Cain (installment #3b)

Jan 04, 2008 - 14:56 PM PST

He studied her eyes as he let his hand drop from her cheek. Distance and time had kept their love sacred he had thought, but it was clear that she had moved on from what they once had. The soft serenity of hope melted away. She held his gaze without falter; he was the one to turn away.

“It’s José now. I had to change it a couple of years back when they picked up on my trail”, he stated flatly.
“José”, she whispered, “I suppose that’s common enough.”
“And a name like Cain is better?”, he scoffed.
“They haven’t found me, now have they?”, she snapped back.
“They haven’t found me either.”
“Barely! I’m surprised that you were able to survive this long without me holding your hand every step of the way.”
“Oh, I forgot who I was talking to: the Master’s special pet Cain. Like you ever did anything on your own!”

Fire sparked behind her eyes and she knotted her hands into fists. Her spine ached from holding back the adrenaline anger. Minutes passed as the tension hung in the air. José sat very still and waited for her to regain control. He could see the muscles under her clothes ripple as she took short, panting breaths. Her nostrils flared and she squeezed her eyes tightly. Her fingernails dug into her flesh. She bit her bottom lip and took one long deep breath. The energy dissolved and Cain let her body relax.
José caught her as her head dipped towards the floor. He scooped his strong arms under the bend of her knees and cradled her neck. She lay limply in the crook of his lap.

“I’m sorry”, he apologized, “I didn’t mean it. I don’t know how I’ve survived either, without you.”

Her tired eyes lazily found his face. She tried to lift her arm and was only able to make as much as a shrug. José leaned his ear down to her soft pale lips and waited for her voice to return, taking advantage of the closeness. Her colorless skin burned him through her clothes. A strong metallic rawness replaced her usual sweet scent. It stung the lining of his throat and nose, and made his own skin tingle.
He hefted her weight more securely towards his chest as he stood and made his way to the bottom of the stairs. The brown carpet from the living room wound its way over the steps and up into the hallway at the top. His legs felt like lead and his head was being drained of sensibility slowly as he made his way up, sometimes using the rail that was nailed waist-height to the wall. Emerging on the second floor there was immediately on his left: two sculptures of silver-coated women standing on either side of a closed black door. José made a move to reach for the handle shaped like a hand; Cain weakly batted him away and slowly cupped her hand lightly around the chiseled cheek of the statue on the right and pressed her thumb into its right eye. A light scanned underneath her finger and the door clicked open.

“You’ve been doing well for yourself”, he mumbled.

The door swung in on silent hinges. Dim lights gave him a vague impression of a bed-like shape against the wall to his left. He struggled into the room. Cain’s body numbed the parts of his own that were touching her. The world tumbled and spun and did back flips; he collapsed beside her on the air-cooled comforter as the black door clicked shut.