Spike/other male character (in my head it's
Xander, but you can make it anyone you want, no name is ever
mentioned)
The assignment was to write a short story based on one of Robert
Frost's poems. He didn't say it couldn't be slash.
After all the tears I shed about the real essays, he gives me
the only A+ I've had all semester on this piece.
I left the classroom and laughed/cried hysterically for ten
minutes. Heh.
Acquainted with the Night
by
Pirate Purple
I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain – and back in rain.
I have outwalked the furthest city light.
William had been a vampire for one hundred and forty years when he fell in love.
His beloved had told him that vampires are soulless creatures who
do not love. So with a broken heart, William set out into the
world to seek his soul. First he sought out human shamans and
magicians. He went to the mountains of Wyoming, and the streets
of London, Cairo, Calcutta, and Chengdou. When he ran out of
money for transportation, he simply walked from place to place.
He refused to steal, or hunt humans, because he knew his pet
would not approve. His clothes became ragged, and William himself
was little more than bones, but the humans either would not or
could not help him find his soul. It wasn't until one night,
somewhere in Africa, that William met a wizened old man who told
him of a cave, and a powerful demon who would grant wishes to
those who passed his trials. The vampire went, and fought for his
soul. When he and the demon were both scarred and bloody, she
laughed at him, and told him he had never needed to come to her
at all. His soul had never left him.
I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.
William returned to the city, but his lover was nowhere to be
found. He searched the streets, every haunt and hollow his
darling had ever frequented, but did not find him. The night
watchman passed his ragged figure with an odd look, but William
put his head down, and would not meet the man's eye. He was about
to leave the city and search elsewhere, when he froze at the
sounds of running footsteps and what was unmistakably his
darling's cry.
I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,
William ran towards the noise, flying through the streets with
preternatural swiftness, only to stop at the head of the street,
again frozen in his tracks. His beloved was lying in a pool of
swiftly spreading blood, in the gutter. William began to sob as
he stumbled towards his love, falling on his knees beside him.
The vampire cradled his lover's head, bending over to kiss him
one last time. William heard his precious one breathe a final
word, "Love…" and then he was gone.
But not to call me back or say good-by;
And further still at an unearthly height
One luminary clock against the sky
Clasping his beloved to his chest he looked up at the illuminated
clock in the center of the town. There were only a few more
moments until dawn, and the vampire could feel the sun just below
the horizon. William turned to the east to await his fate.
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right
I have been acquainted with the night.
William saw his first dawn in nearly a century and a half through
teary eyes, with his lover in his arms. The sun's consuming fire
was exquisitely painful, but the vampire made no sound, tears
silently sliding down his face. William saw his lover's face in
the sunlight for the first time, and his final thought was, "He's
so beautiful this way." And then there was only a cloud of ash
the wind blew through the street.
