What\'s It Feel Like To Be A Ghost?

[Saiketsu]

The ocean licked at the rocks below him, decorated them with very sloppy kisses of water and salt. The air blew past him, a swirling sense of a storm on the horizon or somewhere far out at sea. His hair flipped around his face in no fashion other than annoying, but his hands remained down at his side. The wind whispered to him no certain secret, telling him things that humans would murmur to their God upon entering their beds, or giggles of girls who flirted with the boys. He closed his eyes against the world.

Grasses at his feet swayed and billowed this way and that, itching his ankles and lower calves. It whipped the grasses into shapes of ocean waves that mimicked the roaring sea that killed itself on the jagged rocks below. It was all Damien could do to stand there and watch with a form of envy. His silver focus went slack until he could see everything but focus on nothing at all. He knew he was vulnerable, off guard, but he didn\'t care much. Who was out here to disturb him?

His gray gaze found its way out to sea where the rugged waved stretched for miles under darkening, cloudy skies. His focus came back to see the swelling clouds, pregnant with rain and electricity. Damien wanted it to come down on him but had the feeling that it wouldn\'t for a while.

He liked rain. He loved storms. Yet the aspect of this night annoyed him for some odd reason, giving him a feeling that there was something missing. The absence of life, perhaps, althought that was foolish to think about. He hadn\'t been alive for near a century. Maybe he was just tired of seeing the same beautiful, stormy night on different days for the last nine hundred and some odd years. Maybe he just wanted to die for once. Perhaps that was what was different. Maybe he was just waiting to die...

Impossible, he thought to himself. He knew he wasn\'t waiting to die. He was waiting for someone or something to kill him.

Damien sighed and reluctantly turned away from the ocean view, mist and the tall grasses, heading back towards the rusty lighthouse that stood like some deformed beacon of a hope that was once real. The door of the lighthouse creaked with a painful slow groan. He had yet to even think about entering the building.

In the base of the lighthouse, Damien took out his crinkled pack of cigarettes and lit one up easily now away from the wind. A pile of junk sat across the "room" from him, magazines, blankets and a flipped table, among other things that didn\'t matter much. He stepped over these things and found his way to the stairs that spiralled up to the tower that held a light that helped sailors home once upon a time.

The spiral steps were rusty, dirty and probably not very stable. They were perfect. Damien William Evans took his spot on the fourth step up and sat relaxed and comfortable smoking his cigarette.

[moongazer]

As Thessar walked down the stairs of the lighthouse, he made certain that each sound was drawn to his sword\'s blade so that it was quiet, with no noise to give any indication to his presence; however, someone else was here, a brooding person, old by years of creatures of might and magic; or at least he thought. And was he smoking? Yep, he sure was and smoking is bad for you he thought; "you do know that one day those things could kill you, if you aren\'t already dying right?" he said to the stranger.

[Saiketsu]

Damien\'s body went rigid out of habit. Either he had no idea that someone was in here before him, or he subconciously didn\'t care.

But he didn\'t move. Instead he simply sat there and continued to inhale on the cigarette. "I know it," Damien said, looking forward. "It\'s a habit now, though."

By the presence of the stranger, he could tell that he was holding something, standing above him and gazing down. The vampire knew full well where his own weapons were on his person, slightly out of reach, beneath his zippered jacket. Damien debated whether he should attempt to reach for them or whether he would let the stranger at his back make the first offensive move.

He sat still, relaxed and almost unfocused while he thought. He exhaled the smoke. It swirled around in the air near him, casting shapes of no particular kind.

[moongazer]

"You needn\'t be scared of my sword; I just use it to cloak my sound, so I move as silently as my shadow would", ZING! came as he quickly sheated the tiny sword and walked downward towards the person, step by step, as he walked, with each board moving downward. As much as it looked like the rotting old boards would break or make a sound, he knew they wouldn\'t. "Just a habit?" he said, "because I have come to believe that it isn\'t from how you look", with you staring at the smoke like being lost in the shadow of your own past; I should know that feeling by now though, he said sitting next to the man.

[Saiketsu]

Damien looked at him, a somber smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "Ahh. So tell me, stranger," he breathed, finding it hard to make his thoughts vocal, "how can somebody tell that much by looking at a face, a tense position?" There was no bitterness in the voice of the vampire, more of a tinge of curiousity.

This stranger was an interesting looking fellow. He didn\'t know what to make of him, really. Within his face, Damien could see the traces of beauty that any other may have ignored, or looked over. A tail swished behind the young man, telling Damien that he wasn\'t any human, though somehow, he already knew it. The aura around him wasn\'t that of a full-blooded monster either.

Strange. He thought.

He inhaled on the cigarette, held it for a minute as the moment passed, then exhaled away from the man.

Honestly, Damien didn\'t know whether he could trust the stranger enough to have him so close, but, then again, there was nothing he could do about it. And while he didn\'t like being so close to a being he knew nothing about, a creature that could easily put a knife into his back, half of him resigned to not even caring anymore.

He was sick of the same storm night after beautiful night.

Outside, rain fell in a slow pitter-pattering rhythm that gained momentum in between the pauses of their conversation. The wind was beginning to howl and lightning flashed. He almost knew it by heart by now.

He turned and extended a hand. "Damien," was all he said.

[moongazer]

"Trust me, I just know the world, and the people that are in it; I\'ve just been traveling my whole life, and I never really settled down", as he said these things, the wind whipped around him quickly then settled after drifting a little smoke his way, clouding up his face, as he blew a quick puff of air through the smoke to scatter it; "to tell the truth, we\'re all just like dust in the wind" said Thessar gripping his hand and shaking it "Thessar Alderige is the name", he said as he laid back onto the stairs looking up.

[Saiketsu]

"I hear you, Thessar," Damien agreed. He knew what it was like to not be able to take root in one single place.

Damien\'s silver eyes rested on his form. He seemed to be such an odd, open character. He lay so easily beside Damien, as if he hadn\'t a care in the world. Damien found that extremely strange.

The vampire had never been open to anyone in his vampire life. He never spoke his mind, never relaxed completely around anyone. Except for...

He took a deep drag, the tip of the cigarette illuminating the area on his hand. For a long moment, Damien found it hard to take his eyes off of the other. When he finally did, Damien let the smoke go, breathing it out into the open air.

"So if you\'ve been travelling your entire life, what are you doing here? Are you do you have a purpose for being here in this city? Is there even some reason to your placement here in this lighthouse or are you just drifting where you will?"

[moongazer]

Sighing heavily, and lashing his tail against the wall to then curl it up like a question mark... "I, I, I\'m looking for someone who is the closest thing to a real family that I\'ve ever had in this world", he said his tail settling down, and as he did, unsheathed the sword, and started to stroke it like a well-trained guitar player but instead, out came an enchanting song, that could parallel that of a lullaby by anyone\'s mother or father. "This sword is enchanted, and it plays the most beautiful songs ever" he said softly, his voice drifting off.....

[Saiketsu]

"You\'re lucky, then." He inhaled on the stub for the last time and then flicked it away, onto the dirt floor of the lighthouse. Damien breathed it out.

He remained silent for a while longer, rubbing his tongue over his fangs. Lightning flashed outside again; he had lost count of how many times it did so. Rain battered the rusty building and the sword continued its singing. The two were relaxed, away from the storm, away from the crowds of mortals.

What a strange picture this must be, Damien brewed to himself, smiling faintly. An ice demon-creature, a singing sword, a smoking vampire. In a lighthouse. He suppised that things could be weirder.

[moongazer]

"Catch", said Thessar, tossing the blade gently to his new-found friend. As he caught the blade, he dreamily said,... "play any song you want, because there are so many to tell of what you think and how you feel, and what you\'ve lost", and as his eyes sunk into his almost seemingly like falling into pools Thessar said, "and what you\'ve gained, and what you could have..."

[Saiketsu]

He looked at Thessar then down at the sword for a minute before looking away from everything. His face held no emotion, a shell. Damien had been good at this, making it into a favored ability ever since became a vampire.

"Play any song you want..." his mind retraced. But what would the song sound like? Screeching. Painful. Unorganized. The vampire traced over all the possibilities in his mind. While the idea enticed him, his hand remained still, refusing to remove the sword from its sheath.

"Awesome," Damien murmured. He smiled with a turn of his lips that someone once said could have melted hearts, yet he refused to let his face show anything of what he was thinking. He looked at the other. "But no thanks. I\'ve got enough troubles. I don\'t need anything to remind me about them." He said it with a hint of laughter, but meant it. He offered the sword back to the other.

Not yet, part of the vampire said defensively. Who is this guy? Damien stared into Thessar\'s eyes intensely, waiting for his reaction, unsure of how he felt.

[moongazer]

"You look like you\'re thinking too hard dobe!", he said, giving a slight grin. "I guess that me and my shadow will play a song of our choice then..." as his shadow lept out from underneath his feet, the sword was being played as if like a guitar, while it played a soft rock song, which gave off a hollow and empty sound when struck against the ground, yet, the rest of the sword was making the most beautiful song ever. Rather puzzling thought Thessar, as he continued to dance, and making it seem better and better...

[Saiketsu]

"You\'re very odd." The words escaped his lips before he had time to hold them in as he watched the sight before him unravel.

An odd creature this man was. Damien couldn\'t help but smile, laugh slightly and shake his head. "And I never think to hard," the vampire added, a touch of humor in his voice. He\'s right, Damien resolved to himself. Maybe I\'ve been thinking about it for too long a time... But it still hurt him slightly, pushing him, allowing him the temptation to kill for revenge.

The song. It wasn\'t far from what he wanted to feel himself. An impulse said to get up, to go relax in the presense of this stranger, Thessar. After all, what did he really have to lose?

[moongazer]

"Please, I used to travel with someone who brooded every day, and would hit me on impulse when I woke him up, regardless of if he told me to keep him awake or not. I know that look in your eyes, even if you are a Vampire, because,...... weellll, your teeth are showing." Thessar loved to point out the obvious sometimes, but this time was mainly to get a reaction. "What kind of song do you want it to play?" Asked Thessar, "it can play any song, from any artist, and any music type, from rock to jazz, to whatever you desire..." he said wonderingly, with his voice seemingly thinning.

[Saiketsu]

"I dunno. You pick. I\'m horrible at decision-making," he lied through his teeth easily. He had gotten quite good at it too, but whether or not that was a good thing, Damien couldn\'t possibly know.

"If it\'s not too awkward of me to ask," he trekked carefully, "what exactly are you? You\'ve picked up that I was a vampire, though I didn\'t particularly care or try to hide it. But you..." he trailed off. "You\'re... different from anyone I\'ve ever met before."

The vampire hoped that he was using the correct words. He wasn\'t trying to insult this creature, just to find out more about him.