Chapter 5

“You divorced your wife because she pissed you off,” I said, trying to keep it clear, as Ryan and I walked along the halls of the school. Apparently, Jez and Dylan were out, so that left him hanging out with me. I found that I liked his company very much. Right now, though, I can’t believe how trivial Ryan’s reason was just so he could break up with his fiancée. Apparently, she said something that pissed him off and he broke up with her. Just like that. Flushing all the girl’s hopes and dreams of a wedding down the toilet. “You’re not actually serious, are you?”

“I am,” he replied, his tone cool, not minding the stares that we received. Let me guess: they thought I was a slut/whore since I hung out with the cute noobs. Well, I don’t give a damn. They’re probably just jealous that I hung out with them when no one else did. “I’ve had three ex-fiancées and seven ex wives. Wait, make that eight.”

I simply stared at him.

“What’s with the staring? Marriage is a trivial thing; it never really lasts forever, you know. I can’t believe that Dylan wants to marry someone like you, who has no idea of what we are.”

“And what are you, exactly?” I asked, my curiosity spiking up at a dangerous level. I was back to work, I guess. I didn’t really notice the “marry” part. “Come on. Spare my sanity and tell me what you really are.”

“You already know,” he said, his tone as cool as ever, laid-back as always, as if revealing that he was a vampire wasn’t such a big deal. “Now let me ask that question back: what are you, really?”

I was shocked. No, I couldn’t answer that. Not here, not now. People were everywhere and, even if they didn’t catch our convo, there were always the cameras, which the Drinkers have wired not long ago, meaning that they saw what I did and when I did it.

“Not here, luv,” I just said, smiling up at him. “There’s…too much. How ‘bout I go by your place this Friday?”

He frowned once. “Jez might find out about---,”

“Don’t worry, she won’t,” I reassured him, even though I, myself, wasn’t quite sure if she would find out or not.

“Trust me, she will,” he said with a laugh. “She’s a scary person, she is.”

I laughed at this. “Why?”

“Oh, I swear, you would not want her to get angry at you,” he said, chuckling. I couldn’t help but notice how seductive his voice sounded. I almost swooned, realising this very obvious fact. I tried not to focus on that. “You haven’t seen her after what you made us remember what is was like when Mom died.”

“’We’?” I asked, raising a brow.

“Yeah,” he answered as he tossed his juice into the rubbish bin. “What happens to her happens to me. And vice versa, I guess. It’s called the Twin Curse. It’s sad, really.”

“Oh,” I said. “What about…you know…that time of the month?”

“Oh that. Well, I guess that’s an exception when it comes to twins who are of the opposite sex.”

Then, this long awkward silence followed. I realised that…I didn’t want it to be there. I like hearing his voice, yes, but I also like talking to him and talking about things that I didn’t know. Things that I cannot achieve by myself, but things that I can gain through experience…and lots of questions.

“So…where are Jez and Dylan?” I asked. He laughed lightly.

“I’m guessing that they’re probably racing,” he said as he grasped his hand. It was…bleeding?! I suppressed a gasp.

“Ohmigod!” I exclaimed, the expression coming out in one breath. As of then, I knew I just had to sound stupid. “What happened to you? How did you get that?!”

He laughed at my reaction, as I had expected. Compared to a cool-headed dude like him, I was a nervous wreck.

“Oh, don’t worry,” he said as he took out a neatly-folded handkerchief from his pocket and pressed it to his wound. It was instantly soaked with over-flowing blood. I wasn’t sure I didn’t have to worry, because I definitely worried for him and his well-being. “Maybe Jez gripped the handles of her bike too hard. As I said, what happens to her…happens to me.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. “I mean, your hand is soaked in blood.”

He frowned at this. “You’re right. Jez must have---,”

Then, a wound appeared on his neck. A gaping wound. The right side of his blazer started to get darker…being soaked in his blood. He spat out blood: his mouth was filled with the crimson liquid. I gasped as he staggered backwards.

“Something’s wrong,” he said, his tone sounding serious, for the first time. It was an odd thing, hearing him this serious and…worried. “Something’s definitely wrong. Jez won’t be this careless.”

He spat out blood again. His head started bleeding. His right eye was covered with blood, and it dripped down onto the concrete ground like the rain. Crimson, steely rain. His fangs…started to elongate.

This worried me the most.

Like me, the three of them needed to keep their closely-guarded secret. We were lucky that there weren’t that much people around. No one noticed what was happening…because no one saw. No one suspected anything was off. Maybe they thought that the blood was catsup or something.

Suddenly, I noticed something was off.

The birds in the sky…they stopped moving. The cold wind had stopped biting at my cheeks, but the air was still there. The basketball players had stopped playing. The walking students…they stopped.

That was when I knew what happened.

Time had stopped. Halted. Everything stopped. I checked my watch: it was suspended as it was nearing the brink of moving a second longer.

Ryan, however, was on his knees. Blood pooled around him as he coughed out more.

A colossal explosion resounded a few metres from where I was, in the direction of the football field. Thankfully, no one was there. A cloud of dust spread out from that direction into ours. For a moment, I could only see dirt and grass flying around.

“How…?” Ryan asked from beneath me, his silver-blue eyes searching mine for an explanation. I just shrugged, still shocked at how the moments passed by like a blur. One moment, I was talking with Ryan and the next, I found myself not suspended with time.

Someone came running from the field. I was petrified. Then, I blinked, and Jez was there, kneeling beside her twin.

“I’m sorry,” she said, wiping the blood from her mouth. “Schuyler…appeared out of nowhere.”

“Schuyler?” Ryan asked just as Dylan appeared out of nowhere beside me. He looked seriously injured as well. He stood, his canines fully elongated. The dust cleared, and I saw Jez properly.

She was wearing simple jeans and a tee, without shoes, and it was almost completely ruined. Some places were torn, and most parts of her were covered in blood and dirt. Two vampires appeared beside her. I recognised them immediately: one of them was her fiancé, whilst the other one was her “ex”. They were also injured, but their injuries weren’t as severe.

“Uncle’s been spouting rubbish about going back up,” Dylan said, looking around warily.

Then, his silver eyes laid on mine.

“How can you possibly be moving?” he asked, glaring at me like I was some freak of nature that deserved to be eradicated. “What are you, exactly? Are you one of us?”

“No, she’s not,” Ryan answered as he shakily got up with help from Jez. His wounds started disappearing. “She’s a damned Dark Drinker, bro.”

“She must be rid of at once,” Jez’s fiancé said. “It’s her kind that has been killing ours.”

“Dark Drinkers…soul eaters,” Dylan said, looking around warily again. “We have no time to discuss that now, Paul. We need to get rid of Schuyler at once.”

“I doubt he’s still here,” the other dude said, sniffing the air. Everything was covered in dust. “I’m guessing he’s somewhere in underground Sydney by now.”

I marvelled at this. He can smell things all the way to Sydney?! What were vampires, really?

Suddenly, Jez fell forward. Ryan followed a second shy. “Paul” and the other vampire caught them. Paul gave the vampire a warning look as he slung Ryan over his shoulder. The vampire just smiled mockingly as he carried Jez, bridal-style.

“We have to talk about this at home,” he said as I found myself off of the ground and into these arms.

I could not put my experience into words. It was so fast-paced; actually, that I only caught glimpses of what was happening to me. Or what was happening to everything around me. I felt as if I was flying. It was like that feeling when I ran really fast that I knew I could almost fly, or when I jumped between branches that were about a few feet from the ground. Still, it was different from all those experiences. I could literally feel myself rise, and I could see the clouds up close. The feeling was superb. I knew that, if only I could do this by myself, then I would have done so at any moment that I wished.

Exhilarated by the buzz that this experience presented me to, I could not help but have that dreaded feeling at the back of my mind and at the bottom of my heart. Underneath that entire buzz, I knew that this will soon end: everything else does.

Everything that I have enjoyed or relished or loved…they all came to an end. At first, a few centuries ago, I could not grasp this concept. I could not accept that the life of my Jayce has ended, and yet…here I am, accepting it. I didn’t try to forget, of that I was sure. I knew that, deep inside, I didn’t really want these things to happen, or that it was my fault that they did. Still, I knew that I had to move on. As cliché as it may sound, I knew that I had to somehow move on, as painful as it may be.

All this left my mind. Actually, it felt as if my mind had been blown to little bits and pieces just as I felt the downward pull of gravity. I seriously thought that we were falling---Dylan and I---that I could barely let out even the smallest of whimpers. I felt as if my heart caught in my throat. We were falling…and it stopped. Then we went up again. For a second there, I had thought that we were going to---

Then it happened again.

It was a mean cycle, this once-wonderful experience. All the while, I couldn’t help but bring Dylan’s reaction to mind. I couldn’t help but remember how his face looked so cruel. I associated this with how Ryan looked at me when I sipped Jez’s soul. They looked so…menacing. Truly, I should have done better than judge them by their covers.

Soon, though, it stopped. I kinda missed it.

I soon found myself in the Night living room, unable to speak, all words escaping me. Almost everything was a pure and brilliant white. The couch I was on…it was a big-as Cleopatra couch, soft and cushiony and everything that our couch wasn’t. The carpet was white, and so were the marble tiles. The wall facing the east side was made of frosted glass, giving a glossy view of the big pool outside. The plasma TV in front of me was bigger than the one in our living room. I didn’t know where everyone was: I was stranded here.

I got up shakily, trying to get my footing right. I walked forward. I knew that I was probably in a helluva lot of trouble, but somehow, I still didn’t want to go. I loved how unbelievably pure and innocent the place looked; even if I knew that this was the same place where my wild, wild party took place. Everything looked so…expensive. I knew that this house was, indeed, bigger than mine. I roamed around, skirting through the living room and the kitchen and the garage…the first floor looked so amazing compared to my house.

I was about to go upstairs---about to try my luck, actually---until I heard his voice pop out of nowhere.

“Under all the circumstances that be, I am absolutely sure that you do not have any authority to roam around here, Leah.”

I turned, my hand still on the brass edge of the staircase, and saw the unknown vampire leaning on the living room wall, facing me, with his eyes glowing a bright red.

He chuckled at my (presumably) shocked reaction. Mortified was the better term for it, actually. I was actually terrified and humiliated at the same time, just being caught roaming around the vampire’s house.

“Leah’s your name, isn’t it?” he asked, his voice sultry sweet and seductive…more seductive than Dylan’s---or Ryan’s, at this point---could ever be. He chuckled again. “You’re quite popular in this house, though I might say that I haven’t met you properly before.”

I couldn’t say a word. All I knew was that the air around him leaked with his acidic personality…it was all too dark. Although I might say that Jez and Ryan’s souls were far darker than that. Still, though, with darkness leaking out from him like that that it was almost palpable for me…

“Come on, woman, talk a little,” he said, obviously getting bored as he faked a yawn. “I’m getting older here,”

A chuckle.

“Of course, I could never get old, could I? What about you, my dearest? Would you get old, I wonder?”

“No,” I managed to answer. I noticed that I haven’t moved an inch. Instincts told me to run---to move, at least---but fear kept me intact. Now this was real trouble. I tried to keep it cool, hoping that my face didn’t betray me and have a little colour, at least. “I believe that you know my name, and yet I don’t know yours,”

“Tsk. Always so straightforward, you Dark Drinkers,” he said, feigning disappointment when we both knew so well that he was just playing with me. “I’m Luke. You should know by now that I’m Jez’s ex, right?”

“Yeah, she told me,” I said, keeping my tone as cool as ever, although I think I sound like someone straining to keep from screaming to the world that I was going to die. I just felt his intention in the air. It was so palpable to me now.

“Great,” he said. Suddenly, I couldn’t feel that murderous intention anymore. He walked towards me and I---under all the fear that I have been going through---took a step back. He smiled kindly at me, the glow in his eyes dimming until there wasn’t such a ghostly luminescence in his eyes anymore. “I’m sorry for scaring you like that. Do you wanna take a walk with me? It’s a nice day outside, you know. You shouldn’t waste your time all closed up in here,”

“Don’t you always stay here?” I asked, hesitantly following his lead outside. He opened the sliding door for me at the west side, again leading to the vast green field outside. “I mean, you can’t go outside right? You know, with the sun and all that?”

“Huh,” he just said as he closed the sliding door behind us. I noticed that he was, in fact, standing in the direct path of sunlight as I was. He wasn’t burning or glittering or anything like that. He was just there, standing like a normal person. “You should know better than to believe in make-believe stuff like that. Hell, its better if you saw it yourself,”

“Oh,” I just said as he led us into the middle of the field---backyard, maybe---and towards this fountain that I never saw before. It was there, the doves held by two deities---Apollo and Artemis---their mouths spouting the water that seemed to glitter under the sunlight. Luke was right: it was a nice day. Sunny and windy at the same time, not too cold but not too warm. I liked it. “What’s that for?”

“The fountain?”

“Yeah,”

“It’s this thing my brother and I made before Jez broke up with me when dear ol’ Paul proposed. He did it right there,”

He pointed at the side of the fountain, where a dewy part of the green, green grass was. I wouldn’t have noticed it if he hadn’t pointed it out to me. I was just so amazed by how the fountain’s water looked so much like glinting liquid silver that I hadn’t noticed that one and only part of the grassy field, where the dew was still there, never fading, when it should have hours ago, right after lunch.

“Is it always that dewy?” I asked as we made our way to the fountain, keeping a distance from that part, and sat there, leaning side by side on the fountain’s foundation.

“Yeah,” he answered. “At least, it always was since Jez and Ryan moved here. This used to be our place, you know, my brother and I. We invited them to stay here since their Dad has become too mentally abusive since their mother died.”

“If I asked you how their Mum died, would you tell me?” I asked, curious, looking at him again and making sure he wasn’t a burning chaos or a diamond with a fetish for blood. Apparently, he was neither.

“Maybe, maybe not,” he answered, smiling, amused at this somehow. I could not tell why, but it seemed like he was generally amused. “Would you give me a good reason to?”

“No, probably not,” I said, playing with him as he was playing with me. I smiled at this---our little game. He didn’t know my objective: to find out everything I possibly could about them. If I had this over and done with, I could probably be left free from Recon for the rest of my miserable life. “Hey, when’s Ryan’s birthday? I don’t really remember the date---,”

“September 1^st,’ he answered so abruptly, as if he knew this by heart. “He almost always shares everything with his twin, trust me. It’s practically been their curse since we all got sent down here,”

“Sent down from where?” I asked, confused.

“Can’t you tell?” he said, a slight chuckle in his voice. “We’re the gods and goddesses, Leah. You, of all people, should have figured it out by now. After all, you have been spying on us, haven’t you?”

His tone wasn’t accusing. Actually, it was amused, just like he always was. I was dumbstruck. No freakin’ way. He couldn’t have known. There was no way that---

“Your security isn’t as complex as it is,” he said as he got up, dusting off the grass that got stuck on his jeans. “I kinda looked into your room when you were at Ryan’s party. Jez’s orders. We all know, Leah. There’s no need to go around the loop and ask me questions like that out of the blue. We’re not mad, don’t worry. At least, not mad enough to kill you. But that’s just me. You should have seen Jez’s reaction when she found out. You are so dead when she wakes up. It has to be right…about…now.”

He was on cue.

“WHERE THE HELL IS THAT BITCH?!” I heard her screech. It literally sent birds flying away. I wanted to cower behind Luke, but I knew it would do me no good.

“You should run now,” he said, turning back to me as he began to walk forward. There were crashing sounds from inside the house. He winced. “Damn, she just broke the vase that we got from 18^th century China. She must be really pissed. I advice that you run, like, right now,”

I followed his advice.

I ran like hell towards the gate. To do so, I had to pass by the pool. I knew staying was a bad idea. Walking with Luke---now that was a worse choice of action. Damn, why did their house have to be so wonderful?! I totally wasted my time.

As I got to the middle of the pool, I saw her: her eyes were a blazing colour of silver, as always, and two other boys were restraining her. It looked like Luke and Paul. I saw Ryan and Dylan at the corner, not doing anything. What’s worse, she was looking straight at me. The glass wall probably muffled her teeth-grinding, world-shattering scream of anger.

Now I knew what Ryan meant by not wanting to see Jez angry. She wasn’t just angry, it seemed: she was furious, outraged, deranged, mad, and any other word that meant just the same.

I ran like hell out of their house, passing by millions of moving cars.

That was when I finally realised that time had started running again. For that, I was relieved. I couldn’t bear to be in a stand-still world any longer.

When my lungs felt tired and my muscles protested against me, I finally took out my Blackberry from my pocket. I saw that I was a good distance away from their house, near the freeway. Great. I dialled Lina’s number. My hands were shaking and my knees were unstable. Holy hell, I thought as I leaned against a tree. I would never want to see anyone like that again. I should seriously give up this whole thing before it gets too out of hand.

Suddenly, my phone rang. I didn’t realise that I had stopped dialling Lina’s number. I answered my phone, not caring who it was. I just needed someone to talk to…and pick me up.

“Hey!” I heard Megan scream into my ear. Damn. I should have known better than to not check the caller ID. Megan always shouted when she called. Well, it was her or none at all. I sighed.

“Hey,” I answered less enthusiastically. “Can you give me a ride, Meg? I’m kinda short on the transpo here,”

“Sure,” she answered. “I’m just driving around anyway, so it’s alright. Where are you?”

“In Ryan’s street. Don’t ask why, just drive. I seriously need a ride.”

“Wow, you sound desperate,” she said with a chuckle. Right now, I wanted to glare at her. I knew I couldn’t, of course, but I wanted to. Sometimes she can be so immature. “Oh well. Wait for me there, then. I’ll be finding you in 5 minutes, yeah? The stoplights here are driving me absolutely crazy,”

“Oh, by the way, which car are you driving now?” I asked, curious. “The Prius or the Carrera?”

“Prius,” she answered almost bitterly. “The Carrera’s keys have officially been confiscated by my ‘rents when they found out that I went to your party. Hell, the whole event was in YouTube.”

“Oh my God,” I said, my brain going absolutely numb. It was uploaded in YouTube, of all places! “Megan, are you positive about this?”

“Oh yeah, sure,” she replied as normally as she could, although I could hear the slight nervous chuckle in her voice. “The vid was recommended to me by Zac. Apparently, Josh and Jason planned it all out. Zac thought that I should see it. He’s so sweet, isn’t he? I love him.”

“That’s what you always say,” I complained. It was, really. It was what she always said every time she had a boyfriend. “Zach’s the one who courted you since primary school, right?”

“Yeah,” she answered off-handedly. I could see her car in the distance, so I waved her over. I dusted off the remaining grit on my skirt and my tights, not forgetting to catch my breath the second I got in the car. I muttered a “thank-you” before slinking back on the seat, just plain happy I was at least safe from Jez.

“What happened to you?” Megan asked as she did a careful U-turn. “Dammit, Leah, I’m worried that you’re getting into a whole lotta mess when you’re with that Jez girl and her gang.”

“They’re not a gang,” I said, sounding quite defensive, and having the right to. The others were nice. “Jez is the only cruel person in their family. Even her ex is not half bad.”