Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 01:01:31 -0500 (EST) From: Susan Bennett Subject: Challenge: End of the Knight To: Fan Fiction cc: N&N List , archiver This is in response to Ray's 'End of the Knight' challenge on FKFIC. It's pretty obvious that I couldn't decide between a story, essay, or poem so this 'poem' has a bit of everything . Timing is immediately after Last Knight and assumes the staking. End of the Knight by Susan B. based on characters from Forever Knight, etc. -------------------------------------------- They opened their eyes to find themselves sitting alone in an old yellow bus parked at the brink of a bend on a desolate, dusty road. Cobwebs, cracked windows, and rust. The front door creaked opened and Schanke climbed in... white shorts, a kaleidoscopic shirt. A blur of colour, a peculiar grin, and he was in the driver's seat. "Skank!" Nick shouted, and Natalie too But their greetings were duly ignored. The couple simply glanced at each other. The driver, their friend, adjusted the mirror and started the engine, then hurriedly closed the door. "Don't worry you two!" he proclaimed in a roar "We're not going anywhere, you haven't been to before. They hadn't driven a mile, Nat thought, when they suddenly came to a thundering halt "Man-oh-man-oh-man," a faint voice murmured. The front door opened and up the steep rubber steps, a figure crept, then emerged from a swirl of gold dust "What's she doing here?" Nat asked, before frowning at Nick. "I don't know," he replied, as he gawked at Janette. "Nicola," she uttered in a firm sultry voice as she traversed the aisle towards them, smoothing troublesome wrinkles from her blue satin dress. "I won't go back!" Nick declared outright... firming his jaw, gripping Natalie tight. Janette smiled and touched his shoulder. "I am not here for you, mon cher," she advised. "But to answer a question that your love has devised." "What is darkness?" Nat asked, surprising herself, not knowing from where it had come. "Darkness is the fear," Janette frankly replied, "that leaves you helpless. Cowering in a corner, while the world around you burns. An eternity in darkness is an eternity in fear." She swiveled with grace to face the rear doors and whispered aloud to herself, "Courage comes in many forms... and I loved Robert more than any." When again the bus came to a clamorous halt, Janette lost her balance and flailed for a patch of tattered green vinyl on the back of a seat "Mr. Schanke!" she screamed, intensely annoyed. "Sorry," came a muffled, insincere moan. Peeking over her shoulder at both Nick and Nat, Janette conferred her farewells. "Adieu, both of you, I must depart. For it appears after all, that I have missed my stop." Natalie nudged Nick deep in the ribs. "Well?" His reply -- a tender kiss on willing lips. "Don't look at me," he light-heartedly scolded "You were the one with the question!" They watched Janette disembark 'til their attention was caught by the strumming of a remorseful guitar. "Elvis?!" Schanke optimistically queried. "Look!" Nick exclaimed, pointing to the front door. And up the old rubber steps, two figures ascended in swirls of red and grey mist. "What are they doing here?" Nat muttered. "Why did they get on?" "I don't know," Nick replied, of Urs and Vachon. Sluggishly the duo trudged down the aisle Urs in tight jeans and pink sweater, Vachon in long hair and supple black leather. Strum, strum, strum; and he sang with regret, "Darkness is desire, when desire is dark and it fuels a more vicious passion... to kill that which you crave, hunger unsated 'til the one you love is spent lying cold and lifeless on the ground." With a nod of her curly blonde head, Urs agreed. "Darkness is sorrow," she explained, "joy denied. Don't think too hard -- It's much too bleak to go on... and on... and on... and on... until enough is enough and on... and on... and on... until enough is too much and on... and on... without the tenacity to walk into the sun. Unending, eternal, despair." Vachon tugged Urs down the rickety steps "I believe that's a wrap," he drily confessed. Swish. They were gone. Nick looked at Natalie and calmly enquired, "Now do you understand?" But before she even had time to respond, Schanke shouted, "Surprise passengers!" And they were a surprise. Serena and Richard. They were! Serena scowled at Nick, and spoke directly to Nat. "Darkness is an overseer in your head," she said. "Your mind becomes a complex maze There is another who assumes control Independence lost in a muddy haze Lost to a beast who lives only to kill. Yes, the cruelest aspect of darkness is the rueful death of your own free will." "Darkness is hatred," Richard announced. "And an invigorating narcotic it is. Heinous rage. Crushing rage. Desecration. Hatred -- the evil passion. Have you heard enough, or are you still unconvinced?" Now nose to nose, he studied his sister. "There is only one other thing," he conceded, "that can warm a cold heart like hate does." Natalie tightly held on to Nick's strong hand. "I know what that is. I do understand." In a cloud of fog, both guests vanished. The bus ambled along until it cleared the bend. And then it suddenly stopped again. Nick and Nat left by the front door, and Schanke called after them. "Darkness is a path unlit, shadows black and mottled grey. Remember that, and this too... that any beauty there is in the night, could never be seen without some form of light." Schanke and the bus, they both disappeared, and the road at that point became two. "What is that haunting music I hear?" Nat asked, pointing down the narrow dirt road to the left. "It is surely a tune that beckons." "A foreboding violin," Nick dismally replied. "Lacroix has infused our dead flesh with impure blood, and demands we arise." He mournfully gazed at Natalie who seemed entranced by the elegant melody. Summoning strength enough to speak, "Go where you will, my love," he said. "My promise was to follow." She turned and touched his tear stained cheek, and kissed his trembling lips. He held her then in firm embrace, and she whispered in his ear, "Fear, bloodlust, enslavement? In misery forever dwell? I'll never be the one, dear heart, To lead you back into that hell." Nick raised his fist to the unlit road and shouted loud enough to mute the bewitching song. "You tempt us with what?! Eternal life?! To live forever in your murky realm?! Hah!! Our faith was not misplaced. We think. We feel. We exist. Nick and Natalie took the road on the right The untrodden path to ethereal birth. The only way to the light. End of the darkness, end of the Knight. ---------- Susan B. cd397@torfree.net