1. Awakening
Leonard jumped out thru the window and Christopher after him. They were running, almost flying. It was so fast that our eyes wouldn’t be able to follow them all the time. They went thru the back yard and into the woods following that vampire that was carrying Gabrielle's mother.
She was loosing blood, we could see drops of it on the grass as well as we could hear her scream.
Christopher and Leonard ran faster as the sound of Gabrielle's cry -that was still in the room- sank in their ears.That vampire was incredibly fast, even carrying someone else that was actually fighting against his hold, he manage to always run a few paces away from them.
They could smell the blood in the air. He bit her back in the room. He thrusted his long fangs thru her skin and yanked them into one of the most powerful vains she had on her trhoat, the vain that would give him what he was looking for, her blood.
He fed from her before jumping out of the room and dragged her with him to take more.
Now, those two wounds on her neck were bleeding and that wasn't good. Not for her and neither for the cousins. Even though they fought against their nature, even though they fed from animals and not from humans, blood was blood and there was nothing they could do to not get drawn by it. Afther all, they were still vampires.
As the aroma of Elizabeth's blood penetrated into their nostrils, their eyes turned dangerously red and their fangs grew.
Even their faces looked different; the perfume of her blood was changing them. They wanted a piece of it and they ran to get it.
It was as if somebody pressed a buttom making them ran in supernova mode. Christopher looked at Leonard and Leonard nodded, in no time Christopher dissapeard leaving Leonard running alone but he was now really close to the vampire. He grabbed one of the loose trunks that he saw on his way and threw it to the vampire but he jumped and avoided it.
Elizabeth screamed again but with less power and Leonard grabbed another trunk; he stopped and waited to see in which direction the vampire's body would turn if he threw it again.
Leonard calculated the posibilities in less than a second and then threw the trunk at him but not before getting another one and throwing it in the other direction.
The vampire jumped again but this time he couldn't avoid it, the other trunk hit him and he fell realising his hold on Elizabeth that was now in the air. She was going to crash against a big tree with lots of pointing branches if nobody stopped her soon.
Christopher then appeared from nowhere jumping in the air and getting her back down safe.
Leonard was already on top of the vampire, but he wasn't strong enough. In one simple movement the vampire swap positions making Leonard stay underneath him and punched him so hard that it looked as Leonard's head would come off. We could clearly see the fear in Leonard's eyes as the vampire grabbed his head and started pulling. A bit more pressure on his hands and his head would come off; he would die once and for all.
Christopher was still beside Elizabeth that was now faint, he saved her from falling but now what she experienced before with that vampire didn't look like the worst of the things at all, cause the way Christopher was looking at her showed us that he was the worst thing she could have found. Those two wounds were still bleeding and the skin around that area was beating, boom boom boom like drums, showing him the pulse of her vain, the vain where he would find the source of that sweet and delicious smell that was now driving him insane...of her blood.
Leonard was still struggling in the background, calling after Christopher, seeking his help but he couldn't listen, all his thoughts were on Elizabeth, on that blood that shed from her throat. He slowly started to get closer; his tongue ran thru his lips, his mouth was watering. It has been long since he drank from a human, actually he just did it once and it was an accident but he never thought he would be in this situation again.
Even though they had been finding corpses in the woods thru centuries he never had to try not to fall in temptation because they were all drain out but Elizabeth still had blood in her...enough to make him want to accept what he was and behaeve like a real vampire.
He was about to forget about all this years fighting against his nature and surrender to the darkness, then Elizabeth turned her head towards him and he stopped. That face reminded him to someone he knew, someone he loved in the past and that woman that he was about to feed from was the mother of the woman he now loved. He realised his hold on her in no second and laid her on the floor.
Leonard was still fighting against that vampire but he wouldn’t be able to keep holding for much longer. He tried one last time and cried out Christopher’s name. Christopher turned to look at him and suddenly his face became normal again, his fangs pulled themselves back to their real size and his eyes became brownis again.
He jumped high and took one of the pointing brunches from the tree above him and then ran towards the vampire.
The vampire realised Christopher was coming so he left Leonard and turn to fight him, what he didn’t notice is what Christopher was about to do.
Once the vampire turned and Leonard was free from his hold, Christopher threw the branch at Leonard, Leonarde caught it in the air and yanked it in the vampires back so deep that it came out from his chest. The vampire paralyzed and Christopher was already on top of him pulling his head off.
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I never thought that day would come… the day I would stand face to face with Elizabeth A.K.A mum. And I never thought this day would come either, the day I would stand here facing her grave.
The first time I saw her was two weeks after my 17th birthday. Before that, the only thing I knew about her was her name and how she looked like when she was my age.
I always had in mind that she abandoned me and after moving here with her I never talked nicely to her. I never took her into account; I never treated her as my mother.
I look back and all I can see is the time I wasted hating her, instead of trying to know her reasons for not having me by her side when I was a kid, I decided to hate her, to despise her till the end. And when I realised about the truth, when I realised that she sent me away to protect me...it was too late.
I remember her face that day, the last time I saw her...she smiled at me but her eyes were full of pain because she knew what was coming.
Everything she did to protect me... to now leave me unprotected...it didn't seem fare, it wasn't fare. I can't stop asking to myself what was she doing in my room that day? *sigh* she was paying more than necessary attention to my room lately.
I am the one who invitated him in, I was the one he wanted and I know she knew.
She knew she would leave me, she even told me "I might not be around much longer" she said that to me after our last conversation and I should've known then.
Just when I thought we could fix it, when I thought that I could finally call her mum, that I could be her daughter, she left me again…and it is my fault.
I let him in, I killed her.
The ceremony was in the old church where she was presented to god for the first time, where she was baptized.
Everybody that knew her was there, meaning everybody in town. I didn't want to be there, I didn't deserve a place in her funeral. I couldn't even look at Jeremy in the eye when he took my hand into his and told me that everything would be ok while he was crying a river for the lost of his last sister.
I did this to her and the worst thing is that I couldn't even tell Jeremy the truth, I couldn't tell him how his sister died, how all our family is been disapearing because of something that our ancestors started. I couldn’t even believe it myself.
This town has lost so many people…this town was full of blood and so was my future. I understood that now more than ever, funny was when Jenny said that to me for the first time and I thought she was crazy, but it turned out to be the truth.
Josh Julian, Sam Julian’s son went to the altar to say a few words for my mum…I didn’t even know who he was till Jeremy told me. He carried the same face I was carrying and I felt bad for not going to his father’s funeral a few weeks back.
He didn’t know me but here he was, supporting me. I felt strange when he came and talked to me after his good words for mum. I just felt at all time he talked to me as if his words had a second meaning things like “it will all be over soon, our revenge will be worse” I didn’t understand what he was talking about, what will be over soon? What revenge? You know what? It actually didn’t matter what he said to me or how weird he sounded, we were suffering of the same pain, the lost of our parents but I still had Jeremy, he had no one left.The ceremony was about to finish and people were walking towards her coffin to say their last goodbye.
Jeremy was still holding my hand, his hand was so hot that our hands started sweating but I let him hold my hand till he decided to go and see her for the last time.
I never cried, at all time I kept my face straight…with pain but straight. I was not the emotion showing type of girl remember? Besides I didn’t want Jeremy to see me like that, he was suffering enough already I didn’t want him to see how devastated I was, how guilty I felt and how much it hurt me to loose her.
So I just sat there for a while…people were getting out and I just sat there, watching Jeremy kneel to kiss her coffin, watching him break down and cry.
My heart was about to burst…I needed air so without a second thought I ran out of the church and hid behind the cars on the parking lot, I didn’t want anybody to see what was happening to me.
I couldn't hold it in anymore, so I let it come out and I cried and cried till I couldn't breathe anymore.
“It’s ok Gabrielle let it out, let it all out…we’ll be ok” he said but no, we won’t…if he just knew what I know…but I have a responsibility now. I won’t let anything happen to him, I have to protect him.
The reception was in one of the empty rooms the church offered for this kind of services. I told Jeremy that it was better we didn't let anybody in the house, she never liked having strangers invited in. it took me a while to understand why, but I finally understood and in the worst way possible.
Jeremy and I had to stand there receiving everybody’s condolences *sigh* it was something I didn’t like at all. I had to do the same when my father died and is not pleasant to have to force a smile on your face when you are not feeling like it. I was so frustrated that when people came to talk to me about her, about how good she was, I wanted to punch them all in the face.
I still remember when I came here how everybody looked at her and talked about her behind her back when they realised she had a daughter that nobody knew about, a daughter out of marriage, and when they were gossiping about her relationship with Sam Julian and now they come here and try to sell me all that crap. I really didn’t feel like dealing with all this.
Thank god Brook and Jenny were by my side at all time in the reception supporting me, even hiding me from people when they notice they would come to ask me questions about how was Elizabeth found. I didn’t know what happened after that vampire ran away with her and I didn’t want to know.
Members of the council and their families were all over the place, the expressions on their faces were as bad as mine or Jeremy’s and it looked like it really hurt them to loose her as well.
It was sad to think that the only ones I saw that felt the same pain as we did, were people from an organization created centuries ago that worked together to kill vampires, it was sad to think that those people were her only…friends? But she protected town with them, and I respected them for that.
Jeremy was talking to them a lot, and I didn’t like that. We already talked in the past about the possibility of him becoming a member of the council if…mum died. Never thought it would be so soon and I didn’t want him to be involved but I didn’t know what the best was either. If he became a member he would find out about the existence of vampires and he would go straight after them once he knew the truth about mum’s, Meredith’s, grandpa and ma’s death, he would really know the reason of their deaths, the reason why a big family like ours was, became minimized to two members, and I know he would die, but if he didn’t know, he wouldn’t be able to protect himself properly to take the appropriate precautions and he would die too, but which way keeps him out of danger for a little while longer? *sigh* this is going to be hard.
Jenny’s grandmother came towards us; I didn’t even notice her here. She smiled at Brook and Jenny and then took my hand into hers. An electric current shook my body as she stared at me in the eye; her face serious…that weird glance, the same one Jenny sometimes gives me.
“Everything will be ok if you stick together, but you need to trust each other” she said in a really creepy way, and then she started smiling again. O…k that was weird, what did she mean by that? Does she know I know something I'm not telling them? They didn't know yet the whole truth about the cousins, but I thought on telling them soon.
They already saw enough and it was strange they didn’t start asking for explanations…I guess they are just waiting for the right time to ask me about what happened that day and I'm not looking forward to recall that memory again.
Jeremy came around to tell me that Elizabeth’s coffin was going to be removed from the altar in a few minutes “is your last chance to say goodbye Gabrielle, don’t waist it” he said in my ear and if my heart was beating at a normal pace a few minutes ago, now it started to galope again...like a furious horse.
I decided to go; I needed to see her one last time. I asked the girls to come with me but told them to wait at the door; at the entrance of the church, I wanted to be alone with her for a while.
I took a deep breath and kept walking towards her, I leaned over her coffin and there she was, so beautiful so pale, she looked like one of them and it really felt as if she would open her eyes and stare at me any time soon. But she never did and I laughed at the thought that even dead I wanted her to open her eyes, even seeking for my blood I wanted her to open her eyes…and I started crying again. She would never open those eyes again, she was gone. She was gone. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry” I said hugging her coffin and putting my cheek on the glass so I could feel close to her.
that voice... I turned to see Byron standing there with the cousins, the twin blonde girls, and I young man I never saw before, he had black long hair covering his face. “That’s what she said to my boys before closing her eyes” he continued talking and I just looked at him, I couldn't believe they were here.
“She fought till the end and she wanted us to let you know that she loved you” said Christopher. That was something I already knew but it was good to know that she fought that she never let go. “Is everything ok?” I heard Brook with the eco of the church, I was about to reply when one of the blonde girls hissed. I focused on her and she was moving her head in disapproval.
“Your friends can’t know about us” said Byron getting like that my attention
“What?” I was confused, why not tell them, them of all people would understand the situation, is not like they are normal either and if they knew they could protect themselves and their families “they saw them already”
“They don’t know what they saw. Is dangerous for us” hold up! what? Is dangerous for you! Is that all you think about, your family? That you could be found out? Innocent people have been dying for centuries because of you. I couldn't believe it and the cousins were not saying anything, were they ok with this? To protect themselves people has to be at risk? People has to die? At that precisely moment I felt angry, I felt my blood boiling. I felt rage against them. All this was their fault, they started it.
Vampires I hate them!!...if they would have been normal people, humans the spell wouldn't have made Leonard loose control and it would have worked as it was suppose to. He would have just forgotten about her. And Elizabeth would be here.
But they weren't humans, they were vampires and they needed to be extermined.
TO BE CONTINUED…
