Suddenly, my eyes snap open and I see her sitting on the edge of the bath next to the dagger. She looks exactly like the girl I met sixty-three years ago. So utterly beautiful. Oh, how I love you, my Autumn.
She sighs softly. “You saved the dagger?”
“Yes. I always knew I would need it again.”
“Are you sure you want to do this?” she asks, her voice is loving and soft.
“Yes.”
“What about the children?”
I shrug. “They have their own lives now.”
“Don’t you want to travel? I used to hold you back with my frail body. Now you can go back to climbing mountains.”
“I have lived for thousands and thousands of years, my darling. There is nothing I have not seen or done. Nowhere I have not been. I told you the time they came and snatched you away, I do not want to carry on without you. You didn’t believe me then. Well, I was telling the truth. I lived only for you and our children when they were small and needed me. There is nothing for me here anymore. I don’t want to outlive them. I can think of nothing worse. I want to join you.”
She tilts her head. “But it would be such a waste. You are so beautiful and you are the last vampire on earth.”
“And the loneliest.”
“Oh, Rocco. You might regret it.”
“No, my darling. I won’t. Never. Forever without you by my side? No, I don’t want to live a single day without you.”
“You have so much to give the world,” she says.
“Just wait for me, please. I won’t be long.” I cut into the veins of both wrists and submerge them into water. As the lifeblood seeps out of me, I smile at her. It doesn’t take very long and then I see a flash of tall reeds waving in the wind. I hear water rushing by. Then I am standing next to her. How amazing. The bloodlust is gone. I am completely free of it. Finally, finally, the torture has ended. I turn to look at the pale body resting in the bloody water, his eyes are closed, and his expression is wonderfully peaceful. No, no regret. No regrets at all.
She smiles at me. “Ready?”
I smile back. My heart feels happy again. We will never be parted ever again. We’ll be together for eternity.
Our fingers link and my beauty takes me to another new adventure.
The End