It was the first time Chase had been let in into the meeting room in the basement. It was a lot bigger than the Vampiress’ room upstairs. The surprising part was the decoration of the room. It wasn’t dark, abandoned or creepy. It was too bright and cheerful, in contrast with the Vampiress’ mood. Chase only took a glimpse of the place because he was more focused about what they were about to discuss. He can’t believe the blonde girl with big brown eyes who sat opposite of him was Gina, his girlfriend. And next to him was Oliver, his mortal enemy at school. And they weren’t alone. Tara, Jocelyn and Emilia were there too.
“So tell me again, why Oliver and Gina are here?” Chase asked.
Oliver and Gina looked at each other. It seemed it was Chase the only person in the room who didn’t know anything. Tara, Jocelyn and Emilia stared at Yvonne to explain things to Chase. It was after all, her job.
“I told you Chase, eventhough you are the last person who is still alive in your family didn’t mean you are alone. I do admit I didn’t know about these two others until now. Their presence around you must have made your smell stronger.”
It was the Vampiress’ turn to give a mean glare at Tara.
“I had to hide their identities. If he knew, it would have interfered with the plan,” said Tara.
“What plan?” Chase demanded for answers.
There was so much he didn’t know. So many things were kept hidden from him. He turned at the Vampiress to give him specific details this time.
“As I have mentioned before, it is very crucial to keep you from harm. The Council must have placed Mr. Wood and Ms. Huntington near you.”
“You know about this whole thing from the start and neither of you didn’t tell me anything?” Chase started to sound angry.
Gina looked helplessly at her boyfriend.
“We had to. I wanted to tell you but –cant’,” Gina defended her case.
“Yeah man, it wasn’t easy for me too,” Oliver added.
“Wasn’t easy? You’re the bully! How things are not supposed to be easy for you?”
“Look, all I did was to train you. I was instructed to.”
Chase thought Oliver was fooling him.
“Train me? How? Why?”
“I know I’ve been hard on you bro but it was the only way to keep your reflexes and attention sharp. I had to kick your butt to make you strong.”
Chase didn’t believe a word he was saying.
“Remember that day when I picked on you? You dodged our attack easily. Can’t you see? I didn’t want to hurt you but I’d rather whoop your ass than to see you get killed out there!” Oliver responded.
“It’s true Chase. He’s not lying,” Gina pleaded.
“So all of it was just a ‘cover’?”
They nodded.
“And everything you told me that day was a cover too? Let me guess, when you said you liked me, that was a lie too? Yeah thanks. I feel so much better now.”
He felt betrayed. Gina tried to tell him but he was listening.
“Sister, I think you ought to tell him what the Enchantment Spell was about now that all is out in the open,” suggested Jocelyn.
There was more? It was all too much to take for a day for Chase.
“There’s more? Oh God!” moaned Chase.
The Vampiress hesitated to tell. But he told her to continue.
“Just shoot it out.”
“The spell actually broke off our deal. And it was to stir up your smell.”
“And?” Chase suspected there was more.
“And it allows me to kill you.”
He thought it would be good news but no, it was a terrible one. He sunk his face to the level of the round table. But then, they were interrupted by a bat who was hanging by the ceiling. It gave out a loud shriek.
“It’s the Council. They sent us a message,” said Tara.
The bat drooled and the saliva built up a white smoke before an image appeared in it. Three Council Members, who had streak of grey and black hair, wore tuxedo. Although they appeared in their 40’s and had no wrinkles, the look in their eyes showed how much they had seen in this world.
“Time is running out for the three youngsters. They must be immediately transported to our castle and undergo an intensive training. Our resources have confirmed that the Resistance Clan would be looking for them soon enough. They need to be isolated from other mortals now. Delacruz, we put our trust upon you to train and protect them with your lives. And one last order, find the fourth member.”
Right after the message ended, the bat exploded like the bomb does. But there was no trace of meat or blood anywhere. It just disappeared.
“Whoa! Did they just explode?” asked Chase.
“Silly human! The bat is just a pet, a messenger in vampire’s behalf. They do not die until their masters have. For the explosion, it’s their grand entrance and exit,” explained the Vampiress.
Everyone went silent for a while. No one spoke. Chase’s attention was focused to the wooden table while Gina tried to meet his dimmed eyes.
“The order has been given. We should go at once,” stressed Jocelyn.
Tara rose from her seat.
“But we still have to find the fourth one.”
“You mean there’s another one within us?” asked Oliver.
“The information is too vague but I suspect the fourth one is here.”
Out of the blue, Chase’s hands started shaking and his eyes turned white. His body started to levitate in the air. No one knew what was happening. Like he was possessed, Chase started muttering something ancient. The aura of the room turned black and his voice multiplied.
In his mind, he saw images of Theresa crying, her house burnt down and the colour red.
“They are here! They will kill her, the fourth one!” yelled Chase.
The exorcism stopped and Chase fell down on the floor. His body was hot and his sight blurred. All of them rushed to his aid. They called out his name but all he could think was about Theresa.
“Chase? Are you okay?”
“Theresa! She’s in danger!” cried Chase.
Without wasting time, Chase pushed the circle of people that they fell on their backs. He quickly ran out of the mansion.
***
“Let me go! Let me go!” screamed the helpless Theresa.
A black hooded man was pulling Theresa by her hair. She was dragged from the pathway into the garage in her backyard. Her house was burning in fire and her face was all bruised up. She begged the hooded man for mercy. Tears fell from her eyes.
“Please, let me go! Whatever I did, I’m sorry! Please don’t kill me!” she pleaded.
But the hooded man didn’t say a word. His face couldn’t even be seen under the hood. But she caught a ray of his red eyes. They were evil.
“Let her go!” yelled Chase.
Without thinking, he ran and knocked down the hooded man with a great strength. Still, his hand wouldn’t let go of Theresa hair. She was crying even louder because some of her beautiful hair had fallen. She was in pain. Driven with a mysterious powerful force, Chase pulled the man’s fingers that they broke. The funny thing was the fingers seemed to be easily broken and there was no sign of pain. But his robe was torn apart. Feeling it was a disgrace, the man took off his robe and burst into laughter as he saw the frightful eyes of his victims.
“Fool! You ruined my robe!” said the man.
For a moment, Chase panicked. He saw what was underneath the hood. Theresa screamed like she had seen a ghost. The man had no face, no skin. He was a skeleton. His eyeballs were hanging by the skull. The skeleton man rose and was at least seven feet tall. His right hand grabbed Chase by neck and raised him up in the air. He couldn’t breath. Chase tried to kick him but it didn’t seem to have any impact at all. In fact, Chase’s feet were hurt by the kick. It was like kicking a huge rock.
“You think you could beat me? Fool!”
The skeleton man was all caught up with mocking Chase, his grip on Theresa’s hair was loosened. From the corner of his eyes, Chase signalled Theresa to make a run for it. She nodded and slowly backed away. Then Chase remembered something, he had a blue pen in his back pocket. If he could just reach it... He needed a distraction. As if Theresa had understood him, she lifted a big rock from her mom’s Japanese Garden and threw it at the skeleton man.
“You broke my rib cage!” said the skeleton man.
He wasn’t hurt. The humongous rock managed to crack a few of his rib cage but didn’t really harm him. But that was a good distraction because Chase pulled his pen and used it to stab the skeleton’s right eye. He cried in agony and bellowed in rage.
“Argh! My eye!”
Chase landed on his back when the skeleton man let him go. Somehow, Chase thought of the idea to target at the skeleton’s man cracked ribs. He thought about the day when Oliver picked on Patrick and grew mad.He picked up the same rock that Theresa had thrown and charged with all his might at the skeleton man. He remembered how to pitch in his baseball game and threw like it was his last. It hit the skeleton man’s rib cage.
Crack.
Theresa closed her eyes but Chase wanted to see what happened. Pieces by pieces, the skeleton man started to fall apart as its bones cracked. He tried to reach for Chase’s shirt but had exploded into black dusts before he could have touched him. Chase coughed the dusts off his mouth and spit them out. It was disgusting enough to swallow normal dust but was even worse when it was the skeleton man’s ashes. Chase fell to the ground. He was exhausted. Some of the ashes stuck to his white shirt. With a wounded leg, Theresa limped her way to Chase.
“Are you okay?” asked Theresa.
Chase just nodded.
“You?”
She looked at her house, all destroyed now and cried on Chase’s shoulder.
“My family...”
She pointed at her house. Her family seemed to have not survived. The house was completely burnt down.
***
He slowly opened his eyes. His cold hand was held by Gina, who had stayed by his side all the time. She was glad to see Chase had regained his consciousness.
“You’re finally awake,” said Gina.
Chase tried to get up but he felt a great pain on his back. She persuaded him to stay still.
“You’re not still healed. You need to rest.”
Then his head felt really heavy, like he was having the worst migraine ever. His memory came back to him. He remembered about Theresa and her dead family.
“Where’s Theresa?” he asked.
“It’s okay now. You’ve saved her life. Tara is healing her.”
It was true after all. He thought he had been dreaming about all of this but realised this was the real world and he wasn’t dreaming. He wanted to feel safe and believed her but he remember what she had said about her ‘cover’. He pulled his hand from her. She was taken aback.
“Chase...”
Her eyes were red. She seemed weak and troubled.
“You don’t have to pretend anymore. There’s no one around,” said Chase.
“But...”
“I get it. It was all just a cover. You had to do what you had to do.”
She was heart-broken but she knew he needed his time and space with all these things. So many things had taken place in just one day. She didn’t want to push him any further.
“You need to heal. I’ll leave you be.”
She tried to kiss him on his cheek but he deflected her. When she turned around, tears fell from her eyes.
No comments:
Post a Comment