Between Myth and Reality
Ok, this is my next entry for the brigits_flame challenge for week two.
Week 3 Prompt: Myths
Title: Between Myth and Reality
Author's note: Right, on to round three. Again, this is going to go hand in hand with the rest of my pieces for the past three prompts. If you haven't read the past two, I highly recommend you read them, because they reveal other key pieces to the puzzle. I did a little more with this one than the last few. I've set up the setting a little more, and been a bit more descriptive. The characters interact more rather than it being just a narrative. I liked how this one turned out. The first part popped into my head randomly while I was right in the middle of doing something completely unrelated a few days ago (like cleaning or something. Don't you love when that happens?) Anyway, I sat down right away to write it out, but didn't actually plan on including it in this. When I went to write this, it seemed to fit. Anyway, hope you enjoy it, and please leave some feeback! Thanks so much!
Between Myth and Reality
Claire wrapped her arms around her knees at her place on the sofa and shook her head in horror.
“How could any living thing be so cruel, so...sadistic?” she asked quietly, “As if he revels in the evil he wreaks on others!”
Xander stood before the one window in the small apartment living room with his back to her. He stared at the city lights and the cars speeding down the street below and said nothing. Claire knew nothing of his brother's past, so she couldn't possibly understand.
“Nate and I aren't so different,” he stated simply
“You aren't that depraved. You aren't capable of that kind of cruelty,” she said so matter of factly.
With a loud growl ripping from his throat, he found himself picking Claire up and shoving her against the wall. He glared into her deep green, terrified orbs with an intensity that could bring any man to his knees. His own eyes flashed a deadly bronze fire that seemed ready to consume her in an instant.
“Don't ever presume to know me, mortal. I am no different, nor any better than Nathanael! I am just as capable of the atrocities he has committed,” he paused and allowed his words to register, “Choosing not to does not make me any more pure or “humane” than he is. You don't have an inkling of what you speak of,” he finished off in barely a steeled whisper.
“I - I'm sorry,” she choked out, the horror taking the very breath from her lungs.
He relinquished his hold on her arms and simply walked away. He'd been foolish to scare her as he had, but she must know that it wasn't as simple as Nate being evil and he being good. There was good and evil in both of them. If only Nate still saw that.
Claire stared wide-eye at this great force before her. He left the apartment. As she stared at his retreating back, she wanted all the more to understand the mystery of this man. That was just it, though. He wasn't simply a man. He was so much more than that. He was the stuff legends and myths were made of. He was history itself, walking in shoe leather.
Hours later, he returned to a very subdued and contrite Claire.
“I'm sorry I said those things. I didn't understand - don't understand,” she peered up at him with a sorrowful frown, “ I suppose I just can't imagine that sort of cruelty in you.”
He looked at her with regret in his eyes and sat down beside her on the sofa.
“I'm sorry as well,” he said quietly, “I shouldn't have lost my temper and frightened you like that. It was very reckless of me. I know better than to let my emotions get the better of me.”
Clare stared at him for a moment, confounded by his very existence.
“How can you be real? Things like this aren't supposed to be true. That's why they're called myths!”
Xander smiled at her as if he were smiling at a small child trying to work out a problem.
“Some myths are real, though. Time is what distorts them to become something else. The creature you know is a myth, but how it originated, that isn't entirely untrue. It's just a matter of picking out the truth from the lie.”
She shook her head, “I'm not even sure I know what truth is anymore.”
He laughed a little at this.
“We tend to have that affect on people.”
Claire studied him for a moment more. All her preconceived notions about him even when, to her, he was simply a man had faded entirely. She wasn't sure what she saw now. He wasn't myth, but he wasn't entirely reality either, at least not the reality she knew. He resided somewhere in the in between. Whatever he was, she knew without a doubt that she wanted to find out.
Week 3 Prompt: Myths
Title: Between Myth and Reality
Author's note: Right, on to round three. Again, this is going to go hand in hand with the rest of my pieces for the past three prompts. If you haven't read the past two, I highly recommend you read them, because they reveal other key pieces to the puzzle. I did a little more with this one than the last few. I've set up the setting a little more, and been a bit more descriptive. The characters interact more rather than it being just a narrative. I liked how this one turned out. The first part popped into my head randomly while I was right in the middle of doing something completely unrelated a few days ago (like cleaning or something. Don't you love when that happens?) Anyway, I sat down right away to write it out, but didn't actually plan on including it in this. When I went to write this, it seemed to fit. Anyway, hope you enjoy it, and please leave some feeback! Thanks so much!
Between Myth and Reality
Claire wrapped her arms around her knees at her place on the sofa and shook her head in horror.
“How could any living thing be so cruel, so...sadistic?” she asked quietly, “As if he revels in the evil he wreaks on others!”
Xander stood before the one window in the small apartment living room with his back to her. He stared at the city lights and the cars speeding down the street below and said nothing. Claire knew nothing of his brother's past, so she couldn't possibly understand.
“Nate and I aren't so different,” he stated simply
“You aren't that depraved. You aren't capable of that kind of cruelty,” she said so matter of factly.
With a loud growl ripping from his throat, he found himself picking Claire up and shoving her against the wall. He glared into her deep green, terrified orbs with an intensity that could bring any man to his knees. His own eyes flashed a deadly bronze fire that seemed ready to consume her in an instant.
“Don't ever presume to know me, mortal. I am no different, nor any better than Nathanael! I am just as capable of the atrocities he has committed,” he paused and allowed his words to register, “Choosing not to does not make me any more pure or “humane” than he is. You don't have an inkling of what you speak of,” he finished off in barely a steeled whisper.
“I - I'm sorry,” she choked out, the horror taking the very breath from her lungs.
He relinquished his hold on her arms and simply walked away. He'd been foolish to scare her as he had, but she must know that it wasn't as simple as Nate being evil and he being good. There was good and evil in both of them. If only Nate still saw that.
Claire stared wide-eye at this great force before her. He left the apartment. As she stared at his retreating back, she wanted all the more to understand the mystery of this man. That was just it, though. He wasn't simply a man. He was so much more than that. He was the stuff legends and myths were made of. He was history itself, walking in shoe leather.
Hours later, he returned to a very subdued and contrite Claire.
“I'm sorry I said those things. I didn't understand - don't understand,” she peered up at him with a sorrowful frown, “ I suppose I just can't imagine that sort of cruelty in you.”
He looked at her with regret in his eyes and sat down beside her on the sofa.
“I'm sorry as well,” he said quietly, “I shouldn't have lost my temper and frightened you like that. It was very reckless of me. I know better than to let my emotions get the better of me.”
Clare stared at him for a moment, confounded by his very existence.
“How can you be real? Things like this aren't supposed to be true. That's why they're called myths!”
Xander smiled at her as if he were smiling at a small child trying to work out a problem.
“Some myths are real, though. Time is what distorts them to become something else. The creature you know is a myth, but how it originated, that isn't entirely untrue. It's just a matter of picking out the truth from the lie.”
She shook her head, “I'm not even sure I know what truth is anymore.”
He laughed a little at this.
“We tend to have that affect on people.”
Claire studied him for a moment more. All her preconceived notions about him even when, to her, he was simply a man had faded entirely. She wasn't sure what she saw now. He wasn't myth, but he wasn't entirely reality either, at least not the reality she knew. He resided somewhere in the in between. Whatever he was, she knew without a doubt that she wanted to find out.