Beyond the Blue

"Sometimes it's not the vision that's blurred. Sometimes it's the situation. I always see things clearly... or as clearly as they can be seen..."

Her voice echoed off the walls, this solemn, serious representation of an inner solitude that often eluded even his keen ears. He could hear it every now and again, but when she waxed poetic there was a glassy sheen over her oh-so-blue eyes that couldn't be penetrated by any man. She knew it too, and could smile when he attempted to delve into her inner sanctuary.

"People disappoint me," he heard her say. "As a whole, the race is largely a let down. They do their damnest to screw one another... and themselves... over. Massively suicidal... self-destructive... self-deprecating. And they start when they're young too, tearing the flesh from one another's bones as children. Flaying each other alive..."

She sucked in a quick breath then released it on a hitching sigh. He watched her shoulders deflate somewhat as she sat in the chair. Her fingers were laced together in her lap and she slouched unabashedly.

"What do you see when you look at me?" She asked him, actively engaging him in conversation for the first time that evening. When he didn't answer, she continued. "You see, a girl... overweight and too tall for... everything. You see that same sweet fat-girl face that we all have... the rounded cheeks and full mouth. That pleasant, sedate smile... but no..."

She paused and watched him, her eyes raking over his form as he sat there, unsure of his own skin, awkward in the directness of her gaze. He fidgeted and she smiled and a completely feral twinkle entered those big, innocent blue eyes.

"But no... no... not all sweet smiles and quiet nature. No. Never. Not me." A pause. "Was once. But not now... never again."

He cleared his throat and she grinned, chuckling slightly at his uncomfortable silence.

"Volatile. The best word to describe. One minute pleasant, the next minute irascible. You don't understand the swings in my mood because you've never seen them... because you temper them, make them less so... you are the tamer. And yet... and yet... every now and again one escapes and you can't understand it. You can't comprehend why I've turned and become the way I have... because I've never become this way before. And you can't dominate it... because you can't understand it."

She paused.

"And so you cave. And let me win. And... I don't want to win. I have a nature that's wild... that's unbreakable... I fall down and I get back up. No matter how low I go... I always... get back up."

She stood then, stretching her tall frame to its full height and reaching her arms toward the ceiling. She made a strained sort of groan as her muscles tensed and pulled. Then she sighed as she relaxed and looked toward him again. She paced the room, gesturing with her hands and letting her feet slap against the tile.

"I am. I am red. Beyond these big blue eyes... there is red. I see red, I am red, I FEEL... red. And I always hated red... but that was then... and red... is now. Red is passion. Red is fire. Red is hate. Red is... so many things. And I am them all. And let us not forget.. that at the base of every fire... RED fire... there is just a touch of blue."

She stopped and stared down at her hands, her voice dropping off into the silence of the room.

"Conquer me..."

The two words were quiet... blending and mixing in the sudden silence of the room.

"What would it take...? I've told you exactly what I am... who I am. You say you're strong enough..."

She turned and came toward him, stopping before his seated frame. He looked up, mouth agape as she descended upon him.

"Red... like the apple in Eden. Forbidden and untouchable. But you want me don't you? Well, there's a price to pay for every sin that you indulge in. A price to pay..."

She knelt before him, and he followed her descent with his eyes. She looked up at him now... that cool blue gaze burning him with its inner fire.

"Beyond the blue... there is me. And that's the price..."

A second's silence.

"Do you understand?"