A Thirst for Sun (3263 words)

Today was the day they’d decide. Laura stared down at what she could see of her reflection in the pool of water below. A constant drip of moisture off a stalactite gave her about one second every five seconds with which she could judge herself. Enough of the people around her had looked at her with a mixture of longing and pity for the past year that she could guess where she’d be going today, but she pitied anyone her age. The pool blurred before her eyes until more water fell into it. She couldn’t see either way. Maybe if her face got puffy enough, she’d pass as average.

Average women got a few more years before the decision. Sixteen was just old enough that no one would feel bad sending ugly girls off to the breeding ground, but young enough that a beautiful maiden was a delicacy. If they couldn’t tell right off the bat, it all depended on profit projections favoring quantity or quality. Some couldn’t afford meals so young, but might end up splurging on an eighteen or twenty year old for a special occasion. Laura’s older sister had lived the past two years in a state of constant anxiety that didn’t seem much better, but the child who’d managed to put on curves with a diet of potatoes, corn, and mystery meat swore she wouldn’t take any day after this one for granted, if she could live to see them. She knew deep down she wouldn’t. Maybe it was better that way. To find oneself hoping for a few more years of nothingness as opposed to twenty more years being poked and prodded and ripped open again and again by littler humans who would only face the same fate… was probably less ideal than a quick death.

This thought steeled her for a moment and she shook her head as Bertha approached with soot meant to darken and mar her ivory face, a rock in case a well-placed scrape could get her overlooked. If she was to be food in this new era, she would go down proud and radiant. Just when Laura thought she was finally drier than a corpse, the boulder at the front of the cavern scraped the floor, and the sisters fell into each other’s arms in mutual sobs.

Those with their eyes open were blinded for a good half a minute by their first of two weekly glimpses outside. When they had finally acclimated to the sun, the closest girl to the opening, nearly six herself, got five long seconds of an emerald green tree in her vision before the door closed again. Laura remembered when the best day of her life was someone else’s worst.

“Sixteen and up, make a line, right to left, oldest to youngest. Ten and up can start rationing.” Six new toddlers tied together were shoved in one corner. Four sacks of potatoes, five sacks of corn, and a deer carcass were thrown in another, soon swarmed by twenty frail bodies, counting and dividing. None of them could read, but at least they were good at math.

Laura stood penultimate in line, followed only by a curly haired brunette who couldn’t have been more than 90 pounds. Lucky for Laura, she’d turned sixteen five days ago. Five more days than Oorun would get. She found herself hoping the superstitions were true enough to earn the girl another year or two, but why would being named after the sun affect any choice made by a human man? No one wanted to know the name or birthday of their dinner.

That’s why men were given a much different choice. Also why she couldn’t find herself the slightest bit attracted to the rare combination of tan skin and blue eyes sported by the toned male body speaking now.

“We need,” he paused to look at his sheet.

5D

4M

1S

“Five breeders? Damn, when they die, they die all at once, amirite?” he laughed to his companions. “Four meals, and one special request.”

Glancing at the left end of the line, he remarked, “eh, the last five aren’t completely gross.” He leaned towards the girl two down from Laura. “Unless, you’d like to volunteer,” he winked.

The redhead tried to nod, but could no longer remain simply on the verge of her tears. “Never mind,” the man grimaced. “Try not crying next year.”

Average looking boys got the best life of all. If by sixteen you weren’t too ugly to be the special at a soup kitchen and not too handsome that a high class lady would order you, you got the only choice humans ever got to make. You could work. You had to betray your entire species, but if you were a good little farmer, enforcer, errand-boy, you got to live in the sun and breed on the weekends, the two things their masters could never accomplish. Particularly obedient slaves got to pick their women too, though no one woman too often. This man was clearly favored enough that he could get away with cheating his employers out of a higher priced meal if he took its virginity first. It was a deal many women took if popping babies out seemed worth the possibility of an extra decade. An extra decade plus sun and sex? It was a deal many men took, albeit usually after a few anxiety-filled years of trying to uphold your morals in the face of beings who’d rather eat you anyway.

One man in the back, dark and wrinkled, was showing a sunburnt skinny thing how to routinely check the younger group of girls for their tattooed birthdays. Otherwise Oorun definitely would’ve been small enough to delay this process. Blue Eyes started grabbing arms on the right end of the line.

“Too old, that’s an meal.” Arwen had gotten all the way to her mid-twenties: not worth keeping alive when half her childbearing years were gone, but a middle class family would look forward to a reasonably priced dinner later this week.

“Meal, Breed, Skip, Skip, Br…” he raised an eyebrow at Soare, who filled out in the last year or so, but she shook her head defiantly. “Meal.”

Laura smiled at the thought of him not getting any until her sister was approached. She looked up at him pleadingly. “Fine, I’m running out of options.” He whispered half a sentence in her ear, “…and if you can do that, I’ll even give you a skip until next year, when you’re guaranteed to breed.” Compassion as genuine as Bertha’s love for him crossed his face, “because I’m feeling generous today.”

Bertha nodded and Laura didn’t know whether to be disgusted or relieved for her. Sometimes it was easier to ignore emotions than label them. No wonder the girls to her right were all husks. That was her own sister and already she’d learned to be silent too. This incommunicable weight engulfed her mind like a snake constricts a rat until it loses consciousness rather than witness its demise.

Her arm jerked forward. His hands were rough and calloused. She couldn’t recall the labels the others had gotten, but the girl next to her was in tears. “Finally, a fresh one. I was worried I’d have to lie about one of your ages.” The tattoo was clearly all he’d bothered to look at though. His mouth opened involuntarily upon sizing up the rest of her, but became an amused grin once she locked eyes with him. If defiance was a color, it’d be jade. “You are perfect.” He pulled her away from the line himself, not even glancing at Oorun as he finished up, “I don’t care what the last one looks like. We’re short on breeders,” and despite the fulfillment of this child’s deepest wish to live longer, she screamed as Skinny Sunburn led her to a group of four others.

—

Walking outside to their deaths was ironically like being born. A deluge of sunlight left them in pain, thoughts muddled, unable to see, and squinting like babies. By the time they’d adjusted, half of the women had been led far enough to not know which way was back. Half were gone. Confusion slowly abated with the return of sight and cognitive function, and then… the world was new.

Warmth engulfed Laura, as if she was floating down a stream wrapped in a blanket that would never get wet. Every memory she’d ever had disappeared and was replaced with greens and blues and yellows, so overwhelming, it blended together as if to spite her now perfect vision. Slowly her life returned, improved, while the whistles of birds recalled a faint lullaby in the recesses of her mind. A stream nearby smelled like the water that pooled in the caves, but better. The grass smelled like cornhusks, but richer, deeper. She would’ve fallen to the ground to test if even the dirt was superior to the cave’s, but Blue Eyes shoved her forward and out of her stupor.

The world hadn’t ended. At least, her world didn’t end. Laura had forgotten there was anything between the decision and, well, dying. Until now, she’d known what to expect. No woman had ever come back to the cave to tell them what process must inevitably exist in their transportation. The other women with her seemed to fit into two categories: already essentially dead in spirit or enjoying their first and last moments of existing outside. It was a half and half split down the rope. Laura wasn’t tied to anyone though, which just occurred to her as weirder than anything else that had happened. It wasn’t worth speaking to these traitors to find out why, but it was. It was. All that was between her and this newfound paradise through which they strolled to their doom, was a hand on her shoulder - well, that and a knot tying her wrists together, but it wasn’t tied to anything else. That was the important part.

She tried to play it cool at first, acting distracted by the scenery, which wasn’t hard, while fiddling with her hands in the most idle manner. By the time any of the binding had slipped the slightest inch, they were nearing what Laura could only imagine to be a city. The fabled accumulation of so many vampires all in one place, like humans had been shoved into the hollows of the earth, was much more expertly organized and mechanical than her tiny hole in a mountain. She knew if she thought about it too hard, she’d lose her nerve though. As if all her mental pleas had suddenly been telepathically broadcast to their most motherly figure, coincidence or not, Arwen tripped.

In the moment commanding all attention that was four women tumbling over each other in a tangle of rope, Laura let a primal instinct take over. She tugged hard at the loosened tie around her hands, elbowed Blue Eyes in his pretty blue eyes and said a mental ‘thank you’ to her ill-fated comrades as she took off back towards the trees.

Her hands free to balance herself, she sprinted full speed in whatever direction seemed to lead farthest from the city and the path simultaneously. Trees loomed closer and closer until she was jumping over their roots. Adrenaline fueled a body unused to exercise and a spirit overjoyed at the unprecedented speed. Speed meant freedom. Her legs continued forward while her mind ground to a halt. Unused to exercise. Unprecedented speed. She’d never run before, which meant she’d never had to account for endurance. She couldn’t tell how far she’d gotten, but she could almost see the other end of the forest when her lungs deflated. Small gasps struggled to keep them functioning until her whole body buckled and her vision went white like a second sun revealed itself. The dirt did smell better.

—

Even after the world came back into view, it bounced. She was too tired to figure out why.

—

Her stomach hurt more than her legs. A shoulder pushed up into it against her entire weight.

—

“You take her for a while.” Blue Eyes tossing her to the older man woke her up for sure. “Best you go back to sleep, darlin’. Wish I could help by knocking your lights out again just for putting us through all that trouble.”

“Caelan has to believe she was free range. Their dad will be pissed if they give him shit about mistreating the livestock.”

Like they weren’t pack mules literally carrying their master’s food on their backs, Laura’s thoughts interrupted.

“Freaking-“ Blue Eyes’ voice lowered a couple stories. “-pussy.” That so-called vampire pussy could break the muscular man in half if he felt insulted, no matter how many points the pack mule had racked up.

Laura, with her feet now bound in addition to new rope around her hands, had only the strength to keep her digestive contents under control against the undulating city landscape provided by her captor’s pace, and even that wouldn’t last if she kept witnessing the conversation concerning the preferred ethics of her assigned predator. Nothing could be as beautiful as the freedom she’d glimpsed in the forest anyway, not even the only setting sun she’d ever seen. Besides, it coincided with the only time she’d ever agreed with Blue Eyes: it was best she did go back to sleep.

—

Her body was too used to being jolted awake today alone, both physically and mentally, for the sudden drop onto a soft bouncy material to motivate Laura towards moving with a purpose or even wondering what a bed was. The human men huffed out in a hurry, cursing her under their breath, and much softer hands pulled her to her feet. Though Laura had no way of identifying them as such, the air smelled of jasmine, and the faint hum of stringed instruments emanated from speakers nearby. All she knew was that it was soothing. Her poor excuses for clothes dropped to the floor and the most beautiful women she’d ever seen guided her to a tub of hot water.

Despite a rather rough beginning, basking in the sun, finding brief freedom in her feet, and now floating in the snuggles of warm jasmine-water while two gorgeous women gently scrubbed layers of dirt off of her skin made the day she’d dreaded more like her best than her worst after all. The gruff men from before were ironically easier to fight than the soothing pleasures these pale ladies offered. Fingers, salves, brushes combed through her hair. Laura put her arms, head, legs, wherever they were guided until she was finally told, “Open your eyes, dear,” in a lilt more melodious than the music.

She stared straight into the pools of green that had only ever wavered back at her, stilled and straightened by the vintage mirror. Her hair was like golden silk, the shine beckoning her fingers. Clean hands cut by an artist whose sole medium was marble moved towards her head, attached to the rest of her body by blood-red sleeves, embroidered in black. The convenience of a color that matched her heart made it drop once more.

“This is my favorite part,” whispered lips next to her ear that she could only see in her periphery. “They’re just smart enough to appreciate our artistry themselves.” Her hair brushed itself to the side in the reflection.

The other vampiress turned Laura’s chin towards her to face, somehow the same shade of white and yet more sickly beautiful. “I hope to the gods Caelan will want some company for dinner,” she smiled, trailing a sharp, painted fingernail down Laura’s neck.

“I won’t.” What Laura assumed to be the firm decision of this so-called Caelan rang out from her left, opposite the mirror, and she turned.

Caelan’s tired expression sharpened as their eyes met. She looked eerily familiar. The alabaster skin could’ve passed for one of their colleagues, but there was blood in her. Not once had Caelan visited their father’s farm, so that couldn’t explain it.

Laura was more entranced by those golden eyes than anything she’d experienced that day, though they narrowed at her ominously. This must be the rumored ability of a vampire to hypnotize their prey into willingness. The care taken in her clean-up had at least suggested this wasn’t one of the crueler ones who enjoyed a struggle. Still, she easily looked away to judge the rest of the lithe body before her. Caelan was slender and tall, with a smooth heart-shaped face that gave nothing away. If their eyes were captivating amber, their hair was like staring eternally down a back recess in the cavern, offering an unreachable yet inviting void. Long, delicate fingers brushed back the shaggy part of the short locks that fell in front of their face as Caelan clearly realized this pause had gone on too long. Their servants exchanged glances.

“Get out.” Caelan almost felt bad at how harsh that sounded. They knew the ladies had worked hard at making their anniversary dinner an extra special one. A round thousand years of vampirism was not a day taken lightly. “Have enough drinks that the party’s actually fun by the time I arrive,” was their attempt to lighten the mood with a smirk, but the attendants scampered off quickly regardless.

The lopsided half-smile remained while Caelan’s thin dark eyebrows raised as they sighed. It would’ve made them even more charming if they hadn’t started circling Laura like a hawk – or, was it more like a cat? The irises reflected more curiosity than hunger as they fiddled with a necklace hanging around their neck.

“Who are you?”

The last thing Laura had expected was a discussion, much less one about her name. Her face scrunched in disgust. What kind of monster wanted to experience the cognizance and identity of their food before they snuffed it out? “Laura,” she replied in as strong a tone as she could manage.

Caelan shook their head. “No, that’s – that’s not helpful.” Footsteps ceased. “Speak more.” They looked down at the heart shaped locket betwixt their fingers, hoping to place a voice since the name wasn’t familiar.

“I don’t know what to say.”

“How was your day?”

Screw however gorgeous this immortal being before her was. Laura was pissed. “Pretty shitty, thanks for asking.”

Caelan laughed, a chuckle at first, then heartily, like it was the first time all the momentous day long. “I should’ve guessed. That’s my bad.” Their eyes connected once more and a sense of admiration transferred to Laura, leaving her identity on the tip of Caelan’s tongue. “You got to see the sun at least.”

“If that was worth dying, you’d be ashes by now.” Laura’s wit helped her breathe easier.

“Good point.” Disappointed eyes disappeared back down to the locket.

“What’s in there?” Laura thought she might actually talk her way out of this.

“My sun.” Caelan bit their lip, and Laura wondered if she wasn’t the only one who’d cry today. “You know, fleeting as the day, the one warmth I can never have, a gorgeous memory…”

Caelan took half a second to spring it open at that point, but it felt like another thousand years. “…blonde, green eyes, pale skin filled with life.” They looked up at Laura, “what? 5’4”? Full lips?” they exhaled.

“Are these questions now? I don’t know her.”

“Are you sure?” Caelan held up the picture from the open heart and Laura stared straight at her own face for the third time that day.