The roadtrip had been bittersweet for Christoph and he knew the most difficult part was yet to come. His turn with Lucius had finally arrived, yet he had no idea how he planned to convey his wishes to the headmaster. Having obsessed over his wording throughout every state and having struggled with the potential consequences during every backseat nightmare, he still had no idea how he would reveal his request to die to the great and powerful Lucius.
Christoph was not ungrateful for his existence. On the contrary, he had always maintained a great appreciation for the human species as well as the vampirism he had been forced into. He suffered little regret when looking back on his lives, both mortal and immortal, but had come to accept that he’d simply lived for too long and had already done everything worth doing. He’d grown gravely bored and laboriously tired and just wanted to move onto the next stage where he hoped to finally find a place of serenity and silence.
Christoph tried hard to prevent himself from feeling resentment over his inability to die like the rest of his species. A stroll in the sunlight, though painfully scorching and potentially debilitating for months, would not kill him. A swift stab to the heart by a silver blade would create a deep ache that was emotionally traumatic and physically injurious, but it would not end his life. Only the blessing of the headmaster could free him from the binds that tethered him to an earth he wanted to escape and so the roadtrip had indeed become his last hope.
He walked through the tunnel the pixie girls had led him to and thought about Lucius’ obsession with eggs and Stephan’s fixation with fairies. He thought about the differences and the similarities between humans and vampires and shook his head slowly at how alike they really were in the end.
Hearing high pitched snickering from behind him, Christoph turned around and noticed the three little pixies still stood at the entrance to the tunnel, waving and smiling. When they started blowing kisses at him, he blew one back and bowed to them in a low and dramatic fashion, causing them to giggle again. Laughing out loud, he turned back toward his destination and headed deeper into the increasingly surreal tunnel.
He couldn’t stop thinking about their round little faces or wondering where they had come from. Had Stephan picked them off the Internet? Had he been a frequent visitor on some dating or social networking site and systematically chosen only the ones who could pass as an imp to satisfy some twisted fantasy he still harbored from his human life? Christoph shook his head with disapproval as he imagined Stephan breaking into their safe little homes and attacking them during their sleep. Of course, he didn’t know if it was how it really happened but he found it all too easy to envision the sly misogynist as one who would derive great pleasure from attacking women during their most vulnerable moments.
The lights in the tunnel were the same kind Christoph had seen in the forest and, looking around at the care it took to install such an intricate lighting system, he decided Lucius had at least one more obsession. What appeared to be a long runway ahead carried hundreds upon thousands of halogen lamps, all housed in nickel plated brass bodies that stood upon tall posts that had strange markings carved into them. The road ahead illuminated a golden hue from underground and Christoph figured the master had used low pressure sodium bulbs to create such an effect. The street appeared never-ending and he wished Leo were<