The Condition

Oct 07, 2004 15:13

How do I write this? How in the name of all that is good and beautiful in this world do you write something like this?

I don’t know. No - no. I do know. I know how the terrified family stands before a television camera, pleading with faceless captors to release their husband, their mother, their son. I know the images of violent torture, starvation, humiliation, even brutal executions that flash behind their eyes lend fervor and desperation to those pleas. They don’t care about what they are saying or how they look, they have no heed of their pride - some blubber and tremble or stand taught and stoic, but they all, every one of them, beg.

That is how.

Yet one more thing in which I envy the mortals their simplicity.

J.B.’s captor is not faceless. For J.B. there is only the possibility of two ends: his waking or his destruction. And because I know his captor and exactly what he faces, and because De L’Oscuro has concluded he should meet with Mateo about this, I know too that I have every need of my pride. Mateo is already involved - I currently represent him, for all that he knows exactly where my interests lie. And De L’Oscuro may be just as cruel and calculating as any terrorist - but he is yet and still something more. He is a vampire. And the words I say will hold more political implications to be toyed with for De L’Oscuro than any passion I might feel behind my plea. I don’t think there’s any way an impassioned plea for J.B.’s existence will win any points with this man. I cannot beg, even though I would. I cannot beg because it may very well serve to hurt J.B.’s cause.

To write this, I must be careful. More careful by far.

Perhaps there was a time, a recent one, where this was different - where emotion and entreaty would have prevailed. But then, were that the case, he (or they) would never have considered this course of action.

I mourn for it. I mourn for what they lost. I know it all too closely, though I cannot truly understand.

No mistakes, Carlotta. You cannot afford mistakes now. And a screen can’t see your tears.

Senor De L'Oscuro,

I write on behalf of His Grace Alexandreus in the matter of J.B. Kage, as I am currently the nearest of His Grace's archons to you.

First, His Grace wishes me to assure you that he is both aware of and interested in your concerns....
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