Dimitri Jules Baptiste (ardent_malice) wrote in haunted_roads, @ 2008-07-26 10:31:00 |
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Entry tags: | dimitri, ophelia |
Week Twelve: Tuesday
When: Late Night
Where: Restaurant
Who: Dimitri and Ophelia - Narrative
Always Dimitri went into meetings with Ophelia with that calm demeanor that seemed as though it could never be budged. He swallowed down emotions and sought to look upon her and not feel so…swayed. But those intentions always so quickly faded the longer he was around her. She, like no other, knew how to get under his skin. How to wiggle her way past that calm and strike at all the other emotions buried within. In a way he loathed her for that, how quickly she could unravel him. And yet at the same time there was a part of him that loved her still for it. It was in her presence that he felt alive. It was with her that the dullness of the world around him seemed to shed away. Leaving something else so remarkably different in its place.
She did not allow him to hide beneath that work or that indifference. She pointed out the flaws in all he spoke and all reasons he gave. She attacked his reasoning’s as though they mattered not. But the trouble was that they did. That for all the reasons he had to let himself truly be swayed by her, he had just as many reasons to not. To deny her presence and walk away.
Yes he had reasons….and yet none of them seemed enough to curb that ache that formed when she spoke that she would be leaving. He had known the words were coming. He knew by her actions and her tone that this decision had been delayed for some time now…hoping to push him to follow. He knew, but it did not dull the weight of the words. Somehow, however, he managed to keep at bay the depth of the reaction. Giving her so little of what she wanted to see from him. He could not falter, as always with her losing even that slightest bit of ground meant that you would soon fall.
Already she had spoken her goodbye to the only other childe she had that would allow themselves to care. Nothing held her here….save him.
Candlelight from the dinner table flickered as he watched her. The food was nearly forgotten, barely a bite taken from either of them. The wine bottle was half full and the crimson liquid remained in both of their glasses. The scenery around them was nothing but background. They indulged in the act of meeting to have dinner and yet all the while they knew it was nothing but an excuse. A reasoning for something that shouldn’t need a reason more then simple want.
The room was empty, reserved for just the two of them. Beyond it they could feel the heartbeats of others. The gentle murmuring of conversation and the shuffle of movement back and forth. Beyond the room the world continued in that frantic buzz of life and yet to the room they shared everything had nearly fallen still.
Silent. Waiting for some change to his answer. But though he felt urge to agree, to change his mind and go…he knew he couldn’t. Not yet. Last the family had separated death found one of their own, the guilt of that, the pain of it, haunted him still. Could he risk it by leaving again? Could he turn away knowing the past that lurked still in the city for Justine? He couldn’t. She knew this. He knew it. And yet still they remained, staring at each other in some form of stalemate. Neither wishing to go, yet neither able to change the choices made.
In her presence Dimitri refused to let his guard down, for all the care he still held for her anger still ate at the edges of heart when he thought of her. For centuries now it had remained this way…that distance between them that nothing truly was able to remedy. Tonight, for this last night, he allowed the guard to slip. For brief moments to feel what had never died within him.
One night. Hours only. That was all he allowed, all he could allow, before leaving her side before the sunrise.
Never was walking away from her easy for him. Always it wore on him, making steps heavy and hesitated. Tonight was no different. But tonight, for the first time, he allowed himself that look back at her. A last glance before sight of her disappeared and he returned to the Towers.
Choices made for now.