Vellum: As a disciple of a villian didst thou act the tragedienne.
Click to viewTheatre of Tragedy, "Venus" (lyrics)
I think he can see my dreams. I think he is in my head. He sleeps with his eyes open, I can feel that he does even though I do not ever roll over and look at him because he would know it, and what would he think if I did? He says we are friends. If we were not, he would have killed me a long time ago.
He says we are friends, but that I belong to him and he will hurt me if I do not listen. He began to drain me last week, when I came to him for help because I was so weak and tattered and sleepy, I needed rest but I needed to be hidden, the raven can only fly so far and the cat can only run so fast. I knew better than to ask anything of him and so I demanded it. Politely. I am a lady. A dreadful one, but a lady nonetheless. He took me to his den with his pets and a body on the floor. When I asked what he does with the girls, because I have brought him one before and I have been ever so curious, he asked if I would like to see. I said yes. He began to drain me and it did not even feel cold, not like the kiss of snow on feathers but more hollow, like I was being emptied out to become a drum. He could have put anything into me. He could have played any song he wanted on my skin, ba-dum-bum-ba, and I would only have been able to let him. I might well have melted into ecstasy to have him beat me like that. I would not have been myself.
He will not let me shift when I wish to. I am only to do it in his presence and with his permission. He says that if I do, if I try, he will know. And when Wikus Knows something, it leads only to wretchedness. I've rested now, though. I will fly away before he can catch me and this time, I will not come back.
Even though he calls to me. He is the son of the Master and I shan't tell him, but I think he is more powerful than his father. I fear that he is. He terrifies me and yet I worship him, for he can do things that others only dream of doing. And that is why I am afraid he will see. He cannot see the things I long for, he will turn them on me and I will be at his mercy even more. I already strain the limits of it.
He is never so frightening as when he smiles at me.