the malkavian stood there looking in through the window, a slight smile on her lips. on the other side of the window, were blue, pink and yellow wrapped bundles of joy. she tapped her uneven fingernails on the glass, listening to the slight mumering and wimpering of those to young to know what was happening, some confused by the new noise and others comforted by the repetitious beat. while she looked inside contemplatingly, a reflective part of the glass revealed her newly acquired friend standing behind her. "what are you doing?" he asked, "trying to pick wich one you want for dinner?" "don't be sick." "so what? looking over the flock? making sure the cattle are breeding right?" she turned fast, sweeping her arm out in a wide arc and catching him on the cheek with such force his neck criked audibly. there was a pause as he tried to swallow his pride, but with out saliva..... "wh.. wh.. what did i say?" "do not refer to them as cattle. that is a mistake made by all too many of our kind." "but...." "so what if we live off them. sure people live off cows and lambs but that's because cows and lambs don't have guns, knives or large lumps of wood to throw through humans' chests. cattle is a bad metaphor. they are... our enemy." "i thought you said the camari...." "will you please shut up and stop telling me what i said! i know what i said and if i don't that's because it wasn't important and just blather." another pause. "good. they are our enemy because of what we represent. they are the chosen while we are the damned. we are the death of the universe itself given form. we are the entropy of all things." "entropy?" "heat death. when a sun dies it's because the universe has finished sucking all the heat out of it. there is no such thing as cold. when you put you're hand over something and it feels cold it's because it's begun sucking the heat out of you. it's the same with the universe. if it wasn't for the lack of heat in space the sun would be so hot that we'd all be marshmallows pooling together in little rock formations on the ground." "then why do we burn in the sun if we..." "because we suck in the heat too fast to control and it destroys us. it consumes us as we suck it in." "then who are they?" he said pointing to the cribs. "them. they are the heat. they are the little suns that this world revolve around. they are life. they are perpetual motion, until we stop them. they keep going endlessly. they are the gods of this world...." "gods?" he snorted incredulously, "they don't control this world... " she glared at him with such intensity that he very much doubted her talk on taking heat and felt she was about to shoot flames from her eyes.... "d.. do they?" "of course they do. everything happens in this world because of them. we keep the masquerade because of them. the wolves fight both against and for them. the mages control things because they think they know whats best for them. the fae feed off them just as we do." "fae drink blood?" "no but they steal from their souls just as we do. they," she said pointing to the children, "are what keep this world going. with out them the fae would perish. the mages would be alone. the wolves would have won and lost at the same time. and we? we would surely perish." "how? we can hunt animals.... we can feed off other forms of life...." "after they are gone how long do you think anything else here will last? without them to build our shelters. without them to keep everything centred in one place for us. how many days in the wilderness at winter do you think you would last trying to hunt one simple rabbit so that you might drink of it?" "but the gangrel...." "are you a gangrel?" "well.. no." "then why are you asking? they'll take the pride of the animals and leave you to starve." "but they wouldn't let their camarilla brethren sta...." "if you think after these are gone the camarilla will stay formed in any way shape or form think again. why hide when there is no reason for a masquerade?" he contemplated this for a while... "ok. so they're not cattle. but i still don't think they're gods." "there are those of us who think that we are gods... are we?" "of course not." "then where are the gods?" "they don't exi.." his head snapped back upright after he recovered from her left jab. "where did caine come from?" "huh?" "where did caine come from?" "nowhere. he's just a my..." "there are no myths. all myths are true." "what are you talking about?" "everything. everything is true. when will you learn that?" "how can i learn that? you're talking about learning everything..." "not learning. accepting. when you accept everything, you will know the truth of the matter....." "fine. whatever. can we go back to the cell now?" she turned from him and looked at the cribs once more. such small creatures she thought. such small powerful creatures. may they never learn their true potential.... -_=+=_-_=+=_-_=+=_-_=+=_-_=+=_-_=+=_-_=+=_-_=+=_-_=+=_-_=+=_-_=+=_-_=+=_ later that day, whilst sleeping under the cover of the bed, he dreamt. he saw the sun and his mind moved out moving along the rays, surfing the waves of energy condensed. racing through out faster than light itself moving towards the other suns, the stars in the distance. racing faster and faster he moved closer and closer. he split apart racing for all stars he could see at once, aiming in patterns similar to scorpions, bulls and scales.... almost half way to the nearst star he slowed down as he saw something aproaching him, his other selves still racing. he moved cautiously until he made it to the absolute halfway and saw himself. his other selves, across the universe racing slowed down as they encountered the same thing. slowly he reached out to touch himself and found his hand moving over a smooth polished surface as his doubles did the same. slowly he moved along till he found an edge and peered around the corner. he saw nothing but cold dark emptyness. he saw an absolute lack of everything. his mind folded in on itself as it began to understand the true meaning of the term nothing... "it's true then," he thought, "it's all done with mirrors...." he turned around and woke up. he looked around for his mentor and could see no one there. he stood up and walked to the door, pushing it open and walking into the corridor. he paced the halls till he found her looking through that damn window. "it was done for them?" "all of it. everything was done for them." "then they are powerful indeed." "protected from knowing the truth about themselves." "but everything is true isn't it?" "yes." "is it time?" "not yet. just one last thing you must learn." "and what's that." she turned and looked at him, her eyes moistened red. "the other side of the mirror had nothing beyond it because we are the reflection." he cried. he cried great weeping sobs and tears of blood. she held her arms around him and comforted him. he then turned to her and took her hand and bit. he drained her. he then stood, still with his mouth at her hand, walked to the window and started to drum a beat on the window, a beat that comforted some and worried others. a guard walked along the coridor, patroling the hospital. he saw the malkavian biting her own hand. he knew she would be here. he did not know what she was however, he only knew that she was one of the psych patients who had a thing for looking at the children. she was harmless. just dreaming of children she would never have, he assumed, and alone with her thoughts. such a glorious lie it was he had told himself, for it was also gloriously true. the fiend no wife, no horse, but what a moustache.....