Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 12:36:21 EDT
From: Catherine Bond <D020214@VM.SC.EDU>
Subject: Eclipse

Lisa McDavid is forwarding this story for Catherine, until a problem
with bounces is cleared up.
 
 
  Greetings! Long time no communication! I hope everyone is well.
  The following is a present for Susan G.! I hope the first of
  several. It will depend on if I can find the others (I still
  write long hand - long commute). :-) Sharon H. says that Susan
  likes people to take risks. The risk in this is actually
  getting up the nerve to post it! This will be my first fanfic
  outside of the FK/ST/ST:NG Xover Time-travel story from hell.;-)
  So, hope you enjoy this interlude before the War. It came to me
  after listening to an updated/dance version of a song I hadn't
  heard in awhile. BTW, if anyone knows the artist or has the
  words I'd love them. I have no idea if I really captured the
  song, but this is the story the I saw.
 
  Comments, howdys, virtual Ben&Jerry's, notes on upcoming cons
  may be sent to:cbond@leo.vsla.edu
 
 
  *Total Eclipse of the Heart*
 
  A blood red moon hung over the city.
 
  She stared out of the window into the night. The darkness
  was broken here and there by the lights of shops and cars.
  No city ever slept completely. She had learned that, along
  with so many other things over the years.
 
  So many years.
 
  So many years since she had been in this city; looked out at
  that particular skyline. How many?
 
  <no, don't think about it Natalie...depressing...>
 
  But her perfect memory dredged the numbers up anyway.
 
  <forty-eight years, 7 months, 12 days...>
 
  Since that night. Here in Toronto. Here in the loft. He had
  finally done what she had asked. He had made her a vampire.
 
  <be careful what you...no! no regrets...it was what I wanted...>
 
  And she *was* happy. At least she *had* been. The years, the
  adventures, the things she had seen, the travel, the lives
  they had lived were all wonderful, in their own way. But she
  felt her sense of self slipping away. She was being smothered
  by his desire - his desire for her, her blood, her memories,
  her self.
 
  <like the moon...its light blocked out by the Earth's shadow...>
 
  To be sure, he shared himself, too. More than she would have
  thought possible. More than he ever did before...before...
 
  And so many memories! So many places he wanted her to see,
  share with her. And so many stories had he to tell - good
  and bad. He had been afraid, at first, to share the dark with
  her. But she accepted all of it, all of him. How could she not?
  She had her own darkness.
 
  But it bothered her that they always did what *he* wanted. Never
  what she wanted. At first she let him make the decisions
  because it was his world. Later it was simply habit. He decided
  on their identities, their destinations, their living quarters.
  Recently she had made suggestions, but he had put her off,
  albeit gently...
 
  "Ok we'll do that, but first let's...Maybe later, I want you to
  see...Sure, that sounds good, but can I take you...."
 
  Finally she had put her foot down and they had come here.
  Toronto. Where had all began.
 
  <because this is where it's going to end...>
 
  She looked out the window. The sky shimmered with the coming
  dawn. She had asked him to watch the eclipse with her. He
  wasn't interested. Seen hundreds. Instead he had made love to her
  in the pitch blackness.
 
  An old song...<once upon a time there was light in my life...
  now there's only love in the dark...nothing I can do...a total
  eclipse of the heart...>
 
  Behind her, Nick stirred and sat up in the bed.
 
  "Are you alright?"
 
  She should tell him. How she felt. What she wanted. What she
  was going to do.
 
  <I owe him that much...>
 
  "I'm fine," she smiled. He smiled too, lay back, and slept.
 
  Quietly, she closed the binds against the coming morning and
  slowly walked downstairs.
 
 
 
  --
  Catherine Bond
  *****************************************************************************
  cbond@leo.vsla.edu   Library of Virginia, Richmond, VA
  Standard disclaimers apply. Non-standard disclaimer:This is not an artichoke.
  *****************************************************************************