Sybelle stepped onto the subway just as the doors slid shut behind her. An instant rush of people shoved her farther into the vehicle, even at this late hour. She sought a far corner, as far away from the crowd as possible. Her slight case of claustrophobia was kicking in already. The subway lurched forward and she grasped the arm of her chair.

Her hands unfolded a notebook, revealing pages of writing and sketches. She picked up her pencil and made a few light sketches. Her current drawing was a simple one of a jewelry box containing a delicately turning dancer. Her drawing was so void of emotion...but how could she fix it?

Frustrated, she shut the notebook and pushed it aside, leaning her head back against the subway window. She wanted to get home. She wanted to take a bath, to go to sleep, to not wake up the next night without a clue as to where she would go or who she would speak to. She was so tired of this monotonous life. Where were the dark figures in the long gowns of black gosamer to take her away from her life and sell her soul to the moon? Where were the shades of grey to smother the stars and asphyxiate the empty throws of humanity?

Life wasn't meant to be this lonely, was it?

The underground subway system was a bitch. None of the trains ever ran on time and if they did then it was considered a miracle of god. Plenty of people were waiting for the subway train, muttering angrily at the train being late yet again. Leon was among them, his vampiric form hidden so that he did not alert any mortals to his presence. Normally, his skin would be pale and his eyes would be devoid of all emotion... but because of the fact that he had fed upon some cattle before leaving, his skin was now normal coloured and he had disguised his eyes so that they were now a nice pale blue.

Walking down from the streets, Leon paid for his ticket and leant against one of the tile columns waiting for his train to central Demaitre. He took out his black ipod and placed the earphones in his ears before turning it on and listening to his music. Today, he had decided to listen to Scum of the Earth... heavy metal at it's finest. Glancing up at the clock, Leon saw that the train was 15 minutes late... so he began to tap his feet along to the rythm of his music.

15 minutes turned to 20 minutes... 30 minutes... 45 minutes. How late could one train be? And then suddenly he heard it from afar, the sound of the train coming from the tunnels. And sure enough, two bright lights from the darkness shone forth... coming ever closer to the platform followed by a green train cart which was defiled with graffiti. Leon walked over to the subway train and entered the train, looking for a nice dark corner to sit in. Such was his preference... that way he could keep an eye on the train without people looking at the back of him.

Alas, someone had already beaten him too it. A young girl who Leon guessed was about 20-odd, perhaps mid twenties. She was sitting in one of the corner but the seat opposite to her was free. Striding over to the seat, Leon sat down and began to look out of the window, watching the world go by. He thought of how much he had seen in his 4000 year old life, and how different the world looked. Yes, humanity had come a long way and it still had a long way to go.

The train began to start and Leon watched as the outside world began to move along, knowing that in a few minutes he would be at his home within the city town. Leon did not live in an appartment, instead he had found an abandoned church which was nice and spacious at the top near the belltower. He was looking forward to going back to his 'dwelling' and sleeping.

Sybelle looked up in half surprise to find another person sitting across from her now. She had not even been aware that they had stopped. There were people everywhere. She turned her music down a little so that she might hear if something happened. Knowing people, they would definitely interrupt her thought process if they saw the opportunity to.

She shot a few what she thought to be "subtle" glances at the stranger across from her. He seemed strange, like a being you see in a magazine or in a movie, almost unrealistic in his looks. It was strange, hard to describe, but no one else looked anything like him at all, and no one else seemed to notice. She realized then that he had what she had always sought in people: that certain "dark quality" that characterized a certain type of person. Having never met anyone else with this quality, she could not say what type of person this was, but she was fond of it nonetheless.

He looked distant, though, so thoughtful. She felt it would be very rude to interrupt him, seeing as she hated it when others did the same to her. She settled on just looking at him every now and then and hoping he wouldn't be too adverse to her glances.

You bloody hypocrite. You know you'd be very cautious and probably nervous if someone was doing to same to you.

She ignored her inner sense, deeming it as not applying to this situation. After all, there was that something about him...

Listening to his music and watching the world go by was an odd thing to get pleasure from but somehow Leon managed to obtain some sense of inner peace by watching the world go by. He knew that he was being observed by the young girl opposite him and wondered what she was thinking off... however, years of experiance taught him that reading people's minds without their permission is a bit on the rude side.

So Leon decided not to invade the young girl's privacy of her mind and instead looked out of the window, watching the world go by and keeping an eye on the young girl's reflection in the window. She seemed to be looking at him every other moment, probably wondering what a man like him was doing at the back of a subway.

Leon let her keep on looking at him, he found it amusing in the end... she was probably thinking that he didn't notice her glancing at him every so often. Switching his music from Scum of the earth to Clutch, Leon kept on looking outside... keeping an eye on the young girl.

It was curious and awkward for her to sit here, mentally lying somewhere between talking to him and keeping quiet. But what on earth would she say? Hello, you seem interesting and different and dark. How are you? Even her pride was not that impervious. But still, he seemed so foreign and strange, more like a wraith than a person. His hair and skin were so pale, like something made for a creature of a completely different world altogether.

Her fingers removed the headphones from her ears and put them away, her eyes scanning his face curiously. She started to say something, but stopped. What was there to say to a complete stranger? She looked away, afraid they would lock eyes. For some reason she feared locking eyes with this person more than anything in the world.

I wish you could hear what I am thinking. I wish I didn't have to talk to you for you to know what I want to say...What's wrong with me? It's just some guy...

She shuddered slightly and and braced as the subway jerked to a stop. This wasn't where she was to get off. She hoped this wasn't his stop either.

Who are you, dark one, who sits there so quietly and peacefully? Why do you look so pale and wondrous, as if you are made from stone? Something tells me your will is of iron and your eyes have seen worlds more than mine have...

Still occasionaly glancing at the reflection, Leon was fighting an inner battle of his mind. He was wondering whether he should take a peek at the young girl's mind and see what she was thinking. Everytime he got ready to see what she was thinking, an inner voice stopped him and told him it was wrong.

And then Leon realised something... he was listening to inner voices. That was the third sign of madness. So Leon threw his inner voice to the dark corner of his mind and ever so gently looked inside the girl's head, seeing what she was thinking. It wasn't difficult, mortal minds were soft and easy to look inside to. Then again, Leon had 4000 years of practise and knew how to read minds quickly.

Keeping his eyes outside, Leon searched the girl's mind and heard another voice inside of his...

I wish you could hear what I am thinking. I wish I didn't have to talk to you for you to know what I want to say...What's wrong with me? It's just some guy...

...oh the sweet irony.

Who are you, dark one, who sits there so quietly and peacefully? Why do you look so pale and wondrous, as if you are made from stone? Something tells me your will is of iron and your eyes have seen worlds more than mine have...

Very poetic, Leon thought to himself. Taking himself out of her mind, Leon decided that if this girl wasn't going to talk then he would have to. Still looking at the reflection of the girl, Leon thought of something to say.

"Still staring at the back of my head I see..." Leon said in his quiet voice.
Turning around, he took out the earphones and shut off his music before looking at the girl in the eyes...
"Well, I suppose I should say something... so... hi."

Several seemingly infinite seconds, so precious, slipped away as Sybelle sat in wonder and stunned silence. And there it was, his eyes locked with hers. Precisely what she had been afraid of, and now she was petrified. The doors slid open to the subway and a breeze caught her hair and chilled her skin. Perfectly still, eyes wide, she tried to make any sound of recognition come forth but found that she was silenced.

So he had known she was watching him. Of course he had. You knew it all along. She flinched slightly at the truth, and the spell of silence was broken. Her eyes darted away from the direct path of his eyes and unfocused in hopes they would penetrate her soul no longer.

"Please, forgive me," it was an almost pleading whisper, a strange sound on her sarcastic lips. She folded her hands in her lap, fingers twitching nervously. "I would say that I did not mean to stare, but then I would be lying. It is only that, well, you startle and confuse me, sir, though I do not even know who you are or where you have come from."

How foolish she knew she must sound. How foolish she knew she did sound. Had someone come up and said the same to her that she had said to him just now, she would have laughed in open amusement and mockery. And yet now that she had spoken, she could not stop.

"Honestly, I fear that I have become obsessed with someone completely random and undeserving of such a curse..."

Leon looked at this girl up and down, she looked nervous. Leon did give off that kind of radiance that should be feared. He was only 5'9, about the height of a 17 year old... but he had chosen his appearance very carefully when he studied this life. He had died his hair white and cut it so he looked more daunting, and he wore long clothes to make himself look taller.

But in reality, it was his silence that spoke volumes. Unlike most other people, Leon did not blather on. Instead he would just talk when he needed to say something and not to break the ice. In the end, it was silence that reigned supreme over everything.

"There is nothing to forgive," Leon spoke, his voice sounding quiet but somehow carrying authority as if he was commanding someone.
"Curiosity is not a sin, curiosity is not a curse... but it must be excercised with caution, for sometimes the truth is not as beautiful as what we hope it could be."

Leon turned around to face the young girl, leaning back on the train window and putting his feet up on the seat so that he could relax. He wanted to show this girl he meant no harm, that even though he was a creature of the night (which she did not know he was), that he still reained his humanity.

"Tell me... what is it that makes you obsessed with me? As you say, I am one random person but what is it that makes you feel curious about me?"

Her hands stilled themselves and her eyes became thoughtful and distant. "Curiosity is not a sin, curiosity is not a curse... but it must be excercised with caution, for sometimes the truth is not as beautiful as what we hope it could be." It was too true.

"I don't know what it is," she began quietly, "that makes you seem so different and so foreign in my eyes. I cannot seem to find a reason that makes me wonder about you, and yet here I am, talking to you as if I have known you forever. It's almost as if you don't exist at all, that I'm talking to a ghost of someone."

She turned her face away and lowered her head, falling into silence. There was no point in trying to explain; she could not expect him to understand. After all, no one ever did understand. No one could see what she did; no one could find the wonders of the dark or the flaws of the light.

"Maybe...have you ever met someone who made you think of what you should be? Have you ever met someone who made you look at yourself in a completely new light? I believe it to be sort of like that. For all my life I've been watching for someone with a certain nameless quality, a dark moroseness and a quiet aura, but you are the first I have ever met to possess it."

She gave up; there really was no point in going on. She set her jaw and drifted into silence. This was so surreal, like a dream that holds a certain meaning but refuses to reveal it.

This female was unlike anyone that Leon had ever met, she was young but full of wisdom and perhaps she did make him think about something. For example, he had never met someone who made him take a look at his very own life and made him think about who he was. Perhaps though... he had met that person.

He listened to the girl talk, mulled over her words inside his head and wondered what he should do. Her words had a certain ring to them, as if they conveyed a hidden message that had existed for thousands of years.

"If I truly am this person, then maybe I should know more about you," Leon said to the girl, "So please, tell me about yourself and I will tell you about me."

This was a lie of course, he couldn't tell this girl about the true him. How could he explain that he was an immortal who had lived for over 4000 years, whose parents were murdered by vampire's and how he had delved into insanity?

She watched him quietly, musing over his request.

"I would tell you everything, but, unfortunately, there is little about me to know. I am no speical person with abilites that others desire or research or ponder over. I'm just a common girl with a story, just like every other mortal girl. But I'll tell you whatever can be deemed mildly entertaining."

Sitting back slightly, she pondered quietly over the course of her life, so bland and meaningless. She almost shuddered to think that this was her life, her only life. Empty...

"I was born in the city of Prague, the Heart of Europe, they call it. It was a gorgeous city, and I was in love with it, but I was forced to leave by my family. I had no father. I was the youngest of five children and had but one brother. If I stayed, I would gain nothing and be nothing. And so I left to be nothing somewhere else. I remained in Paris for awhile, where I took up the violin. I fell in love with that, too. It reminded me of so much that I had missed before. But even its charms could not hold me there. I was betrayed and left alone. So I moved here, maddened and probably legally insane. And here I have done nothing with my life. I am beginning to lose hope that I shall ever find something to do with my life."

She looked away bitterly, drawing inwardly a little to hide and escape. So sick of living, but far too deep in despair to die.

This girl... she had been through quite a life at such a young age. In a way, she reminded Christian of himself: feeling alone, feeling betrayed by those you thought you could count on. Christian could relate to all of those feelings and longed to tell the poor girl of the truth about who he was, that he was what many men dream of being.

However, he could never confide to her about his true past but he wouldn't... he couldn't. However, he had to tell her something about him so that he would seem fair. Besides, this girl intruiged him enough.

"My life is unimportant, I was born to a family and worshiped my god. However my family were killed and I forsaked my god... so now I wonder the world searching for something to believe in. However, I have found nothing to believe in now so I wonder the streets alone."

There was so much more to him than just this scant little piece of information she gave him, but she would not press him for something he obviosly did not want to reveal. It was a little saddening, though, that she could not learn his full story, seeing as she had actually given him hers. Feeling a little jaded, she leaned back against the subway's wall once more.

"Then perhaps we are more alike then I thought," she sighed. "Neither one of us has something to put our faith in, and so we put our faith in nothing. There has to be so much more, but I cannot find it..."

She turned her head slightly and glanced out the window at the passing blurs. Endless, empty promises. There was nothing out there for her, and yet there was nothing here either.

"What is it you search for, exactly?"

Her eyes held him gently, regarding his cold and distant person blankly.

At that point, Leon felt more human than he normally did. His face showed it to... transforming from the cold statue of a face that he normally wore to a more peaceful figure.

"I search for a peaceful life where I can relax and be happy. Maybe one day I'll find the happiness I'm looking for. All I can do is hope."