The Saga of Steve Leopard
As many of you already know, Steve Leopard is a character, and the main antagonist, in the Cirque Du Freak/Saga of Darren Shan series. I've always wondered to myself, "What would the series be like if Steve was telling the story?" So I've decided to basically rewrite the whole series, but in Steve's point of view. Every chapter will represent every book, so there will be 12 chapters in total. Chapters 1, 7, 8, 9, 11, and 12 will have similarities to the books themselves that you'll recognize since Steve appears in those books, but in chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,and 10, I'll try to use my imagination and create new things since Steve doesn't appear in those books. I'll try to come up with details they mention in the book, but still come up with my own ideas.
There might also be some things that happen differently here than in the book, but I am writing this using my imagination and how I think it would have worked better.
The first chapter is kind of long, and some of the future chapters may be too, but bear with me. I'd love you to read it through and write reviews! I'd love to hear any input, whether it's positive or negative! Just give me your honest opinion (but try not to be rude).
This story is purely the property of Darren Shan and he owns the rights to it all.
I was born with the name "Steve Leonard", but everyone always calls me "Steve Leopard". Probably because I am such a wild child that I seem like a leopard!
I have always been a crazy child in my life. I have always acted out, been a trouble maker, back talked my teachers, and have been the tough guy in school. Maybe the reason I've been a jerk is because of my not-so-good childhood.
Basically, the story of my childhood is a very depressing one. My mother got pregnant young, and out of wedlock. I have never met my father before and I don't think I will ever meet him. I have no idea who he is, and I have a feeling my mother doesn't either.
The fact that I have no father, and the fact that my mother drinks her liver away 24 hours of the day, probably contributes to why I am such a nuisance.
My mother does not care about me, and I have no father, so what am I supposed to do with my life? When teachers or other kids try picking on me, what am I supposed to do, let them do it then cry at home where nobody is there to care for my feelings? No. I have no one to care for me, so the only way to get over it is fight back! If kids wanna pick on me, I'll fight back ten times harder. If a teacher tries to degrade me, I'll talk back and bitch them out. They can't tell me what to do! It's my own life and if anyone tries to control it, they'll be sorry!
The only teacher I will ever listen to or respect is Mr. Dalton. He knows how to treat kids. He does not boss me around and he lets me be myself no matter what. The fact that he respects me enough to be myself makes me respect him. (Maybe that was his plan when he first met me).
I have always had trouble making friends. The only kids out there are the bullies who try picking on me, (and who I beat up afterwards) and the people who are afraid of me. No one wants to be good friends. I have made some friends, for example Alan Morris and Tommy Jones. They have been nice to me, and they don't try taking advantage of me, which makes me like them, but I can't call them my BEST friends.
However, the one person who has always been there for me; the one guy who I can always count on and who I can call my best friend is the one and only, Darren Shan.
Darren and I met in 3rd grade when I saw him getting beat up by this bully, Bill Youtesh. I saw myself in Darren and I realized I couldn't just sit back. So I jumped in between them and beat Billy to the ground. Ever since then, Darren and I have just connected, and we've been the best of friends. He is the one that even gave me the nickname, "Steve Leopard".
Part of how Darren and I connect is our love for dark and creepy things. Darren is in love with spiders. He used to collect them and study them. He would research the different types and what they could do. He even got a pet tarantula as a present once time, until he vacuumed it up (smooth, Darren).
I don't have that same obsession. Spiders are just second nature to me. I, however, do have a different love. My love is not for spiders, but for vampires!
Ever since I was little I have been in love with the blood-sucking creatures of the night! Their love for drinking blood, biting people's neck, and being immortal is something I would KILL to have, literally.
I have read so many vampire books since I was a child. I know all the myths. Vampires need to drink blood and kill to survive. Sunlight can kill them. The only way to kill one is a stake through the heart. They have to be invited into a house before they enter it. After killing a Vampire, to make sure his spirit does not haunt you, you must cut off his head and fill it with garlic, then place his body in a river stream. This myth must be why they fear crosses and holy water.
As you can see, I love vampires. I read about them all the time and I know everything there is to know.
Friday morning, I went to another boring day of school. We had to learn about stupid history that no one even cares about. What is the point of learning about it? It already happened! Who cares about it now! Mr. Dalton was teaching though, so I decided to not be THAT MUCH of a disturbance. Usually a teacher has to quiet me down 9-10 times a day, and so far Mr. Dalton has only had to quiet me down 3 or 4. That's a record!
Darren seemed to not be feeling so good. He looked very sick and when he asked to go to the bathroom, Mr. Dalton let him. (Usually Mr. Dalton knew if someone was faking it.)
The lunch bell came, so I decided to go see what was taking Darren so long.
"Knock, knock," I said as I walked in. "Fallen in, yet?"
"Oh, haha," Darren said sarcastically.
"Did you throw up yet?" I asked excitedly. I tried peaking over the stall he was in.
"Not yet," Darren said as he came out of the stall. "Wait a minute…"
Darren started turning green, then all of a sudden he bent over and made a vomiting noise right over my shoes, but then he lifted his face up, and smiled to show he was joking.
"You ass!" I smiled as I fake hit him. He, then, fake hit me back.
"Ow!" I cried. "That hurt!"
It really didn't hurt; I just said that to make him feel like he was strong.
Darren and I decided to go to recess. He still wasn't feeling so good, but he was well enough to play soccer.
Soccer was also something that brought us together. Us, and our two friends Alan and Tommy, always had a dream to play professional soccer. We were never that good, but we always liked to talk about playing MLS.
We played for about 15 minutes until they called us to go in. On our way back, Alan approached us holding a piece of paper.
"Hey, you guys! I have something I wanna show you!"
"Alan! Steve! Darren! Tommy!" Mr. Dalton yelled. "Get back to class before you're tardy!"
"Sorry, Mr. Dalton!" We said in unison.
It looked like whatever Alan had to say would have to wait. Little did I know, what he had to say would change my life forever, for the worse.
It turns out that our regular Math teacher was sick, so Mr. Dalton decided to fill in for her.
I was in 7th heaven! Mr. Dalton was my teacher for 2 subjects today! I decided to impress him by showing him all what we were learning, because he seemed a little confused. He let me be my crazy self, but he still had control of me. He really was like a God.
I was solving some problems on the chalkboard when I saw him walk into the crowd of students. I noticed he was walking towards Darren, who was looking at some sort of paper. In fact, it was the same paper Alan was holding before.
Mr. Dalton was looking over Darren's shoulder at the paper. He didn't realize what was happening until the whole class shut up and he looked up. Immediately Mr. Dalton snatched up the paper.
"What is this!" Never had Mr. Dalton been this angry.
"It's a flier."
"For an illegal freak show!" yelled Mr. Dalton. "Where did you get this?"
Darren as at a loss for words. He did not want to rat out Alan, he was not strong enough to take the heat, but he knew he'd get in trouble if he confessed. I decided that since Mr. Dalton likes me, I'll take the heat.
"It's my flier, Mr. Dalton," I said. "I found it on the street this morning. I decided it looked cool so I'd show it to everyone."
"Oh," said Mr. Dalton. "Well that's different then. There is nothing wrong with curiosity."
Everyone was amazed how I did not get in trouble. I guess he has a soft spot for me.
"Hundreds of years ago, these types of freak shows would tour the whole world. Basically, cruel and sadistic people would find regular, normal people with disabilities, then call them a freak and place them on a stage for paid audiences to laugh at. It was terrible. I thought they had banished these types of shows long ago, but there are still rumors of them floating around. At first I thought you guys were planning to see this show, that's why I was mad. Only the cruelest and most deranged people would wanna see it. I cannot imagine any sane people who are in their right mind to even consider seeing this show!"
"You are darn right, Mr. Dalton!" I said in a serious, yet sarcastic voice that he missed. As soon as he turned his back, I turned to Darren and mouthed 'We're going'!"
The next day, school came and went. Afterwards, Darren, Tommy, Alan, and myself got together to talk about this freak show.
"Where did you get this flier, Alan?" Tommy asked.
"From my brother," he said. "I stole it from his pants pocket."
Alan's brother used to be the school's biggest bully, until he got kicked out.
"You stole from Tony!" yelled Darren. "Have you got a death wish!"
"He won't find out," Alan said. "I replaced it in the laundry room with a blank piece of paper. Now he'll just think the ink was erased."
"So what's this flier even of," asked Tommy.
"'Cirque du Freak, one night only. The world's greatest freak show'," I said as I read the flier.
"How much does it cost?" Darren asked.
"$15.99," I replied.
"How do you know?"
"Because I went to the theatre where the show was being held," I said. "There was this creepy, short guy in a hood selling tickets. I asked him about it, but he didn't seem to talk at all. He just asked for the money and I paid him for four tickets, but then he pointed at the flier and it said, 'Only two tickets sold to every person'. So I had to buy two."
"Which means only two of us can go!" cried Alan. "How will we decide?"
"I think Steve should go," said Darren. "He is the one that risked getting in trouble to get the tickets."
"So that's one down," said Alan. "I think since I was the one that brought the flier, I should get the 2nd ticket."
"No way that's not fair."
"Let's let Steve pick," said Darren.
"That's not fair either!" said Tommy. "You know he'd pick you, you're his best friend!"
"How about this," I said. I took out a piece of paper and ripped it to shreds. "I'll throw these paper bits in the air along with the ticket, and whoever catches the ticket gets to go with me."
"I like that idea!" said Alan.
"No shoving!" said Tommy.
I took out the ticket along with the paper shreds and threw them into the air. All of a sudden I felt a chill. Everything was happening in slow motion. The paper shreds were falling ever so slowly, along with the ticket. I could see Darren perfectly from here. He had his eyes closed and I could see him thinking. He reached his hand over and, as if someone had commanded him to, he closed his hand.
Time seemed to speed up again and Tommy and Alan were searching the paper shreds on the ground for the ticket, but it wasn't there. The ticket was in Darren's hand. As if by destiny, he had caught it!
(The following scene will happen a lot quicker than it does in the books, only because I don't want this chapter to be so long, so there may be stuff in the book that is cut out)
Darren and I walked slowly into the night as we made our way to the theatre where the "Cirque du Freak" was playing. We were both really excited for the show.
"I can't believe we are going to see an illegal freak show!" said Darren.
"Yeah," I said. "Keep your cool though. Don't go crazy."
Darren and I finally made it to the abandoned movie theatre. It seemed deserted, but we decided to go in anyway, no matter how scared we were.
We slowly crept through the doorway when a voice came out of nowhere, then all of a sudden a tall man appeared behind us.
"And what are you two boys doing here at night?"
Both Darren and I jumped. This guy had come out of nowhere and scared the living crap out of us!
"W…wee…." I stuttered. I couldn't mutter a word.
"This show may not be suitable for children like you," said the tall man. "You may not want to be here."
"W…we just came to see it," I said.
"Do you frighten easily?" said the man.
"Of course…not."
"What about you, Darren," said the man. "Do you frighten easily?"
Darren was about to answer when he stopped short. The man had said Darren's name, but how did he know what it was?
"How did you know my friend's name?" I asked.
The tall man turned to me.
"I know a lot of things, Steve," said the man, who knew my name too. "I know that you don't know who your dad is. I know your nickname is "Leopard", and I know how each of you came across your tickets, and how Darren won it in a "contest" or so we should say."
There was a pause.
"I also know that none of your parents know you are here, so if anything should happen to you, no one would know where to look."
Darren and I were on the verge of running the hell out of there, but we kept our cool, even Darren, who I expected to scream and run any second.
"Good boys," smiled the tall man. "I see you do not frighten easily. You will fit in well here. Enough of these scared tactics. My name is Hibernus Tall, and I own the Cirque du Freak."
Darren and I looked at each other.
"Tickets?" said Mr. Tall.
I took out the tickets and gave it to the tall man, who placed it in his mouth and ate them.
"Thank you. Now you two are almost nearly late. The audience is already here, and we were about to start the show without you. Go on that way and take your seats."
As if he teleported, Mr. Tall disappeared.
"That man was creepy," Darren said. "How do you think he knew all those things, like our names, and all that information?"
"He must be psychic," I said.
"That's crazy," laughed Darren. "But did you notice how he barely moved his lips when he talked? He'd be a great ventriloquist."
"Maybe…"
Darren and I walked into another room where there was a stage and a group of people in the audience, with the same excited looks as us.
We sat down and waited for the show to begin. All of a sudden the lights went off and Mr. Tall appeared on stage with a spotlight on him.
"Welcome to the Cirque Du Freak!" he yelled.
He continued on introducing the freak show. He then introduced the wolf-man, who's half-man/half-wolf. To make a long story short, he almost bit off a woman's hand.
The rest of the acts consisted of Alexander Ribs, Rhamus Twobellies, Cormac Limbs, Gertha Teeth, Madam Truska (who by the way is hot! Until she grew a beard….yuck!) Hans Hands, and Evra Von.
During the break, the strange little people in hoods came out to sell toys and candy. I wondered what kind of creature they were, because I was sure they weren't human.
"Excuse me," I said. "What's the price of this toy?"
The creature pointed at the price tag. It seems I would have to get him to talk a different way.
"I can't read, can you tell me what it is?"
The creature ignored me and kept going.
"Why did you lie to him and say you couldn't read?" asked Darren. "You can read?"
"I was trying to get him to talk," I said. "Did you notice he didn't mutter anything? I don't think it's human."
Darren looked at me weirdly, but then looked back on stage.
Mr. Tall came back on stage to introduce the last act. Before the act came out, he warned us that it would be fatally dangerous to talk, so we shouldn't make any sudden movements.
"Let me introduce you, Larten Crepsley and his performing spider, Madam Octa!"
A guy zoomed into the room who was wearing a red overcoat, had an orange crop of hair, and a large scar ran down his face. As soon as I saw him I recognized him.
I saw him once, using a different name, in a painting in one of my vampire books. This guy was a vampire!
I gasped out loud, but it seems no one noticed. Crepsley just took to the stage and told everyone that this spider was poisonous and any bite from it means certain death. Like I care! This guy is a vampire! He could kill anyone with one bite from his fangs!
He performed very well, and then left the stage. I sat around thinking things over. This guy could change my life forever. He could lead me to my destiny and give me a hope in life. My life does not have to be utter trash, with a drunken mother and a dead-beat father that I've never met. This Crepsley guy can lead me to have a purpose in living, but I had to talk to him!
Mr. Tall dismissed us afterwards and we got up to leave, but I couldn't. I had to approach this vampire and get him to lead me to my destiny. I had to do this, but I couldn't have Darren with me.
"Leave," I said to Darren. "Just go, I need to do something."
"But Steve…"
"Just leave! I'll meet up with you at my house!"
I ran and crawled under a cart. I hope Darren listened to me and left.
About an hour went by when I finally heard the last person leave. I slowly got out and walked to the stage when I heard a voice.
"Looking for me?"
I looked above me, and there he was: The vampire.
"I heard you gasp when I got on stage," said Mr. Crepsley. "Never have I heard someone take notice of me that quickly. Now what seems to be the matter?"
"I know who you are," I said as the words left my lips. I just said them without thinking. It was automatic.
"Who I am?" asked Crepsley. "My name is Larten Crepsley, a performer at the Cirque du Freak."
"No," I said. "I know who you really are!"
"Ok," laughed Crepsley. "Who am I, really?"
"Your name is Vur Horston, and you're a vampire!"
Crepsley seemed shocked that I knew this information about him. Even I seemed shocked. I didn't mean to say all of this, but as the information came into my head, the more I longed to tell it to him, to get to the point I've been thinking about the entire night.
"You really believe I am a vampire?" asked Crepsley.
"Yes," I said. "I read about you in one of my vampire books. There is a painting of you with a woman. It said she was your fiancé and she left you when she found out you were a vampire."
I thought Crepsley would be curious and angry that I know this, but on the contrary, he laughed.
"Missy broke up with me because she found out I was a vampire?" he laughed. "To be honest I felt that was the only thing she liked about me."
"So it's true?" I asked.
"Indeed," said Mr. Crepsley. "Although it would have been better for you if it wasn't."
I felt a chill run down my spine.
"You won't hurt me," I said trying to be brave by telling a lie. "I told my friend Darren about you. He knows what you are and where I am, so if anything happens to me, he'll go to the police."
I thought Crepsley would take this seriously, but again he laughed.
"You think I am frightened of the police?" he said. "C'mon, we both know you didn't tell him about me and that no one knows you're here. So let's cut to the chase. What is it you want?"
"What?"
"What do you want from me? That's why you're here right? What do you want, money?"
"No," I said and I blurted out what was going through my head the entire night. "I wanna join you."
After everything I said the whole night, this shocked him the worse.
"What? "
"I want this," I said. "I want all of this. I want you to turn me into a vampire. Vampires, they live by their own rules, nobody else's."
"Are you serious," asked Mr. Crepsley. "You expect me to blood you? Blood a child? I would be murdered by the vampire generals for even suggesting it!"
"What are…?"
"Forget it," he said. "There is no way I'll turn you into a vampire. You're way too young."
"I knew you'd say that," I said trying to convince him. "But I read somewhere that vampires sometimes take human assistants. They travel with them and do chores. Then when they think the assistant is ready, they blood him."
Mr. Crepsley thought it over.
"Why do you want to be a vampire anyway?" he asked. "Is it because you want to live forever? Because we don't. We live far longer than humans, but every vampire eventually dies."
"No."
"Then why?"
"I want to make a difference," I cried. "My life is a living wreck. I don't know my dad, and my mom is drunk half the time. I absolutely hate my life. This is what I was meant for."
"Meant for?" asked Crepsley. "What about your friend you came to the show with? The one you call 'Darren'?"
"Darren?" I asked. "Yes, I'll miss him. He's my best friend. I'll miss him most of all, but I want this more. I wanna be a vampire more than anything in the world."
Mr. Crepsley sighed and started thinking things over.
"You bring a valid point, but before we can even consider, I must test your blood."
He took my finger, used his nail to make a sharp cut, then dipped his finger in it and tasted it. Almost instantly he spit it back out.
"Who sent you!" he yelled frightened. "Your blood tastes of evil!"
I was shocked.
"Evil?"
"Yes," Crepsley said. "You're evil. Who knows what you'll group up to be? You can never be a vampire!"
I felt a pang in my stomach at this statement.
"Wait," I said. "You're saying I have bad blood? But you're a vampire! You're evil also!"
"Just because I'm a vampire does not mean I am evil!" he said. "Vampires are not the evil beings they are made out to be. We cherish humans and are not murders."
"You drink blood!"
"So," Crepsley said. "Is a wild goat evil for just taking a taste out of his prey, even if he doesn't kill it? How are we evil if we just take bitty sips and not kill the humans?"
I couldn't answer.
"We aren't killers, you however will become one. You have bad blood. You will never ever be a vampire. So get that through your head and leave!"
I felt a twinge of pain in my stomach. This guy accused me of being evil, but I'm not! Yes, I act out a lot, but does misbehaving make me an evil person? Just his accusation itself makes me wanna turn evil. I feel horrible, yet when I think of it, I also feel hatred towards this person who calls me evil.
"I will never forget this, Vur Horston!" I yelled angrily. "One day! One day, I will hunt you down and…"
"…kill me," finished Crepsley. "You know how easily I could kill you? I could knock you out, and throw you in front of a bus, and no one would ever know. Now leave before I do it!"
That was the last straw. I ran like hell out of the theatre and away from the one place where I actually felt like I could make a difference in the world. Unfortunately, I was rejected by this man who thinks I'm evil. I'll show him. I'll get revenge on this bastard! I'll show him I don't need him to be a vampire! I'll become one then make him rue the day he rejected me! I'll do it!
It had been a dark night. I could not stop thinking of Vur Horston's rejection of me. He called me evil and said I was gonna grow up to be a killer, and he refused to make me a vampire!
I didn't see Darren again that night, which was kind of weird. The next day at school, he told me he got lost so he just went home. I thought that was kind of sketchy. He seemed to be hiding something, but what?
As the week progressed, I started noticing that Darren was avoiding me. We talked a little bit the day after with our friends about the freak show, but I never mentioned the vampire, and Darren wouldn't even look at me. He ignored me whenever I approached him and would leave quickly after school before I could say anything. I knew something was wrong. I spent my sleepless nights thinking about it, but what? Why was Darren avoiding me? Was it something I said? Was it something I did? Or was it something he witnessed me saying to a vampire after I told him to go home…?
I rang Darren's doorbell after school one day. His mom answered and led me into his room. There was Darren. He seemed to have been talking to someone in his closet, but he quickly shut the door and ushered me in.
"What's up, Steve?"
"What's up?" I asked astonished. "That's all you have to say. You have been avoiding me all week, Darren. Why?"
"I'm sorry," said Darren who was going red. "I have just been busy…"
"I thought I was just imagining it," I said interrupting him. "But I thought it over, I realized something. You didn't go home after the freak show ended did you? You stayed after. You were eavesdropping on my conversation with Vur Horston, weren't you?"
"Look, Steve," said Darren. "Whatever happened between you and Mr. Crepsley is your business, but I know nothing about…"
"How did you know I was talking about Mr. Crepsley, then?"
Darren was at a loss of words.
"Unless you listened to that conversation, how would you know that Larten Crepsley and Vur Horston are one in the same?
Darren finally admitted defeat.
"Alright," he said. "I heard everything! Are you insane, Steve? You asked him to turn you into a vampire! How could you want to become a vampire!"
Darren couldn't comprehend what I was going through. He never could. He had a family that loved him, and what did I have? A drunk mother and people who hate me?
"You don't understand," I said. "You have everything. I have nothing, except a group of people who don't give a damn about me."
"That's not true."
"It is."
"And you want to become a vampire because of that?"
"I feel connected to them."
Darren still felt uncomfortable.
"Why have you been avoiding me, though?" I asked. "Are you afraid because I wanted to become a vampire?"
"Not just that," said Darren. "I saw him test your blood. He said you were evil! What if you really are?"
That was it! Darren believed Crepsley when he said I was evil! Darren thinks I'm evil also! He's just like them!
"Take that back!" I yelled and I jumped onto him. "I'm not evil!"
I was on top of him before he finally gave up. I was so angry that I was going to rip his head off, but eventually my anger swept away and I broke down crying. I was so upset how I was losing everyone, including my best friend! I couldn't bear to lose him too!
Darren eventually took pity and comforted me. He realized I was a great guy and he wanted to be my friend. He, then, decided to show me something in his closet that was instantly recognizable: Madam Octa.
"You stole from a vampire!" I yelled astonished. "Are you insane?"
"Easy, Steve," smiled Darren. "He isn't gonna find out."
"Darren," I said since he did not grasp the reality of what was going on. "You did not steal from just anybody. You stole from a blood-sucking creature of the night. Do you think if you get caught he'll just tell your parents and you'll get punished? No. He'll suck you dry and kill you!"
"He won't if he knows what's good for him," Darren said. "I wrote him a note saying if he tried getting her back, I'd expose him. He won't come back. I know!"
"For your sake I hope you're right."
Darren and I started to play with Octa. It was really fun. Darren played that small flute to get her to do tricks. We got her to crawl on my face at one point, but that's when it all went wrong.
At that precise moment, Darren's sister, Annie, walked in. Darren got distracted and stopped playing the flute. And in that millisecond, I felt a sharp bite right on my face…and all was dark…
After what seemed like no time, I woke up in a warm bed. I had a weird dream. I was in this bed, but Darren was here also, and some guy with orange hair, but as I looked around. No one was here. I was alone.
A nurse walked in and told me I sustained a poisonous bite. I was on the verge of death, but I miraculously survived. She had asked me what happened, but I did not wanna rat out Darren, so I said I did not remember.
I was the hit of school the next day. Everyone wanted to know what happened and how I almost died. I sort of enjoyed this attention.
As soon as I saw Darren, I walked up to him. It was weird, because he seemed paler than before. It must have been because of how worried he was about me.
"How are you doing," he asked.
"I'm fine," I said, but then I started to whisper. "I never said anything about Octa, if you're wondering."
Darren nodded. I asked him what he did to her, and he told me that after she bit me, he killed her and flushed her down the toilet in revenge.
Darren was warmer to me than he had been, but he was still a little cold. And what was weirder, during soccer practice, Alan cut his knee, and Darren grasped the cut with his mouth, sucking the blood. He got back up and pretended he was a vampire, so it must have been a joke….but was it?
The next day was without a doubt the worst of my life. My mom came up to me, which she hardly does, so she could tell me some news.
"Steve," she said. "Darren was in an accident. He fell out his window and broke his neck. He died."
I was at a loss of words. My best friend was dead. This could not be happening.
The funeral was the next day. People were praying over his dead body. When it was my turn, I walked up to him to cry. I held his hands, but it was then that I felt something. I turned over his fingers, and on his fingertips were 10 scars…the natural signs of a vampire. THIS COULD NOT BE HAPPENING!
Darren had betrayed me! He aligned himself with Vur Horston and set that spider on me to kill me! He took my place and became a vampire instead of me! This is why he was cold to me when I survived. He wanted me dead so he could take my place, but I survive, so he faked his death so he could run away with Crepsley!
I knew what was to come. I hid in the cemetery after Darren was buried. It was very quiet, but I knew what was to happen. After many hours, I saw a certain person with orange hair walk up to Darren's grave. I saw him with a shovel and dig it up. And then out from the coffin came the alive, Darren Shan!
I knew it! He's alive!
I heard him say some words to Crepsley. He decided to take a walk. He started walking closer to me. I hid behind tombstone. When he had his back to me, I struck!
"Say one word," I said as I covered his mouth and put a knife to his back. "And you'll be dead for real!"
He turned around and saw me.
"Steve!"
I immediately looked at Crepsley, but he didn't hear that.
"Say it again! I dare you!"
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Vampire hunting," I said as I smiled. "And look, I found two!"
"Steve," said Darren quickly. "What the hell is going on?"
"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that?" I said. "You're the one that is supposed to be dead!"
"I'm so sorry, Steve!" cried Darren. "I did not mean for any of this to happen. I'm..."
"Save your breath!" I yelled furiously at my former best friend. "I already know what happened. You tried killing me with that spider. You took my place as a vampire! That was my dream! You betrayed me."
"What!" said Darren astonished. "How can you say that? I did not betray you! I saved your life! If it wasn't for me becoming a vampire you'd be dead!"
"Don't lie to me like that!" I said furiously. "It's one thing to betray me and take my place in what was my dream, but to lie about it!"
"I'm not lying," said Darren. "I gave up everything to save you. Mr. Crepsley…"
"I don't wanna hear it!"
I could not even listen to the lies he was saying to me. All the crap he was uttering. I wanted to become a vampire, but my best friend becomes one instead. He betrayed me. He probably told Vur Horston to say I was evil, just to mess with me. It was a conspiracy. Horston and my former best friend vs. me. It's betrayal. I thought he was my friend, and he does this to me!
"You're dead to me!" I say with tears coming down my eyes. "You were my best friend and you betrayed me! I won't let you. You're dead!"
I lifted my knife and pressed it against his heart; ready to stab into it and kill the boy who I once called my best friend…
"Darren!" yelled Crepsley's voice from afar. "Are you alright?"
I almost dropped my knife from fright. Darren I could handle, but I don't think I could face Crepsley. As much as I want him dead also, he would kill me in a heartbeat, and with my knife against Darren, I was almost sure he would rat me out, ultimately causing my death, but that isn't what he did.
"I'm fine," yelled Darren. "I just decided to sit down a bit. To rest my legs."
Darren then looked back onto me, to finish what was going on between us.
I thought about finishing him once and for all, but I couldn't. It wasn't the time. I did not have the guts or the audacity. I could not kill him…yet.
"This isn't the right time," I said voicing my inner thoughts. "I can't kill you. Not here, not now. But heed this Darren Shan!"
I pressed his face against mine and ferociously delivered the message that I was thinking.
"You can go run with your new master, Crepsley," I said. "But I will find you. Once day, I will find you and your new master and let you two suffer your fate. I swear I will."
To show him how serious I was, I cut a cross so deeply onto the palm of my left hand that will probably never heal; to let him know that I will never forget this moment.
"I swear on this cross, I will hunt you down and kill you!" I said. "I will become the world's greatest vampire hunter, and nothing you or Crepsley will be able to do to stop me! Remember this, Darren Shan!"
I turned around so I could run away from this cemetery for good, but as I started running, I bumped into someone: Mr. Crepsley!
Crepsley lifted me from my shirt and held me against a tombstone. His face was so close to mine I could practically smell his breath.
"If I catch you anywhere near Darren or me," he said. "I'll make sure that is the last sight you will ever see again. Mark my words!"
Crepsley let go of me and, immediately, I ran like hell.
I ran away from the cemetery, away from the vampire the rejected me, and away from my former best friend who betrayed me.
They might have gotten the best of me today, but one day…one day I will get my revenge…
To Be Continued…
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