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As captain of the watch, my duties are stationing my guards where I am told and to watch over high-value convicts when they come in. More or less. Right now, I am doing the latter. I sighed, wishing I had a cigarette to take drags of instead, and staring through gritted teeth at her cell.
Colloquially she is known as Valentine. An arsonist, a thief, a drunkard, and–if you believe the rumors–a killer and a vampire. She admits to murder, but none of the information in those cases adds up. Formally, she doesn’t have a name that we are aware of. She changes it constantly, but she likes it when I call her Cherry. Her clothes are always covered in blood. She doesn’t try to hide it. She flies in the face of everything we do.
“Nice to see ya again, Captain!”
“As it were, Miss Cherry,” I sighed.
“Awww don’t look so down, missus~ I can give ya a hug if it’d help,” she smiled.
Her chains clinked and scraped around as she lifted her arms up for an embrace. I would not have obliged even if the giant interlocking steel bars between us were gone. I did lean over to rest my hands on one horizontal bar. If not for my little black gloves, it would be so painfully cold. The problem here, for me, was that these bars were not enough. She’s been incarcerated here twice, who knows how many more times elsewhere. But, she has broken out each time.
“You have something on your mind, Captain Madison~ I can tell! Share with the class!”
“Yes… Can you stop breaking out? I’m gonna lose my job if you get out again.”
“Mm, I hadn’t thought of that,” she purred. “I can see how that’d be suspicious, yeah. I’m surprised they haven’t tried just killing me.”
“They plan to,” I asserted. “They want it to be a big public event, yaknow, show their superiority.”
She laughed. The chains jingled around happily as she kicked her feet.
“I get it! I get it. I’ll break out during the execution this time. That’ll show them~ But, you have to make a deal with me. Hmm. What could a little vampire like me want with someone like you~?”
I jumped at the first thing that came to mind. “Blood?” This arrangement was embarrassing enough as is. I was willing to dig a little deeper if it meant keeping my job. Only she would know, anyway.
“Ahaha~ You perv~! Bloooood. I’ll take you up on it,” she smiled ear to ear. “So how long do I have Captain?”
“Mm, lemme check.” I let my hands slip off of the bar and went back to my desk. “Two days. If they could make it tomorrow morning they would. They might even.” Was it really this easy? She might be the most wanted criminal in all of Silan, but she was overbearingly honest, aside from all that vampire nonsense. I see no reason to press her on that any further. I can play along, if I really have to.
“I hope it’s not the morning,” she groaned. “But, oh well. I’ll stay.”
She reclined with her back against the wall and her head cocked back to look at me. I could have sworn her eyes and crooked smile were glowing. Perhaps I was too focused on them. I wish I couldn’t see her from my desk. I did not miss the way she wormed into my mind.
“What’s the hold-up, Captain? Gimme your blood!”
“...Are you serious? How do you plan on taking it?”
“My big fangs, of course! Chomp! Chomp!”
“So, you want me in there?”
She waved her arm around and let the chains jingle around playfully. Right. If I really must. I thought for a moment though. There was a camera watching the both of us. She noticed me looking at it and thinking. She was giggling into her chained up hand.
I left for the maintenance room. Leaving her alone and trusting her not to leave felt like a huge mistake. There was nobody watching the cameras, and this place is supposed to be high security. I knew my way around well enough to loop the last hour or so of footage, just once. This would buy me an hour for whatever she had planned. I set a timer on my watch for an hour. An hour. I cooly shut the door behind me, back into the room with my prisoner. She was still there, smiling and staring at me like a ghost.
“Go well, Captain?”
I decided to let my actions answer her, and unlocked her cell. I stepped in and shut the door behind myself with a soft clang. I got down on my knees in front of her. It’s the first time we’ve been at remotely the same height, let alone being so close. She was ecstatic. She leaned in over my shoulder and worked my collar down.
“You’re surprisingly easy,” she whispered. It made me tingle. “You’re so uptight and serious all the time. You really care about your job huh?”
“Yeah.”
It’s the only reason I’m doing this. She ran a cold finger across my skin.
“From the way you were talking earlier, you don’t think I’m a vampire,” she deduced. “Silly.”
She brought her mouth up to my neck. I’ve never had my skin bitten, but I could tell it wasn’t right. I felt 2 jagged teeth. They pressed down softly at first. Then, she scraped them along my skin, scratching me, dowsing for an artery maybe. They stopped on an acceptable target and they went in.
It hurt. It hurt so bad, but only for a moment. I could feel it: blood leaking out of me. I was shaking. I felt so close to her. It wasn’t long before her teeth were back out of me and she was simply sucking and licking the spot she bit me.
“You…really…”
“Yup. I’m a monster. Everything you’ve heard is true.”
Dutifully, she began unbuttoning my coat. I couldn’t let her see. I put my hand up to stop hers. She looked me in the eyes. Hers were so calm, motherly, gentle. She wasn’t smiling as widely as usual.
“You can show me,” she purred.
Did she know? I cast my gloved hand down and she resumed her work. She unbuttoned my coat all the way and then the vest and the shirt underneath, down to nothing but my bra. This can’t be real.
She could see it, a giant poorly bandaged gash in my stomach. I’ve done my best to hide it until now. If anyone saw, they’d treat me like I’m weak. I’m captain of the watch.
“Poor thing,” she mewled. “You really must be resting with something like this.”
“I know,” I said, a tear building up in the corner of my eye.
“Clearly you don’t.”
She touched it with the tips of her fingers. I flinched, but she remained gentle. I put my hand on her wrist with half an intention of stopping her, if I had to.
“I’ll see what I can do,” she soothed. “I will have to take more blood.”
“That’s…that’s fine.” I wanted her to take more regardless. It felt good.
“Hold still this time. It should hurt less.”
She slowly set herself back on my neck. I heard the trails of spit being stretched between her upper and lower teeth. Then, her fangs were back in me. The stinging pain ripped through my body in shivers. I never could have imagined how much I would miss those fangs, how happy I’d be that they’re back.
I had to return the sensations somehow. I wrapped my arms around her, intimately, the way lovers would. It grounded me. I truly felt small in a way I would never allow myself. She bit down harder, sending another wave of pangs through me.
“Cherry,” I moaned, sinking my nails into her back.
“Mhm,” she purred. She rubbed up and down my back with one hand, the other still touching my bandages.
It felt like she was reaching into my chest and holding my heart in her clawed hand. From my chest to my throat and on my face I felt a growing warmth. Warmth meant blood. Was she coaxing my heart to pump blood just for her? She could have it all, if she truly wanted. I’ve never been able to stop her. I should remove myself of the notion that she can be stopped. That idea gave me a certain weightlessness, as though we were floating upside down up on the ceiling. Maybe that was what made my blood flow so strangely.
Suddenly, the mechanics and reality of this situation slipped my mind, and I let myself simply be. It hurt, but she was so close, wrapped around my heart. My breathing slowed. I hadn’t even noticed it get so fast. I hugged her, gently. From somewhere in my mind I could hear affirmations of “good girl” and “that’s it, sink deeply for me.” My eyelids couldn’t decide whether to stay closed or open, so they bounced between the two states.
My head felt fuzzy. All that was left in it was fluff. All else got taken and slurped up, and that was good. My face lost its tension and went slack. My eyes were closed. Behind them, I could still see Cherry’s smile. It was in me now.
“Hahh,” I moaned. “Hhahn!” She hugged me tightly, before removing her teeth.
She let the spot bleed for just a moment. It stung, but her gentle kisses washed it away. Then, she perched her chin on the shoulder she drank from and wrapped herself deeply around me. It was now just a simple hug, but it was everything to me. I needed the moment to recollect myself.
I was the first to make any move. She let me back away and let her eyes meet my gaze. She giggled and went in for kisses. Her lips were soft and wet, just like cherries. They were also delicate and slow with me. Still recuperating, I was in no position to give kisses any more passionately, so it was perfect.
She pushed my clothes back until she could wrap an arm around me from inside my coat. She did so, running a finger along the bandages, looking for where it ended. She found it and began pulling, letting the bandage go slack around my body one little bit at a time. Our lips left each other.
“What are you doing? I’m just going to start bleeding out again.”
“No. I patched it up as best I could. It won’t bleed anymore, unless you get hurt again.”
As layer after layer of bandage came off, I kept expecting it to hurt and to gush with blood, but it was perfectly fine. I was watching her eyes dance from one side of my body to the other as her fingers worked the bandage off. Once it was all gone, she bundled up the dirty blackened cloth and threw it to the side. What was left was a giant black clot on my stomach.
She coerced me to lay on my back. She crawled on top of me, her face above my chest. Her hands pinned the loose flaps of my coat down to the cold concrete floor.
She lurched her head down to my stomach. She licked up the blood. While her tongue was constantly poking against me and pressing into my wound, it did not hurt. It was pleasurable even. I crooked my head up to check her progress. Most of the blood was gone, swimming around in her stomach. There was just smooth skin underneath. I touched it to make sure it really was healed.
“Impressed?”
“W-well yeah!”
“I did little more than sew up your skin. It still needs to heal, so take it easy.”
“Thank you, Cherry. Thank you so much,” I said through tears. I let my head fall back and off to the side so she could not see. My hat rolled off my head onto the dirty floor.
“Of course, Captain.”
Captain… The name left a bitter taste in my mouth. It tasted like smoke and dust. She could sense the apprehension.
“Madison?”
That doesn’t feel right either. I always took great pride in the name. I wanted people to respect it and truly look up to it. I wanted Madison to be shining, but right now it felt so dull. It was brass, worn and unpolished and tasting metallic. It made me grit my teeth. And then a thought occurred to me.
“Could you give me a name?”
Cherry’s smile returned in full force. I have never seen it so closely before and never from such a vulnerable position. It kicked up a whirlpool of emotions in me, chief among them was fear but also there was love. I knew I should turn and leave but it disarmed me.
“I’ll think about it.”
For the next while, I slowly warmed up to her and cuddled into her. When she called me cute, I blushed. I’ve been in close relationships before, but none where I felt so comfortable. She offered her lap. I gave in and laid my head in it while she idly played with my hair.
“Amaranth.”
“What’s that?”
“Your new name,” Cherry smiled. “It’s a grain. The plant is this beautiful red. There were fields of it where I used to live. I remember flying above it all and watching the wind roll through it. I remember smelling it in the markets in the heart of Spring. Sometimes, we would go glean some ourselves and go back home to grind it into flour. Then, we would bake breads and cakes with it. I miss it,” she sighed.
“I think about going back sometimes, but I think that place I know is too far in the past now. Estern used to be a quaint little town like that too. The buildings were all stone and half-timber. Now, everywhere I look there are clouds of steam and smoke rising. The roads are pitch black and have loud cars. It gives me a headache.”
“I know,” I trailed off. “But, I’m just used to it.”
“You never think of leaving it all behind?”
The alarm on my watch started buzzing. It’s been an hour already? It’s been an hour! I had to get back on the other side of the jail bars.
“What’s the matter?”
“I have to get back to my station,” I stammered, panic fully set in my voice. “I looped about an hour of footage on the cameras, so it’ll start recording again at any moment.”
“…Let it,” she suggested. “Let them find this.”
“W-wha…”
“Once I escape, I’ll come back for you, and take you home. No more city watch. No more captain. I’ll introduce you to all the girls, and if you really want, we could turn you into one of us. You’d be such a pretty vampire.”
Her smile was a protective and caring one, but she still proudly showed off her blood-stained fangs. She kept playing with my hair. I should get up and leave her right now, but it was much to consider. The more time I spend considering, the riskier this becomes. Indecision counted as a choice here.
If I chose to stay with her, they would find the recording and determine I’m an accomplice. I could be just as wanted as Cherry. Maybe more. I do have government secrets afterall. I’ve seen how defectors are treated, by my own hand too. I could see the newslines already. Valentine Escapes Execution. Captain of the Watch Defects: Footage Shows Cooperation with Valentine.
I used to want her gone. She still intended on escaping her execution, and I now have the utmost faith in her. If she can pull off such a stunt, what chance do I alone have of bringing her to an end? Imagining her gone made me want to throw up. She healed me. I would cry for her.
I hugged into her tightly. It forced out a giggle from her. If this was for the better, why did it make my heart jump so much? I could feel it in my throat.
“Since you’ve given up being captain, I’ll share my name with you. It’s Marian Carmille, descendent of Blaire Carmille. The one from the folk stories. I don’t want that name getting out, so I waited to tell you. I trust you to keep it secret now, though~”
“Marian…”
It was a gentle and motherly name but just as much perversely wicked. It was ostensibly powerful and regal. It was the purple and blues and rich reds of poisonous berries. It was perfect: Marian. As I continued hugging her, my heart slowed back down.
“Do you remember when you started calling me Cherry? I told you to call me ‘mon cheri’ as a joke, but you believed it was really my name! Ahahaa!”
The memory always made me embarrassed. I never thought I’d be laughing about it too.
“You have a cute smile,” she mewled. “You should wear it more often.”
“Thank you… Marian.”
I felt the same warmth in my chest and throat as before. If all it took to feel this way was to be with her, why not?
“Though, I’d prefer if you still called me Cherry. It feels special, yaknow? Only you call me that after all.”
“Cherry.” I focused on the way it felt to leave my mouth. And, again, the warmth.
“Amaranth,” she giggled.
Cherry’s hair looked bleached, but looking at it closer it might be greying. Her young face and temperament didn’t match that, though. The glim jail cell light did not suit her either. She should be free, singing and flying over the fields of amaranth. I’m sure they were soft. It would feel good to fall backwards into it and let the red grain wash over me.
I woke up at my desk. This room hardly gets light from outside, but, still, the first shreds of daylight were crawling on the walls. The scarcely illuminated cell still had a thin figure laying down on the cold mattress, thinly separating Cherry from the cold concrete floor. She was still.
I slouched forwards and caught my forehead in my hand. I was now looking down at my hat. In this light, it was plain black, but usually it is a somber blue. It was missing its badge. In this state, the hat was no more the hat of a captain of the watch. I ran my fingers over where the badge was securely pinned, still able to find holes where the pins once were and how the material was sagged and deformed there from the constant weight. I guess Cherry took it.
I put the hat on my head. It was so light that I felt like I wasn’t wearing any hat at all. It felt silly. I took the hat off and placed it back on top of the lacquered wood desk and finally let it rest.
~~~
“Captain Madison?”
“Mm? What is it?”
It was Lieutenant Stilton, the prodigy. He’d probably be taking my position soon. He always talked like he’s going to.
“Jeez, I must’ve called for you like 10 times. I guess you’re so distracted because they’re executing that prisoner you were so obsessed over.”
“…Yes.”
Marian was at the forefront of my mind, but the reason I didn’t respond was because I forgot about that name: Madison. I struggle to consider it mine. It left a bad taste in my mouth, felt like poison.
“Gonna watch the execution with us? They’re airing it all over.”
“Wouldn’t miss it.”
The lieutenant tipped his hat and left. The day was slow. I didn’t get anything done, so I milled around, looking at everything one last time. I visited the surveillance room. They were already reviewing last night’s footage. I smiled imagining what they would find. It would be the same hour played twice, and at the very end of it I would leave. Then, it would cut to the cell door being open and the two of us embracing. To think I did that to keep my job, ridiculous. I left with a familiarly wicked smile. The break room was were it was happening anyway.
My guards gathered around a little television set–state of the art–with the news on. It was tuned to Cherry’s execution. The other guards were cheering and congratulating me on keeping her for a night. All of us were wearing hats except me. I couldn’t care less what they thought. I was glued to the screen, trying to soke in every detail I could, waiting for Cherry’s escape. She had her head poking through the base of a guillotine, a procession gathered below her, and government officials I would soon forget the names of around her.
She was gleaming the same way I was familiar with, a toothy smile cracked ear to ear. One official began a sort of speech they had thrown together listing crimes Cherry had been convicted of, and many more which she had only been suspected of. She laughed at the ones she found particularly amusing.
‘On behalf of the great city of Estern,” The television buzzed. ‘And of the great nation of Silan, I grant the execution of Ms. Valentine. If you will, Mr. Mordley.’
‘Right.’
The one named Mordley walked over to the guillotine. I hunched in towards the screen, nearly licking it in anticipation. How could you escape this one, Cherry? He grabbed hold of the rope. All he had to do was pull on it. Below him, and perhaps outside of his perception, Cherry reached her arms over the head top and made signs with her hands like she was posing for a picture. It warranted confused looks and clamouring from some of the crowd, but the officials did not seem to notice. They were too busy staring into cameras.
What happened next was done and over so quickly that the flashing newspaper cameras could not have possibly captured it properly. The executioner pulled on the rope, causing the giant blade of the guillotine to come crashing down on Cherry’s neck.
The noise it made as it went through her neck made me blink. Though, Cherry had already unlocked the pillory and pulled her head back out from the guillotine, an impossibility. In the next moment she was standing, leaning against the disarmed guillotine, pretending to yawn.
Once everyone realized what happened, the guards were called, but she was gone. She disappeared out of frame. My guards were in complete disbelief. I stood up straight and walked to my office to hang up my coat. I will see her soon.