Aftermath

He came upon her by moonlight. She looked more bored than sorrowful, a tragic heroine too long resigned to her fate to spend the nights weeping away. When he neared, she looked up and their eyes met. Sparks didn’t fly. It was not love at first sight, more like a pleasant acknowledgement of a stranger at a bus stop.

“Hi,” was his casual introduction.

“Hi,” was her reply.

And then it was relief from boredom. At first, she didn’t tell him why she was there, just that she liked the night air. She had learned after a hundred years or so that when you tell people you are literally the stuff legends are made of, they get a little freaked out. He was amusing. She didn’t expect much, anything really. She was bored and he was relief from boredom, and he too would disappear one day. If she couldn’t even count on her “true love” she knew better than to count on some stranger. But that sounded bitter, and she had not been bitter for some time now. She was just realistic. But he didn’t go away, and she was finding it hard to keep coming up with excuses as to why she couldn’t meet him in daylight, so she made up her mind to tell him.

“I’m a vampire,” she said flatly.

“Liar,” he accused her.

“Yeah, I am,” she said with a grin, “But you’re not gonna believe the truth anymore than you believed that.”

“Try me,” he said.

“Ok, well, you’ve heard of Swan Lake, right?” she asked.

“Yeah, and?” he asked.

She lifted her hand in a small wave as if to say “hi” and claim her identity, but he just looked confused and she realized she’d have to be more explicit.

“Hi, I’m Odette and I turn into a swan during the day,” she said as if at an animal morphing anonymous meeting.

He laughed. She shrugged. They talked like normal people and he left.

“Well, that’s the last I’ll see of him,” she mumbled to herself before daylight changed her lips for a beak and stole her ability to speak. Oh well, she enjoyed the ability to fly.