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Rated: 18+ · Book · Mystery · #1671479
Claire is a vampire trying to live her life, something evil's after her, will she live?
Prologue









I sat there, next to him. My bright blue eyes locked on his. There was always something different, mysterious even, about his dark jade green eyes that I could never put my finger on, and now they gave me no real hint as to what he was feeling, once again it was the rest of his facial features that told me he was joyful just to be sitting next to me. He held out his hand to me, as an invitation, I took it, let our fingers entwine in each others. Not knowing were our journey would take us, just that I didn’t care, as long as I was with him. So we were travelling, both sitting close to each other, so close, that I could feel the warmth from his body on my side. It gave me shivers, but I liked it. This was one of my happiest days, getting out of town, and spending the rest of my life with my family, who he was now a part of.  Never in a million years would I have imagined what would happen next. After some time driving, we realized we were only an hour away from our final destination. Its dark and the streets are foggy. There are no houses, only a few farm houses here and there. When a truck runs through a red light, my dad has no time to slam on the brakes, the truck and our car collide, knocking our car over, and over, and over. Finally it stops. We are upside down, I feel cold and all of our windows are smashed, I look around me, the normally beautiful boy next to me, is knocked out, he could be asleep. He’d be peaceful if there wasn’t a long dark red line down his face. My dad appears to be knocked out too, I won’t believe anything else. I take a look at my mother, the always gorgeous, dazzling sweet lady, has a long sharp piece of glass wedged in her chest, and she isn’t breathing. I scream, almost making no noise at all, when I’m hoisted out of the car. My seatbelt snaps, but slices open my skin on my left arm, about five centimeters wide.  I start shaking; the grip on me is hard, and strong. It must be a man. He dumps me, and I hit the ground hard, knocking the breath out of my chest. I gasp and choke, when I finally catch my breath back, he grips me again, and tilts my head to the side, revealing my bare neck in the moonlight. Then he does something unbelievable and inhuman, he sinks his teeth into my neck. Then the pain comes, slowly easing to a joyful relaxation feeling. Although his teeth are sharp, I hardly feel them, as he digs them in even further. I feel something hot slide down my neck, blood. I felt drained from it even though it had only been a few seconds, some sudden consciousness comes back to me, I take the opportunity to look at my attacker, and yes it is a man. His tussle of dark hair, swayed around his head, the sight was as beautiful as his face. I craned my head even more to the side, to get an even better look at him, he lifts his head up, showing his teeth, smothered in blood, but they looked more like…..fangs. And his eyes are bright red. A sudden wash of horror flows through me as the pain comes rushing back and I realize I’m not dreaming. I try to turn my head away from him, but I can’t, it’s like it’s impossible his beauty overpowers me. He just stares at me, there is something in his red eyes that tell me he is dangerous, and I shouldn’t acknowledge him, that I should tear my eyes away from him immediately. His hand is still gripping my arm, he’s ice cold. He is very strong. He bit into me, and sucked my blood his eyes are bloodshot red; I know what he is…..vampire! As if he read my mind, he speaks, it shocks me when he does, his voice is as cold as his skin, and his accent sounds like it was from centuries ago: “Hello dearie, don’t be scared, after this I will raise you, teach you the proper way. You will Live forever, an eternity, draining you would be a waste, thus I need a Partner”.  And with that, he sinks his teeth into my neck again. I fall into that same relaxation feeling, slowly slipping away from consciousness. When he draws away, he bites his wrist, opening a gash, he holds out his wrist to me. I suddenly realize what he’s doing, I refuse to do it, so he forces his wrist into my mouth, I can’t control myself, I start sucking up his blood, surprising myself at how much I like the taste. When he draws away everything goes blurry. As I slip away I can hear a voice calling my name, not the vampires, but a familiar distant voice, I open my eyes, for just a second and see that the vampire is no longer there, but that same, beautiful boy that had sat next to me in the car, the boy I always felt safe with, who had never shown any emotion in his eyes, was leaning over me, crying, and for once, all his sadness was shown in his eyes. They hurt to look at. I could hardly hear the voice anymore, I can’t hear anything, not the wind, or my own thoughts, and then everything goes black. And I slip away.



















































1



REMEMBERING



I always found it fascinating how when you spend all day in the sun and get sun burnt, that after a while your skin starts peeling, and it doesn’t even hurt, unless you peel fresh skin. But that will no longer ever happen to me. Not with my condition, no. I can never go in the sun again, not without catching on fire anyway. I wake up in a bed; the smell of fresh sheets fills the air. It had only been a few days since the accident. I thought I might have dreamt the whole thing, but, to my surprise I started hearing people’s voices, from a distant no human could hear, and I looked to my neck, only to see a patch there, covering the scar. I feel the tiniest pinch of pain in my left arm; I look to see that it is covered in bandages overlapping one another. That’s when I realize it’s not just a dream. I decide to go for a walk; I walk down the stairs and straight into a room, by the large dark black sofa, and small TV it is obviously the lounge room. I see the lights hanging from the low ceiling, they are circular and made of a creamy white, and they also have a neat little design to them, with black holes straight through it. They also have nice beaded jewels going all the way around the light, like a chandelier. Then something catches my eye, one of the beads on the light is not the golden jeweled color, but a deep, deep spot of red. A bang on the floor is what wakes me from my dazing.  After a few seconds I realize that there is no more banging, so I take notice in the patterns on the walls, they too are a creamy white but the pattern on them is a darker shade of white, crisscrossed into the wall. Then something hits me, I feel like I’ve been here before, but that’s impossible, I would’ve remembered. And I have never left the town, only when we left Brisbane to go to Sydney for a funeral, and that’s it. This place must be far away from Brisbane. Still, that same feeling surged me. Maybe there was a house just like this when we went to Sydney. As I walk more into the room, I notice there is a patio door left open; as I go outside I can hear the voices more clearly.  The owner of the voice was very familiar like I had been hearing this voice for my whole life… all of a sudden a new voice enters the conversation, one, that was not familiar at all, it belonged to a woman, by the few cracks in the voice you could easily tell she was old.  I hadn’t been paying much attention to conversation, until my name was mentioned.

“I don’t care what her … condition, is. She is still the same, I love her, and she is still my little Claire.” Says the familiar voice, it belongs to a man.

“I hear you Tom, but what if she gets out of control, what if she tries to attack one of us, but doesn’t mean to, what if she gets angry at us someday, and loses her temper, what will we do then?” this was the voice that I had never heard before, I knew they were talking about me, and what’s worse, it sounded like they were trying to get rid of me, or worse… but the woman had said “what if she tries to attack one of us?”  Why would I try and attack them, does she mean with a hissy fit? And then it clicked. I’m a vampire, I was bitten by a vampire, and he drank my blood, and then forced me to drink back. They mean what if I kill them, what if I get hungry one day, and can’t control myself? Speaking of which, I am pretty hungry now. I should get away, before I hurt them, or before they get rid of me themselves. But I’m so hungry, where can I go to get something? I am suddenly aware that the conversation is still going….

“…. I will not let you harm her. We can always leave! We thought you of all people would help! Come on Aubrey My wife is missing and probably dead! My daughter was attacked, and turned into a creature of the night! And now you want me to just get rid of her? No! I cannot lose anyone else! I just can’t! We can teach her, she can feed off animal blood, we can teach her, I’ve heard of it before, it can be done!”

“But what if….”

I’m losing my mind! The man speaking says “My daughter…” so, he is my dad. And, my mum is missing, but… all of a sudden I get a flashback, I’m in the car, it has just been crashed, and I look to my right and a boy is sitting there, knocked out, so is the man driving, my dad! And I look to the seat in front of me, my mum is sitting, and she is dead, but my dad said she was missing. Maybe I should tell him, but I can’t stay here, what do I do? I’m so hungry. My life is turning so badly. But wait a minute. Where is that boy, that amazing dreamy boy who was next to me in the car? I can’t remember his name, but where is he? My head starts spinning, and I think I’m going to faint, I have to run, I don’t know where just run, out of here, anyplace but here. So I run. I sprint and I am really fast. Maybe instead of coming fourth all the time in school sprint races, I could come first, no doubt about it, everything is so blurry, and I can’t see a thing, plus it is pretty dark outside. The only thing that is not blurry is the space in front of me. It’s like it’s moved the entire blur aside so I can see where I am going. I suddenly realize that I am in a yard, a very long yard which stretches out for miles. I decide to sprint to the end of it, to try and escape. So I start running even faster, all I can see is ground of grass, that stretches on, and on, and on… but wait. There is something over there, something bright. I make my way towards it, now it’s getting clearer, it’s a flower garden. Only, they’re not your average flowers, these are massive. How on earth did I not see these from back there, they’re so tall, they could be as tall as a three story house. I decide I should probably go in and investigate, I am right at the edge, and I am about to go in when… BANG! I smack straight into something, and hit the floor. I look up to see what I crashed into, and see nothing. No person or window. I stand up and get a better look around me, nothing. I raise my arm up, and touch where I hit, and get flown back again. This time, when I hit the ground, it really hurts. It takes me a few seconds to get up. When I do, I look around me again, nothing. There must be some kind of invisible wall, like a barrier to keep people out. This time, instead of using myself to check it out, I’ll find a nice big stick to throw at it. I look around me to where a few trees where, a few sticks surrounded them, but small ones. Looks like I’ll have to take one of the branches off. As I haul myself up onto the lowest tree branch I realize, wait a minute, I am a vampire, I can jump up onto these trees, and with that I steady myself underneath the tall tree, and on a count of three I jump, 1,2,3, JUMP!  I spring myself up into the air, going really fast, and cling onto the nearest branch I can get. As I settle myself onto it, and look down, I can see that I am around 100 feet into the air. I grip onto the nearest branch that looks a little weak, but nonetheless, big. I have my two hands on it, I have my feet wrapped around two branches, so when I yank out the branch, I won’t go tumbling down to the ground. And with that, I yank. It comes off very smoothly, like it was glued onto the tree with a glue-stick, oh, right I keep forgetting, vampire, very strong. Now that I have my branch, I squat down, and fling myself into the air, and land on the ground very smoothly. I’m starting to like the advantages of this vampire thing. Ok, now for the big test. I hold the Long Branch in both of my hands, even though it’s not necessary, and make my way toward the “barrier”.  I step back a little, and aim at the invisible wall, and throw. The branch practically flies towards the wall, and, when it gets to where I was, bounds off, and flings back, towards my face, I just have time to duck as it still flies to the space where my face was, I can feel the branch brush past my hair, and go. I turn my head to see that the branch is making its way towards the house. If it hits it, or breaks a window, it will only draw attention, and they will find me. Without thinking, I sprint after the branch.  It’s getting closer to the house, though; there is still time to reach it. I don’t know if it’s possible, but I am actually getting faster.  I am near the branch, but the branch is going really fast too. That invisible wall must have a lot more power and strength than I thought. I still sprint after it, but it is going very fast, I urge myself to go faster, and, I do. I am almost at the branch, and the branch is almost at the house, only a few meters, and then everything goes fast. I am closing in on the branch, my hand is reached out, when the branch hits the house for a second, and rebounds and smacks me straight into the chest, and flings me all the way back to the barrier wall, my back is facing the wall, but I know we are close, last time I hit the wall it hurt ten times more, god knows what the pain will be if I hit it a third time. We pass the tree that I climbed to get the blasted branch from in the first place which means we are only meters from the wall. With all my strength, I slam myself down to the ground removing the branch from my chest, I am one meter from the wall, and face down on the ground, I look up just in time to see the branch smack into the invisible wall and blow up into bits. I take the time to recollect myself, and tell myself that all of this just happened. I realize I am now facing the house I turn around to the wall, and I am shocked at what I see. Standing, on the opposite side of the wall, is a little girl, only she isn’t standing, she is actually flying. I can just see the blur of her golden wings beating and flapping, enabling her to fly. She is wearing a lovely golden dress, silky around her tiny body, with tiny sunflowers circling around the brim at the bottom of her dress. I have to blink twice to realize that I am not dreaming. Suddenly, an older fairy comes out; she looks around twenty, though I reckon she is older. She is wearing a nice green dress, with leaves surrounding the brim of it. There is something particularly odd about this fairy, her wings looked sort of pinned back. And her face was tight up, like she was scarred for the little girl. And her ears wouldn’t stop twitching. It shocks me when she speaks, she sort of hisses it, and cries it.

“Marigold ddod yma yn ôl yr achos hwn” This is a language I have never heard before, probably one of their own. She seems to be mad and upset about something; maybe she thinks I am a threat. I quickly put my hands up in a gesture of surrender. This doesn’t help at all. I try to speak.

“Hey, look, I am not here to hurt you ok, I am just a little new to this sort of thing and I don’t understand it, ok, but trust me, you guys are safe. Ok?” I try to use my convincing calm voice.

Suddenly a lot of fairies come out, around a hundred of them. As soon as they see me they go into that protective mode, gathering up all the children and hiding them, until, a soft voice quiets them.

“Bydd tawel i ofalu am y mater hwn” and with that, out comes an elderly looking fairy, her face is as delicate as an angel, though she is old, she doesn’t look it. She approaches the wall, other than the rest of the scared, upset fairies, she stands proud and tall with dignity.

“I am Orla, the fairy queen. Now, child, how can we be at no harm, when the creatures of the night, such as you, and the creatures of the moon, and all of the other dark forces still threaten to harm us, and steal our children?”

I am a little shocked, first by the fact that she can talk English, but also because I am a vampire, of course they are going to feel a little threatened by me.

“Good queen, I promise I am not here to harm you. I was in an accident, and I am new to this, all of this, before the accident I knew nothing of the existence of vampires, or fairies, I swear.  I came out here because I am really hungry, but I don’t want to be like the ordinary vampires that feed off of humans or fairies, I overheard a conversation that says it can be done, and I can feed off of animals” I still try to sound calm and reassuring, but my nervousness gives me away.

“You, a creature of the night, is willing to feed off of animals to protect us, and the humans? I have only ever heard of this once before, it will be very hard, I can assure you. And I see by that patch on your neck that you are new to this and probably starving. I bet you have a lot of questions, before we can trust you, we need to know what you are capable of, and what kind of questions you will ask, so ask away.”

Ok, nows the time Claire, now’s the time to find out about all of this nonsense.

“Ok, first thing, how can you talk to me? I mean you know my language, but how?”

it takes her a minute before she finally answers

“for me to answer that, I am going to need to ask you a question first” she’s obviously waiting for me to say something.

“Ask away.” I reply

“What are you doing here? Are you a friend of Aubrey? How do you know her, what are you doing at her house?” she asks.

“This is a little weird, you see, I woke up in her bed, and when I walked downstairs, and I didn’t dare take a look, but I know she was talking to my father. And my father mentioned that he thought she of all people would help, so I think they may be close friends.” I managed to say, thinking back to that moment.

“Ahhh so you are the visitors?” she sighs.

“The visitors?”

“yes, Aubrey told us she was expecting visitors, some old friends and that we should not fear, as we could trust you.” And with that, she bows down to me, and so does everyone else. Suddenly, all of the scared fairies turned cheerful, their wings spread out flapping and beating away. Their ears perked up, some went red with embarrassment.

“So, why are you here? Is this whole garden surrounded by this invisible barrier wall thing?” I ask

“this so called “invisible barrier wall thing” is in fact, an enchanted ward which enables us peace and safety, so no evil dark forces can enter. No offence. But we can decide who can enter or not. If we want you to enter, we shall ask.”

“So how did this enchanted ward get up here anyway? Do you know of magic?” I ask.

“Not us, but Aubrey, she is a Wiccan, a witch, an enchantress. She possesses great magic, she has put up an enchanted barrier for us, and there is one around her house, too.” She explains.

“Oh, well that explains it. But hold on, if there is a barrier around the house, then how come when I woke up I was in the house?” I ask.

“Like I said, we can choose who can enter or not, and she trusts you enough to let you enter, so we trust you” and with that, she raises her arms in the air, and points a finger at the barrier, and then to me.

“Come in” she says. She seems nice enough, but how do I not know it is a trick? But then again if this was a trick then why would she have shared her information with me? I decide to go in. I slowly walk towards the barrier, and jump in. No being flown back, no hard thud to the ground, all in one piece. As she lets her arm fall the barrier comes back up.

“You can now come and go as you like, no harm done.” She announces.

“Gall hi nawr fynd a dod fel y Mae am heb wneud niwed” she announces to the other fairies. I had almost forgotten that they couldn’t understand a word we were saying, but that they had trusted their Queen’s judgement on their safety anyhow. The Queen, Orla, had offered me a bit more rest while she sent a fairy out to go and get me some animal blood, and bring it back in a flask made of flowers. The bedroom I entered was beautiful beyond your wildest imagination. It was sheltered by massive leaves put together, and there was a little lake, were little fairies were gathering around, and playing with the water, which had small pink and yellow blossom flowers floating in it. There was a bed made out of soft giant mushrooms put together, and small fairies were bouncing on them, like a trampoline. There were these other large flowers that were closed in by each petal, suddenly the flower petals opened up, revealing a small fairy asleep in it. Everything here was so peaceful. Everything is so quiet apart from the humming laughter of the small fairies playing. I was shown my bed made of violet flowers bunched together; it looks very relaxing, and smells of lavender. It wasn’t long before I fell asleep.













I awoke to the delightful smell of food that makes my stomach growl. As my eyes flutter open, I am welcomed by that same small fairy that I had seen before.

“Marigold, that’s your name, right?” I ask. She just looks at me in confusion. Right, I forgot, she doesn’t understand me. I point to myself.

“Claire” and I point to her.

“Marigold” she whispers softly like an angel.

“Good morning Marigold” I say, pointing to the sun outside, that we could only see from a distance.

“Ves sunir, Claire” she whispers softly again, and then giggles. My stomach growling is what tares me away from the sweet laughter. As if on cue, Marigold hands me the flower flask, which contains my animal blood.

“Thank you” I say.  She looks at me confused again.

“So I see you have met my daughter, marigold?” says a soft familiar voice. I turn to the side to see the queen, Orla, smiling down at me.

“Mae hi'n ddweud diolch” she says to Marigold

“What did you say to her?” I ask.

“I told her you said thank you.” Orla says.

“Wyl’rin asha” says Marigold.

“She says you’re welcome”. Orla says.

“So how did you learn my language?” I ask.

“Aubrey taught me. She taught me everything I know. When I was taken from my village, and it was blown to bits, there weren’t many survivors. Everyone that is here, plus me, we are the only survivors, and when Aubrey found us about to be killed by the creatures of the moon, she cast a    spell on them, and bought us here, where she has kindly placed us in this flower garden. And put the enchanted barrier up, and taught us of everything. We are truly grateful.” The queen actually sounded scared.

“Wait, the creatures of the moon? Would that be Werewolves?” I ask, suddenly shocked.

“Indeed so. Only, they are not exactly werewolves, this particular creature, can choose to become a werewolf whenever they want, it could be in the daytime, or before full moon, however, at every full moon, they cannot control themselves, they will turn into a werewolf, and during the full moon they will stay as a werewolf. They can choose to be good, or evil, but I have never heard of a werewolf that has been pure of heart, or at least hasn’t murdered any human, or faerie. I fear they roam the forest, which is why we stay safe on this property of Aubrey’s, and that’s why we have the wards.”

“The wards are not just for the werewolves, is it? It’s for the vampires too.” I say suddenly disgusted with myself. “I am a soulless creature”

“No, you are not. I am queen Orla, queen of the faerie. And I have a particular distaste in vampires, but you, you are no ordinary vampire. You have more of a soul than some faerie I have met.” She says proudly.

“Oh, so it’s faerie, not fairy?” I ask rather stupidly. As I throw in words while gulping down the rest of my blood.

“Yes, the word “fairy”, is the term that little kids have, and believe in, like the “tooth fairy”, whereas we faerie, are definitely real, and full of pure intelligence, we would be offended if it was the “tooth faerie” because we work so very hard, and have proper jobs, nothing as ridiculous as collecting a tooth.”  She says.

“Ok, I didn’t realize that point to it. Sorry, you’re Highness.” And I take a bow, and we all laugh.

And then it all went fast again. I slowly stood up, to go for a walk, as I reach the exit of the shelter; I take one step outside, and immediately regret it. The sun is shining its brightest. And as I step outside for just a second, and the sun has a chance to beam on me, I feel the slightest of pain, switch into red hot burning fire, and I realise I am the one burning, I am dragged back inside. I am still on fire when I am chucked into the lake. After a few seconds in the lake, the fire dies down. But my body still feels red hot. I scream. Rolling around in the water in pain, I look at my hands, they are bright red, my skin feels like it is about to peel off.

“Gelsey chi a Faye mynd a chael Aubrey ddweud wrthi beth sydd wedi digwydd, Fe fydd hi yn gwybod beth i'w wneud” Orla says. “Not to fear young Claire , I have just sent Gelsey and Faye to go get Aubrey; she’ll know what to do. Aubrey has great powers, she will help you.” That is becoming harder to believe. Aubrey wanted to get rid of me before, why would she help me now? I am still in the water, shaking. I feel like I’m going to explode, and die, well I’m already dead, but die again. And now I do what I do best. I slip away.







*                                                                                  *                                                                                *       





When I wake up, all of the pain is gone. I take a look at my arm, which was once red, is now my pale white skin color. I no longer feel like I’m burning, which is a relief. I look at my arm better, and see that there is a tiny small hand on top of mine, I turn and see Marigold asleep on the ground near the water, just holding my hand. I get a better look around me, Orla, and all of the other Faerie are standing around, beaming at me. There are two people though who stand out, and are quite simply human.

“Hello honey. How are you? Feeling better?” the man that asks is my father.

“Yes.”  Is what I say.

“Do you remember me? I’m your father, and this is your godmother, Aubrey.” He is still smiling that uneasy grin. 

“I never knew I had a godmother, and I never would’ve thought it’d be her. She’s the one who wanted me gone in the first place” I spit out. I take the chance to take a look at this Aubrey; she is actually not as old as I thought she was, maybe in her forties. And she is looking down, like she’s ashamed, maybe I should’ve picked my words more carefully.

“I’m sorry, I just didn’t know what to expect. I’ve known you since you were born. And I didn’t want to see you like this, because I know how you are, you’re beautiful, and sweet, I didn’t want to lose you to this.” She sputters.

“But you said your excuses were what if I attacked you, and stuff like that.” I say.

“Yes, but you must’ve only stayed a while, because, I then said that the only reason I was sad if you attacked one of us, would be because  I knew you wouldn’t be able to live with yourself, and once you attack a human, you can never go back.”

“When you say can never go back, you do mean and change it, right?” I ask, suddenly scared.

“Unfortunately not, I mean, once you taste the blood of another human, it gets into your system, and you can no longer control yourself, that’s when the true demon takes over.” She says.

“Oh. I’m sorry. And, if you know me, and I know you, how come I’ve never recognized you, or seen you?” I ask, fearing the answer.

“You don’t remember, because we erased it from your memory. You see, me and your father and mother, we all knew about this. And, we didn’t want for you to grow up with it on your shoulders. We didn’t want you to be like us when we were kids, fearing every night, praying it will never happen to you. We just wanted you to live a normal, happy life.” She says.

“Yeah, and look where it’s got me. I am a vampire; I almost got killed today, because I can no longer go in the sun.  I got scorched, ok, not exactly what I had in mind for a happy life. And to top it off, I didn’t have a choice, I didn’t have the knowledge to stop this from happening to me, and why, because you guys thought you were doing me a favor. You want to help, don’t do me anymore favors.” My eyes fill with tears. I can’t take it anymore. The family I trusted, and loved, erased my memory so I could never be prepared, never know what may happen, never be ready when the time comes to face it. And why, because they thought they were doing me a favor.

“Honey, I know what you mean, me and Aubrey regret every last bit of it. If we had of known what would’ve happened to you, never in a million years would we have done this, but we didn’t know, and when we did this we really did think you would stay safe. And we never wanted this for you; we thought we were protecting you.” He says, practically pleading for me to understand.

“And I couldn’t bear for you to believe you were at harm, at such a young age, your mother believed you would be happier too. And when we find her, she will still love you, just as we do.” He says. And now it breaks my heart, but I must tell him.

“Dad, I’m so sorry mu …” but that’s as far as I got, because he cut me off.

“Honey, there’s no need for you to be apologizing, it is our fault, not yours.” He says.

“I get that, but please let me finish my sentence.” I say. And he nods, so I continue.

“Dad, I am sorry, mum’s gone. When we had that car crash I looked around, you and the boy next to me were knocked out, and mum, mum was dead.” I say, tears filling my eyes again. And him, and Aubrey were crying too.

“But if that is so, then why when I woke up, was she gone, missing. She wasn’t in the car when I woke up, only a bit of blood remained.” He said.

“I don’t know, maybe she ran off to get help, but, when I saw her, she was definitely gone, she wasn’t knocked out, she had glass in her.” It breaks my heart as I go on.

“Hey, wait a minute, what happened to that boy, the boy that was next to me? And why can I not remember his name? Did you erase that too?” I ask.

“Yes, because he has gone off to destroy the vampire that turned you. And seen as though most vampires’ travel in packs, he won’t stand a chance, he is probably dead by now. So we didn’t want you to feel responsible.” Aubrey says.

“You’ve got to be kidding me! Can I have any right to my own mind!? From now on, there is no more tampering with my mind, just because you feel it is helping me, ok?” my dad and Aubrey both nod.

“Deal” says my dad.

“Deal” agrees Aubrey.

“Good now let’s keep it that way. What time is it? Can I go outside?” I ask.

“You still have another hour before sun goes down.” Aubrey states.

“Well now that’s just great. And what do I do in the meantime? Can I ever go out again, is there a cure?” I start asking.

“I’ve tried it before, there is no cure. Not even my greatest magic could allow you to walk in the sun, or turn you back to human, I’m sorry.” Aubrey says.

“Well, you are powerful enough to remove memories, can you bring them back?” I ask.

“No. I am sorry”. She says.

“Sorry doesn’t really cut it, so you guys were willing to take away my memories, even though you can’t bring them back!?” I shout.

“We were willing to do anything to make you safe or to make you not worry.” She says.

“All this, was to make me not worry? You’ve got to be kidding? You knew this stuff was real, I’d rather worry than have it happen to me! You guys knew and look at you! You’re a normal, happy human. You are a witch, you possess magic, power, and I would prefer to have that than this! And you guys new, and this is your entire fault. You guys new and now you are safe. I didn’t know, and now I am a soulless creature. If I take so much as a drop of somebody else’s blood I will not be able to control my life, but then again, I have never really been able to control my life, have I?” I can’t control what I’m saying, it just keeps flowing out.

“And now, you can live the rest of your life, happy. I, on the other hand, I am going to stay seventeen for the rest of my life, and for millions of years, I am going to need to live that life trying not to get human blood. I can’t enjoy life, not when for twelve whole hours the sun is up, not when I’ve got to be extra precocious, not when I can’t grow up, have kids, start a family, because they will die of old age, and I can’t give birth to a child now can I?” my temper’s rising up, talking about all the things I can no longer do. Or have the opportunity to experience for myself.

“I know you do not deserve this. This is our mistake, but we really thought we were helping you. Honey, I understand you won’t forgive us now, but maybe over time you may look upon trusting us again.” He sputters.

“It’s nothing I can decide now, and once you lose trust it takes a while to re-build, but then again, I’ve got loads of time, now haven’t I?” I mocked. I know I was being cruel, but this is what they get for ruining my life. And I do know that they probably feel guilty, but they deserve to. They





Are the cruel ones here, they get to live a happy life. So yes, they should feel guilty for a bit. But I decide to drop it for now.

“Well, someone’s going to need to entertain me for the rest of my time here.” I say, getting even more bored.

“I’ll tell Marigold to show you some of her tricks, I think you will be amazed!” says Orla.

“Marigold, Claire yn dangos rhai o'ch driciau” she says to Marigold, who has been awake for a fair few minutes during the conversation. Marigold stands up, with a massive grin on her face, and crouches down. When she springs up, her hands are cupped, and I can only see a bright light, in through the gaps inbetween her fingers. Then she releases her hands, and the bright light comes out, as she spreads her arms out, with the bright light joined to her spread out hands, the bright light forms a rainbow, with the only colour being gold. The light rainbow is very bright, I have to cover my hands over my eyes, it’s just like staring into a... sun! Oh my god! I nead to get out of here before I burn. Before the sun consumes me, and melts me. I close my eyes, waiting to die. I can feel hands on me.

“Claire, Claire! You are alright, everything is fine” Says my dad, but he is not the one holding me, Marigold and her bright sun-light are on my shoulders.

“Get off of me! Get off!” I scream and yell, Marigold lets me go, clearly upset that she frightened me.

“Claire, you are alright, I’m sorry I forgot to mention, Marigold is the golden faerie, she possesses golden light, from the sun. It will not harm you, I swear. You are safe with her.” Says Orla. See Claire, your alright, everything is fine, I tell myself.

“Orla, what is the word for “I’m sorry”?” I ask.

“Tir lin” Orla says. I nod my head in appreciation, and then turn to Marigold, who is crouched in the corner weaping. As I aproach her, she looks up.

“Marigold, Tir lin”. I say, trying to pronounce it the same way Orla had done. Marigold stares at me, shocked at what I have said, then she smiles.

“Ei fod yn iawn, Claire” she says.

“She says “it’s ok Claire”” Orla says. When I look back at Marigold, she is standing, she has her hand held out to me, I take it, and let her lead me into a dark room, there she makes her bright light again. This time I don’t cringe away, the bright light is beautiful, just as it was before, hold on, if I can’t go in the sun anymore, it won’t matter as much, because now I can see the bright light from the sun through Marigold. All of a sudden, I am not in my own head anymore, I am in Marigold’s body, it is sunny, but the sun is from the stretch of bright light, I can see me, running towards, well, me in Marigold’s body, I can feel everything Marigold is feeling, she/I is feeling happy, excited that me/Claire is in the sunny bright light, without burning, so even though I may not be able to go in the real sun, I still have my sun right here. And I am back in my own body. Well, that was weird. Marigold and I both run back to Orla.

“Orla the weirdest thing just happened. I was in Marigold’s body and I could actually feel what she was feeling.” I said.

“Oh my god, it has finally happened!” says Orla, beaming down at me and Marigold.

“What has finally happened?” I ask.

“You see, Marigold is actually a lot older than you think, there is a thing about us faerie, you see, us faerie will get to around Marigold’s age, and from there on, we will not age, until we meet out connector, some-one who you have a connection with, and they become your partner, only, I have never heard of a faerie connecting to a vampire, unless you have faerie blood in you. So you see? You and Marigold have connected, you have a special connection, a bond, and, now you will be able to speak to one another in your own language but you will each be able to understand what the other one is saying, you can also read what the other person is thinking, you see, you connect. Finally, my little Marigold can grow to be future queen. Grow to be healthy and strong. So, Claire, have you ever been attracted to Marigold?” asks Orla.

“I think Marigold is nice and all, but, I have never been attracted to her in the loving relationship way.” I say calmly.

“Goodness no, I mean, have you ever been led to her, attracted as in as, noticing, or guided to her. Have you?” she asks.

“Mmm… let me think” I say, trying to remember. “Hold on, when I was running in the yard, I didn’t know where I was going, it was night time, but around here I saw a bright light, I didn’t know what it was, but by the time I got here it had faded. I’ve only just thought about it now, everything that has happened has happened for a reason; I was guided here by Marigold, wasn’t I?” I ask. Both Orla and Marigold nod, right, Marigold can understand me now.

“So, how do you feel knowing you have the connection?” asks Orla.

“fine, great really, it’s just, I just found out I’ve had all of my memories erased, now I’ve been told that somebody else can access them, I’m sorry, it’s just a lot to take in.” I say. Marigold nods.

“Don’t worry, I won’t access them unless you want me to” Marigold says.

“Hey, I just heard what she said, and understood it!” I say.

“Yes, to her she said it in her language, but with the connection, you hear it in your language.” Orla says.

“Well, finally I can understand. Hey, dad, has the sun gone down yet?” I ask, hopefully.

“Yes, it has. Sorry Claire, but we have to go home now, it’ll be getting darker soon, and that’s when the creatures like to come out.” He says.

“Go Back Home? Do you mean back home? Like, back to Brisbane?” I ask.

“Claire, this is our home now. Ok? Look, I’m sorry, but you have to be raised here if you do not want to feed off humans, or faeries.” I know he’s just adding in the “faeries” so he won’t disturb them by thinking that we only care about me not killing the humans.

“Ok, then I guess were staying here.” I try to hide my disappointment. And succeed because Aubrey, and the entire faerie smile at me.  We say our goodbye’s to the faeries, and are at the edge of the barrier. Suddenly something hit’s me. I can sense something absolutely disgusting. And it’s coming from over there, by the trees. I can sense that it is there. It’s waiting for us to come out of the barrier, so we are unsafe? No surely not. My senses are getting stronger; I can tell this thing is angry. Yes it is waiting for us, and it is losing its patience. 

“Don’t go out there!” I say to Aubrey and dad.

“What’s wrong honey?” my dad asks, hiding his fear, but I don’t hide mine.

“There is something over there, by that tree. I can sense it, it smells disgusting, and I think it’s waiting for us to come out!” I say all in one go.

“What’s going on?” asks Aubrey.

“Claire, you stay here, Aubrey, Work you’re magic to get us back to the house safely. When we get back there we are going to have to put a protection spell around the whole of this property. He’s found her.” Now my dad shows his fear.

“Ok.” That is all Aubrey says.

“Dad, who’s found me, and don’t say “nobody”, because I think I need to know.” I demand.

“Remember when you we…” but I cut him off.

“There are two more! Only, they don’t smell, they actually smell quite familiar. Like me, dad, are the other two, vampires? Then what is that disgusting smell? It reeks!” I say. Somewhere close a howl erupts, turning more into a growl.

“It’s a werewolf, and I think you’ve just pissed him off.” Dad says.

“Just great, a werewolf and two vamps are here to take me. But dad, I thought you said “He’s found me”. Is he building an army for me?” I ask. Then adding: “And who is this guy that has found me anyway?”  But he doesn’t answer; instead he goes off to help Aubrey.

“Can’t Aubrey just teleport us back or something?” I ask.

“No, you cannot use any form of magic from within the barrier.” Orla says.

“Claire, read my thoughts”. Marigold says. Ok I think.

“Claire, I think I may have a way of getting rid of the vampire’s!” wow, I can really read her mind, let’s see if she can still read my mind.

“Marigold, Firstly, what is this plan? And secondly, why are we communicating through mind, I’m pretty sure the rest should here this plan”.  I reply, and she seems to understand.

“The reason we are communicating through our minds is because, if I speak it to you, then the vampires will hear, and then they will know our plan, and remember how I can make light, well, if I could shift it to the sky, then they will think the sun is coming up, and they will run away.” She says through our connection.

“Marigold that is the best plan I have ever heard, but how do we tell the other’s without the vampire’s hearing?” I ask.

“Follow me, and get the others to follow too, I have another plan” she seems pretty sure about it, so I guess it’s a plan.

“Hey guys, follow me and Marigold for a second, we, err, have something to show you.” I say convincingly. And I’m surprised at how they all follow. We are all lead into a room, that has %1 of land, and the other %99 is of water, only, this water looks cold, and is crossed between a pale blue, and a misty white, like smoke. We are all asked to circle around the lake, which involves getting in the water, and as I had guessed, the water was freezing – though I can’t tell much of a difference, considering how cold my skin is – as everyone settles down into the water, that is ankle deep, we are asked to join hands. Marigold enters the middle of the lake, which is waist high, for her. Then she goes under the water, and a bright light comes, and you can just see from the light, her tiny hands drawing on something under the water. After a few seconds, she draws back up to the air, and quickly steps back, as she does, the water from the center bursts into the air, and slowly falls, then, Marigold presses the tips of her fingers to her temples, and closes her eyes. Suddenly, I can see two dark, tall figures standing, and one fat, wide thing, on four paws. Though I cannot see their faces, they are more like shadows.

“Oh I get it, she is showing us her plan, without breathing a word, so the vampires can’t here, very smart.” I say to Orla.

“Yes. We sometimes have a need of a situation, and if we need to form a plan, this is a way of showing it.” Orla says.  Nice, so now we can actually see what is going to happen, or at least what we hope will happen. Now we can see in the distance Marigold, forming up her bright light, and rising it up in the air, to wash over the sky, and travel until it reaches as far as we can see. She has now placed the brightest light into the centre, and made it into the shape of a circle. And now it really does look like a sun. We can hear shrieks, and we can see the two dark figures and one fat figure run off. And that’s the plan.  As the water dies down, and Marigold stands up, a round of applause is welcomed by the audience.

“Now, to do the plan, we are going to need for the entire faerie to stay inside, except for Marigold, she will stay hidden.” Orla says to us, and then she turns to the faerie.

"Nawr, i wneud y cynllun, rydym yn mynd i angen ar gyfer y Faerie gyfan i aros y tu mewn, ac eithrio ar gyfer Marigold, bydd yn aros cudd." She says to them.  They all nod, and rush off to their beds, as my dad, Aubrey, Orla, Marigold and I walk outside. They’re still there, I can sense them. Marigold goes off and hides behind a Mulberry bush, while Aubrey, dad, Orla and I, stand at the edge of the barrier. Orla nods her head towards Marigold, signalling that we are ready. Marigold nod’s back, and then forms up her bright light, and transfers it to light up the sky. Just as it had happened in the plan, the brightest part of the light shaped a circle of sun, then, a howl erupted, and shrieks. I could no longer sense the presence of the two vampires, or the reeking werewolf. And with that, me, dad, and Aubrey sprinted as fast as we could to the house before they realised we had tricked them and came back. We were half way, when I realised I was running normal, human speed. I could run faster, but I don’t think I could just leave Aubrey and dad behind. As if on cue, Aubrey grabs me and my dad’s hand, before we know it, we are back in the house. My head is spinning, man that was a rush.

“So that’s what it feels like to teleport, sure I’ve seen it in movies, but man was this completely different.” I say, feeling slightly sick.

“Indeed, it’s something you get used to.” Aubrey says. I can’t hold back, questions come pouring out of me like a running tap.

“So who is after me?” I ask, not really indicating who I was asking, but whichever one knew the answer –and I think both of them do – then either one should answer.

“Remember the accident? And how you got attacked? Well, the guy that attacked you came back for you... and he’s not planning on leaving until he gets you.” My dad says. A sudden wave of fear washes over me, making me shudder. “...and he’s not planning on leaving until he gets you.” My dad had said. Oh great! Once he gets me – and I’m sure he will – he will make me drink human’s blood, and then the real dark, evil twisted creature will take over, forever. I realise I’m crying, how stupid, there’s no point in crying, that will only show that I am week, and that I might as well give up now. No. I will not give up, I quickly wipe my tears away, but my dad and Aubrey already noticed.

“Don’t worry Claire. We won’t let him get you. We can keep him away! Just relax and whatever you do, don’t go outside, until I have put wards up all around this land.” Aubrey says. And then another question comes to me.

“Aubrey, why didn’t you put up a ward around the house before?” I ask. My dad gives Aubrey a warning look, but she shake’s it off.

“I think it’s time you heard about Daniel.” She says.

“Who’s Daniel?” I ask.

“He’s your brother.”  My dad says.



























2. Daniel

I almost passed out. My brother? No. No way, this is some sort of sick joke. I don’t have a brother. What are they playing at? Oh. They are trying to get me to take my mind off of everything else. But why say something like this? This is just ridiculous to make up. Why not say that the cat that has been staring at me for the past hour while lounging on the staircase is mine? That I could handle. But to make up something like this? No. That is something else.

“You’ve got to be kidding. I have no brother’s or sister’s, you know that!” I snap at dad.

“You do honey, and his name is Daniel.” My dad says smoothly.  But I have no time to be calm, not when they are making up some bullshit about my life.

“Hey! Stop that. I have no brothers or sisters, if I ever had one, then why wouldn’t I remember see...” And then it hits me.

“You guys blanked it from my memory didn’t you?” I ask through gritted teeth. I am so over Aubrey and her stupid powers, thinking she can access my memories and take them away from me! Bitch! How would she like it if I did that to her! She wouldn’t, that’s what.

“Yes. But first let me explain why.” She says calmly. I decide I’d rather know the story as to why she keeps blanking my mind, than not.

“Go ahead! Explain! And don’t make up any bullshit either to make me feel better! Because if you do I am never going to talk to you again! I mean it!” I shout. I half expect my dad to tell me off for swearing, but he and Aubrey just nod their heads.

“Well, you were six, and he was 12. Since you were born he was your best friend.  Whenever you were at school and getting picked on, he would always help. Afterwards you never got picked on again, even though he was only twelve, he loved to be the big brother, and it made him proud. When school was over and you were still in class, well, he would wait outside your classroom door until you finished.  Yeah, you guys were real close, which is what made it ten times harder when he got attacked.” Says Aubrey, she stops to take a breath, trying to think up her next words wisely, but I’m not so sure I want to hear the rest. No. I have to hear the rest; I need to gain back my memories. So I nod for her to continue. But this time it is my dad who speaks.

“You were on your way home from school; you had finished class late because you were keen on helping your teacher pack up after the preschooler’s had made a mess. And – of course – Daniel helped to. When you had both finished helping, it was getting late. You were both walking home, hand in hand, and then…” He trails off. It is clearly hard for him to talk about it. I only just realize I’m crying, hard. I wipe away my tears but they keep coming. My dad continues.

“…and then they came.” When he says “They” he practically spits the word, summoning up all of his disgust into that one word, it scared me. But what scares me more, is that I think I know where the story is going.





“They attacked him, and with him being the older brother, he told you to run home, and to get us. By the time we got there, it was too late. They had turned him into a vampire. There were about five of them, he was clearly outnumbered. But, he hadn’t drunk from a human yet, so when we arrived, Aubrey scared the others off with her magic. We took the unconscious Daniel home. We didn’t put up the wards around the entire block, because that was his home. One day, some kid around 15, came trying to sell us chocolates. But when he gave over the chocolates, his finger slipped and sliced against the chocolate wrapper, it was that, small drop of blood that sent Daniel off. He drank from the human for about a second, and then the creature took over. We had to…” my dad was at a loss for words, but I knew what they would be. “…we had to kill him. You see the creature had taken over, there was no hope left. We were too late.

“When he was gone, we couldn’t just put the wards up around the entire block, not after that. They say when a vampire dies, the soul is set free. And we always feel Daniels presence. And you were so young, so, so young. It killed us to see you in pain. Every night you would ask where he was, you would cry for him. It became too much, so, we took it away from your memory. You were fine after that. And that’s why we moved to Brisbane, to get you away from here, so we could move on with our lives. But never forget Daniel.” I was taking it all in, and out of all of that, the only question I was stupid enough to ask was:

“But you still could’ve put the wards up, I mean, the wards are up here, and I’m in. Why didn’t you just invite him in? Then no other vampire would’ve been able to come in anyway.” As stupid as it was, Aubrey actually answered.

“I didn’t know about that until I met Orla, and I met Orla after what happened with Daniel.” She says it like she has told herself the answer many times, like she blames herself for what happened. I suddenly regret the question and feel guilty. It must be hard for them to talk about it, and here I am pressuring them to. Sure, taking away my memory was bad, but maybe it was for the best. I mean imagine watching a six year old suffer, knowing you had the ability to change that, would you? I guess if I cared about them enough I would, I guess that’s what they did.

“I forgive you.” I blurt out. “For taking away my memory, maybe it was for the best after all. I mean, if this is hard to listen to now, I can only imagine what it could feel like for a six year old.” I add, to ease the confusion. But they both understand.

“Thank you. I was scared you’d never forgive me after that. I thought what I was doing was right, if only I could bring your memories back. I’ll have to look more into it. But for the time being, you need to rest.” Says Aubrey.

“Thanks.” I say back. And I actually mean it. Maybe Aubrey isn’t as bad as she seems. And with that, I give them a hug and a kiss goodnight, and head off to bed, knowing I’m not going to get much sleep tonight, at least not without nightmares.





*                                                                                  *                                                                                *       









Sometimes, people say that having a dream can feel so real, like you are actually living or doing that dream. Well, they are right, only you can’t really imagine what they are talking about until you actually experience it for yourself. Sometimes dreams can be pleasant, but sometimes not. I prefer them when they are pleasant, but with everything that has been going on lately, the only pleasantness you could get really would be a dream. What strikes me as odd though, is that I am a vampire, and yet I still have dreams, in fact, I am actually having one right now. And in all of the stories, they say vampires don’t even sleep, let alone dream. I think I’d prefer it that way, because this dream of mine isn’t exactly the kind of dream that when you wake up, you can’t wait to go back to sleep. No. This is the kind of dream that people call a nightmare. And to make things that much worse, usually when you wake up from that nightmare, you’re glad you don’t have to go back to it. But with me, well, that nightmare is my life. And no matter what, I can’t turn my back on it.  So, it is this one nightmare – out of the hundreds I have ever had – that scares me the most, mostly because I don’t know if it is true or not. Of course the ending is clear, but I don’t know if the series of events is accurate. In fact, I don’t even know what he looks like, all I do know, is what happens next: there is a pack of them, they jump out and attack. He tells me to go home, and tell the others, while he is in his defensive mode. I do, and when we come back they are feeding on him, and… and then they make him drink back. It is so scary, but what makes it scarier, is the fact that I don’t know what it looks like, anything: the background, his face, the face’s of the pack… anything! So my mind is playing tricks on me. So far, I can see Aubrey come and scare the pack off, with her magic. She and dad turn to Daniel, and carry his unconscious body back home. I am made to stay in the other room, while they attend to him – of course Aubrey didn’t mention anything like that, I’m just presuming that that would’ve been the case – He is fine, apart from being a vampire, and he is still willing to hold onto that piece of his soul. Life goes on ok, and then comes the tragic part. The boy comes to sell chocolates, and while handing over the chocolate, he cuts his finger on the edge of the wrapper, and then everything goes downhill. Daniel can’t hold himself back from the sight of blood, or should I say human blood, because as much as he didn’t mind the taste of animal blood, it is never a full meal without human blood, he can’t stand it, no vampire can. As I watch take some of the human blood for a second, I can already see the change in his eyes. His eyes have turned red, he face is hard, and all I can see in his eyes is hunger, hunger for the other boy’s blood. Suddenly, everything comes clear, I can see what Daniel looks like, and I can see what the other boy looks like too. Daniel has short, spiked up chocolate brown hair – the same as me – and although his eyes are now red, they were once bright blue – also the same as mine – he is beautiful. And now my heart aches for him, he is so young, it’s not fair. I start to take in the background surrounding me. I can see the side of Aubrey’s house, and the open patio door – it must always be left open, because it was open when I first got up and overheard Aubrey’s and my dad’s conversation – I can see that it is day time, but the clouds are completely washed over the sky, and it is always raining, and there is no hint of the sun around. Suddenly, Aubrey and my dad, and someone else screech around the corner, the other someone is my mother. I am startled to see her, and now – though it seems impossible – my heart aches even more. The last time I saw her, she looked like she was dead, and she probably is and seeing her so, so alive now makes me want to cry. I am suddenly aware that I am not actually standing as close as I thought; I am behind the bushes, as if trying to hide. I look at myself properly, and I don’t even need to think about who I am, before I know: That tussle of dark hair, that scary voice, those bloodshot red eyes. I am my attacker. My



attacker was there, actually there when this happened. I suddenly can’t fix my – his – gaze wherever I want, he has it fixed on something, or rather someone, my mother. I can feel energy pulse through him like a bolt of lightning. And, I can feel his emotions. It’s kind of like with Marigold, only, Marigold’s feelings are warm, and inviting. My attackers is the complete opposite, I can feel hatred, anger, passion, relief, anger again, impatience, want, need, hatred. All of these directed at my mother, and dad. He hates my dad, but feels passionate about my mother, and relieved? Wow, whoever knew vampires could be so traumatized. And like that, he runs away, and I wake up gasping for air, my heart is pounding far too fast than it should – I’m not a full vampire yet, I still have a heart – I tell myself. As I sit up in bed, I realize I’m not alone. Standing there, beaming down at me is Marigold. How could I not have sensed her before? Then again I was transfixed on my nightmare. But what is she doing here? And then it clicks as I read her mind. She sensed I was in trouble or at least scared, so she came down here. Her smile fades to concern when I don’t say anything.

“Hey Marigold how are you?” I ask, trying to sound casual, I get nowhere; my voice comes out as a squeak, in such a scared little voice.  Through our bond she orders more than asks me: what’s wrong? I felt you were in trouble? Or at least scared enough to be screaming! Oh great! I was screaming. A sudden thought comes to me. Then how come my dad and Aubrey didn’t come if I screamed?

They did, but you wouldn’t wake up, so when I came they decided to give you and me a few minutes alone together. She says. It makes sense, and I suddenly come back to earth and realise why I was scared, I decide to tell Marigold. Through our connection I can feel her eagerness to know, I can tell that she already knows my dream, but is eager to see if it is true. It is true I state every last bit of it, but what I can’t understand is how I know what everything looks like, and how I saw it through him, and not through me. There is a pause, Marigold looks like she is about to say – or rather think – something, but decides not to. What is it? I ask, but before she can answer, my dad and Aubrey come in.

“Hey.” My dad says, rather calmly. 

“Hi.” I reply.

“Is everything ok? I mean, we heard you screaming, and we came in and tried to wake you, but you wouldn’t wake up.” He says. I decide to tell them about my dream. When I’m done, he is completely speechless; it is Aubrey that speaks first.

“Well, now that is bazaar. I mean, first hearing that you, a vampire, has made the connection to Marigold, well, that was a surprise. But now hearing this, well, this is a completely different situation.” Of course I have already gone through all of this in my own head, but somehow, hearing someone else – someone wiser – say it makes it sound right. Don’t worry, I’m sure you will be fine; we will figure more things out later. I’m sorry but I have to get back to my mum, I can come around later if you need me, just let me know. Marigold says to me. Ok, see you later. Dad still seems to be in shock after hearing about my dream, but he seems to be getting over it.

“We will figure more out tomorrow, for now, I think you need to earn back a few of those hours of sleep that that nasty nightmare took from you.” He says. I agree, I’m really tired, my eyes are drooping, and I feel like any second now I will give in. I give them all a kiss goodnight, dad and Aubrey leave the room, Marigold is the last to leave. I can tell she has to go, but really wants to stay and watch over me. Go. I tell her. She nods at me once, before leaving the room. I pull the sheets up to my shoulders, and pray that I have a calm sleep, my wish comes true.

*                                                                                  *                                                                                *       



I am awakened by a noise, or more a growl. I instantly shoot upright in bed, and see Marigold on the other side. I hear the growl again, it came from inside my bed sheets, it takes me a minute to realise what the growling noises is: my stomach. I’m suddenly aware that I am hungry, really hungry. Almost as hungry as the first day I had woken up. As soon as I look up at Marigold, I notice that she is holding that same flower flask containing my blood that she had done the first time I had drunk blood.  I take it gratefully, and don’t even hesitate to gulp it down. Less than  ten seconds later I am finished, There was more blood in the flower flask than last time. The blood was a decent amount, but I’m still not entirely satisfied. I put my hunger behind me as soon as I pick up a trace of eager in Marigold; I want to know what is bothering her.

“Hey, what’s up?” I don’t even hide my anxiousness, and I don’t even decide to use our bonded mind reading. Neither does her.

“Nothing, not really, it’s just, well, I think you guys call it boy issues?”

“Oh, ok then! Well as long as it’s nothing major, like is he hurting you?” I ask a little too dramatically than intended.

“No! Not at all, we’ve only spoken to each other a couple of times ... by boy issues, I mean I don’t even know how to talk to him without bluffing. Or start many conversations, and I can’t get him to like me, no, not just like, like like me.” She says in exasperation.

“Oh... that boy issue... well, Flirt. Talk more, get your friends to laugh at you whenever he’s near for like no reason, and when I say laugh at you, I don’t mean meanly, I mean pretend to say a joke or something. But don’t make yourself obvious.” There, that should do.

“What is flirt?” she asks. I felt the confusion before she said it.

“Like, twirl your hair, or girly laughs, or touch his arm when he makes a joke and say: “you’re so funny” and always smile whenever he is around, and if you are sitting down, lean back, play with your hair, you know, act cool.” I say. Doing these things is a lot easier than trying to explain them.

“Oh. You mean, act sexy?” She asks. Oh my god! I cannot believe a girl as young as Marigold could even know the meaning – let alone word – like that.

“Ummm, well I think you are a bit young to act, err, like that.” Is all I say? Gosh, she should be told to never say anything like that ever again! How could that be all I say? But, I decide to hold my tongue. I don’t want her to be mad at me, and it’s not really my place to tell her that, it’s her mothers. And pay me a hundred grand I will still not be the one to tell the queen how to raise her child. Marigold, surprising me, seems to catch onto my hint, and drops the topic, well the sex topic, but not the boy issue.

“Please teach me how to do that.” She begs. At first I wonder if she is still talking about the sex topic, but I can tell through our psychic bond that she is talking about the flirting.

“Well, It’s like I said, Twirl your hair, act cute and funny, I don’t really know how to show you. I mean, you do know how to twirl your hair, right?” I ask. She twirls her fingers through her hair perfectly, and flashes me a desiring smile, very flirty.

“Good.” I say.

“Good.” She replies, satisfied, right before the siren goes off. Siren? What siren? I don’t remember there being a siren. I turn to look at Marigold, the expression on her face is as clear as mine, confused. I take a look out the window, and see nothing. Suddenly Aubrey comes through the door, I look at her for a second, and her face is scared, panicked. I turn to look back at the window, and that’s when I see them: two dark shadowed figures standing no less than one hundred metres away from the house, and standing right beside them was – if I am correct, and I have never been so sure in my life – a massive werewolf. And then it hit me.

“Those are the same two vampires and werewolf that were outside the wards of the flower garden less than two nights ago!” It was more a statement than a question. All of a sudden my hearing senses pick up, and from somewhere close, I can hear someone – or rather something – mutter: What a smart little one. Little dearie will be perfect. And I know who it is.

“Hey, that’s him, the guy that turned me. I know because when he turned me he called me dearie, and I heard him just then call me dearie. It’s him out there!” I shout, but in more of a whisper because obviously he heard me before.

“You are right. They are the ones from before, I think.” Aubrey says, without even hiding the fear as realisation dawns on her. And I swear I hear her mutter: He’s not going to give up. And I know what she means, I feel like I knew that all along. He said he’d come after me, and he has. And he’s not going anywhere until he gets me. He might send an entire army. I suddenly realise most of these thoughts aren’t mine, they’re Marigold’s. Don’t worry, Marigold. I’m not going to let them hurt me. I promise! I say, I turn to her and almost gasp. Terror is written all over her face, she’s shit scared, for me. I go over to her and hug her tightly, she settles a bit, but she’s still trembling. I turn to Aubrey; she won’t look at me, why?

“Where’s dad?” I quickly ask. She looks at me then with those blurry eyes.

“Ummm, well, he decided to go and, um, check up on... Orla and... Yes he’ll be... don’t worry, he’ll be... fine!” I took all her courage to even summon up words; she was stumbling over them, as she shook with fear. I, on the other hand, went completely still. And then there was an earthquake, or at least what I thought was an earthquake, which turned out not being one at all, but me violently shaking. It was Marigold that was then hugging me for reassurance.

“He. Did. What?” I growl. I turn back to the window, and see no one standing outside. My instincts kick in then. I turn, and run out the door as fast as I can. Fear mixed up with terror sets off some sort of adrenaline in me that I had shut away. As the adrenaline pulses through me, urging me to go on, I realise I am going remarkably fast. I turn outside, it is day time, but the dark musky clouds spread like a sheet across the sky, the grey dull clouds tell me it is about to rain, or at least I think it is the clouds that give off that feeling. As if on cue I feel the first few drops of rain land on me, as I make my way across the field. Up a head, I can see the shed. It is old and made of wood, the cracks in the worn away wood show that it has been abandoned for a while. But it is not the wood or anything else to do with the shed that draws my attention: it is the busted lock by the side of the door. And that sets off my complete one hundred percent energy, my blood is pumping, and I can feel my heart in my brain as I race to the shed, now less than a hundred metres away, I make it there in two seconds. I peer into the shed, grabbing hold of the open door for support. It’s ok, breathe.  I tell myself. I look into the shed, bracing myself for the worst and find, nothing. Nothing? Where’s my dad? I am about to turn away when something catches my eye, I turn to face my side, and, sitting right there on the middle shelf, was a small ring. I turn to it, as I pick it up; I suddenly get a sense of feeling, a sense of joy. I wonder why it had caught my eye, and then I remember: it had been shining, and it still was. But, it couldn’t be. There was no sun, at all. It must’ve been shining, but by itself. But that’s impossible; it couldn’t have shown by itself. But then again, there were a lot of things a little bit out-of-the-ordinary that I had just found out, like the world I had once lived in, the world that made me feel so secure, had been a lie. I realise I am staring at the ring. The ring itself would be completely solid silver, if it wasn’t for the little amethyst jewel in the middle; only, the amethyst jewel is carved into some form of a flower, like a rose with wide open petals. The image is too beautiful to turn my gaze away. Finally, with some effort, I manage to turn away from the still bright light. And as I do, the brightness fades and disappears completely. I slip the ring on my index finger, but it’s too small, so I slip it onto my ring finger – not the actual wedding ring finger – but on my right hand. Perfect. With it on my finger, I feel a sense of hope, like the ring is willing me forward, like I have a purpose, and I can fulfil it. It seems the ring has more faith in me, than most people I have met in my life. Funny, my new best friend is a ring, imagine all the fu... what the hell am I doing? I quickly snap out of my delusion and back to my senses. I run out of the shed just as fast as I had run into it. I can sense the vampire and – reeking – werewolf somewhere nearby. And to my terror, I can sense something with them, or rather someone, a human. I race towards them, and then they start running, but not away from me, towards me. A flash of terror washes over me. And sudden thoughts fill my mind, I hadn’t thought of this before, hadn’t summoned up a plan, but thinking of them having my dad was a completely different cause for situation. What will they do? What do they actually want from me, or is it me they want? When they come around the corner any second now, what will they do? Will they kill me? Will they kidnap me? Torture me? I know I will get my answer soon enough. Claire! Come back! Don’t let them take you, you promised you wouldn’t let them take you! Marigold doesn’t even hold back her anger, or fear. I want to tell her it will be okay, and that even if they do take me, I will be fine. But too much anger and fear together gets the best of me. Actually, I didn’t promise you that. I promised you that I wouldn’t let them hurt me. And the only true way for them to hurt me, would be if anything happened to you or my family! It doesn’t matter if they physically hurt me, as long as you guys are safe, I’ll know I made the right choice. But right now, they have my dad, and that’s hurting me even more than talking to you is. If you don’t let me go, and they do something to my dad – I cut off; thinking about it wasn’t something I wanted to do right now. I wipe away my tear streaked face. And then I smell them, of course I could smell them before, but now that sense was even stronger than it was before. They were near. But, Claire! Please don’t go! It won’t help. You know that as soon as they come back to you, they will kill you, but first they will make you watch your dad die! What help will that do? Noth – I shut her out just in time to get the full senses of the two vampires, one werewolf and one human. They stood opposite me now, only a few metres distance. I can see my attacker, he is tall, and gripping my dad in his hand. He has a wide grin spread across his face.

“Hello, dearie. Told ya I would come back for you, dinta’?” He says teasingly. I’m speechless. I realise I’m staring at him; I turn my gaze away from him. Standing next to him is the other vampire. I barely look at her, but as soon as I do, I find myself staring at her even more than I had with him. She has long dark brown hair – like me, a small, slim figure – like me – and all of her features; her eyes, nose, smile etc; are the same as mine. I am looking into the eyes of not a stranger, but my mother. I gasp. She looks at me with those red eyes, and spares me a half smile.

“Mum... mum, is that you... I mean, is that really, umm, you?” I stagger on my words as a lump in my throat is dangerously close to forming tears. I swallow it back with a lot of effort. But when she nods, I give in. My eyes sting as tears well up, and fall down my face. She takes one step forward, but stops, takes a moment to think, and then walks back. Next to her is – without a doubt – the werewolf. His long dark fur, rustling in the chilly wind – at least I think it is a he –Unlike the vampires, the werewolf doesn’t have deep red evil eyes, but dark jade green eyes. They are so beautiful, and yet so familiar. But my gaze is quickly drawn away when I notice what’s in my attackers’ arms, the unconscious body of my dad. He notices me looking, and dumps my dad’s limp body to the ground. I race over to him almost instantly, and hold onto him so hard, my nails dig in and he starts to bleed, I shake him roughly. He doesn’t even budge. My attacker comes toward me, so I stand up quickly, my nerves kicking in and punch him so hard in the face, he flies at least three metres back, and hits the ground, hard. Then I feel hands on me, tight but not tight enough to cause blood circulation, oh right, if my blood even circulated. I twirl around fast, so fast that my mum loses grip on me, but only for a second. She is fast too, and within a second her arms are whipped around me again. I struggle against her tight hold, but my arms are useless, so I kick her in between her legs, and really hard. Sorry, thank goodness she’s not a boy. She gasps, and lets me go in the process, clearly off guard.  In that time I head over to my dad, and lift him up into my arms, I’m strong now. Energy is buzzing through me like I had a switch you could just turn on, and wallah! I’d be bouncing off walls in no time. But I am too clouded up in my victorious escape, that I am forgetting that there is a fourth player in the game, the werewolf. He strikes one of his giant paws out at me; it hits me in my thigh, opening a gash so wide that it almost took up my entire calf. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he was trying to cancel out my escape, but without really hurting me. But I don’t think it’s just his orders, maybe he knows me, or at least cares enough about me to – what the hell? Am I a major flirting idiot or what! He’s trying to stall me, and its working. No, I try my hardest to block out the throbbing pain in my leg, I succeed in the tiniest percent. I have to do this, for me, but mostly for my dad. I need to get back to the house, if it’s even safe anymore. No, I know where I need to go. I need to go to Orla. Now, the hard part; how do I get there? How do I beat this stupid werewolf, and my mum, and my – attacker? My attacker jumps out behind me, knocking both my dad and I over. I lose my grip on my dad, and he rolls away into the bushes. My attacker is over me then, face close to mine.

“Enough.” He growls. I can see the red fresh blood drip down his nose where I had punched him. Mmmm, blood. No, I can’t think like that. Yes I can though; after all I am a vampire, right? And vampires have needs, mine happens to be blood, hot, sticky delicious fresh warm blood, and it’s right here, right in front of me, just hanging a few millimetres above my own face. It wouldn’t be so bad if I just had a taste, a quick, tiny taste. It won’t last long, just a little bit. After all I haven’t had my food yet, and I am hungry. There is simply no other way – no. If I am going to even think about blood, it wouldn’t be from this guy. Never will l give him the satisfaction that he desires. I turn away from him, and push him off my body. I didn’t really expect him to go; I was just trying to show him that I was turning down the thought to do that, with him. He stays above my head, never moving, just staring at me with those red eyes.

“If you don’t come quietly, then we will kill your dad, in front of you, slowly. And believe me will I make it painful.” And with that he stands up, turns and walks off, my mum and the werewolf slowly trailing behind. After a hundred metres, he stops and turns around. I guess I’m supposed to follow, and I guess that any smart person would. If they knew what was good for them. But me, well I’m not smart; I quickly race over to my dad, and pick him up. I head off into the direction I believe Orla’s compound is. But before I can even make it twenty metres, I feel the rough hands grip me again, and hurl me into the air. I land badly, really badly. And open my eyes just in time to see my attacker holding my dad.

“Wait!” I scream. “Wait, I’ll come with you. I’ll come willingly. Please don’t hurt him, I’ll come, just let him go.” He doesn’t budge. But when my mother comes over, telling him the same thing I did, well, from her own words anyway. He decides to let my dad go, and instead grab me. He flings me onto his back, and starts running. Into the completely opposite direction to where Orla stays, safe.  After a little while – I tried counting minutes, I got up to fifteen and gave up. – We end up arriving at a small broken down farm house. It is made completely of bricks, and when I say completely, I mean every single part of the farm house is brick, there are no windows, no door, there is only brick surrounding the house. My guess was that there were no windows because of the sunlight, even though the sun couldn’t even escape past a slither of the dull afternoon sky. Overall I hadn’t the slightest clue where we were, we were surrounded by trees, literally. There was this house, and then a fair few hundred metres space, and then bushland. Who knew how far the bushland stretched, I’ll bet to make any escape impossible. Then the truth hit me: I was completely stuck here.  Who knew what they would do to me in my time here, and what if my time here is forever. What if I had to stay locked up, what if they gave me human blood, and then the animal in me takes over, and I lose myself? And becoming one of them is not what I had in mind. There was only one solution, a rescue plan. It would involve me contacting Marigold, but if I did, then who would rescue me? Aubrey couldn’t do it alone, and I couldn’t risk any of the faeries coming out of their safe domain. Risking their lives for mine, one tiny soul that could be taken away so easily and probably will be wasn’t what I had in mind. No, I knew better. My thinking comes to a stop when my attacker dumps me to the ground; my stomach is hurting from where he held me to his shoulder so tightly. I start to wonder how we are going to get in the house. My mum goes over to the brick house, and places her hand onto the very centre of the brick. She whispers something; I can’t quite make it out, but from what I can gather it sounds like: agored.  Almost instantly, the bricks split in half, revealing a very small opening. I am once again hauled over my attacker’s shoulder when we enter the small entrance. I hit my head hard on the low roof, I feel a concussion coming on, but I force it away by blinking dramatically. I feel myself being pushed into a tight chair, my mum binds me with tight ropes. My mum an the werewolf walk out of the room, which by the looks of it, is very old. All the wallpaper is ripped and shredded, but some of it has large scratch marks. The scratch marks are deep, like somebody had clawd at the wall. I suddenly realise that I was right, somebody had clawed at the wall, with their nails. I supress a shudder. Then my attacker walks over to me, with his totally badass stride that leads me to believe all my troubles have just began. Then something hits me, inspite of everything going on, I actually hadn’t found out what my attacker’s name was.

“Hey, so what’s your name exactly?” I ask confident, he smiles like it’s a big deal.

“Dean. My name is Dean Ardito, and yours?” He asks holding his hand out to me.

“Claire”. I say, his arm is still stretched out for me to shake it. I can barely get my own arm past the tight rope, understanding this he drops his arm down to his side.

“Well Claire, how about you answer a few questions for me, and then maybe I will un-tie you.” He says with a smirk.

“Well, ask away.” I say, I don’t want to buy my way into his little games, I just want this over and done with.

“Ok, first of all, that bitch of a witch is your friend, right?” He asks. I’m a little startled at first, but I didn’t really expect anything better.

“Well, she’s more my parents friend than mine, but yeah, I guess you could call her that.” I can’t really tell whether I can trust her the way she promises I can. I know she’s my god mother and all, but that never entitled her to erase my memories. Somehow, I had a feeling Dean knew this too.

“Well, what do you know about her, have you the slightest clue about her past?” Judging by his tone he is obviously enjoying himself, what isn’t he telling me?

“Well, no. And I think you already know the reason why.”

“Indeed I do, when she erased your memories, she wasn’t careful. She erased some other memories too. You know it is quite difficult to only erase a selective memory, after all it’s not like they are bunched up somewhere for you to pick out. She would’ve had to go way deeper than that, to the very pit of your brain. And I truly believe that she knew the risk, but did it anyway.” Ok, that wasn’t quite the answer I was looking for. And somehow it made sense, and like I should’ve guessed it in the first place.

“Well, what do you know about her past that I don’t know?” I ask.

“Allot of things.” He pauses and takes a moment to think. “Like how she can bring back your memories.” That makes my ears perk up.

“What? You can’t be serious!” I say, there is no way that can be true, otherwise the little bit of trust I had left for Aubrey was completely gone.

“Well, you see, a witch like Aubrey can do just about anything. And if she can take away the memories, well they don’t just disappear into thin air. They are stored away in a jar or perhaps a small container and locked away. She can’t take them away unless she can store them somewhere.” He says and for some reason I believe him.

“Why would she lie to me then?” I ask.

“Well, you see to retrieve even one memory; you would have to retrieve all of your memories taken away. Maybe there is a specific memory she doesn’t want you to remember.” It all starts to make sense, why she would trick me. Well, obviously I didn’t remember the memory, but she’s hiding something. Then a question comes to my mind.

“How do you know all of this?” I ask.

“Well, let’s just say I knew a witch, and she betrayed me. Remember you can never trust a witch, there’s a reason they rhyme with bitch.”

“But how do you know Aubrey is like that?” I ask.

“Who do you think betrayed me?”

“So you were a vampire when she betrayed you?” I ask.

“No, I was definitely human. Let’s just say she’s also the reason I am a vampire.”

“When did you become a vampire?” I ask suspicious.

“You really want to know that?” I nod.

“1843.” He says.

“What? But that’s impossible; you said Aubrey betrayed you before you were human, unless she’s not human? Is Aubrey a vampire?”

“No. She cast a spell on herself to be immortal.” At first I thought he was being sarcastic, but then I realised he was telling the truth.

“But my dad’s known her since he was younger.”

“Yes, but Aubrey is a witch, she probably made herself look younger. She could even do that now, make herself look like a seven year old.”

“So you’re saying there’s practically nothing a witch can’t do?”

“Practically. But there is many things a witch can’t do, like cross water. A witch also can’t read minds or anything.  Just what’s in her power, look, I don’t really know that much and aren’t I supposed to be the one asking questions?”

“Yeah, you just asked one.” I point out.

“Oh, you’re very funny. We’re going to get on just fine.” He smiles again.



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