• "Eh, just bored to tell you the truth" Elijah said as his pencil stuck out from the corner of his mouth. He was sitting at a small table in an equally small coffee shop in the early morning hours. "I have a hard time sleeping at night and I'll sometimes wander into one this place, have a cup of coffee and just stare at people." he said with a slight shrug of his wide shoulders. He was talking to a much younger woman, he guessed that she was in her mid 20's as supposed to his late 50's, though his appearance would never betray his age. "I'm sorry dear, I never quite caught your name." he said realizing this after a moment.

    "Well I never gave my name good sir." she said as she sipped on the cup of coffee held between her long delicate fingers. She looked at him through ice blue eyes and smile parted her full red lips. "My name is Edith and pray tell good sir what is yours" she asked with a slight giggle in her voice. Elijah wasn't sure if she was mocking the way in which he spoke or if it was merely the way she spoke, it was hard to tell in this day and age, so Elijah decided that she wasn't trying to make fun of him, well at least till she proved him otherwise. "My name is Elijah it's a pleasure to meet you Edith." he said with a slight bow of his head, removing the pencil from his mouth and slipping between two of his fingers. "Now you know my story dear, what's yours?" he said with a sly smile on his face.

    Edith said nothing for a short while and pressed her red lips together in a mock state of annoyance, as she did so Elijah could not help but think if only I was a few years younger and she was a few years older though his profession had blessed him with certain physical attributes Elijah still found it hard to look past the number of years., he was old fashion like that he supposed. Almost as soon as Elijah had finished thinking the thought she let out a giggle, as though he had spoken the words aloud. Elijah shook his head, that just wasn't possible not with him anyway.

    "Well, I come here to meet interesting people like yourself. I'm not much of a sleeper myself and prefer a good conversation over a good nap." she said as he ran her fingers through her short dark drown hair. Elijah could not help but c**k an eyebrow, if he didn't know any better he could have sworn that the woman was flirting with him, but that wasn't right, was it?

    Elijah shook his head once more he had to those stupid thoughts out of his head an concentrate on the business at hand, it was not a good thin to loose one head in any situation. He smiled once more at Edith and leaned closer to her, "So my dear Edith what's your story?" he asked as he sipped at the now luke warm liquid that was in his cup, it wasn't coffee just hot chocolate, Elijah found that caffeine have made him twitchy and he was never a huge fan of twitchy, well not since that fire a few years back anyway.

    Edith smiled, not of surprise or anything so mundane as that, it looked as though she had expected the question. To Elijah it looked as though she had been waiting for him to ask it. Elijah rubbed at his tired eyes again, he needed a vacation maybe he would request one when he got back into the office later that day. "Well, I'm not too found of my own story, a little too drab for my tastes, how about I give you a story instead." Elijah had to admit that she had answered his question in a most interesting manner, so he nodded his approved and sat back to listen to the story that Edith told him:

    "Before I start the story proper let me explain a little something" Edith began her finger intertwined in each other, giving her an almost evil look as she sat at the other side of the table. "This story isn't a happy one, though it isn't a sad one either, it's a merely a story like any other." she added tapping one finger on the table. "It takes place in world much like our own, a parrallel universe if you will. Where everything is almost the same expect for a few minor differences. For example in that world magic is real and common place." Edith spoke her voice taking on that ethereal quality that only a storyteller could take, Elijah found himself getting lost in her words.

    "I have to admit miss, that I never pegged you as a lady of fantasy." he said interrupting her story for a moment. She only smiled at the comment that he had made. "I'm more of a fantasy fan that you think." She said as she tapped the side of her nose. 'Now let's get back to the story." she said and her voice once more took on that ethereal quality as she went back to her storytelling. "Now, as with great worlds of magic, this one was a fuedol world, filled with kings and queens, knights and damsels." she said as he hands wove around as though trying to conjure the world into reality with the wave of her hands and fingers.

    "But our doesn't revolve around a knight, or a fair damsel or even a wise old wizard, no this story is about a man called Reimel, Reimel you see was a farmer his farm located miles north of a small village far out of the gaze of kings and questing knights and even fearsome dragons." Her eyes took on an almost glassy look as she spoke, as though she were picturing the man which she spoke of fondly.

    "Reimel was a small man, only half a head taller then most of the women in the neighborring village, with a mop of dirty red hair on his head and the deepest emerald eyes you have ever seen. His face was pale and freckled and he was missing one of his front teeth." she added a faint smile on her features. Elijah could not help but snort at her discription. 'If he is to be the hero of our tale, he is strangely ugly for the part. Aren't the main character's in this tales supposed to be overly beautiful." he asked as he took another sip of his coffee.

    "Aye, but I never said the Reimel was to be the gallant hero of my tale." Edith smiled seductively at the man seated across from her, there was a strange mischievous twinkle in her eye that Elijah wasn't sure if the loved or feared. Edith continued with the tale that she wove. "You see Reimel was essentially a good man, but a very unhappy one. As you can gather from my description of the poor fellow he was far from the minds of the women of the village and could not for the life of him find a wife." she said as she paused for a brief moment to take a sip of her warm coffee. "Now, aside from being an excellent farmer Reimel considered himself quite adept at magic, he would study it by candlelight every night and had gotten rather good and mending things here and there around his farm and town. It was on one such night that Reimel was struck, if he could not find a wife, then perhaps he should make one." Elijah cocked an eyebrow at the story and a smile spread across his lips, he pulled a small pack of black cigarettes from the breast pocket of his black dress shirt and mentioned to Edith if she wanted one, and she dismissed him with a small wave of her hand. Elijah merely shrugged and said nothing lighting the clove laced tobacco and taking small drag from it. "Now making a wife would be a skill any man would kill for." Elijah said as small clouds of smoke issued from his moving mouth like the coming of a dense fog in the early morning hours. "Funny that you should say that" Edith said with a small shake of her finger.

    "Now Reimel was well versed in simple magics but the higher level skills needed to breath life into something were beyond his knowledge, the small collection of magical tomes that the man had acquired over the years mentioned nothing of such things and Reimel resolved that he first had to find such book before he could set about the task of making himself a wife" As Edith spoke Elijah could not help but notice the fact that the coffee shop had grown deftly quiet, as if everyone was hanging on her every word, and Elijah had to admit that she was quiet the storyteller.

    "Now as you could imagine, the power to create a human being out of thin air isn't something that you could find in your local bookshop, so Reimel spent many months going from town to town searching for a book that would feel his needs." As she spoke Edith was playing with a small gold band around her ring finger, Elijah cocked an eyebrow he had not noticed it before, nor had he thought to ask if the woman was married. "Well, did our young friend ever find his magical tome?" Elijah asked after Edith had said very little for a few minutes. "But of course he did, if wouldn't be much of a story if he hadn't now would it?" Edith commented with a slight smile on her face. Elijah could not help but agree with her, it wouldn't be a story worth telling unless he had found the magic that he had so desperately been looking for.

    "Now you can only imagine the excitement and joy that Reimel must have felt when he found the book that he had spend the last few months desperately searching for. He rushed back to his farm as fast as his faithful stead would carry him, unfortunately Reimel pushed his horse far too hard and it promptly died when he arrived at his home." Elijah cocked an eyebrow when Edith said this. "Just when I thought that this was turning into a story with a happy ending." he said in a mock expression of annoyance. Edith only smiled at the comment that he made. "Well, my story is far from finished good sir." she said as she continued to weave her tale of wonder.

    "Now as one would expect Reimel was distraught at the loose of his horse, whom he had named blackberry because of the horse's love of the fruit. But Reimel's grief did not last long with magic tome in hand he rushed into his cottage to prepare for the ritual of creating himself a wife, Reimel read the book with the speed and hunger of a man left without a crumb of bread for months, analyzing and memorizing every feature and every ingredient. That is until he got to the final line of the tome, it was the last ingredient that made his heart drop into his chest." Edith paused for a moment as she sipped at the hot cup in her hands, by this time in had been refilled by one of the bar maids at least twice that Elijah could remember. In fact he had to admit that he had become so enthralled by the story that she was weaving that he had smoke his cigarette and had not even realized it.

    "This tale is becoming darker and darker with every passing moment." Elijah commented. "And what of his poor horse, is he to let it rot there in the sun?" he asked as Edith merely looked at him with a sly smile on her face. "No of course not, for you see the final ingredient that Reimel needed to bring his creation to life was blood." Edith said as she tapped the side of her nose. "The very blood that now pooled in the body of his dead horse." Elijah exclaimed, with more excitement then he had intended. "Exactly" Edith said as she leaned back in her chair.

    "It seemed that the death of his horse had been a blessing in disguise, more then a curse. As a farmer Reimel had slaughtered his fair share of barnyard critters for his supper and for market. so the task of draining the horse's corpse was a rather easy one. " Edith said in a strange matter of fact sort of way, complete with a wave of her hand. "The instructions did not specified how much was to be used in the ritual, so Reimel took an extra procaution and got as much from the animal as he could. Etching the magical symbols into the wooden floor of his cottage Reimel set about sculpting the body of the woman that would soon be born as his wife." Elijah snorted as Edith finished her last statement, "Are you to tell me that not only was Reimel an expert farmer, a good enough wizard but that he also was a great sculptor?" Elijah's voice was on the verge of bursting into laughter.

    Edith merely shugged once more that sly smile on her face. "You should always suspend some of your belief and preconceptions when listening to a story, makes it flow so much easier." she answered as she leaned back into her seat. "Now can I continue my tale?" she asked playfully. Elijah nooded and motioned for her to continue, he had to admit that her yarn was starting to interest him and he was curious to see how it would end.

    "Now, as I was saying, Reimel spent most of the night creating the image of the woman that he wanted to create, as the sun started to peak over the horizion he had completed all but the adding of blood that was said to be the last crucial step needed to make his wife. With great anticipation he added the blood that he had careful exactred from his horse and added it his newly formed creation."

    "At first her perfect form resembled nothing more then a lay statue drowned in blood, it stank in his small cottage and Reimel was starting to wonder if he had been tricked by the owner of the bookshop and that his desires would never come to fruition." Again Elijah could not help but c**k and eyebrow as she read the expression on the women's face, it looked almost like disappointment, as though she retelling events that she had lived herself and not just a made up story, but again Elijah shook his head trying to jar those strange thoughts from his head. He really needed to get some sleep.

    Withough prompting from Elijah, Edith continued her tale. "Reimel sat that there for what felt like days, even if it was only a few minutes that had past in reality. You see the magic of creating life is a very subtle magic, one moment she was a lifeless lump of clay and the next she was sitting up her long black mane of hair covered her bosom and most of her fair white skin almost artistically as the morning rays of the sun touched her skin. As he saw this Reimel could not help but smile as he looked into the deep black pools which where her eyes. Reimel leaned in closer to the woman and spoke in soft and nervous tones. Hi my name is Reimel what's yours"

    "He just played God, at the best line that he could come up with is what's your name?" Elijah asked as he was being poured his forth cup of coffee since walking into the coffee shop across his apartment complex. "I never said that he was clever man" Edith teased and tapped the table with one bright red fingernail.

    "Now the problem started as his new creation went to open her mouth to speak. Reimel was anxious with anticipation over hearing her voice for the first time, but the noise that issued from her mouth wasn't anything resembling the voice of a human let alone a female one.


    Again Elijah couldn't help but c**k an eyebrow at the last few word that Edith had told him. This time his interest in how the story was progressing made it so he did not speak a word, curious to see how her story would end. As much as he would regret it later he had become rather enthralled by the story that she was weaving.

    Edith smiled at Elijah's silent voice, she knew at that point that Elijah was now complerely emersed in the story that she had spent the last hour or so trying to tell him. She had to admit that she was very proud of the fact that she could ensnare a man so completely without the aid of her more physical features. "Well the voice that issued from the woman that Reimel had created was the voice of a horse. And for a moment Reimel said nothing and merely stared at the woman unsure at how to proceed" At this point Elijah did interceed with a comment, "You would be quiet too if your future wife was somehow


    really a horse. It was at that moment that something dawned on our young Reimel, though the book had not specified what type of blood it would only make sense that in order to make a human he would need human blood to fuel her limps." Elijah raised an eyebrow but Edith sensing the question which was forming on the man's lips answered the question as she continued her story.

    "There was also the issue of what do to with the body of the horse woman that he had created in his first failed experiment." she said with a slight shrug as she leaned in closer as if to whisper a secret to the man. "I need to make a point, Reimel in essence was a good man, a little deranged, yes but altogether a good person, he found that he couldn't end the life of the creature that he had just created and contemplated for a long time about just realising her into the forest, no one would really know where she had come from, right? She was completely incapable of human speech. But Reimel realized something as he sat there on the bloodied floor of his small cottage, in order to create a human life, he had to first end another. Everything had to balance out." Edith went quiet the shadows around her face grew longer and her eyes took on almost red glow, as though her eyes were brimming with the thoughts of blood, not unlike Reimel.

    The hairs on the back of Elijah's neck stood up, as though charged by electricity, there was something not quite right about the way that she stared at him. Elijah shook his head, reminding himself that she was only telling a story, he was getting himself too involved in the story, not unlike a child that watches a horror film and can't get too sleep at night. Elijah smiled, his confidence restored. "If he wanted to learn how to kill, best practice first." he said with a wicked grin on his face.

    "Exactly" Edith said as she snapped her fingers, "Reimel came to that very same conclusion. He realized that what he had been trying to do was steeping on the realm of God's grace, only God could make a life. His thoughts had already dammed him, why not his acts?"

    "Reimel sliced her through open in the forest with a large and razor sharp butcher knife and found it so much more easier then he could have ever thought. Her skin sliced apart as though it were made out of butter and the blood came gushing fort in hot streaming mass like he had opened the floodgates of a river. Killing a human was much more interesting then killing a simple creature like a cow or a chicken. There was something almost beautiful about the way that the blood oozed and ran out of that pathetic creations now limp form, there was an unmistakable allure to the act of killing that Reimel had not expected. His new found admiration of death would only serve to further his plans." she took another sip of her coffee, which made Elijah realize that he had run out of coffee several minutes ago and had been so engrossed in her story telling that he had completely forgotten. "Give me a minute, I need to get some more coffee" he said as he made to stand. Edith stood before he could and took the empty cup. "Since you've been such a good sport about listening to me this long, my treat." she smiled as she walked off with his cup

    She returned shortly after and placed a fresh steaming cup in front of him, he took a sip and noticed a strange almost metallic aftertaste, who ever had brewed this cup had done a lousy job at it, but not wanting to belittle Edith's kindness Elijah said nothing and merely thanked her for the cup. "Now, it took Reimel most of the rest of the early morning to burn and dispose of the body, Reimel was smart enough to realize that if he didn't dispose of the corpse created human or not his fate would be at the gallows. He took the rest of the day to also make sure that he cleaned his cottage and tended to his forgotten fields, the last thing that he wanted to do was arouse suspicion which would hinder his plans. If he was going to do this he had to do this right. The first thing he needed to do was to decide on a target."

    "The simplest target would be a prostitute, since there not going to be missed by most of the population and that had been Reimel's first thought, and it would have most likely been the first thought of most people, But as Reimel sat and thought about it he realized that it probrably wasn't the wisest decision since most prostitutes especially the ones in the brothels he was thinking of visiting would have had to deal with many a cuththroat and lowlife during the course of there careers and would be better experienced at defending themselves from an attack then he would be at murder. So he threw that option out the window post-haste. Unfortunately this trend continued for another whole day as Reimel worked around the farm, every idea that came to his head he quickly found too many faults and discarded the idea. It took him another two full days to figure out what he was going to do, and oddly enough it was his farm that gave him the idea. As his cleaning out the chicken coup he found a small vine of hemlock growing behind it, it was at that point that he knew that poisoning his victim was the way to go. But he needed to find a poison that would act slowly so that Reimel had time to get her to his cottage while she was still alive, and not arouse suspicion, perhaps an elixir that would make one act drunk. It also had to be tasteless so that the victim would not notice and call for help. Reimel went over the tomes in his house."

    "During his travels he had picked several books aside from the one that he had been searching for and it took him no time to uncover the information that he had been looking for. It was a simple enough elixir to create and would not kill the victim until a magic word was spoken, and even then the effect would merely render the victim into a trance that would allow Reimel to control them for about an hour or so before they died. Reimel prepared his potion and set his plans in motion. That night a maiden would die."

    Elijah found his eyes getting a little heavy on him, not to the point that he thought he would fall asleep on Edith, no her story was much too interesting for something like that. He merely found it strange that he was getting sleepy as he sipped his coffee, but Elijah thought it a blessing since he was a never a good sleeper anyway. He turned his attentions back to the story that Edith was telling.

    "Now in town there was a local pub where most of the village residents and local farmers hung out, it was also a large enough pub that Reimel should have no problem finding travelers that would best serve his needs. He was smart enough to know that he couldn't touch any of the locals there disappearance might lead suspucous minds to his doors, and Reimel had no intention of dying, not when he was so close to achieving his goals. "

    "Now Reimel rode into to town, his flask of magic elixir tucked neatly under his shirt and walked into the crowded pub. At first Reimel could see no one that he didn't already know, many of which were more then eager to invite him over to sit with them, but Reimel respectfully declined every invite until the stopped coming altogether. As his eyes roamed across the bar they fell upon a shadowed figure in the corner. Reimel found himself compelled to walk towards it and found that it was a young girl wearing a rather large hood, her bosom was ample and her eyes were a crystal blue that Reimel had never seen before. Her hair, what little of it Reimel could see under the hood was black and shoulder leght. It seemed that Reimel had found his sacrifice. Now there was the issue about hot to confront her, for a moment Reimel could think of nothing and he could his panic starting to rise, to have come all this way and loose because of his shyness? No, Reimel wasn't going to loose like that. His face lit up as an idea dawned on him, he strode over to the woman and introduced himself. She did the same stating her name was Catherine. Reimel offered to tell her a story."

    Elijah smiled and cocked his head, which he had to admit was starring to hurt just a little, there was this strange pang of pain in the back of his head like someone was squeezing it lightly. "Well, doesn't this seem familiart." Elijah said with a smile. "Tell Edith my dear, are you planning to kill me and use my blood to animate a husband for you?" Elijah said with a short brief laugh, as he sipped the last of his coffee down his throat

    Edith smiled as she watched him finish the cup, it was a wicked smile that unnerved Elijah more then he would have ever dared to admit. "Why yes, Elijah dear you are my sacrifice." When Elijah looked into her eyes it was obvious that she wasn't joking. Elijah eyes grew wide with terror, that metalic taste in the coffee.....what had she slipped him? "Who are you?" he said as he felt the pressure build in his head.

    Edith that wicked grin of hers and leaned back in her chair. "I was being perfectly honest about who I was. My name is Edith, the story you heard was that of my late husband the man who created me." she said as she tapped a fingernail on the table.

    Elijah's mind yelled at him to to run back to his apartment and bolt his apartment door, but no matter how hard his mind yelled his body wasn't responding, Elijah heart sank into the pit of his stomach. "But that would make you......." "a little over 300 years old, yes it turns out that the spell that Reimel cast that night made me immortal more or less. I'm not bullet proof or anything, slice my throat and I will bleed out and die, but I don't age and I've never been sick in my life." Elijah could not believe what he was listening to, but somehow he knew that she wasn't lying, the immobility of his own body was proof enough of that.

    "I still don't understand how I factor into all of this." Elijah asked his voice on the verge of tears. "I think that would be obvious Elijah my sweet I've grown lonely of this world, my husband grew old and died centuries ago, I want someone to share eternity with." when Edith said this Elijah could not help but feel compasion for her, even if her loneliness meant his own demise, he could at least partially understand why it was she was doing it, no one deserved to be lonely.

    Elijah smiled and snorted, his eyes filling up with tears. "Just to me a favor, don't call him Elijah, I've always hated that damn name." he said with a laugh, funny he never thought he'd be laughing as he sat in coffee table ready to die.

    Edith smiled "I promise I won't" she rose from the table and placed a kiss lightly on his cheek "Good night Elijah." she said and whispered some strange word into his ears.

    "Good night sweet Edith" Elijah said as his world plunged into darkness.


    ~The End