Bloody Lonely

I waited, sitting, across from what I assumed was a rear exit to the venue. Not too close. Just in case.

Andrew should be on stage at any moment, if I was correct, and surely attendees would come out at intervals to smoke their little, machine-rolled tobacco cigarettes. I would be able to tell who had touched him by focusing intensely. Boredom overtook me, and I began to ruminate. Memories of Andrew and-

I heard a snicking. I looked up, and I swore, I could almost feel my heart beating! Andrew, MY ANDREW, was not 15 feet in front of me, lighting a cigarette! I felt as though I would pass out as my nostrils rapidly filled with Andrew's smell, pure, unadulterated, and totally characteristic. How I had missed it!

I froze, completely still, and forced myself to look away, terrified and conflicted. It was as easily done as casually plucking out my own eyes, but I forced myself to do it.

If I engaged with him, Andrew was a dead man. I would steal him away and infect him against his will, end his human life, ruin his life’s work… I loved him; I had to be stronger than that!

I heard Andrew walking closer, and I reluctantly glanced up at him, suppressing panic. I had to press my lips firmly together to focus. He was still so handsome, just as he always had been, and even now, as a human! “Excuse me, are you alright? You look a little bit, um, pale?” I nodded and tried for a closed-mouth smile. Andrew grinned so beautifully, I felt myself melt.

Run, Andrew. You have to leave. Now. At least go back inside. But I couldn’t quite make myself say it. Instead, I compromised and just said nothing, still trying for that reassuring smile. Some internal balance was shifting, though I fought to maintain control.

Andrew’s eyes caught the light of a street lamp as he stared at me, still grinning in his winsome way. He took a drag of his cigarette. “Have we met? You look so familiar.”

Something was triggered, somewhere inside of me. I couldn’t stop myself. No turning back.

Andrew was mine by right! We had been lovers for millennia. This ‘Andy’ had a right to know too, to remember. Could I not at least lay claim to being allowed to say a proper goodbye, to telling him how much I had missed him?

My brain cycled rapidly. I would bring him back to his human world when I was done! I would just borrow him, no harm done, gone for one night! Damn their concert; curse the humans and their dreams! They were lucky I wasn’t using them for food; I’d waited thousands of years of this moment! I’d missed him so much, my Andrew!

I stood and grabbed Andrew around the chest, springing up into the sky before anyone saw. Andrew began to panic and writhe, so I put him in a deep, near-coma of a slumber. It made me smile and think of old times. I hadn’t carried a living human since he and I had been together, and had little ‘parties.’ What the young drinkers these days called ‘Bring Your Own Blood.’ I never could decide if I thought that was crass or clever, since their poor humans always ended up dying.

As I tottered awkwardly through the air with Andrew’s dead weight in my arms, I smiled to myself. This human would not die. Not under my watch. Not ever.

For just one night, Andrew was mine again! Even for just this one moment, it was worth it, to have lived all that time, that vast, blank nothing, devoid of meaning. Just to have seen Andrew one more time with my own eyes, to have spoken with him again! I had never thought to feel such happiness again as I felt in that moment, carrying Andrew through the sky.

Notes

Uh-oh... reunited? Sort of? Or is it wishful thinking?