CHAPTER 9
I
woke with a start, sweat dripping down my body; and yet, I was so cold inside.
I wondered to myself why I was so cold. I started to laugh, the laughter bitter;
‘I know why I am so cold…’ I continued to laugh until I heard a soft noise off
to my right and I froze. Not a muscle in my body moved as I used my eyes to
peer around me.
“You
need to learn how to relax”, a soft voice uttered in my ear. My body remained
tense, even though I recognized the voice. “Celeste…” I whispered into the
blackened room. I had forgotten that we had fallen asleep together. “Just
leave, please.” Celeste made little whimpering noises. “But Drake, we had such
a wonderful time together…” Through the darkness I could see her face as bright
as day. I watched as her mouth turned into a seductive smile. That was the
smile that pulled me to her in the first place. “I know you can see my smile
and I know that you had as much fun as I did last night…”
“You
have no idea what I can and can not see! Why can’t you just leave me alone?!” I
growled at her. She winced. I knew that would get to her; she hated when I told
her to leave me alone. She pouted and crossed her arms over her chest, but she
didn’t move. “I know you don’t mean that. Why else would you keep coming back?”
“Look… it was a moment of weakness…
a lot of moments of weakness. You are the only one that talks to me here. I
don’t want a relationship with you. I don’t want anything with you, so just get
out of my house.” She stomped her heel like a child, but she finally turned,
grabbed her purse and walked out. ‘Good riddance.’ I thought. It had been too
long without any word from Valentine and I was getting restless. I tried
several times to get rid of her so that Valentine would never know how much I
loved her. A human and me together… what a ridiculous thought. But it was a
thought I kept coming back to. I lay back down on my bed, my mind going to the
first time I met Celeste; when I had gone into that bar, hoping for no one to
bother me. How she had sat down besides me, her smell engulfing me… and then she had told me her name, “Celeste”… But
before I could replay the memory in my mind, my stomach started to growl. “Not
again…” I groaned. I guess it was time to go eat. I got out of bed and threw on
my clothes, grumbling to myself because I did not want to have to go do this
again, not in this town. I liked this town and it was only partly because of
Celeste. Everyone left me alone. Even if they only left me alone because they
were scared of me, they still left me alone. I didn’t want to be forced out of
another town. I was hoping if I didn’t get close to anyone here, everyone would
be safe, unlike all those other times.
I
walked out the door and looked up into the dark night, enjoying the light from
the moon. ‘Ah… my friend… you treat me so well… it’s your opposite that I hate
so much.’ I laughed at the corney-ness of my thoughts as I continued to gaze at
the moon. I turned my stare down to my neighborhood and noticed a large crowd
had gathered around the house next to mine. I walked over and the townspeople began
glaring at me, as if I had done something wrong. I pushed my way through the
crowd to see what was going on at my neighbor’s house. The first thing I noticed was the blood. I
winced when the smell of the blood made my stomach growl, increasing my hunger.
I continued through the crowd until I was at the front. In front of me lay a
very violent scene. I saw a body, sans
head. It looked as though the head had been torn completely off. Even more
disturbing, the stomach was ripped open from side to side and sucked dry; there
was not a drop of blood inside the body, the intestines shriveled up as if they
had stayed in the sun a long time. My stomach clenched with hunger again as I
wondered where the blood had went if there was blood all over the lawn. Then I
saw the other body.
The
second body appeared worse off than the headless one. The second body was not
even recognizable; it was in pieces strewn about the lawn, seemingly placed as
if to decorate the lawn, the blood being the confetti. I saw the left leg close
to the front door of the house, but the right leg was missing. The torso, which
had been ripped open from side to side, lay before me. The insides of the
torso, however, were nowhere to be found. The torso was merely a huge empty
shell. The head was face up a few feet away from the torso, the face frozen in
a final terrified scream.
I
took in the scene; then realized that once again the townspeople were glaring
at me hatefully. I was still an outsider after all this time, all this time not
doing anything to humans, only doing what I needed to to animals. ‘I would never
do something this violent! What kind of creature do they think I am?’ I thought
to myself while backing away from the scene. I was so distraught I couldn’t
even put a different thought into their heads. After all this time it was
finally happening again. I became increasingly hungry and I had to get out of
there, away from the scent of so many humans and their blood before I did
something I would regret. I pushed my way back through the mob, wanting to get
out of there; needing to get out of
there. As soon as I passed out of the crowd I ran into the night’s darkness.
When
I entered the trees I slowed down to a trot. Drake… I heard a voice whisper. I looked around; I knew that voice…
I knew that it would come for me again. Drake…
the voice whispered again. “Valentine.” I said my voice filled with disgust. I
looked around again, seeing nothing. ‘He is really good at that’ I thought to
myself as I began to run again. You can’t
escape me… I ran faster, everything around me a blur. “Yes I can!” I
shouted to the world around me; not seeing anything, not caring about anything;
my hunger forgotten for the time being; I only wanted to get away from the
voice. I thought I had finally escaped it after all these years and all the
torture, but here it was…
Drake… I heard in my ear all of a sudden
and came to a stop. I turned to see him right behind me. Valentine. “What the fuck
do you want? You’ve already taken all you could from me. Why can’t you just let
me live my life how I want to live it and stop destroying everything around me?!”
I glared at him, hoping to get a rise out of him ultimately knowing that I
wouldn’t. He was more powerful than I, but he had no idea that I had been
training to stop him for years. He didn’t know that I was ready the next time
he tried to fight me and I could finally put a stop to his breath and the power
he had over me.
“Why Drake, I thought you would be happy to
see me. I am your father after all… and it’s been so long…” Valentine
chuckled.
I
shook with contempt. How dare he call
himself my father! That bastard! My vision turned red as the anger filled my
whole being. I lunged at him but he moved away from me faster than a bullet moved
from the barrel of a gun. “Now, now Drake.
Anger won’t solve anything.” He paused, a smirk forming on his face. “Did
you like the little gift that I left for you?” Another chuckle. I glared at
him scornfully, from my spot on the ground. My body felt hot, the anger turning
to rage; thoughts getting harder to turn into sentences, wanting only to stop
this bastard from talking. “That was you! Why the fuck would I want a gift like
that?!” I spit those words out of my mouth, as if they tasted bad, trying not
to show him my fury.
“Well since you would not have your way with
that girl, I figured you could use some help. They were very easy targets, and very
yummy. I thought you might enjoy a little taste from the neighborhood since you
have not yet had one.” He grinned like a wolf about to pounce on his prey.
“I don’t do that, no matter how many
times you try and make me. I stay away from everyone and they stay away from
me. Now leave me alone!” I had to hold myself back from leaping at him and trying
to rip his throat out. It was a nice image in my head, but I knew that I could
not beat him yet. I clenched my fist and grinded my teeth together, telling
myself to stay calm.
“I am very disappointed in you Drake; I
thought I raised you better.”
“Yeah well you thought wrong. I am
done with you. Now get the hell away from me!” I stood and started back the way
I had come, the anger slowly releasing its grip on me. “You will regret turning your back on me, Drake. I will never let you
forget who raised you. I will continue to make your life a living hell if you
don’t stop right now.”
I
continued, no longer caring. I just wanted my normal life back; with humans,
without all this rage, without this… hunger. I never asked for this. It didn’t
matter anymore that I liked it when he first changed me; I wanted to be rid of
him forever. I was sick of him haunting my life and every town or city I tried
to live in. “So be it. You will regret
this night for the rest of your life, no matter how long or short it shall be.
You have ignored me for the last time.” With those last words, a wind-like
noise broke through the forest. With him no longer there, I thought nothing
more on it, for it was finally time to eat.
I
entered the forest, using my nose to find my prey. I sniffed in all directions
and finally caught the scent of a deer. I jumped to the treetops in order to
scan the forest and find the deer. I finally spotted it about 500 feet from my
perch. I jumped back down and began my silent stride beneath the trees. As I
came closer, she pricked up her ears, making my body tense up at the thought of
seeing her escape; but the deer didn’t move. I knew she could not hear nor
smell me so I took my time getting closer to her. I waited some more before I
rushed the deer with elegant speed. There was never a chance for escape. I felt
my teeth grow longer as I leapt through the air, making it possible for me to
sink my fangs into my prey upon impact. I drained the deer dry, not a drop of
blood left. The deer did nothing to dispel the hunger I felt inside, though for
the time being I was satiated. I turned back to town. ‘Might as well get myself
some sleep since none of the food here will stop this hunger.’
No comments:
Post a Comment