“I think…” I started as I looked up at the rain coming down. “I’ve heard of that before.”
She didn’t respond but I kept looking up. Searching for the words in the rain when a rain droplet stopped just above my face. The rain came to a standstill in midair as my eyes closed.
“Mother to all… Prey to none,” I repeated. Opening my eyes, the sudden night sky was staring back at me with the moon hovering directly above. Smiling, I almost took comfort at the sight with my mind immediately going to Namir. I always teased him about being able to see the moon in his eyes when he looked at me. Now it was slowly starting to make sense. Closing my eyes again, I inhaled and exhaled before opening them to see the sun and white clouds.
“Chosen by earth,” we both said at the same time. The rain slowly drew back in reverse as my heart began to skip. Her thumb pressed into my palms where she was attempting to make my veins visible. My hair was beginning to levitate, lifting around my shoulders as the sun rays began to hit our skin, giving us that golden deep brown glow.
“Beneath…the sun,” she finished.
“I’ve never felt like this before,” I said in awe as I looked up again, feeling like I could conquer the world. I wanted to kickoff the ground and fly or at least drop down to listen to the heartbeat of the ground. Everything around me felt like it was responding only to me, even if it might have been her, it felt like me. I hadn’t realized Gaia brought her wrist towards her with her eyes darkening to a velvet red. She silently plunged her fangs into her skin for a bite like it was a mere apple. I turned to look at her. Whatever high I felt intensified as a throbbing pain in my gums began to pulsate throughout my mouth. From the corner of my eyes, I could see the sky shift from day to night. Clouds replaced stars; the sun rotated around like we were in a dome that was spinning the same looping picture around us. Birds came and went, trees grew, and plants wilted, and the grass grew as tall as my knee before shriveling back down as the sun dried it out.
“Wake the life,” Gaia continued as blood trickled down her chin, staining her skin. Her arm was leaking where the two punctured holes were slowly healing back. “That’shiding in me…Blood of the moon…”
I looked at her, seeing the bloodlust in her eyes as I shook my head, but her lips puckered around the blood-soaked fangs as she quietly shhh’d me. When I felt her other hand reach for the back of my head, she tilted her head up, mouth open with anticipation as she let her fangs hang like it was her that was about to drink. Without warning, she brought her wrist to my mouth, muffling my screams until I caught her eyes. She looked just like me. I was feeding on myself from the white hair, the startled expression, and jacked brows that needed to be brushed down. Yet I felt it… I felt her heartbeat, my heartbeat on my tongue…thumping in my mouth against her skin like a tiny speaker with a little bass. I could hear each swallow, and the wetness of saliva squishing around. I could hear the plants inside the house moving around as the vines stretched andslithered. The wind chimes, the creaky screen door, even the sound of clouds hovering over the sky, they had their own noise.
I could hear and feel everything. I could even hear the hymn repeating in her head, my head, our heads…
Mother to all. Prey to none.
Chosen by earth. Beneath the sun.
Wake the life that’s fast asleep.
Blood of the moon.
“My soul to keep,” she concluded. “Do not ignore what you are…or you will forever be lost and unbalanced…Maggie…Grey.”
With an affectionate smile from her final words, her face began to curl and wrinkle as the wind gently blew against our bodies. She began to slowly disappear, breaking into pieces that drifted with the current. I shook my head, fangs hanging with blood still dripping on them as I reached for her. She pointed to her chest as her eyes began to turn cloudy white until she was no longer there. I looked up at the morning sky before turning to see the house was fading with her like a memory or dream.
“No, no no no no no!” I screamed. Not again. “GAIA?! GAAAAIA?!”
I rushed towards the back sliding door of the two-story home and fumbled around with the lock. Blood smeared over the glass where my hands were drenched from my very first feed until I slid it back and showed my body in the thick mass of darkness.
Ayira The Princess
I was thrown into a room as my body fell forward with a hard thud. Looking back, I saw the closet door shut as the sound of clothes fell against the door from inside.
“Maggie?” I called out, barely above my natural voice. I looked around the dark room where it was simply a small bright pink bed, and other room furniture placed around the space. I saw the pictures taped to the mirror on the wall that sat above a series of drawers. Everything was colorful and bright with toys piled in one woven basket. There was even a set of markers and colored paper placed on a desk that was held up by giant pencils. I looked up and noticed stars and the moon that had a bright green glow stuck to the ceiling before looking down at the bed.
This was a child’s bedroom, and not just any child. Slowly, I stood up and walked over to the nearest picture frame where I saw Maggie being held by an older woman. Her mouth was covered in red juice and mushed fruit, staining her chin as she held a half bitten strawberry. Her white hair was covered up by a big hat, but it wasn’t hard to miss when a curly strand dangled down her face. This was her bedroom when she was a little girl.
“Maggie?” I called out again, looking towards the door. That’s when I heard the noise coming from the outside, something like water running and glass clinking together. I started for the door to peek open, letting my ear listen first as the smokey scent of meat filled the air between the cracks.
“Come on out, Princess,” a man’s voice said. “Maggie ain’t here just yet but she’s on her way.”
His accent was hard to place when I pulled the door further back and stepped forward into the hallway. I followed the noise that I assumed was coming from the kitchen until I came out in the open space. There, a man stood behind the stove with a cast iron pan in his hand. Shirtless, he reached in the cabinets above to grab seasoning before opening a pack of round meat with a red band wrapped around its edges. His hair could only be explained as thick black roots that stuck up like legs of a spider in every which direction. The black shorts hung low on his hips showing another grey layer of material underneath and bare feet on the tiled floor.
I darted towards the first chair with my eyes on the front door, seeing a peek of sun shining through the windows but when I looked back, the man continued to cook, placing his meat on the pan before stepping back as it popped and fried.
“Shit!” He fussed. Leaning down, he turned the heat up before nodding proudly at his work. That’s when he finally turned to look at me with a smile. “Like I said, she’ll be here in a minute. Just sit down somewhere and wait.” I remained standing as he shrugged. “Fuck it then. Yo call, not mine baby.”
Flustered at the thought of him calling me baby, I shook my head and looked around. This was indeed her family home only there were no pictures of her as an adult, just as a little girl. I heard the man cough as he spun a loaf of bread wrapped in plastic in the air only to drop it to the counter in a playful manner. He began making his meat sandwiches, stacking one on top of the other as each round of meat bubbled in the center and charred on the edges. When he had at least four stacked like atower on his paper plate, he came to the living room and plopped down in the cushioned chair with content. The small dangling chain around his neck swished back and forth when he placed his foot on the glass table in the center.
“Hand me that red cup over there,” he suddenly said with a point. I looked at the kitchen, seeing the large plastic red cup before cautiously gripping it to bring back to him. When he didn’t say anything else, I finally took the chance to sit across from him as he continued to hum and mutter to himself with a bob of his head.
How did he know about Maggie and I coming? Where is she and more importantly, why are we supposed to be here? He did not speak a word to me. Just chewed his food while I anxiously squeezed my hands in between my knees.
“May I ask who you are?” I started. He had no intention of speaking to me at first but as he brought his fist to his mouth, he took a deep swallow.
