Melted Rainbows – Gen.6 – Ch. 66

I sat on the dirty floor, clutching my head and fighting the burning thirst that covered my whole body. I had never felt anything like it before, but whatever it was just caused me to slaughter the entire population that was inside of the bar. My body only knew two things: anger, thirst and an extreme confusion. It was like I was fighting off another force attempting to overtake control, and I was losing.

I couldn’t remember how I’d gotten here. The only memories I recalled were leaving Ebony in my bed and her not seeming to care where I was going. But where did this anger come from? What was wrong with me? Trying to remember did little to help, it seemed to only make my memories drift farther away.

The hollow echoing of footsteps coming up the stairway made me snap my head around to face whomever was to be next on my list of victims. Expecting another human, my body pushed itself toward them, only to be met by an abnormally strong set of hands. My eyes twitched around, unable to focus on one thing. They managed to make out the face of Paradise, his expression unreadable.

“Take a seat,” he said, pushing me away from him as he strode over to the bar.

Somehow, I was able to listen and pulled my aching body over to the bar where I took the seat directly next to him. Paradise surveyed the room, not showing any indication of liking or disliking the gory scene filled with dead bodies.

“What do you remember?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I managed a strangled reply.

Paradise nodded his head. He must know what’s happening to me. How else could he stay this calm?

“You need to go back and try to figure it out because if you don’t, you’ll be stuck in this state until you do. It’s a vampire’s mechanism to forget whatever bad event is going on. You revert to a monster, bent only on killing what’s around you because of the anger you have. The thing is you can’t remember why you’re angry, and until you do you’re stuck like this.”

“How.. how.. did you find?” it was impossibly hard to spit out more than a sentence, with each word my body screamed in protest.

“Ebony said you were acting weird, I assumed you’d be at one of these bars. Didn’t expect so many dead bodies, but the world is full of surprises. Now think about what set you off.”

Yet again, I tried to recall any reason for my unexplained anger. All I could remember was being with Ebony, but why was I with her? What happened before? Then a thought popped into my head; Honey. Her face brought on a whole new onslaught of emotions; fear, panic, worry. Something happened with Honey and I, but I still couldn’t pinpoint what.

Then I did remember. A baby. She was pregnant with my baby. As soon as the thoughts filled my head, my body rose to a new high of rage, but just as quickly as it came, it went, leaving my body tired and in pain. I lowered my face to my hands.

“Honey’s pregnant,” I whispered, the strength returning to my voice.

“Ah, I see. Not looking forward to being a father?”

“No.”

Silence floated in the air, as well as the smell of death and blood. The thought of blood now disgusted me; the thirst from five minutes prior having vanished. Paradise frowned and scanned the room once more.

“You can’t ever let your body have control like this again. You killed innocent people tonight. It’s going to be hard to cover up,” Paradise commented, his eyes flittering across the nameless bodies.

“You think I care? It’s just like you said at the beginning, I have no soul. What does it matter anymore?” my voice came out high-pitched and panicked.

“You’re going to have a child, things should have a new and better meaning for you,” Paradise spoke directly to me, his eyes piercing mine. I had never seen him so truthful and passionate.

“What would you know about having a child?” I asked.

“Remember when I told you about my family? How I left to protect them. I did what was best, and you need to do the same. What’s best for your family is to stay with them.”

Paradise scratched his nose before opening his mouth to say more, “There are sacrifices you have to make in life whether you like them or not. Sometimes things will work out and other times they won’t.”

I stared at Paradise’s face as his eyes wandered off to another time, recalling some distant memory. There was a lot more to Paradise than I had previously thought, and I wondered if I would ever find out all of it.

“What happened? I can tell there was something bad,” I asked.

Paradise’s eyes returned to look into mine. He sighed, giving into my wish and telling me the story, “I had a vampire child. She was the real reason I left. She hurt her siblings and her mother, so I took her and skipped town to protect them. As the years passed I learned that she was just a violent person who didn’t care about others. I should have killed her when she was born; I could have stayed with my family and saved so many lives.” Once again, Paradise’s eyes grew distant.

“So when she was a teenager I left her alone in the city; she was smart and could handle herself, but when I went back to my family I found out she’d beat me there and killed them. Her own siblings and mother! Her reasoning was that she didn’t want them to take me away from her, so I told her if I ever saw her again I wouldn’t hesitate in killing her, but I knew I could never actually do that. She was my daughter, and despite everything I still loved her.”

“What was her name?”

“Ebony.”

It wasn’t a shock for me to find this out, I had seen it coming. Their behavior to each other was strange; it hinted at their family bond.

“Maybe it’s easier for you to love without reason, but I’ve never loved someone. I’ve never been loved. It’s just.. hard.” I turned my head down, focusing on the table top.

“I’m sure you’ve loved and been loved. You just have yet to recognize the feeling. When you see your child’s face for the first time you’ll know.”

Despite my skepticism I hoped he was right; this was my child and I had to protect it no matter the circumstance of how it came into this world. I had a new purpose, even if right now I didn’t feel the emotions I needed. I hadn’t had a real purpose in a long time, so maybe this was a turning point for me. I could actually be someone. I could be important. I could be capable of love.