empty heart.
A gasp went through the hall. The vampire stumbled back almost comically, examining the stake in her breast with an expression of disbelief. Black blood coursed between her breasts, slicking the earth as she wavered and fell.
“You are unworthy of my husband,” Cole told her. “And of me.” While the vampire struggled to die, Cole stepped over her and approached the still, watchful figure of Ash. She placed her hands on either side of his face.
“No,” I groaned. For I knew what she would do. It was what I longed to do as Maria stood over me in her sweet, corrupted beauty. How easy to beg the one you love to save you. For thirty years I had wanted Maria to come back from hell and end mine. I had put such trust in love, ascribed more power to it than to that of God. But love was dead now. It stood over me, reeking of decay.
“Cole!” I scrambled to my feet, away from the slight form of the bride who I had once wanted more than salvation or breath. Cole stood murmuring to Ash, rubbing her radiant hair against his neck. They welcomed me with a calm look. His fingers wound greedily in her hair.
“No, Cole,” I begged her. “Don’t do this. Don’t let him make you like them.”
She smiled sadly. “This is what I came for, Father. For this very thing.” Something rustled behind me. White skirts trailing on the earthen floor. I wouldn’t look.
“You found Maria,” Cole said.
“It isn’t her.”
“I know. Your love is different from mine. I’m not like you, Father. I want to be where Ash is. To be at his side whatever form he takes.”
“Even death?”
“What else is life without love?” That light was in her eyes again—the gleam with no source. This had been her plan, I realized. The whole time. Every moment.
“Cole,” I said, forcing myself to sound reasonable, “come with me now. You were meant to be alive—to love in the sunlight.”
“This is the purest form of love I know,” she said. “And someone must stay here, Father. Or they’ll never let you go.”
As she spoke I felt a prickling at my back. They were behind me. The entire hall. One of their own was dead and they were filled with hunger, and rage.
“I’ve fallen in love with you, señora,” I said, my heart dropping away from me.
“I know. That is why I won’t let them hurt you. But you must get out, Father. Go far away.” Abruptly she addressed the hall: “Do you hear me? Let the Father go. He is unworthy of this hall—you shall not sully yourself with him!” A murmur greeted her words. I cannot say if it was agreement. Their energy was like nothing human or animal, and she had made herself its center.
“Go now,” she said. She touched my cheek and I seized her fingers, kissing them.
“Señora, please!”
“The dance is over, Father,” she said. She dropped my hand, caressing Ash’s gleaming face. As she offered up her long, white neck, I bolted. The crowd, held back for so long, broke and rushed past me like a flood.
I ran. Back to the other end of the chamber. Back up the stairs. Back into the tunnel. I fled the roar of voices. I fled the blistering Argentine tango that burst suddenly to life at my back, mocking everything Cole and I had shared. My breath shuddered in and out, phlegm creeping up my throat. My bones felt they would tear away from one another as I forced myself towards the surface.
Just once, before I came to the mouth of the tomb, I thought I head the scrape of slippers on stone, the whisper of a woman’s elaborate train. But I forced myself to grow deaf, to block out the cries and moans and tipsy drumbeats which emanated from the depths of that subterranean hell.
When I broke from the tomb, tumbling out into a morning terrible and wondrous in its blue-skied beauty my tears were flowing uncontrollably, blinding me as sobs wracked my breast.
I fell, scrabbling at the dusty path between the mausoleums, breathing sweet air, beside myself with feelings, horrible and otherwise, which I am not sure I have resolved within myself even to this day.
I knew only two things for certain as I lay on the path, the sun warming me back from what seemed an eternity of chill: My name was Antonio Peña and I would never dance the tango again.
Salida.
The End.
SUN FALLS
Angela Slatter
Angela