MonsterVille
Thirty

He was cold. So cold…

River opened his eyes to a stark frozen landscape. Trees and fields crusted with ice and snow. A wind so chill his teeth chattered. It was beautiful in a barren kind of way, an endless expanse of a frozen wasteland, long streams of water frozen between earth and sky and the slightest downfall of fluffy white snow coated the landscape.

“Hello lover,”

That voice. River closed his eyes and shuddered at that voice. It touched him in ways too intimate to express, made him feel alive, burning with joy and in the same instant it brought him spiralling down—desperate to escape that dulcet tone.

Despite himself he turned, the snow crunching beneath his feet, to face her—Madelina. She was beautiful, she had always been beautiful but now there was more to it, a depth. Her typically blonde hair was white as snow and flowed down her body like a living breath of winter. Her skin wasn’t Caucasian anymore, it was pale white, nearly alabaster in its complexion, her lips were cherries and her eyes? He had gazed into her eyes for hours on end, those rich blue eyes—now they were an endless sky blue swirling with the winter days. Such cold, sad eyes. They broke his heart.

“Lina…” he breathed out.

The chasm between them vanished, her soft hand touched his cheek and he wanted to melt into her embrace.

“How, you, I mean.” He closed his eyes and steadied himself against her, “You’re a monster.”

“I hope you mean that in the species sense and not as defamation of my character.”

“Really? You want to play word games? Get into semantics?”

“Semantics are everything, lover, where we draw the line, how we view ourselves in relation to the world and those that inhabit it. You say monster and you mean terrifying beast out to devour mankind, I say monster and I mean it as a biological classification, Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Chordata—I could go on but I—”

“What the hell are we doing Li?”

“Talking?”

“You’re one of them.” The words nearly broke him. Knowing monsters existed was one thing, seeing Danny, one of his best friend’s monster-out, had rocked him to the core but now Madelina was one of them too? What was he? Some kind of monster magnet.

“So you’re going to be all bigoted about this? Would you be this upset if you found out I was Jewish or a Republican?”

“Cut the crap, and stop trying to be cute. This isn’t like that.”

“It’s exactly like that. It’s just part of who I am,” she grabbed his hands and pressed them to her chest, “I’m still me, River, I’m still the same old me, the girl you played footsie with in political science, the girl who stayed up all night watching Buffy marathons with you”—her running commentary on that show made a great deal more sense now—“I’m just me.”

“You. Is this why you broke up with me?” River asked. He didn’t want her to say yes. Oh god he didn’t know what was happening. She was ripping the wounds open again, tearing him apart all over and he didn’t know how to stop it. If she said yes, if this was the reason she had ended it—the reason she had sent him into a broken spiral that ended with him in a monster town—he didn’t know what he would do. It would mean she didn’t trust him, that she had never trusted him. That while he had been thinking about the future she had always been planning to break his heart.

“You don’t understand.”

“Understand what? I’m right aren’t I? You broke up with me because you didn’t trust me.”

“I loved you.” Madelina insisted.

“But you didn’t trust me.”

“Whether I did or didn’t, it wouldn’t have mattered. My kind have one rule, just one that we all follow. Keep the secret. If I had told you, if I had done that and you couldn’t handle it? I would have had to kill you. Do you get that? I would have had to kill someone I loved and I could never do that.”

She was crying, tears that froze on her cheeks and crumbled away. She bit her lip as she looked up at him through watery eyes. “Can you honestly say you could have handled it?”

River closed his eyes, took a deep breath. He pulled his hands free and stepped away.

“Why are you here Madelina? What are you doing in this town?”

He’d hurt her. He could see that. Whether it was the distance he’d put between them, or shutting down and not answering her, either way.

“River—”

“Why are you here?!”

“I came to save you! Why the hell else would I be here? I hate monster towns, they’re breeding grounds for the worst of the worst, the cannibals, and feeders and monsters in their purist forms! I swore when I left home I would never set foot in one of these hell holes again but then you went missing, and Danny called—”

“Danny?” River blurted. “Oh of course. My best friend and my girlfriend, of course you knew about each other. Probably had a big laugh at the stupid human’s expense. Was it funny seeing how clueless I was? How much I loved you? Did you two get together and plan this—lure me out here to be monster bait—”

She slapped him. Hard.

“Stop being such a fucking idiot. Danny was trying to help you, and he called me when he realised he couldn’t get you out of here. That you’d been claimed in the town’s lottery.”

“And you just came running to the rescue.” River shook his head, “I don’t believe you. I don’t think you care. I think this is some twisted monster game, you’re just trying to screw with me. So go away, leave me alone. Leave me to my ill-begotten fate and just let me die in peace.”

Madelina grabbed him. Ice cold hands bunched into his shirt and skin, and dragged him to her. Her sky blue eyes blazed like a stormy tempest, “Stop being such a fucking child. This isn’t a game, and I’m not going to let you die because of that bitch who cut you. So suck it up lover, I am going to save you from your Master and then I am going to get you the hell out of this town before someone eats you. I don’t care if you believe me, or what you think. I will not let you die here.”

A raging storm of sleet and ice swirled amongst them and whatever visage of landscape they stood upon shattered.

River drew a deep staggering breath. Ice broke across his chest and slid down the sheets. His throat, his neck—he was so cold, so very cold; his body was wracked with chills. The first thing he saw was Mellie, looking down at him with such profound relief, the warmth of her soft hands resting against his head, stroking through his hair.

“That’s right River, come back to me, you’re going to be ok.”

“Ok?” River rasped, “Didn’t you just cut open my throat?”

Mellie blushed and looked away, tucking a stray strand of hair back behind her ear. “Um, that was an accident?”

“I, ah, yeah ok.”

Mellie’s gaze shot back to him, her expression shocked. “Seriously?”

“Mistress. Property. Life belongs to you,” River rasped, “Oh and that girl that kicked your ass—” Mellie’s brow raised sceptically at that part, “She’s my ex and the entire reason I’m here so almost being killed? Not the worst thing to happen to me today.”

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