Death Found Me, Pt.2
Synopsis: a man from afar finds his eternity in a small southern county
BTW: we get to learn a little more about the mysterious Karl. I don’t like using y/n or user very much, so you get referred to as dear.
Finally, after nearly two weeks of work, the investigation was cleared and off my hands. What he said haunted me for a while. The investigative bones in me itching to figure out exactly why he had been so startled by my acknowledgment of his accent. I frowned into the table while stirring my dinner. My antagonism towards him was unfortunately fading, being replaced by intrigue. I suppose I didn’t have just reason to dislike him in the first place other than that he bruised my hubris. I had always, always, always been the untouchable intelligent one. Now with Karl here…different story.
My computer hummed as I clacked against the keyboard. It was an ancient thing, two steps from just being an expensive box. I was being absurd really, finding a new low, but I just couldn’t get over the incessant need to know more about Karl’s origin. He seemed so lofty, so above, so peculiar. Not to mention his historical recall was among the best I had ever seen. He pulled facts out of thin air, reciting events as though they were stories. I combed through Facebook for what felt like years but nothing, not even a relative. The court registry didn’t have much either, just his degrees and licenses. He had gotten his law degree from Duke with an emphasis on ethics, and from Cambridge he received a masters in philosophy. It just doesn’t add up. What is the over educated, clearly wealthy, dude doing in Charlottetown? Furthermore, he still looks to be only my age. Something about it all, about him, felt grossly out beyond me.
The next day brought with it more humidity. The sun blistered the pavement, and everyone was slightly more agitated for it. I met Karl’s loud entrance with a curt nod. The smell of coffee tickled my nose as he sat a cup before me.
“Since I know your order now, here.”
I thanked him, feeling a bit awkward for my rudeness.
“Did you not get anything?”
He shrugged, “Nah, not really the coffee type.”
“Why did you go and grab coffee then?”
“Wanted to pick something up for you is all.”
I thinned my lips as I looked down at the drink. Odd. Very, very odd. He sat down with perfect posture and began at once on his paperwork. I couldn’t stop my tongue before it blurted out what plagued my mind.
“Where are you from?”
He looked at me with a small smile.
“You’ll have to be more specific.”
“Where were you born?”
“A bit west of Craiova, Romania.”
“That’s certainly a ways away. What brought you here?”
“Opportunity.”
“You went to Duke and Cambridge. You have opportunities everywhere.”
His eyes had the slight predatory sheen to them again. Faint, but present.
“Not like the one here.”
“And that is, what, working at a tiny county’s courthouse?”
My chest felt heavy. His words strung more threads into the mystery of him, and it weighed my conscience down like lead. He merely chuckled and turned to his paperwork. A glean in his eyes and a smile printed to his face.
Karl’s POV
This cloying facsimile of life did little to quench the nerves. The poor man who’d happened to cross me now appeared horribly disfigured. Ghoulish, pale skin, hollowed veins, and the desecration of his neck where my teeth found home. His death was for little too. His blood too bitter to truly feel satisfied from. No, my chest stilled ached. My very soul was crying in the closest thing to agony it had felt in a while.
I was terribly inexperienced when I was gaining my grasp of this new life I know led. For a while, my transformer Claudius accompanied me in the shift. He was a god to me for a long, long time. He could cure everything that ailed me, solve every problem I had, and held me like a nurturing mother for my beginning years. He departed from me eventually though for he had found his other half. Something I thought for the longest time was merely turn of phrase. It wasn’t.
I had stopped here at Charlottetown for a quick meal when I came across them. It was as though my heart beat again for the first time. My skin felt as though it were chipping away to something raw and untouched by the common frets of the world. All at once I could understand Claudius’ urgency when he had met his one.
Dear, as most of the townsfolk called them, had wholly and certainly enraptured my heart. It wasn’t difficult to gain a position at the court house. I was over qualified in practically every sense. It was something I could only describe as heaven. 8 hours almost everyday basking in their presence, their smell, their spirit. They are awful aloof. A curt nod here, small talk scarce, eyebrows ever furrowed in concentration. How I yearn to smooth their skin like clay.
They were beginning to catch onto me, quickly. If only their brain were as damned as everyone else, then I could avoid their prying questions and seeing eyes. I want nothing more than to take them all at once. Remake them. Save them. But I don’t truly know how. Claudius never revealed his hand, and they are far too precious to ruin with haste. The chair creaked as I leaned back. Their fingers were dotted with ink, their clothing wrinkled, and their eyes baggy. The poor creature must be burdened awake by their brain.
They stood as the clock stuck three and began shuffling towards the door.
“Dear?”
“What is it?” Their voice was cold again, reserved.
“Do you have any plans this Saturday?”
“No.”
“Well then, why don’t we have a day? I know you enjoy that cafe.”
“They’re closed on weekends.”
“Ah… The park? We could go for a stroll?”
The look they fixed me with stoked my passion all the more. Suspicion? Intrigue? It is was invigorating all the same. They were quiet for several moments, weighing their options.
“Sure, I can do it in the morning.”
“Lovely.”
——
Thank you so much for reading!
Part One