I think to take her at her word and disappear. I just can't bear to part with her image, though, so I'm back again.

She barely acknowledges me, lifting her eyes and dropping them back down.

"Chocolate?" She offers from behind her book.

"I'm the kind of creature you should never feed. I will come back."

"Must you eternally speak in riddles? It was amusing at first, now it is has become annoying."

I grin. "I will not have a chocolate, thank you."

"There now you're talking like a human," she grumbled.

"Heaven forbid,"

She sighs, looking up at me once, taking stock of my form.

"You'd like me to drag me to hell with you, wouldn't you?"

I smile, offering my hand. "Just take my hand through the flame."

She groans in annoyance, leaving me. I stand still. I hadn't realized how much this place meant to me. I lift my lips up as I think of the memories in this place.

When I first met her, I knew I wanted her. I tried to eat nothing but human food. Tasted of sand on my tongue.

I tried my best, but I ended up waking up in the middle of night, much too hungry to sleep.

"What are you doing here anyway," She asks, emerging from the back room.

"I can't say for sure," I tell her honestly, watching her.

"Let me rephrase: what do you want from me?"

I want to tie her up. Tie her down. Keep her by my side for as long as I can. I want to drink from her. Touch her.

"Another recommendation," I say instead.

• • •

I didn't have a choice. Becoming this. I was a young man, foolish. Taken with and perhaps, infatuated with an older man who seemed far wiser.

I realize now that wisdom was lecherous. As I aged, and grew in maturity, I would look out at the young people that were the age, I was then.

And I could not see them that way. The way he saw me. The way he told me I saw him. Nonetheless, one must pay for one's mistakes, even mistakes borne of youthful ignorance.

"You want to stay young and beautiful forever," he informed me. Never asked.

I remember being very still. Very quiet.

He repeated himself, more surely. "You want to be young and beautiful forever."

And here I am. Young. Young, he's. Beautiful? Not any way that matters. Not anymore.

Not for what feels like an eternity. I stare up at the sun. My stomach is knots. I may vomit soon, but I can't help it. It burns ever so softly.

I find myself infatuated with pain now. Mine. Others. I'm enslaved to it, no matter what, in the existence I am.

I walk on, silent. I blend in, but I know...I am not like them. I will never be like them.

I look down. And isn't that wonderful?

I sigh, inhaling the cool air.

"You look melancholy,"

That presence again. He shows himself, young, dark hair, dark eyes. I smirk. New.

I could kill him now, absorb his potential. If I were a younger, more ambitious version of myself, perhaps I would've.

"Do I?" I remark offhandly.

He nods, walking backwards to face me, his face pulled into a gleeful grin. I can't help but smile back.

"Is it that lady? I overheard them planning her wedding. Didn't you know?"

I sigh with a nod. "I was aware. Did you know it's rude to point out others wrongdoings so bluntly?"

He cocks his head, his feet leaving the ground. "Is it really? How stiff."

"Get down," I hiss. "You mustn't reveal yourself to humans."

He does so but he frowns. "Why? We're stronger than them."

Ah...to be young and stupid.

"Because you need them." I murmur, walking faster.

"For blood right? I just take a little so it's alright."

"No. You need them. You need them...to like you."

He follows after me hurriedly. "I don't though, do I?"

I sigh. "If you don't...you'll be alone. And there is nothing worse...than being so painfully alone. So just fit in."

His eyes widen, his feet firmly on the ground, as he holds his arm.

He stared up at the sky. "Does it burn you too?"

I nod gently.

"It's proof of gods love," he smiles.

"Love doesn't burn, child."