A/N: New story. Sorry for making people wait on my other stories but I still need to come up with a few things. This just hit me, typed it down, and a month later I'm posting it. Tell me what you think.
Disclaimer: I don't own Little Vampire, just the characters I made.
Dark. That's all it was now. The only light came from the leering moon overhead. Stars shining only second to that. That was the only light showing the way now. His family was downhearted. Uncle Von had yet to return with the stone. Everyone else still searched in case that blasted stone showed up somewhere else. It was what he was doing now, or more like trying to find a way to quench the thirst that bubbled up inside him at the moment. He tried to push it from his mind. It would do everyone no good if he became distracted. They were all counting on someone to find the stone.
He continued to walk along the pastures. Green field had turned to small wood. Still he continued to walk. And now, as he guessed, was probably around eleven. That's when he noticed he had become distracted. So much that he hadn't noticed the soft sweet smell drifting in the air. Close by he noticed a break in the trees, opening to another field. Green like the rest, but more well kept. In the distance he could see an extravagant mansion. No lights on, everyone was sleeping. The place was a good distance away from him, but why was the smell so close, he wondered. His answer came in a small voice.
"What are you doing out here so late?" He looked over to see a small girl sitting against one of the trees. She wore a nightdress with white robe over. Rich brown hair fell in small ringlets to upper-back. Her pale gray iris' were outlined in a thick black, separating her iris from the whites of her eyes. Long lashes framed innocent eyes. Sun-kissed skin radiated warmth, its softness yet another dead give-away of her youth. This child was no older than his sister, Anna. After taking in her appearance he answered her question.
"I could ask the same as you. Why aren't you home sleeping like the rest?" He nodded his head in the direction of the large house. Now that he knew who the smell came from he had a bit of a hard time holding himself back. It seemed as if the girl was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"I can't sleep." Was her simple reply. Her eyes met his dark ones. She didn't flinch away.
"You still shouldn't be out here. What's your name?" He asked after thinking about it, trying to get his mind off of his thirst.
"Julia Brown. What's yours?" She asked innocently. He debated internally with himself if he should tell her or not. After a second he answered.
"Gregory Sackville-Bagg." She gave him a little smile.
"How old are you Julia?" Gregory asked the little girl. It had been floating along the back of his mind since he met her. He knew the girl couldn't be older than Rudolph, but you never could tell.
"I am seven. My birthday is in May." She answered easily. Gregory was thankful she never asked a question like that to him. He'd known her for a couple of weeks now. Every time he went walking this way at night, he always found her by the same tree, looking into the sky. And each time he found out more about her. She had no mother, no brothers or sisters. No other family but her Dad, her Aunt, her cousin, and her nurse. Since her father was always busy with the farm they had the nurse watch her and her cousin Alyssa Brown. She didn't like Alyssa but played with her since her Aunt was strict. Now he found out how old she was.
The next thing he learned was that she liked riding horses.
Gregory listened to Julia sing the song her Aunt had made her learn. Julia liked to sing, but he could tell that she didn't like this song. For one it seemed to be too high-pitched for her liking, but Julia never voiced her dislikes. Julia kept quiet, just like he did. She didn't ask questions, and she always smiled. Even when it rained, like it was right now. When he asked her why she was still sitting outside during the rain she told him she liked the rain. It made everything seem fresh.
When it rained he didn't mind sitting with her, because it drowned out the smell that always radiated off her. Like the rain didn't want her to go away, as if it knew that he thirsted for her blood under the curse. It always felt like that when it rained, because it rained during most of the nights he sat by her under the tree.
It had been a few years since he had met Julia. Yet he never told his parents, never told his brother or sister. He hadn't told anyone of his kind about Julia. She had become the only friend, the only light hope, in his dark world. Uncle Von had yet to return. No one had heard or seen anything concerning the stone. His faith was wavering, his hope—dying. . .
He was a bit glad though. Julia never asked questions, only accepted what he told her.
"They seem nice." Was her response when he told her about his family, personality-wise. She seemed sincere in her words, and it made him happy. Julia made him happy.
The fact that she never questioned why he never changed made him happy. It also made him a bit sad. But he'd never admit that. Not as long as Julia was still there, sitting under the tree at night. He'd be okay. At least. . .He hoped he would be.
Because as Julia grew, so did his thirst.
He knew he was upset. Julia knew he was upset. Having Julia know what he knew when she shouldn't know made him even more upset. Uncle Von still didn't come back. Julia was now fifteen years-old. Her scent still soft and sweet, but more so than when he had first wondered into her family's pasture. He was guessing Julia had tired of his moping. Or if that's what you could call it.
"Gregory. What your life is like, I do not know. Nor would I pry into it, but what has you so downhearted cannot stay that way forever." She said as she looked at the moon. Following her gaze, they stayed like that until Gregory spoke.
"Nothing for me can ever change Julia." He spoke quietly, afraid he would break the spell the moon had woven on Julia, keeping her eyes from straying to him. Gladly, he silently sighed as she kept her eyes on the silver light of the overhanging moon. From the corner of his eye he saw her smile at the silver orb, something your couldn't do with the golden orb named the Sun.
"Even if it doesn't," She began, her voice full of hope and the faith he had lost, "You have to look at what you have. You do not have to see it as a curse, but as something you could use to your advantage. Something you have that you could use in your own way like no other. Every night fades to day, each sunrise different. Every day has a sunset, and nothing can last forever. But. . ."
Gregory's eyes landed on Julia as she trailed off. She had her eyes closed, and now that he had a good look at her, she looked tired. All her sleepless nights had caught up to her.
"We have to take what we can in a place where we cannot always have what we want. With you Gregory, you should be able to find something in your world, dark or not. Take it all in stride or you will be swallowed. Control it, master it, or accept it. For that's all you can try to do." Her quiet voice helped to betray how tired she was.
"Alright, Julia. You need sleep," Standing he helped pick her up, "Help me get you to bed."
He half-carried her across the pasture, but he had to carry her through her house to her room. She had fallen asleep on her back door-step. As he watched her asleep under her covers, lying on her side, he gave her a tiny smile.
"Thank you, Julia." And with that he left.
The next night he walked to see what was happening at the Brown pastures. It was just after sunset, and the lights were still on inside the house. It would seem normal, but for the yelling he heard in the house.
"You will do as I say Julia Felicia Brown!" A woman's voice. Strict and harsh. It could only belong to her Aunt.
"Aunt Rachel, you cannot be serious. Daddy please." Julia's quiet voice. Urgent and pleading. She was fighting back the tears.
"Rebecca could you give us leave for awhile." Tired, and soft, like Julia's. This voice belonged to her father. Rebecca, the nurse, had just closed the door.
"Julia you honestly are crying on about something so simple as this. You are such a disappointment, I would rather not believe we are related." Such a brat, no doubt that's Alyssa.
"Hold you tongue Alyssa." Rachel didn't bark at her daughter as she did at Julia. Gregory placed himself just outside the window of the room the family was in. He was right. Julia was hold back the tears she so much wanted to spill over.
"Julia, I am sorry but you are getting older. It would have come to this eventually, and you are of age. Or will be in May. But I would feel better if you had someone else in your life other than Aunt Rachel, Alyssa, and Myself." The tired man spoke as if he did not want this just as much a Julia, but he would do whatever it was. So his daughter could have a happy life.
"Daddy, I do not want this. Please. I am fine with the life I have here, and I would have it no other way." She pleaded, begged, but her father would not speak again.
"Julia Brown, it has been decided already, and your father cannot go back on his word. One month after your sixteenth birthday you will marry Timothy James." Her Aunt's voice rang with final authority. Defeated, Julia bowed her head. Gregory felt his jaw drop at hearing this. That was why she gave him that little speech. There was no doubt in his mind, they had discussed this with her on that very night. She knew that there was no way out of it for her.
"Yes Aunt Rachel," As Julia walked by her father he grabbed her hand, "Excuse me father, but I need a moment to myself, please."
Nodding, he let her hand slip from his own. He couldn't hear the continued conversation of her relatives as his mind buzzed with the news. Julia would be married in June. And it was only April.
Then some sound broke through the buzzing. Turning he saw Julia rushing toward the stables. A moment later she appeared on the back of a beautiful tan horse, whose mane and tail shown white. Gregory then placed himself in the trees again, watching her ride. The entire time he watched as tears fell from her face. It was then he knew that he didn't want her to be married to Timothy James. She'd be taken from him. His only friend gone.
Once she had tired, returned the horse, she had left to her room. Standing on her balcony he listened to her cry herself to sleep. He didn't want her to go. Gregory wanted Julia to stay. To sit with him under the tree at night. He loved her.
"A June bride. Many girls would be jealous." Gregory tried to joke.
"Yes. They would be wouldn't they?" Julia gave him a small smile. Both then turned quiet. Julia's eyes were closed, Gregory's eyes were on Julia. He had to admit, she was beautiful in her wedding gown. Her rich brown hair falling in ringlets past her waist. The veil resting atop her sweet head. But he didn't like seeing her as she was. Sad, and depressed.
"You're beautiful, Julia." He couldn't stop himself. She was married now, but he still loved her.
"Thank you, Gregory." her eyes remained closed as a tear fell down her cheek. She rested one hand against the bark of the tree they used to sit under. The thought felt so foreign in his mind. Used to. She couldn't sit now, or her white dress would be dirty, but then he never remembered her white nightgowns ever getting dirty. And still he watched in silence as tears fell from her beautiful gray eyes.
"Thank you, so much, Gregory."
He couldn't cry, no matter how much he wanted to. Gregory couldn't cry, he wouldn't. Julia wouldn't want him to.
"But Julia is gone now." Pain ripped it's merry way through his dead heart. That's right. Julia's gone. Julia won't be coming back. She won't ever be coming back. He wanted to cry again, only to remind himself that Julia would want him to smile again. Tears, she didn't want that. She had told him. Even as she died.
"Damn you Timothy James. Damn you to HELL AND BACK!" Gregory shouted out to the night. Memories ran through his mind. All of them of Julia as she grew up. When he first met her. The first time she gave him a hug. When she brought her pony out to show him. Her wedding night when she found time to talk to him and cry in front of him. She only cried in front of him or when she was alone, he remembered. And he went through those memories. Everything up until her funeral.
Timothy had beaten her, badly to the point where he grabbed a pitch fork and stabbed her stomach. Her sweet blood spilled over the floor of the stable. He could still hear the whinny of her horse crying out at seeing her rider fall. Julia had stolen out to go for a night ride, but her husband wanted to her stay with him to help rid him of his urges. In a drunken rage he had killed her and left to find one of the women he cheated on Julia with.
Gregory remembered holding her as she bled in his arms. Seventeen, and more beautiful than he had ever seen her. But that could have been his thirst talking to him. Gregory had thirsted for her blood since they met, ten years ago. He remembered her last words, every single one. She told him not to cry for her. To forget her to get on with his life, she didn't want him to be sad.
"You're beautiful, Julia." He whispered as she closed her eyes. She gave him a small smile.
"Go on, Gregory, it is—alright. I know—how you are," He stilled as he caught her meaning. Some how she had figured out what he was, "It is alright. With me."
He looked at her pale-gray eyes as they opened, but not without struggle. His, red and flashing with pain, locked with hers. She gave him the same small smile. The same exact one she gave him when they met. But it was her last words that made him want to cry the most.
"I—love you Gregory. Ever since we met—when I was seven. Thank you." She told him, happy and proud. That's what she said before she died. In his arms, but he couldn't bring himself to taste her blood. He just couldn't.
And now Gregory sat there, under the trees, looking up at the moon- and star-less sky. Timothy had killed her. Gregory never had the chance to tell her that he loved her, just as much, and just as long. He clenched his fists as he stood. Tonight was a dark night. Perfect for a funeral. Timothy would wish he had never bribed Rachel Brown to marry Julia Brown. That piece of horse-shit didn't deserve an angel like Julia. Tonight the funeral would be for Timothy, but no one would be able to visit his grave.
For all these years Gregory had lived up to what Julia had told him to live his life like he was the master. And he saw himself as much. He told his father this, though not about Julia. Why couldn't the man just accept it. They were what they were. Since Timothy had been killed he had felt more alive. They were the rulers of the Night. They were supposed to walk proudly under the moon's light. Maybe if they had met Julia they would feel the same way. She was the reason he felt this way, but he couldn't tell them that. He just couldn't.
He stood on the edge of the cliff with his family. Gregory now understood what Julia had meant. He guessed that he was still a bit of a child when he yelled at his father, when he tried to attack Tony when they first met. His family waited for so long to be human, and now it would be so. Gregory was happy. If he was human, he'd eventually die. When he died, he would see Julia again. As the crimson smoke consumed him he thought about Julia's smile. Thank you, so much, Gregory. Being human wouldn't be so bad. Not as much as being a Vampire was. As long as he could see Julia again, he'd gladly live a simple mortal life.