Home / Fan Fiction / V(cough) C(cough) fic / Stand Alone Stories / Song of Darkness, Book One: Star Bright, Chapter Two

DISCLAIMER: The following stories are all non-profit, amateur efforts not intended to infringe on the rights of Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, David Geffen, Warner Brothers, Geffen Pictures, Knopf, Randomhouse, the city of New Orleans, the U.S. Constitution, any copyright holders that I might not have thought of or even a certain author who shall remain nameless but who has a set of initials which are, coincidentally enough, just one letter off from spelling "B.S."

Song of Darkness, Book One: Star Bright, Chapter Two
by The Brat Queen

***WARNING***WARNING***WARNING***WARNING***WARNING***

This spec series contains GRAPHIC DEPICTIONS of RAPE, MURDER, VIOLENCE, PSYCHOLOGICAL TORTURE and THE DEATH OF CHARACTERS I happen to know MOST OF YOU ARE *REALLY* FOND OF. If these things IN ANY WAY HARM YOU or otherwise cause you trouble to read then PLEASE DON'T READ THIS. Put this spec DOWN and WALK AWAY SLOWLY. I don't mean to do SEVERE AND POSSIBLY TRIGGERING PSYCHOLOGICAL DAMAGE to any body but this idea just came to me and refused to be let go. SORRY ABOUT THAT.

***WARNING***WARNING***WARNING***WARNING***WARNING***

"It's a lonesome old town
When you're not around..."
--Sting, Leaving Los Vegas

Of course it wasn't always like this. There is, as with most things, a past.

My past is Louis. My Louis is....

I get ahead of myself again, don't I?

Such a bad habit. I do apologize.

A step back, then.

Picture, if you will, Central Park at night. And a vampire of godly powers making his home among the leaves and the ruin. A thing of nature. A thing of night and power and life.

And mon Louis, coming to me as he so often did, filling me with his sweet blood, caressing me with his fine hands, the soft accent of his voice touching my very mind.

"You would take me into Heaven with you, wouldn't you, Lestat?"

Well of course I would. What a thing to ask!

My sweet, sweet Louis. Beautiful and soft in my arms. I lost myself in him. Giving in, only then, to the waves crashing around me, letting myself float freely as he anchored me, keeping me safe in his cold embrace.

Night after night of mon Louis. Night after night of freedom, fantasy, floating into the Heavens as he held my body here on earth, my mind dancing into the sky until I could touch the very stars themselves and hold them tight, their brightness burning my hands in solar stigmata as they filled me with their light, the rays pouring through my arms, seeping and pushing through my veins to my very heart itself and then my very soul, an infestation of energy, tying me tight to this brilliant, brilliant light.

Web upon web, filling me, holding me down, wrapping around my cells as it took hold, drawing me every closer to the stars, to the Heavens, to the lights so brilliant I was blinded yet never saw more clearly, pulling me in, closer and ever closer still.

And from that light a thousand beams. Reaching down to earth, and the Heavens and the cosmos and to every living human heart that beat in that soft staccato pattern which throbbed in my mind in a rhythm that made me sweetly sick.

I could feel it, if I reached out, these threads of webs. I could touch each little spindle and feel it tremble under the pressure of my fingertip, holding for just a moment before it snapped and let loose another soul to fall unheeded through the cosmos, a screaming path of energy in its wake.

And as I came closer to earth I was truly drunk on the waves. The webbing like cotton in my mouth as I struggled to open my eyes through this sticky silken brilliance. And I could grab the webs now, like ropes, and pull them closer in my hands. I could feel the tug of each soul, each cell, each beating heart as I touched them, feeling them respond in surprise and delight as a gentle hand guided them through the chaos that was darkness, holding their webs close and finding them safe.

And as I pulled I felt pulling in return. Anchors, out there, in the lines of light and dark. Hands, like mine, which grasped these filaments and held them close, giving order in the wildness, letting the threads wrap around them so tight as to mummify them, giving stability by their silence.

I tugged on the ropes again, and loved it. I laughed, feeling a proper cowboy as I danced in the fibers around me. A true laughing fit, my hands thrown into the air, my lungs taking in great gasps of sweet pure air, drowning in the beauty and fire of it all.

I saw a pair of green eyes, and a sweet set of female lips curve into a smile.

"Louis is dead."

To say I crashed to earth is such an overdone phrase.

I opened my eyes. There was no park, there were no leaves. It was a dungeon. Again. And I was on the floor. Again.

And Maharet, again, was standing in front of me.

Such cold dead eyes she has.

"Louis is dead," she repeated again, watching me. I sat up slowly, taking this in, taking in my surroundings.

"You imprisoned me again, didn't you?"

"Yes."

I nodded, folding my legs crosswise, resting my hands on my knees as I continued my contemplations. "And Louis is dead?"

"Yes."

I nodded to myself again, taking this in. Louis was dead. I felt that to be right, somehow, even though I had not killed him myself. I'd always thought I should kill him myself. It would be wrong for another to do it. They wouldn't get it right.

"When?"

Now she challenged me with those dying eyes. "Don't you remember?"

Oh, a test then. Lestat must once more prove his sanity.

I felt, very surely, that somehow Louis had done this for me. Given me this one last passage into the world before moving on to his own.

You would take me into Heaven with you, wouldn't you, Lestat?

My love, perhaps I already have.

I looked back at Maharet, finally, meeting those ever annoying eyes. "You'd love to kill me, wouldn't you?"

Such an imperial gaze she gave me. "Just give me good reason, Lestat."

"Can you?"

It was the one second of hesitation which did it. I was on my feet with a grin, taking her into my arms for one quick, passionate kiss. "I thought as much. Enjoy the universe, dear aunt. I'm sure we'll meet again."

"Lestat," a note of warning in it this time.

I turned to look at her, seeing pure hatred in those eyes. I pictured her looking at Louis with those eyes, pressing a hand to his as she told him how to bring about my end.

I turned away and left, vanishing fast enough for only her strength to see.

You know, I never truly did like her.

But now there was more fun to be had.