Talking about Gabriella with the girls helped me a little.
If what Jenny said about our connection was true, I could understand why Gabriella was trying to warn me.
In 1703 she was caught in a love triangle in between not just two man but two vampires that were so in love with her that ended up killing her.
Now in 2010 me, Gabrielle knows them both…but I’m not in love with both of them, I know who they are so I know my risks. And the most important thing…I’m not her.
*********************************************************************
It was time for me to go home…Jeremy called me earlier to let me know they would be late but I couldn't stay at Jenny’s any longer because her family was having visitors and Brook was leaving town with her mum.
Christopher was out of town and I didn’t have Leonards number to tell him I was going home, that I would be alone, to please come and stay with me now.
I was actually scared while driving home; it wasn’t dark yet but it didn’t help matters.
Christopher said that a vampire’s been coming to the house...often, I just saw him once but he said often, which means that he might have been in my room more than once or that he might have been walking around the house while we were all sleeping, I could not imagine being in that house on my own anymore.
I was driving again where those weird trees started to appear, I hate this area is really sinister; I had to put music so I wouldn’t hear those weird noises coming from the woods, I tried to accelerate but instead my car stopped. Great, just great now what?
I didn’t want to come out of the car, but I couldn't stay in either. I tried calling emergency so they would pick me up but I didn’t have signal, I even opened the window and stretched my hand out with my phone but still no signal. I stayed in the car for a while checking if I was going to be lucky and another car would pass through this road but nothing. It looked like I had to walk…
It would take me 30 to 40 min to walk home and it wasn’t a good idea. I got out of the car still trying to get signal. I was a few paces away from my car when I started having that feeling again, something was following me.
I stopped and looked back a few times and didn’t see anything, but I knew better...so I started running, running for my life. I could hear it closer and I kept running. Suddenly somebody appeared a few steps ahead in front of me, I couldn't see properly so I started stepping back.
“It’s me Gabrielle!” said the voice
“Leonard?” as I walked closer to him I noticed something estrange, even from far this shadow looked taller and bigger.
It wasn’t Leonard, It couldn’t be him…I ran in the other direction as fast as I could but in no second he had me and dragged me into the woods.
He carried me with no effort and I felt like flying as I couldn't feel the ground, the wind was wiping my hair and the trees were just a blur.
I screamed, I yelled at that thing to let me go, I even bit him but he didn’t even notice what I was doing. I was starting to get dizzy, I could even feel my stomach complaining…what was that smell? Something smelt like….decomposing.
He finally stopped and threw me on the floor next to a body.
When I looked at it I realized that it was of the corpse of the guy everybody was looking for, the missing one. Oh my god! He’s been dead since then, he’s been decomposing in here!!! I felt like puking but I couldn't take my eyes off him. He had the famous two wounds on his throat and he looked disgusting. I’m sure this vampire's been keeping him here to get his blood till he drained him out…am I next?
That man walked towards me, I never saw him before…he was tall and big and blond, his eyes were pure red and I could see the thirst in them…the need of taking me.
I closed my eyes while he got closer and then I heard a strong noise, the two rocks smashing noise. When I opened my eyes that man was on the floor and Leonard was on top of him.
The man pushed Leonard away with one hand and smashed him against one of the trees, ouch! That must’ve hurt a lot, then the man turned towards me and in no second he was on the floor again receiving a few hard punches from Leonard but the man got him out of the way again, there was no competition here, this guy was bigger than Leonard, if he really wanted to and concentrated in Leonard instead of in trying to kill me, he would’ve killed Leonard already.
But that was his weakness because this time when he turned towards me, Leonard did something that man didn’t expect, he got one big sharpened branch and thrust it through his back and into his heart, making the branch come the other way out his chest, the man stopped moving but he didn’t become ashes as I thought it would, instead he just became a statue and then in no second his head was rolling towards my legs. I screamed of course but Leonard took the head into his hands and it became ashes along with the body.
“What was that!!!?”
“You are a troublesome girl” he said with an annoyed expression
“What did I do now?”
“Didn’t I tell you not to be out here alone?”
“Weren’t you supposed to check on me earlier?” yeah…it looks like our relationship is getting better by the second isn’t it? Oh that smells!!
“C’mon” he said offering his hand to me, I took it and he helped me up but I felt a stinging pain in my ankle ouch!!
“Are you ok?”
“Is my ankle, I think I twisted it again”
“Like I said, troublesome…let me help you” he carried me into his arms effortless and started walking away
“Are we leaving him here?” I said pointing to the body of the missing guy “his parents have been looking for him all over the place…please” He sighed and looked at the body.
“I’ll come back for him”
“Thank you…for saving me too” he walked really slow and careful with me in his arms, we stayed in silence for a while but then as always I started with my questioning.
“Do you hate me because I look like her?” he just kept looking up front not stopping with his pace
“I know what happened to Gabriella” I felt his hands tighten on me when I said her name “and I know it was an accident so you can stop now blaming yourself and Christopher”
“What did he tell you?” he finally spoke
“That you both loved her and he made you both loose her”
“I’m the one who lost her, because she chose me”
“Ok I wasn’t there, so I can’t judge but correct me if I'm wrong, as far as I know you took her from him”
“That’s what he always said but it wasn’t true, you cannot make somebody love you…even if I wanted to take her from him, I wouldn’t have been able if she didn’t want me to”
“Are you saying that she didn’t love him?”
“I’m saying that he misunderstood gratitude with love, he saved her and she felt attached to him because of that, but she didn’t love him. She loved me”
After that we stayed in silence again for a while and I got lost in my thoughts. Till now I always thought that she loved them both, that she might have been playing along in this triangle game but it never occurred to me that all could've a misunderstanding, that it could've been a one sided love... I remember in my dream in the bright living room feeling attracted to both of them, but was she really just in love with Leonard? Why didn’t she tell Christopher from the beginning? *sigh* I told Christopher already about my dreams…should I tell Leonard too?
“There’s something else I have to tell you about Gabriella…I’ve been having flashes of her life through my dreams”
“What is that suppose to mean?”
“How to tell you this…I saw you in my dream before you came from Italy I just didn’t know it was you…hold on a minute” my eyes widened with realization and I removed myself from his arms to look at him and he looked at me with a frown.
“… you tried to kill me! I mean her”
“What are you talking about?”
“The first night I spend in Zoneville I had this horrible dream, I was getting ready to go somewhere and then I heard a noise coming from the corridors, when I looked out I saw red eyes and something came into my room”
I could she his eyes widened and full of remorse, he knew what I was talking about
“He said Gabriella, and when it was about to kill me I woke up…is that what happened? You were waiting for her outside and then you turned into something and you got her?”
“*sigh* he didn't think of the consequences when hi did that to me. He didn't know that by condemning me he was condemning himself too.
We were always together he should have known that my changing would affect me while being with her”
“But he lost her too, you need to forgive”
“If it was a reversed situation and it was you hurting would you forgive…would you? Be honest! You would have eternity to hate and probably get revenge would you let it go?”
“Revenge is not justice”
“What do I care? I'm going to hell anyway”
“He's your family”
“And she was going to be my wife” ok maybe I shouldn’t have started this conversation; he’s full of pain I can’t stand it.
After calming down he came closer to me and lifted his hand to then put it on my cheek I didn’t expect that move at all and it gave me chills that I shouldn’t be feeling.
“I've worked so hard to try to forget, I even treated you bad to keep you away from me… but here you are image and likeness of Gabriella...Gabrielle”
He put his other hand on my other cheek making me look straight at him and I could see it then....this was a torture for him
“It does hurt you to see me doesn't it?”
“It does more than that, it makes me want you” what did he just say? And why is my heart beating so fast, stop it!! Calm down…he’s looking at you, oh god what to do
“I think we better go, c’mon I’ll carry you” he kneeled to take me
“I’m ok”
“Don’t be silly, you can’t walk” and he finally carried me. We walked in silence for a long time and I was so relieved that he couldn't hear my thoughts cause I was really going through a tornado of thoughts and emotions and I couldn't stop thinking about the way Gabriella felt in the car whenever he touched her hand…this is madness.
I don’t mind being in silence you know, I like quietness but this was awkward, I needed noise so I started asking again.
“Why didn’t that man become ashes when you nailed the branch in his heart?”
“Cause that wasn’t enough to kill him”
“Is the whole stick through heart a myth?”
“No. we can die if the stick is kept in the heart for a longer period of time but you would need to tie a vampire up to keep it there”
“What?”
“I’ll explain, a stick through the hurt paralyses us for a few minutes, enough time to rip our head off and kill us, or to tie us up and leave the stick were it is…it will kill us period”
“Why are you so complicated, where did all those easy tricks go? And I guess holy water, garlic and crosses don’t work with you either”
“If people knew the real ways of killing a vampire we would all be dead by now…here we go” we already got out of the woods and he put me down beside my car.
“Is not working” I said to him looking at my car when he put me down
“You won’t need your car…your family will pass here in a few minutes. I’ll be in the woods looking after you till they come…don’t worry I won’t let anything happened to you” and he disappeared, I looked around trying to guess from were he was looking at me but I couldn't see anything… like nothing was moving around.
Today is been a crucial day for me, I’ve finally been able to understand why he is the way he is. Why he acted like that around me, but both of them did the same, both of them tried to keep me away because they were afraid of what could happen if they didn’t.
I remember when Christopher asked me to stay away so he would be able to prevent me from hurting. Is this what he meant? Cause I'm not hurt but confused. This entire Gabriella thing is driving me crazy and the ones hurting are them.
But anyway today’s chat with Leonard had helped us; I just feel like I could talk to him about anything but being close to me really hurts him.
I think is going to be better if I stay away from him for a while to help him get his feelings in order, he needs to think of me as Gabrielle and not Gabriella otherwise he’s going to suffer.
A few minutes later I saw a car coming towards my direction, I made signs for them to stop but I guess they recognized my car from far anyway cause Jeremy came out of the car even before it stopped and after him Elizabeth, looking around like expecting something to happen. It actually made me laugh to think about everything I’ve gone thru these last days and that they don’t know.
“Get in the car” said Elizabeth while Jeremy helped me in.
“What happened to you?” said Jeremy a bit alarmed when he saw me limping
“My car ran out of gasoline and I tripped while walking away” both of them were really tense.
“What happened? Are you going to tell me where you guys went?”
“We were following a lead…somebody said they saw Dave Rogers around Watertown ” Dave that’s his name…well they will see him again soon enough, if Leonard doesn’t forget to pick him up.
We finally got home…I was so tired that I didn’t even want to have dinner.
My ankle was a lot better so I went upstairs on my own, had a shower and put a bit of relaxing cream on my swollen ankle. Everything that happened today was still so fresh in my mind that it scared the hell out of me to think another vampire was out there, waiting to get me.
I kind of walked from one side of my room to another, thinking on ways to protect my family from them but not holy water neither garlic or crosses worked, so then what?
“Why don’t you sleep?” said a voice that made me jump “are you going to say again that I don’t scare you?”
“ok you scared me, there you go” I said with a heart beat that left me without breath...he's in my room again
“Good…why aren’t you sleeping?”
“I had a hard day”
“Leonard told me about it…you should rest”
“I can’t”
“Why not?”
“Cause I’m scared”
“You don’t have to, I’ll be here”
"All night?"
"Unless you don't want me to"
“Won’t Byron tell you off?”
“I’m protecting you so I’m working”
“Aren’t you tired? You’ve had a long day too”
“Don’t worry about my sleeping habits and just sleep”
He walked towards the window and stayed there, I wonder what he was thinking about…after a few minutes I started to doze off, slowly started getting into unconsciousness.
TO BE CONTINUED….