SISYPHUS

@matsurinas·

“Excuse me, sorry,” Leyla called out as she weaved and bobbed around the line at the registry at the Caffeine Crypt. The pixie hardly paid any attention to the odd looks she was receiving from those in line, given that she had just entered Rina’s establishment carrying in freshly brewed cups from her own coffee shop with the Daily Drip logo on full display in her hands. But, how else would her fellow barista be able to taste test the latest pumpkin-flavored brew she had just concocted? 

“Rina!” Leyla exclaimed, a bright smile overtaking her face as she held out one of the cups towards the other. “Here, try this. I need your thoughts. And any chance you’re in need of a lunch break, maybe?” She asked optimistically. Rina may have only been in town for a few months now, but Leyla had already been quick to become fast friends with her technical ‘rival’ when it came to their fellow businesses and now she spent a fair share of her lunch breaks swinging by Rina’s to catch up and have each other try each other’s new blends of coffee.

✧  

Rina narrowly misses the corner of the little nook beneath the coffee machines as she jumps at the sound of Leyla’s voice. She should be used to it by now, and the owner of the Daily Drip was as much a staple of her routine as her never-ending ruminations. The two may have formed a dynamic that didn’t make sense from the outside-looking-in, but Rina couldn’t really imagine any other result to their wonky little equation. Rising from the alcove, she can’t stop herself from chuckling at the image in front of her, how Leyla is so unapologetically herself in all the ways that contrast the vampire— like complimentary colors, she thinks.

“Leyla,” she returns, grabbing the cup of coffee and bringing it to her lips without an ounce of hesitation. Rina trusts the other bartender’s concoctions, finds them delicious even hence their current back and forth ( though she thinks she’d allow it even if Leyla went and brought her something criminal to the senses ). But this one doesn’t disappoint, “oh, I like this,” and she’s ready to start listing potential ingredients when she remembers there’s a group of people waiting to order and she’d just be taking up space. It’s about time for that necessary reprieve, and who better with? “I’m overdue for one actually,” the vampire says, announcing it to the other baristas and slipping out from behind the counter. “Mine or yours?”

“Yes, tha –” It was supposed to be a simple confirmation, standard ordeal, but with just a single glance up, whatever he had planned to stay stopped along with time itself. The resounding thud that followed when his phone loudly clamoured to the ground wasn’t enough to shock him out the the stilled stupor, it hadn’t even made him flinch in the slightest either for the sight, the face that looked back at him commanded his full attention. A face that he thought he’d never see because it was one that he had presumed to be dead. He held out hope, of course, for that scenario to be false, that somewhere out there both his siblings were still alive and well, but with each passing year of no contact and one dead end after another he eventually he had to stop looking because the pain was too great, and it was astounding how quickly his thoughts had turned then, hope was a bare thread connecting him to a fairy tale fantasy of positivity but now, that tale was a reality.

However, that conclusion hadn’t come easy. Ken remained still, staring, thinking, was this dream? Logic wasn’t quick to dispute it as disbelief reigned supreme, mouth hanging opening still in the shape of the unsaid, and now forgotten words. Incredulity triggered an onslaught of memories, the stuff of nightmares buried deep but finally there was feeling of sense returning — this was not a dream. You’d have to sleep for that, idiot.

Time ticked to the quarter of a minute and the dumbfounded state he had found himself in finally began to dissipate, starting with a new word that formed, one he hadn’t spoken out loud in decades, “Rina?” It fell as a question, because of course it did, confusion still painted his face, along with a myriad of other emotions he was sure as control had long since left him. “Rina? Is it rea–” And words too it seemed as he grew still, silent and took to staring again.

✧ 

If she’d thought of a million and one scenarios for this reunion of sorts, this hadn’t been one of them ( which was extremely presumptuous on her part, considering everything ), so she’d been less than prepared to have any sort of conversation with Kenny Ken. Give her another few years, maybe, and then we’d see how well she’d do, but here and now? She wasn’t gonna be getting any gold stars. 

Rina thinks that in the most ideal, and highly unlikely, version of this, her brother would have kept to his schedule and they would’ve remained as parallel lines. A larger part of her feels relieved to hear him say her name, but even that is dwarfed by the anxiety of how he’d receive her. By the very standards their parents had set, Rina’s trajectory in life was one disappointing, downward trend and she had no reason to believe he’d view it in any other way. Even she looked at her own accomplishments with some semblance of disdain.

So here she was, having come to the bridge she’d been avoiding, unable to set one foot forth in terms of crossing— but she wasn’t able to turn back time. “Yeah, I,” you what? What were the right words to say? And why were they missing from her repertoire? “I’m real,” really sorry for the inconvenience, but she didn’t have to voice that right now; why she voices the next intrusive thought, is lost to her, “um, surprise?” Of all the things to say, that one might have been the worst and she could see this boulder slipping from her grasp and rolling down the proverbial hill of this reunion ( hindsight being 20/20 and all ).

Nonetheless, it was better than the alternative: rolling out a series of unintelligible words about how she’d been adjusting the cafe’s stock for as long as he’d been coming around. One thing was to stumble upon each other by chance and the other was to admit outright that she’d been keeping him at arms length since she’d first seen him.

for: @matsurinas· location: caffeine crypt  time: early morning

If he had the power, Ken would fire the new kid. New hires for the firm were generally good candidates, showed promise and were competent enough to not get under his skin, except for this one. They weren’t bad per say, did their job and to a good standard too, but it was the enthusiasm and eagerness that made Ken roll his eyes, and in their efforts to make a good impression, the unfortunate opposite happened. Reschedules to fit in additional meetings often happened with his line of work, but to move everything up by two hours to fit in a 15 minute chat about a signature? Ken fumed at the thought. A creature of routine and order, his entire day was thrown off by this untimely disturbance. At least, he sighed in relief as he parked up in front of the caffeine crypt – albeit a little early, at least he had time to get his fix. 

Usually not one to visit any one place so often to become a regular, this place was an exception and not just a species requirement, it was familiarity and a comfort that Ken found here, and more in the recent months too, an unexplainable feeling he didn’t put too much thought into but it was there, warm and inviting. The bell chimed above as he walked in briskly, with route to the front already memorised, eyes were trained on feverishly tapping away on his phone, and without glancing up he made his order, “The usual, please, though skip the food it’s just the drink this time. I’m in a rush.”

✧ 

Early mornings were for the front of house— she’d been letting the other baristas come in a little later in favor of opening the cafe on her own. And she didn’t mind it, really. Rina had been going through the same motions for so long it had become muscle memory, and even though the layouts had changed throughout the years, a cafe was a cafe, and a quiet morning was just that. Or so, it should have been. Maybe she’d become complacent, relying on pieces of a routine she’d observed through the cracks in the kitchen door. Maybe she’d fooled herself into thinking she knew him still, but they were different people now. 

When he’d walked through the door she’d been shuffling through the morning paperwork; at the sound of the chimes Rina had raised her eyes, and the cafe’s greeting had died on her tongue. Welcome to Caffeine Crypt, why the hell are you creeping in so early?

Life wasn’t fair, was it? Luring the vampire into a false sense of security before knocking some sense into her. 

It wasn’t like she could run into the kitchen now and hide out until her brother returned from whence he came. None of her baristas were due for another hour or two and he’s just be left there in an empty cafe. Fuck, she didn’t want to do this— she was not mentally prepared to do this. Would it really be so bad to run? Well, the more pragmatic part of her lizard brain says that, yes, running would in fact be a very bad, terrible, no good thing to do. So, then what was she left with? Welcome to the Caffeine Crypt, it’s me, your undead sister that’s been watching you come and go for the past ten months? No, that was no better. “Um..iced coffee, B-, right?” Okay, that was the worst thing she could have said or done. 

Meena couldn’t say she truly enjoyed the morning rounds around town. She didn’t find them all too bothersome either, knowing the importance of showing face and hearing the grievances and wants of the residents firsthand as her opinion had often been overlooked in the past, herself. And she’d hardly wish the same upon anyone else. And yet, at the end of day, strolling in and out of every local show in the downtown area was a job. One of many obligations to add to a very growing list. Only, as she took in the clan-less vampire before her with a parasol similar to the ones she often used to use back in the day, a soft and genuine smile seemed to overtake her face. 

“I mean you could. I would. That is if I wanted to be alone?” She pointed out, a tinge of amusement findings its way to her voice as she moved to sit down on the bench beside the other woman. “You know, I used to have a parasol quite like this. It makes me somewhat nostalgic. Maybe I should dig my own out of the back of my closet one of these days,” The clan leader noted. “But, then again, I might miss the sun too much if I did.” Having lived decades when she had first turned without a daylight ring to call her own, she craved and cherished the warm touch of the sun more than one could know. “And I’ve had better days, personally. But, what of you? How are you holding up with everything?”

✧  

Touché, she thought, but then if Rina really wanted to be alone right now she would have kept to her tiny apartment. Still, “you’re right— I guess that means I wouldn’t mind some company?” Why the words sound like a question, Rina doesn’t know but that’s the nature of the beast ( and the beast is conversation ). She thinks she’s had full, meaningful conversations with only a handful of people in her life, and while small talk came around often enough, she’d never excelled at the thing. Give her a speech to memorize and she’d be fine, but otherwise, both parties might struggle to get to the finish line. Alas, such was life, and such was Rina.

“You did?” The vampire wonders how long the other had lived their afterlife with it, parasols were more fun than they were practical. But Rina liked them enough ( much better than baseball caps and bucket hats ) and there were so many in her closet that she’d taste a bit of variety every other week. “An unfortunate trade-off for wanting to indulge in a bit of style,” and an unfortunate trade-off for engaging with immortality. It was an ‘allergy’ that made some things tedious and others impossible, but Rina thought that she handled it well enough. 

Lunar Cove seemed to have had better days, as well, from the looks of it. “Here’s hoping those better days come back for more,” thought things never worked that way. She knew that. “Can you believe I’m still settling in, 2 months away from a year of residence?” Rina doesn’t know where the candor has come from, but she doesn’t regret the bout of disclosure. 

@lunarcovestarters·

To say Meena was frustrated was an understatement, to say the least. She was well aware that the Black Out had clearly been fabricated the moment she had been able to sneak away from the Country Club where she had been handing out blood bags to her fellow vampires before they expired to survey the lighthouse and hear the grievances from the local witches whose magic had seemed not to be working. But, before they even had a chance to fully look into the culprit, the power had been flicked back on and newspaper clippings had been scattered around town. She wondered if, in part, she should be happy that the one terrorizing the Lunar Covians had been boastful enough to share a clue. Criminals often slipped up when they became boastful such as this and, now, it seemed like there were multiple different amateur sleuths sprouting up all over town trying to crack the obscure riddles that had been left for them. Wannabe Nancy Drews and Hardy Boys should have been more of a cause for concern than anything, but given how dreadful the town law enforcement had been at trying to prevent the previous Council leader’s murders before her political term, she hardly had any faith in them in figuring this out. It seemed that once again if she wanted a job right, she’d had to do it herself. That is if she had even a moment of time to spare as she took a morning walk through town, greeting each resident as she went and checking in on them to hopefully relieve some of their growing anxiety in terms of their own individual safety. The safety she herself should have been feeling grateful for seeing that the culprit had attacked the town once more and thankfully no one and more specifically, no council member, was actually dead. A relief that she preferred to push to the back of her mind as she walked up to another resident, this time one who was sitting idly by themselves on a park bench. “Morning,” Meena smiled softly over at them as she motioned with a tilt of her head towards the empty seat beside them. “Do you mind if I join you?”

✧ 

Life came at you fast— Rina knew more than anyone, that any number of bad things could happen in a very short time. Like raindrops falling in quick succession. Still she hadn’t expected these months in Lunar Cove to be so eventful and maybe that was egocentrism on her part, but she hadn’t thought that chaos was so readily available outside of her sphere of influence. On the other hand, it was a little refreshing to be the spectator for once, which was extremely morbid to think considering the circumstances; Rina had waved the thought away so soon as she’d registered the unwholesome undertones. 

Trying to shake the thought away, the vampire tried focusing on other things: adjusting the parasol in her hand and thinking about how comical it must seem on the outside looking in. Some consolation came in the fact that the majority of the residents of this town wouldn’t spare her a second glance because of her vampirism; but the parasol was something else entirely. She’d seen many others walking around freely under the light of the sun— though that was a conversation for another day. Anaïde had lived the majority of her posthumous life in solidarity, and for the most part, Rina felt she could do the same.

She’s so taken by the stream of consciousness making its way through her synapses that she’s blind to the approaching figure until they greet her. When her eyes find the mayor, of all people, Rina’s sitting up straighter in her seat and nodding in confirmation, “yeah, of course. It’s a common area, I couldn’t really say no.” That didn’t sound right. “I mean, I wouldn’t say no.” With her free hand, Rina gestures to the space beside her, letting a silence collect around them as she thinks of anything to fill it. “How are you doing?” It was a basic question, but its all she had on such short notice.