie was already at his door just behind him, saying something he could not hear, and coming in to try and grab him but he was literally out the window before she could grasp him. He hit the snow, and just ran. Ran as fast as he could into the cold dark wilderness.

He never heard Annie's words... But, she only ever wanted to help him.

Lyric ran like death was chasing him. Ran like the world was disappearing behind him, as this white noise blared in his head. It blotted his senses, his mind; The countless thoughts that ran through his head were drowned and discarded, left behind with everything else. There was no need to salvage any of it, these ideas and strategies for how he could maybe, possible, by some slim margin maintain his little masquerade. He could not stay here. Not anymore.

And with that, Lyric ran. Ran until the sun began to rise. His self obfuscation, unknown to him, activated as he ran in his manic state... Unwittingly hiding him from dangers in the night by covering his existence long enough to go by. Only the threat of the sun stopped him, the strong, amazing new blood fueling him from here until depleted. He could have chased the moon, had he only gone the opposite direction. Before the sun rose too high, he came across a partially frozen stream... Finally, sitting down to just stop.

He silently went through his backpack... Fishing out a different jacket. A cloak to hide his head. A veil, to his his face. Snow goggles, to hide his eyes. It was time to, once again, go back into the cold and wild. Yet again, he could not stay. His 'condition' would not allow it. Looking down at the reflection of himself, utterly covered in the same gear he had first arrived in before feeling comfortable showing his face, it immediately made him think of Annie... Of the twins, and all the work she would have to do without him now.

So many books left unfinished. So much weight she would have to take again. All because he got this illusion of grandeur. He thought he could just live here comfortably? How stupid.

Vampires will never live comfortably. Not forever. Nothing does.