Comfort In Routine ((Kefira))

[Talitha]

Routine was becoming a very comforting blanket to Talitha. Every morning she woke up at the same time, after a decent night’s sleep on a comfortable mattress. She had breakfast, which tasted good, then went about her chores around Club Tryst. Cleaning and sorting, checking and all manner of mundane tasks that a Vampyr such as Bruis would never dream of doing himself, Talitha completed eagerly. It was all child’s play in comparison to living on the streets, sneaking from one pocket to the next in hope of her emaciated fingers clasping around something of value. The venders would then look at her suspiciously as she attempted to barter her stolen coins and items for food, clothes or shoes and begrudgingly give her a price that was neither fair, nor cheap.

The afternoon was beginning to fall victim to night, the fingers of darkness strangling the life from the light, forcing it to give way to shadow. Talitha was finished with her work for the day, and had just finished her dinner. With a full belly, the blue eyed teenager wandered the various dimly lit hallways, closed doors leading to various other areas off limits to her. She passed the door she knew led to Bruis’ room, and she paused as she silently thanked him for saving her from poverty. While the other girls bickered at night about why they hadn’t been turned into the dead creatures of the night they so desperately sought out to be, Talitha simply appreciated the bed, shelter and food. Not once had she considered even desiring to be turned. Brudjans were strong, cruel, amazingly powerful and beautiful.

She knew she was none of those things.

Continuing on her way back to her room, frowning slightly at the thought of the inevitable griping that awaited her by the others, Talitha heard a door close behind her, and she turned to see who it was. Her mouth went dry as she spotted the lithe form of Kefira, the dark skinned beauty she was immensely envious of. She was stunningly beautiful, and she had been witness to her cosy position with Bruis, which burned the raven haired girl more than she wanted to admit, but knew that it was easily seen by the supernatural eyes of the Vampyr around her. Biting the bullet, as she was too close to Kefira not to have to acknowledge her, she gave a small smile.

“Evening Kefira, is there anything I can do for you?” she asked politely.

[Kefira]

She drummed her long, deadly fingers against a plastic table on the club floor, her host next to her trailing compliments long and articulate across the skin of her neck. He had long since ceased to be useful and now was only tedious. Did she need some cockroach of a human telling her she was beautiful? How laughable that he really believed beauty to be the highest compliment a woman could be paid. With a roll of her dark eyes, she stood from her seat and left her would be suitor stunned in her chilly wake.

As she ascended to the second floor of the club her eyes sought about for entertainment in most any form. Well, except for the form of horny mouthbreathers who would only kill off more of her precious brain cells. No, she longed for a different kind of past time, though per usual for the spontaneous woman she wouldn't know what that preference was until she stumbled upon it. This time, she happened to stumble upon it in the form of the stunning little girl Bruis had taken in. She really was gorgeous, she admitted not for the first or last time.

“Evening Kefira, is there anything I can do for you?”

“Keep me company,” she responded easily. “The rest of your kind bore me this evening.” Smiling, which always looked like a smirk on her, she crossed the room to a sofa and sat herself regally upon it, lazily lounging her head back onto the cushion behind her.

“What is your name?” she asked with real curiosity, however long it lasted.

[Talitha]

Talitha watched with slightly wider eyes than the moment before as Kefira asked to be kept company… by her? Wow, she felt a flood of excitement and suddenly felt very special, if it had been possible she may have even started glowing. She watched with saucer eyes as she moved with cat like grace to the lounge, it amazed her that she could move so smoothly, and yet she knew she could coil and strike within a moment if she needed to. Still rooted to her spot, the young girl finally took in a breath and swallowed hard as she was asked for her name.

“Talitha,” she replied smiling for just a millisecond before regaining her composure, on the outside at least. She then wondered how she was supposed to keep her company. What was she supposed to say? She had no idea whether she could carry a conversation with a Vampyr like Kefira even if she was invited to. It wasn’t like they could sit down, have a drink and talk about weather, boys and clothes… and want if Kefira’s drink was to come from her? With all this running through her head, Talitha said the only thing that came to mind, and it was blurted out and immediately regretted for its over eager tone and sheer… lameness.

“You look amazing.”

[Kefira]

Her smile then really was a smirk as she eyed the girl. She sensed a youth about her that wasn't entirely evident in her looks, a naivete that shouldn't have a place in someone with as rough a history as she presumed to have. Certainly having spent more than a day in the Prince's service, she should have no innocence left. Torn between admitting she found it alluring and teasing the girl for not hiding it better, she chuckled femininely to herself. “Good God, you act like such a virgin,” she chided the girl. “But it's quite charming.” It was certainly something the girl could use to her advantage, once she got wise to it.

“Don't stand there while I sit. Take a seat. Order a drink. Pretend you aren't a servant and that you're my particular friend and you have all sorts of girlish secrets to tell me.” She telepathically called for a bartender, who arrived just moments later, and who she steadfastly ignored until she was good and ready.

“Give her whatever she wants,” she told the good looking young man, before returning her attention to Talitha and forgetting he ever existed.

“Isn't that what young girls do these days?” she asked, showing her age in experience even if she didn't look it in figure. “Gossip about boys and movies and things?”

[Talitha]

Talitha blushed furiously as Kefira told her she acted like a virgin, was that a bad thing? The fact that she wasn’t technically a virgin didn’t need to be used as a retort however as she was informed that it was charming. Sure, Talitha had engaged in sex, but never willingly. There had been a couple of instances that she tried not to think about, and she had prostituted herself reluctantly to a couple of fellow homeless teens for goods on occasion. She wasn’t proud of it, and didn’t really consider it worth remembering. But all this was irrelevant, and she doubted Kefi would want to know anyway.

Talitha smiled as she was asked to sit, pretend she wasn’t a servant and be girly with her. She hesitantly moved towards the woman, before finally getting a little more confidence and biting the bullet, sitting down next to her on the lounge. When the bartender was ordered to take her drink order, she wondered what was good to drink. She’d never had decent alcohol before, and had never liked the cheap stuff. She had never been one to dull her senses with drugs and alcohol just because she felt sorry for herself.

“Can I get something sweet?” she asked him, looking to Kefira afterwards with an apologetic look. “I’ve never had to order off the menu before,” she admitted, regarding the drinks. “As for gossiping, I’ve never seen a movie in my life and boys… well I don’t know anything about boys.” Why the hell was she admitting all this? “Sorry, you probably don’t want to be hearing this.”

[Kefira]

“On the contrary,” she quickly corrected her new, possibly temporary little friend. “I'm dreadfully curious. In fact I want to know everything.” She turned her eyes briefly onto the barman. “She'll have a Tom Collins,” she recommended. She immediately went back to ignoring the man and explained, “That's a favorite drink of mine when I need to look like I'm drinking but don't feel much like getting drunk,” she winked. Like Talitha she didn't have her senses dull, and in fact the only time she could remember in recent memory getting drunk deliberately was when she had been forced to sleep with a politician to get a certain land ordinance to go the Brudjan way. She might have shuddered at the memory. Disgusting man. She enjoyed killing him much better.

When the barman had buggered off again she turned to her new project and tilted her head curiously, not an uncommon look for her but one that made her look most catlike. “What a sad little life you must have had before you came here. Who ever heard of a girl who hasn't seen a movie?” Kefira hadn't sat through an entire movie, of course, but then she wasn't human, and had been born before movies got really big. For her part she couldn't see the delight in them. She much preferred experiencing those sorts of things first hand.

“And I can't imagine any girl as pretty as you are not knowing anything about boys. I knew plenty about boys at your age, none of it very flattering.” She grinned mischievously. “How did you come to be here, Talitha?”

[Talitha]

Now that was an interesting story. When Kefira asked, Talitha’s mouth immediately went dry and all happiness she had just accumulated from being socialised with was sucked away from her, like smoke escaping out a newly opened window. She furrowed her brows slightly as she figured out the easiest way to explain it.

“I was trying to get home, and it had gone dark before I had expected, and I was lost. I heard voices and hid but it was too late. I know he was going to kill me, but this woman showed up and told me to run… so I did.” She shrugged at this point, and in a timely fashion her drink arrived. She accepted it and took a sip, smiling at the almost naughty sweet taste of the drink.
“This is nice,” she commented before taking another sip and continuing.

“Um- a few days later I caught some girls I was staying with getting dressed and sneaking off, so I stole some of their clothes and followed them, here.” She looked up and around at her current surroundings. “I was taken to him, and I saw the bloodbath, and he told me what he was, and asked me if I wanted to stay.” She sipped at her drink again and put it down on the coffee table at their feet.

“I know I’m not like the other girls he keeps, they all complain and wish they were this or that. I’m just glad to be under a roof with a bed, and actually getting to eat,” she sounded excited at this point, and her eyes were wide and bright again. “It’s like a dream come true or something!”

[Kefira]

Kefira felt her amusement with the prince's new plaything growing suddenly short as the conversation turned. She thought it probably started when the girl called Bruis 'he' without saying his name, as if there could be no other man in the world than him which was quite possibly the most annoying thing she had said or done yet. She couldn't abide by such single-minded devotion in anyone, unless there was a very convincing reason and where this girl was concerned there was none. Did she realize she would never be changed at this rate or, she suddenly thought, did she simply not care? She eyed the girl a little more shrewdly.

“So...” she looked down at the sofa and then back up at the girl, trying to conceal her sudden (and largely inexplicable, but then that's Kefira for you) feelings of tepidity. “That's all you want. Food and shelter and,” she looked down at the girl's clothes, which were very becoming on her but nevertheless not what the fierce vampyr would consider worthy of the kind of self degradation she was sure the girl was put through on a daily basis. “Pretty things.” She lifted a dark eyebrow.

“Don't you want to be a vampyr like the other slaves?”

[Talitha]

Talitha noticed the sudden change in Kefira’s disposition towards her, like a cold change in the weather, she suddenly felt cold, and naked, and wanted to shrink away and hide. When she was asked if she wanted to become vampyr, Talitha’s eyes focused intently on the woman across from her. Was she testing her? Or was it one of questions where either answer was wrong. Sure, she had thought about it, maybe even wished it. But she knew that she wasn’t right for it, that she wasn’t good enough or strong enough or cruel enough. Bruis had not been nice to her, in fact Bruis had been completely oblivious of her, and yet he was her saviour, and she felt like she owed him everything.

“But I couldn’t be,” she said slowly, hesitantly. “I’m nothing like you, I’m not like any of the vampyr I’ve met and seen here. I hear the girls saying how you’re fierce and strong and, and that you can kill people and you don’t care about anything… I’m nothing like that, so I couldn’t be vampyr right? I’d never meet the requirements.” She was confused now, was there something wrong with her being here because she liked it? Was she supposed to be angry and wishing she was something more, wearing something better or fucking someone higher in the food chain?

“When you spend your whole life hungry and cold, wanting food and shelter isn’t such a small thing. I don’t know how to want anything more, I’ve never had things to take for granted before.” Big round eyes met Kefira’s and she looked to her as she asked, begged for a little guidance. “What am I supposed to want now that I have food and a home?”

[Kefira]

Kefi shrugged her slender shoulders. “Safety,” she began a list that seemed obvious to her, “freedom, power, independence.” The last word held a touch of venom, like it was paramount among the others, easily the most important to her personally and one she couldn't see anyone else overlooking. “One day, when that wide-eyed look on your face is faked instead of meant, you might even want sex,” she lifted her shoulder slightly and tilted her chin as if talking about sex were a scandal not to be mentioned in front of someone so young and innocent. “Sex on your own terms and no one else's,” she clarified, gesturing dismissively to the mirror-surrounded poles on the other end of the room where dancers so often sold their bodies for money, drugs, or recognition. To her these prices were pittances, and so was Talitha's.

“But never mind darling,” she continued after a pause, smoothing the girl's now glossy hair down, her arm resting along the back of the couch they shared. “Some people just aren't meant for that kind of thing, and there's nothing wrong with that. Some people are more like you,” she touched the girl's hand lightly, almost like a mother talking to her much younger daughter. “They just want a dinner they don't have to dig out of the trash, and a bed that isn't made of cardboard.” She paused, tilting her head diplomatically. “They just want to eat, get fucked,” she met the girl's gaze, “and die.” Without breaking her gaze, she pried Talitha's drink from her hand and took a tiny sip. Though she feigned innocence her dark eyes sparkled with indifferent mischief when she asked,

“Right?”

[Talitha]

Talitha listened intently to what Kefira had to say, aspects of life that the blue eyed girl could see were things she valued highly. She had been homeless and hopeless for so long that wanting things like that were just silly dreams, and she had given up on wishing for them a long time ago. Maybe Kefira was right, maybe she should want more in life. And as the tall, powerful vampyr across from her took her drink from her and spoke her last sentence, Talitha felt a sick feeling rise in her stomach. It was true, if she wanted so little, what else waited for her but death? The wide, frightened look in Talitha’s eyes gave way, and she frowned slightly, looking across at Kefira with even more admiration than before.

“You’re right,” she admitted, pursing her lips together and suddenly feeling bad for wanting so little in life. “I used to want things like that, when I was little I wanted to be all sorts of things, but my mother told me it’d never happen. I should just be happy that I have a roof over my head and food in my stomach. Maybe now I can want more again?” She sighed at this point, quite sure that Kefira wanted nothing to do with her now that she looked so pathetic.

“I’m sorry, you must really think I’m worthless.” While she didn’t really want Kefira confirming this, she couldn’t help but apologize for it. “I’m scared I think, scared that this won’t last long.” She was confessing again, but she couldn’t seem to help it. None of the other slave girls wanted anything to do with her, they were all too focused on advancing their own causes to hear her wants or fears. They were all so cold, and calculating, Talitha didn’t want to be like that.

“I don’t want to end up like those other girls, it scares the hell out of me.”