Chapter 90: To See You Again

KIX:

Am I only dreaming this, or is my mind playing tricks on me?

The person before me looked unkempt and disheveled, but it was the same face with the same attractive set of eyes I had loved all these years.

I touched the cheek of the person on top of me, and it was as cold as ice.

But by the Moon Goddess, it really was her!

“Jade…”

Instead of recognizing who I was, I heard a loud shriek.

Almost immediately, she backed against the wall, covering her face.

“Jade… You’re alive,” I said. I didn’t realize I was holding my breath. I came closer to her, but she backed away some more.

“Don’t you… Don’t you recognize me,” I said, swallowing the lump of emotions down my throat.

She looked even more anguished in a flimsy, red night gown. What on earth happened to her?

Before I could approach her further, she raised a palm against me. “S-Stop… Don’t come near me…”

I looked at her frightened face. There seemed to be no sense of recognition coming from her…

“It’s me, Jade… You remember me, right?”

She squinted her red and blood shot eyes. They were dark brown once, or was my memory simply playing tricks on me?

“You… You smell familiar,” she said faintly. “Do you know me?”

My heart quavered with hurt. What happened to her? How did she forget me, of all people?...

“I don’t just know you… I loved you, and I was sure at one point you have loved me too… We were classmates back in high school, don’t you remember?”

I began to inch forward to her, but she winced and stopped me by the hand once more.

“Please don’t come any closer,” she said again.

I looked at her outstretched palms and noticed how long and pointed her fingernails had become…

Something in my gut told me that she wasn’t the same Jade I knew from before… She had been turned into one of them.

“Jade, that’s my name, right? Tell me what my full name is… Tell me what I was doing when you last saw me…”

It was a painful recollection for me. I started my story on why we drifted apart from high school and when we saw each other again back in college. I told her of our every encounter. I recollected the cases of Misha and Marian that brought us back again…

She sat there silently in a corner, her eyes widening in recognition at all the events I told her about.

By the time I had finished it was almost daybreak.

“Why did you come here,” I asked. “Did you… Did you come back to take your revenge from me… from what I had done?”

There was no doubt in my mind that she was here for retribution… After all, the undead keep their anger within for a long time. They never let go of a grudge…

Instead of looking at me with fire in her eyes, she looked more confused than ever.

“Why would I take revenge on you?... I only came here because I wanted to find out who you were…”

She crawled a little bit closer, peering into my eyes.

“I saw your face in the television screen, and I thought to myself that I knew you. I surely knew this person, so I tried to escape from them. I wanted to come find you…”

“Them? Who are they?...”

“I don’t know… I don’t really remember their names, just their faces. I remember a ritual where this man sank his fangs on me here,” she said, pointing to her neck. “It was so painful that I cannot forget about it…”

“Then after that, he kept me in a room that always stayed locked. He said he was my husband and that we would be together forever if I would only drink the liquid he sends me…”

My heart felt like it would pop out of rib cage as I heard Jade’s story. “So did you? Did you drink it?”

“No… I couldn’t drink it. I didn’t want to be with him forever… I didn’t want to be with him at all…”

We sat there in silence, looking at the now open solitary cell and the window across it. Daylight was approaching fast.

“Thank you for answering my questions… I must keep going now…”

“Where will you go?”

“I don’t know… I haven’t figured it out yet.”

She was about to stand, but before she could do it, I put my arms around her from the back and held her tightly in my arms.

“Jade, damn it! Why are you lying to me,” I finally cried. “I know you remember me, and I know why you’re here…”

After I said those words, she began to burst into tears too…

**********************

JADE:

He was right. I had been keeping the truth from him...

Of course I remembered Kix. I remembered him like and everything that had ever happened to me, to us…

I came here after seeing a news report about his impeding execution. I knew that if I didn’t try to see Kix one last time, I would never be able to forgive myself…

After Liam and his kind turned me into a vampire, there wasn’t any day that I had tried to escape from them. He thought that if I finally became like him, I would eventually become his.

But my heart was never his to begin with. It had always been someone else’s…

Liam tried to force feed me with blood every chance he had. I fought them all. I was stronger than any other members of his family. They often remarked that if I would only take in blood, I could even surpass Liam when it comes to strength…

But I didn’t want to be a vampire. I just wanted to escape. I just wanted to be free…

These past few months, Liam became even more desperate. He said that the limit for vampires who wouldn’t nourish themselves with blood would be three years. If I don’t drink blood on the third year of my induction, my body would disintegrate into ashes.

My third year without nourishment would exactly be today…

Surprisingly, the door of my room was unlocked that night. There was no one guarding the halls and the gate. Perhaps this was Liam’s last gift before I die…

Naturally, I went to see the only person I had ever truly loved deeply…

When I came inside Kix’s cell, the smell of his blood excited me. I lost my sanity for a while and wanted to sink my fangs into his neck, but when he called me by name, the want to devour him dissipated.

When I looked at how devastated his face was when he saw me, I knew I had to fake everything… The truth will just make him feel more anguished.

I was contented with hearing his voice one last time, of hearing the stories about how we met and how we parted. I was not going to get greedier than that, and I would go out quietly to die after this…

That was my plan, but after hearing his words, I couldn’t help but burst into tears.

“Jade, why are you lying to me?... I know you remember me. I know why you’re here.”

How did he know? How did he discover that I couldn’t forget him, that his memories always filled my heart with hope when I was held captive against my will?...

But that was all there should be now… I was going to die. Kix can now escape from here. I made sure I rid the halls of any police officers who could impede his escape.

So why now?... Why can’t I let go of his strong arms and his embrace.

“Don’t go, Jade… Don’t leave me…”

Does he know what he was saying? Does he truly know what he was asking me to do?

He turned my body towards him, his strong arms gripping me hard. “Don’t go, Jade… Mark me. Drink my blood before it’s too late…”

My eyes widened. “No… No, don’t make me do it, Kix!”

“Do it! If you die in front of me right now, I’ll just kill myself too. I swear I would!”

If I mark him, he’ll become a monster like me…

Perhaps Kix can read minds now. He even answered my thoughts.

“I’d rather be a monster that stays by your side that someone you’d leave alone forever.”

Tears were still streaming down my face. The morning sun was fast approaching…

“I love you forever, Jade.”

“I love you too…”