Ex Nihilo

Raymond is used to Peter trailing him. He’s grown used and, dare he say, attached to the man’s presence. It was a comforting thought in those days when he could not find comfort in his religion, perhaps because Peter and anything holy were as apart from each other as they could be.

What Raymond is not yet used to is somebody else trailing him – specifically, the young-looking girl that’s behind him right now.

So far, truly, Farida has shown herself to be a good companion. She’s quiet and calculated and even though she looks worried all the time, she’s a lot calmer than Anya and more pleasant to be around with. He’s liked her so far, mainly because her knowledge seemed to be vast. She must be a lot older than Peter and Anya, but her appearance is deceiving and Raymond cannot tell how old she could actually be.

He notices when she doesn’t stop, though – Peter could not enter the graveyard for several weeks after Raymond first saw him, and he never got anywhere close to church afterwards.

“Your religion allows you to walk on this ground, or is it something else?” He asks, almost smiling. It’s always been a bad trait of his, this curiosity. They do say – curiosity killed the cat. Raymond is lucky he’s not really a cat person, he supposes.

“Holy ground is holy ground, no matter what religion it falls to.” Farida says in the end, not in the slightest bit upset with his forward question. She’s somewhat refreshing, a rather warm change to Peter’s coldness, but Raymond has grown to love the ghost-like appearance of his companion. “All things with a soul may walk upon it.”

It takes him back for a moment – a new piece of information, something he didn’t know before. He stores it for later use, because the implications are something he’s going to ponder on for a while. He turns around, then, and looks Farida up and down. The child-like face, the makeup that barely makes her any older.

“I’m not sure where I could even put you. I’m bringing a woman in, you know.” Not to say – a woman with a hijab, who looks only slightly older than eighteen. Raymond occupies his mind with other things, because thinking of the rumours and stories and their consequences sometimes gets a little bit too much for him.

“Whatever space you have in that rectory of yours will suffice. I’ll stay out of the way.” She says in the end, a lot more relaxed than she first was.

So, Farida might decided to stay out of the way – but she was dressed in red and orange, a sight for sore eyes because she was the only colourful thing in the gloom that has surrounded them. And, Raymond has to admit, she is attractive. It worries him a bit.

Then, he remembers that she’s not human.

“Does a clergy house falls under the holy ground? It’s not within the same lot as the church.” He wonders it out loud, almost oblivious to the look she’s giving him – eyes large and questioning, half concerned and half amazed. He’s confusing her. Good.

“I don’t—Ask Anya. I never had a problem entering either. I can enter a church, if I so wish.” She moves like a dream, or perhaps a twilight cloud, covered in warmth. She’s elegant and it’s strange; Raymond is so used to Peter’s sharpness. “If the rectory’s not here—why are we here?”

It’s slow and steady, both their conversation and their pace, something that Raymond has fallen out of. He enjoyed his peace but longed for something happening, something to ruin the morose everyday – and now it’s happening and he cannot exactly catch himself. But it’s good, really; he’ll get used to it and he’ll get used to Farida’s elegance in one moment and her undeniable twitchiness in another.

She looks upset now, as if though he’s cheated her somehow; as if though Anya and Peter have given her to the wrong person. She’s awfully insecure for a vampire.

“The convent is close by. I figured you’d be happier if you were with other women.” She’d blend in better, perhaps manage to hide better, too.

Farida scowls, and in the setting sun her face looks like a sculpture. She’s not warm anymore; her anger is hot-red and scorching.

“I don’t go near people I don’t know.” She says in the end, voice a growl. “I go with you, to your space. That’s how Anya meant. You don’t want to anger her.”

No, he doesn’t want to. He doesn’t want to anger Anya, because the girl before him said: Ask Anya. Anya cannot enter the church. Anya cannot regenerate fully when she steps close to the holy ground. Anya cannot go out in the sunlight and Anya leaves no shadow.

Raymond doesn’t want to anger Farida, either, because he’s never seen a vampire more radiant under the setting sun.