Night Light

This time, however, that feeling — non-existence itself — did not last long. Recalling Akashi's very endearing and affectionate request for staying awake, I despaired as I slipped back into the void of near-death, then attempted to open my eyes as soon as I collected myself.

The contrast, between the closing of my eyes and then reopening them to the city's nightscape, was surprisingly stark. I blinked longly a few times, incapable of seeing anything with my eyelids shut.

Pain, a lot of pain. However, it was a pain that slowly disappeared. Just as when you hurt yourself, the pain appears gradually and evolves from a slight discomfort to something truly dreadful, the very opposite thing was happening to me. The pain began immense, and evolved into a light discomfort until it disappeared. All and all, I was fine, though once again thrown to the ground.

“See? It wasn’t that bad”, the vampire commented, irony wetting his grin. “And you’ve already evolved a bit. Just a few seconds until you came back, see?”, he praised me.

“Screw you. Your nails, more like claws now… You’re far from being just immortal”, I accused him as I refused any sort of help getting back on my feet.

“True, my protégé. However, I am far from your levels of inherent immortality”, he explained. “I need blood to sustain my youth and power. Constantly. Not to mention my fragility in daylight. Not every vampire is eternal — only those with immense power or who descend from powerful dynasties”, he told me, as if forgetting the fact he’d just murdered me in cold blood.

I groped my own body, beginning at my neck and moving down to my torso where Akashi had struck me. Much to my surprise, even my clothes had been repaired.

“Is my clothing also immortal now?”, I questioned him.

“Hell if I know”, he replied, nonchalant.

As I was being faced with his lack of interest, I stared at the moon, much to the moonlight’s discomfort. It then rose further and further into the night sky, as if running away from us.

“Once more”, Akashi exclaimed.

This time, I failed to see what struck me. Little did it matter, whether it was his claws, feet or teeth — the fact remained I was killed again, and thrown away, deep into the void of non-existence. The world went dark once more.

“Don’t you sleep on me!”, Akashi yelled, smiling for as long as I could keep my eyes open.

“I —”, I was about to say something, but he killed me again before I could utter any words with meaning.

“Hey —”, the cycle of death repeated itself.

“Wait —”, I asked, only to be murdered again.

“Just wait —”, I begged, and died.

“Come on!”, I complained, and died.

“Don’t —”, I denied, and died.

“Stop it —”, I ordered, and died.

Upon each death, I was left breathless. I felt drained, exhausted, but quickly regained what was lost. The powers bestowed upon me by the camera began to frighten me. Gradually, Akashi's murders were becoming increasingly creative. More and more destructive, too. I was cut, sliced, crushed, trampled, torn, ripped apart, smashed. .. So many violent deaths that I couldn't describe even half the details. After all, I was witnessing everything firsthand, and my vision focused on Akashi's face as he attacked me. The rest of the world was a blur. After the first ten deaths, I began to understand whether his subtle expressions meant if he liked or disliked the current death. I considered what might come first: his contempt with the number of deaths, or his exhaustion making him too lazy to continue the murderous rampage. Even so, my heart was racing, and I shivered as I heard the sound of my own flesh being violated. Each death was another brief blackout in my existence, and each time I regained consciousness with more fluency.

“Aka —”, I began calling him by his name, but that also didn’t work.

Amidst the various stages and repetitions of my never-ending cycle of death and resurrection, I finally began to understand the intentions of the vampire, who seemed to take immense pleasure in my repetitive dying.

“Finally calmed yourself down, have you?”, he asked, briefly interrupting the chain of killing.

“If you keep this pace, I just might as well”, I replied, panting.

“You don’t have to sleep just because you’re dead, you know. That’s a misconception by most of humanity. Death isn’t Eternal Sleep. It’s not even sleeping, for starters”, he grumbled.

“Sure, mister philosopher, whatever you say”, I disdained. “You wanted me to be in control even while dying, so that I’m not vulnerable if I die during our fight against Cubas, right?”, I asked him, pretty certain I knew the answer that would follow.

“That’s that”, he said.

“And how did you know it would work? It’s quite a rough method…”, I inquired further.

“Hell if I know”, Akashi replied. “If it didn’t work, you’d be better off as the endless blood bag”. Sincerely, I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not.

“Thanks for that, I joked.

I then realized that, from Akashi's perspective, fooling around with the once insurmountable barrier separating life and death was mere child's play. If popular belief on vampires is even remotely true, then he was as capable of killing as he was of offering eternal life. Thus, death was a concept like any other — trivial, optional. Once again, I was faced with the need to abandon all previous existential notions. I suppose that practically every human being contemplates what will happen to the world after their death. I, however, had been, since early that day, living in the very aftermath of what should have been my death. An impossible idea, turned real. How lucky, I thought I must have been, considering that my first date with Rio would also have been my last, if it were up to Cubas to decide.

“I’m almost past the point of a single day’s worth of crazy…”, I commented, exhausted.

“Oi”, he called for my attention. “Do you do any fighting?”, he then asked, not a worry in his soul.

“What? I do kyudo, but that’s all. Not to mention, my sister is way better than I am with a bow and arrow”, I explained.

“Man… What am I gonna do with an immortal who wouldn’t hurt a fly? You must be the best punching bag ever invented, my protégé”, he said, with disdain. “Compared to a regular human, you’d probably be among the best on Earth at this point. To be the Photographed also means that a lot of strength is required to hurt you. Your body likes to keep the shape and health state of when the picture was taken”, he explained.

“Akashi…”, I spoke. “Can you explain something to me?”.

“Sure. Ask away”, he replied, willful.

“How is it possible that you and Cubas exist? And me, an immortal? How’s that remained under my nose all my life?”, I couldn’t hold the curiosity any longer.

“Didn’t I tell you already? The occult, magic and supernatural have existed forever and will continue existing forever. It’s only a matter of how much of it you let come into your life. Those who fiddle with it usually have to consciously decide whether they take it in or leave it untouched”, he elaborated.

“As far as I’m aware, no one knows about you all”, I rebutted.

“Us all, you mean. And of course they do. Religions exist, as do miracles and inexplicable mysteries... There are entire peoples and societies around the world who know, in detail, of our existence. It's just that, nowadays, most of the ones left in urban areas are the ones who know how to blend in with the crowd", he made me understand. “And whenever someone steps out of line a little too much... The stronger ones want to remain hidden, so they get rid of the exceptions themselves”, Akashi revealed to me.

“So there are… More?”, I inquired.

“Sure. There’s the vampire who created me, as there are other lineages of vampires. There’s apparitions disguised as animals, and others disguised as humans. Finally, there’s those invisible to the naked eye. There are also quite a handful sealed within chambers and temples and graveyards, under the care of certain human families or other long-living apparitions”, he replied thoroughly. “Cubas was one of these, sealed within a graveyard”.

“And he had to escape right as I turned immortal… Lucky me”, I complained.

“It's no wonder. Fate has a way of doing things that look like coincidences. The powers are shifting, Akito. You're on the side of humanity, Cubas is on the side of apparitions, and I'm fighting for the maintaining of the status quo", he said.

“Status quo?", I asked.

“I want to go out at night without worrying about being hunted by humans, or by other apparitions", he confessed. “I used to be human, too, you know. I still like to go out, have a drink, hook up...”

“That's a bit much", I interrupted him.

As soon as I cut him off in speech, my neck was cut off again, now by Akashi. Twice in a single day, that must have been a world record.

“You deserved that one, fledgling", he said, grabbing my lonely head by the hairs and walking toward the vast ocean.

Then he spun around, kicking up a cloud of sand around him, and he did so with such gusto that, as he simply let go of my head, I was sent flying a few hundred meters out onto the sea. During my unsolicited flight, my body began to regenerate. That's when I realized that, despite everything, I had stopped screaming during the regeneration process. The pain was still there, but it wasn't unbearable. It wasn't new, as it was no longer unknown, nor unimaginable. Something that would be totally inconceivable to any other human being had become natural to me in a matter of hours.

That's when I knew for sure — I was no longer human.

Not in the traditional sense, at least.

The cool night air. Falling. Wind. Gravity. Sea. Water. Cold. Actually, not so cold. At night, the sea retains some of the Sun's heat from the morning and afternoon. Still, I was far away from the shore. Deep. Profound. The sea seemed to try swallowing me whole. I sank. Dark, very dark. And cold, very cold. Increasingly cold. The vastness of the night sky blended with the deep darkness of the sea, and I soon lost all sense of up and down. I couldn't breathe.

There was no north star, only the darkness remained. This time, however, it was completely real, not just the old feeling of non-existence. The cold water engulfed me whole, from the head to the stumps that would eventually become my legs. My regeneration was still ongoing. I kept on sinking. The water grew colder, and the blackness grew dark, yet darker.

Sounds began to erupt from deeper into the sea, and I couldn’t identify the source. Despair consumed me, as did the lack of breathable air. I closed my eyes and tried to feel the direction to which I sank. It was mostly a gamble, like a coin toss, but I believed I could identify which way was up. A while passed, still at the bottom of the sea. I grew arms and legs. I flapped them. I swam, kind of.

Nothing changed. I swam, but felt nothing.

I grew hands and feet, and my swimming became more efficient. Frankly, I wished I could grow gills and fins. Unfortunately, that was a bit beyond the limits of my immortality. Still, I returned to the water's surface after feeling like I should have drowned a long time ago. To have the ability to breathe again was comforting, as if an essential function had been restored to me.

“You'll pay for this, Akashi Asami!", I shouted, with not much hope that he would hear me.

There was water, water, water, and more water. It was still cold. No clothing could protect me from that. I felt like I was going from zero to nowhere and back again. The gap between me and the beach seemed to never shrink. A long time passed, more than I'd like to admit. Eventually, the waves started to break, and they even helped to drag me along my way. The shore was near. Finally, I arrived — and there was Akashi, waiting for me with a towel, his feet partially immersed in the sand, basked in the light of the streetlamps and the moon.

As soon as I got out of the water, however, I felt myself dry up, as if by magic.

“Oh...", he sighed.

“Fascinating, isn't it?", I asked him, mocking the little white towel he was holding out to me.

“Quite useful, this power of yours”, Akashi commented.

Apparently, even being too wet seemed to trigger the conditions for the camera’s power to activate and reset me back to normal.

“More importantly… Have you realized yet?”, he asked.

“What?”, I replied, uncertain.

“You’re a natural…”, he stumbled across the words of praise. “You just swam across a few hundred meters at sea, fully clothed, without preparation, without resting, and you’re hardly panting”, he observed.

It was true. I had just completed the equivalent of a third of a triathlon and didn't feel any more tired than after a quick walk.

“Your power also eliminates fatigue after a certain level of stress. Fascinating”, he commented.

“How come you know so much about the camera's powers?", I asked him, finally realizing how suspicious it was that he knew all this.

“I met some of your predecessors. That's all", he evaded the question, despite answering it to some extent.

“Well... That's good, I guess. Your showing up to save me was a very welcome coincidence, then”, I thanked him discreetly.

“You're welcome, but... As I told you, all coincidences are the work of a certain destiny", he said.

“How romantic", I replied, sarcastically.

“Ah...“, he shrugged and clicked his tongue. “Screw you, too”, he concluded.

I couldn't help but laugh, as this interaction slowly reminded me of my older brother. However, I decided not to dwell on the memory any further. I felt the breeze blowing in the opposite direction from what it had been in the morning — a natural consequence of the land's temperature variance being greater than that of water. Still, the contrast between my morning and my evening was stark, just like the opposing winds.

In the morning, at a meeting with the girl of my dreams, everything went well, having some ice cream and walking along the shore...

At night, faced with a homicidal vampire, murdered multiple times, and thrown hundreds of meters onto the ocean for a mere test of physical endurance.

Sometimes, fate really seems to enjoy playing tricks on me.

The moon lit up the sky, now at its peak. The waves on the beach produced the rhythmic sound I loved so much, and the light from the lampposts enhanced the scene that was painted there.

“What now?", I asked him.

“Do you still desire, boy-wonder?", he replied, almost as if arguing with me. “Go to your family, you delinquent. Just because you’ve become immortal, you want to stay on the streets forever?", he asked angrily.

Yet again, it was all true. I had grown far too excited. I had forgotten everything, including my family and obligations. The ecstasy of supernatural powers had taken over my consciousness, taking with it the very notion of temporality. However, I suddenly thought of something more important and urgent.

“What about Rio!? Braz Cubas is going after her! I can't afford to stop and...", I started to rant.

"Cubas won't find her anytime soon. The photograph itself does not emanate large amounts of supernatural energy. It's just a photograph, after all. For everyone, except for you", he explained, however hard I found it to believe. “Give yourself time to get used to immortality, kid. If you remain immortal, you will see everyone around you grow old and die. Think about it", he suggested.

I hadn't considered that possibility yet. I thought of my immortality only as absolute resistance to unnatural deaths, not as something that also denied the passage of time. With that, any thoughts of romance, family, and friends I had would be deeply questioned and deconstructed, one by one. Everyone would die —except for me. To be more specific, except for me, Akashi, and Cubas. That, and any other immortals that might exist out there. My network of connections would have to change drastically over time. I also pondered what exactly had happened to my predecessors that Akashi had mentioned — the other Photographed ones from times long past.

I chose to ignore that thought for now.

“Fine, I'll go home", I gave in.

"Keep monitoring this Rio person, the one with the photograph. I'll get ready to face Cubas. When I'm ready, I'll let you know. Just, please... Be careful with him. Run away immediately if you see him, and do everything you can to protect the girl if you're with her when he shows up. Yell my name if you need to. I'll try to find a way to show up", he asked, genuinely concerned.

Braz Cubas was starting to look like one of those absurdly strong enemies in video games who, if they find you, you're done for, but are easy to avoid on such a large roaming area. What remains, now, comes down to my luck in not wandering into his presence.

“By the way... She might need to know about you. She'll see the photo, she'll see every wound that Braz Cubas and I inflicted on you. That is, if she hasn't already seen it", he pointed out.

“Damn it", I swallowed hard. “I'll keep that in mind...", I replied.

“One last thing, if you don't mind...", Akashi came up to me...

And he bit down on my neck.

I could feel my blood being sucked out. Contrary to what I had always imagined — that vampire fangs would be deathly cold to the touch — everything was warm. Everything. The air coming out of Akashi’s lungs, his lips, and his fangs. The warmest thing, however, was still my blood. It hurt, but not too much. I found myself losing any strength to resist. I toyed momentarily with the idea that, if it weren't for the photograph, I might have become a vampire just then. Would that have been better or worse than being the Photographed? I couldn't say, but one thing was indisputable: The Photographed’s seemed like a much more convenient power than vampirism.

Akashi continued to suck on my blood — and I had already lost track of time. When I felt my body grow numb — and almost fell to the ground yet again — he caught me by the collar. I could feel a certain tenderness emanating from him, and he hugged me tightly, almost as if he were hugging a child... And the darkness of the night sky swallowed the stars whole.

We stayed like that for a while, and it was almost like a contest. Either I would pass out first, or he would finally be satisfied. Honestly, I can't remember what the outcome was.

Then, as usual, everything went black,.

I woke up at my doorstep, in Akashi's arms. He put me down and was already turning his back on me before I could tank him.

“See you", he waved his hand, putting the other one in his pocket.

“... See you", I replied, a little late, still recovering all my cognitive functions.

I finally realized that in my hands was the comic book I had bought that morning. I thought I had lost it along with the camera when Braz Cubas killed me.

I smiled, feeling that I had just understood another facet of Akashi Asami.

“The moon... It really is beautiful tonight", I said out loud.

Finally, I followed the light that emanated timidly through the gaps in the front door and entered my house.