Two for tragedy. Volume 1
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I was getting more and more annoyed: Markus was well aware of how much I hated this kind of talk. You're in love and to hell with you! What was the point of notifying me?
– Love is just a metaphor people invented to explain attraction to each other. Don't tell me I'm going to fall into that trap someday," I said ironically, anticipating a moral judgement.
– How childish you are! – grinned my brother.
I was tempted to throw him something caustic, but when I looked into his dreamy, yet serious eyes, I realised that Markus had opened his soul to me, and that I was mocking him. And I was deeply ashamed.
– I'm sorry. I went too far," I said conciliatingly. I was ashamed of my behaviour. Only now did I realise how deep my brother's feelings for his lover were.
– Don't apologise for your stupidity," he mumbled. – My trifling life changes seem enormous to me alone. You have never loved and cannot understand me!
– I don't think I ever will. – I spoke the truth, for I really thought love and all that goes with it was downright stupidity. – I don't want love.
– Do you think she'll ask your permission?
– I'm already in love," I grinned, trying hard to keep myself from sounding annoyed.
– What news! And with whom? – Markus asked mockingly
– The moon and the sunset.
My brother looked at me like I was crazy. Then suddenly he laughed out loud. I watched his tantrum with an impenetrable face and waited patiently for it to subside. Finally, Markus pulled himself together and gave me a mocking look.
– You're comparing loving a girl to loving a sunset? With your notions of love, you can only entertain children and write books for losers to justify their failure with the opposite sex!
Markus was always a joker, and his irony never missed the punch line.
I chuckled unwillingly.
– Who knows, maybe in the future this book will be a success among mortals! – I said with a laugh. – But now make it clear: who is the lucky girl?
– Do you remember Mroczek family? – my brother asked me instead of answering. – The Polish clan?
At the mention of the object of his affection, Markus's eyes warmed.
With a slight smile on my lips, I nodded.
"One of the Mroczek girls, then?" – I thought.
– Mariszka. – Markus exhaled the name with such favour that I could barely keep from laughing derisively. It was entertaining to watch him – had love really changed him that much?
"Mariszka. Ah, yes. The thin beauty with hair the colour of ripe wheat," I remembered and smiled.
– Well, congratulations to you: she's really good," I congratulated my brother, deciding that Mariska Mroczek was indeed perfect for a serious vampire like him.
– She's gorgeous," he corrected me.
– You know better," I smiled.
Despite my fair prejudice against love, I was happy for my brother. He'd believed in love, and he'd looked for it, and waited for it, just like people do. And at last he had found what he longed for.
I neither sought nor believed. The words "love", "seek", and "wait" seemed disgusting to me. Only humans can be so naive.
– I hope… No, I'm sure you'll find your life partner soon," Markus said with a smirk.
– Don't start a comedy," I grinned wryly.
– You know what, I'm willing to bet," my brother said insistently, holding out his hand to me. – I'll put the blood cup on the line.
I grinned, but shook his hand firmly.
– You'll lose," I warned him
– We'll see. – Markus glanced at his watch and smiled. – I've got to go!
– To her? – I asked, even though I already knew the answer.
– I had invited Mariszka to the cinema.
"To the cinema? Like children!" – I thought, but kept my thoughts to myself.
– Good luck. Fly," I said instead.
– Good luck to you, too. And whatever you say, your approval means a lot to me. – He gave me a friendly clap on the shoulder and flew away. And I was left standing by the cliff, watching the beautiful evening sky and reflecting on the drudgery of my life.
Everything I was once passionate about had long ago ceased to interest me: hunting, entertainment, music, books, philosophy, studies, history, science… Now I was living simply because my life was stretching. To put it more precisely, I was living my life without any meaning, and at times I thought that eventually I would dawdle from boredom and tedium with the current. The university and the system of institutions of higher learning that I had once idolised had become intolerable to me. These institutions had become to me a concentration of stupidity, and it was funny to watch professors trying to pass on knowledge to a younger generation whose goal in life would be to pass that knowledge on to the next generation of fools. An endless chain. And, although I, without boasting, had a profound knowledge of all the known sciences of the modern world (for the sake of interest I had finished all the known universities of the globe, and now, sitting in lectures, was exhausted from boredom), to discover something new became for me a duty, ceased to be a pleasure for the soul and mind.
After my conversation with my brother, I felt something strange, inexplicable. It was a new feeling for which I did not know the name. It was different from anything I had ever felt before. It felt like emptiness. Emptiness and disappointment. But what am I disappointed in? I have no reason to be trapped in black melancholy. And to get my mind off these thoughts, I decided to fly to the bridge where I liked to meet the sunset. But this time the sunset had already gone: I would have met it if Markus had not so unexpectedly wished to speak to me.
When I returned to the castle, I put on a long waterproof cloak. It was autumn, so my attire was not much different from that of the citizens of Prague. Then I went into the garage to get my car. I was the lucky owner of a black Toyota, but not one of the latest models, despite the fact that my family members changed cars almost every week. My father, mother and Markus decided that since they couldn't fly around the city during the day, they would flaunt their cars – the latest models of the world's famous brands. I smiled derisively at this consolation of my ego. Passers-by often saw off the Morgan's motorcade of foreign cars, and my Toyota looked like a real exile in it. But my faithful iron friend was to my liking, and I was not going to change her. Since my youth, I have been convinced that a means of transport should have only one function – to be comfortable, and not to become a way of compulsive self-expression.