Nightshade: A SimLit | Chapter 84: Just Dance

-- Five Months Later --

It seemed like forever until the house was ready to move into. There were months of renovations and repairs followed by expensive shopping sprees to furnish each room, much to Amelia's delight... and the dismay of Alexander's credit card. Boxes were packed full of everything they were taking, then loaded into vans and sent off to their new home. Leaving Newcrest behind had already been a drastic change for Onyx and Amelia, as the entirety of their lives that they were capable of remembering were spent there, and now they were leaving Willow Creek nearly as soon as they'd arrived. It was much more difficult for Alexander than either of them, since his life with Brynn was spent there in that little town, and their memories were within the walls of the house that was being left behind. Everything was changing far too fast, as though life had become a neverending rollercoaster, and the day that they left would prove to be a bittersweet one: life was leading them down a different and unknown road -- far rockier than any they'd traveled before.

"Have I ever mentioned that you have an impeccable eye for interior design?" Onyx wrapped an arm around Amelia, glancing around the newly finished nursery. It had been the last room left to decorate, and Amelia obsessed over the small details for weeks, determined to ensure that they had everything they needed -- plus more.

"Hey, careful with the compliments, you're going to mess with the pregnancy hormones and make me start crying again." Amelia smiled playfully. "Besides, what about this is good interior design?"

Onyx laughed. "First of all, please don't cry again. We're out of chocolate and that's the only thing that makes you happy anymore." 

"Well, you're right about that-- wait, we're out!?"

"Second of all," he quickly added, "what about this isn't good interior design? I don't even mean the nursery, I mean the entire house. Being in here feels like going back in time... you restored it's charm instead of modernizing it, which is exactly what I expected and hoped for. As a vampire, I dig the historical aesthetic." 

Her smile widened. "I mean, you and Alexander helped to pick things out, too. I can't take all the credit..."

"You did almost all of it, though, so I'm just saying." Onyx pulled her closer. "I love your creativity... and the bat wallpaper. You should have used it through the rest of the house." 

"Why are you complimenting me for the wallpaper you picked for the nursery? Also, I'm not putting bats all over the walls. Even vampires have limits." She playfully cocked an eyebrow. "But... I guess whenever we turn this into... something other than a nursery, later down the road, the bats can stay. Just in this room." 

"Don't insult my bats," Onyx pretended to sound offended, but he wasn't very good at it. "...What could it be other than a nursery, though? I get that we won't need it if there isn't a baby, but it seems like half the rooms in this house are empty because we have no idea what to do with them." 

Amelia shrugged nonchalantly. "We'll figure something out for them all eventually. Who knows? Maybe we'll need a nursery again sooner than you think.."

Onyx's eyes widened. "Hey, hey, slow down! You can only have one baby at a time." 

"I know, I know, it was just a thought!" She exclaimed.

"Sure it was. You just want an excuse for baby practice," he said.

Amelia failed to repress a snicker. "Baby practice?"

"Be amused all you want, but am I wrong?"

"...No, you're exactly right."

---

Alexander was far too familiar with the nightclub in downtown Windenburg for someone who'd moved there only a few weeks ago. It had the added advantage of partying all night unlike the modest bar back in Willow Creek, which he began to realize he didn't miss. It had gotten to the point that simply alcohol wasn't enough. Not anymore.

Every night, while the rest of the world slept, he was wide awake with racing thoughts and a mind filled to the brim with Aurora. He tried so many times to forget her, to force himself to push her to the back of his mind and out of his heart entirely, but nothing was ever that easy for him. She respected his wishes; he hadn't seen her since their rather unfortunate situation months earlier. He regretted every single word that had slipped from his tongue and realized far too late just how much he needed her in his life, as both a close friend and whatever more there was between them, and at the very least, there was a spark. A spark that he felt but tried to deny. A spark that he tried to replicate any way he could when the reality sank in that she was never coming back, but nothing was good enough. No one could compare to her and the high that she'd given him, even if it was only for one night. As angry and conflicted as he'd been before, he knew now that he loved her in some way. Whatever it was that he felt for her couldn't be called romance, but it was far more than what he felt for all the women he'd made drunken and desperate mistakes with since. Alexander uncontrollably yearned for her like a ravenous predator would crave it's prey, with every inch of it's body crying out to wrap it's slobbering jowls around the throat of an unfortunate victim: but perhaps the truth was that he was the one who had fallen into her grasp, only to be devoured whole.

He stumbled to the dance floor, already half drunk and looking for any possible distraction from reality. Even he couldn't deny that this was rock bottom, and there certainly wasn't any easy way of dragging himself out of the deep hole he'd fallen into. The only thing left to do was to get lost in the beat of the music until all else was lost except the sound of it.

...Or, if he was feeling daring, the other option was to distract himself with someone rather than something.

As soon as Alexander's eyes locked onto her body, he knew he couldn't look away, not with the mesmerizing way that her hips swayed to the rhythm. His drunken thoughts were far from pure ones, but when she noticed his piercing stare and returned the smirk that he flashed her, he realized that hers couldn't be any different. 

Striding in time with the music, he approached her. "Looks like you need someone to dance with. Mind if I join you?"  

"...I guess I don't." The woman giggled, her words equally as slurred as his, as he reached for her hand and spun her around to face him. "You better make it worth my while, though. Don't bore me." 

Alexander smirked. "Oh, I don't intend to be boring," he slurred. "What's your name?"

"Heather. What's yours?"

"Name's Alexander. Trust me, by the end of tonight, you'll never be able to forget it." 

Heather raised an eyebrow. "Really, now? Aren't you the charmer. I hope you're a man of your word." 

His eyes met hers. "Why don't you find out if I am?" 

The rest of the night seemed like a blur in Alexander's mind. He barely registered the shouting crowds or the music becoming so loud that it rumbled the building, and perhaps he'd forget all of it when he woke up the next morning.

Only one vivid memory stuck in his mind: Heather's faint whispers, which were nearly drowned out in all the other noise, suggesting things he'd be sure to think of as a mistake tomorrow.

He did them anyway.

---

Misery.

It was the only word that could describe his unusually intense hangover. He wasn't entirely sure what happened last night, but was sure he'd had another one night stand, barely managing to stumble home and change clothes before he passed out from either exhaustion or drunkenness -- or both. 

Alexander lived his life as though everything was meaningless. After all, it might as well have been. Brynn was gone, he'd ruined his relationship with the only friend that he truly, deeply cared about... what would be his next big mistake? Not that he wasn't already making them by immersing himself in sex and alcohol, but he simply assumed that eventually, he would lose everything that mattered. And then nothing would matter at all. 

Tiredly, he turned his head to glance at the urn sitting on his nightstand: still a painful sight to see, but somehow, it was comforting to be near it. It was early mornings like this that his fuzzy brain attempted to philosophize. Did anything in life matter anyway? No one was truly immortal. Forever has to end somewhere. You live. You die. Someday, people forget you, and you fade from the world as though you'd never existed. What were the consequences of letting go, of not caring and doing whatever you could to cope with existing until you didn't anymore?

Perhaps there were consequences, but he was too far gone to see them. Maybe someday he would.

But not today.