Chapter 2
I could hear the stairs creaking. Ma was coming up. I turned off the lights, jumped into my bed, and heaved to the side, pretending to sleep. Just in case she wanted to talk to me.
She did. She opened the door and quickly turned on two lamps.
"Aella?" She sang my name. I peeked a little from behind my thick hair.
Ma came to my bed and sat at the edge, stroking my hair, my face, my neck. "Aella?" She repeated.
"What." I gave up, still not opening my eyes.
"I saw Sarah's dress for Saturday's party."
I groaned. "I did too."
"Well," She started. I knew what she was going to say. I mouthed the question with her. "Did you buy your dress yet?"
"Nope," I said, turning away from her.
"You should buy it soon, dear."
"I don't think I want to go."
"Why not?"
"Raymond will be there."
"What's wrong with that?"
"I'm afraid he'll ask me to dance, and afraid I'll embarrass myself by tripping on his foot or on my dress or whatever. You remember the last time."
Boy, did she remember. Everyone remembered.
She was quiet. I reminded her. "You insisted I wear that super long fuchsia dress. I was dancing with Isai. He stepped on my dress. I didn't notice. I tripped. The skirt slipped off. I fell back. And fell right into the pond."
"Yes, yes, I remember."
"I try to avoid embarrassing and awkward moments, Ma."
She giggled. "But they always seem to find you."
I squinted in irritation. "Yes, they do. All the more reason to skip this party."
"Aw, come on Aella!" She coaxed, stroking my hair again. "Don't be so gloomy. You need to get out more. Have fun. Live your life."
I snorted. "Leave me alone."
"Raymond wants you to go."
"Good for him!" I snapped.
"In three years, you will be his wife."
I mumbled, "Not like I have a choice."
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
"Okay. Well, I really think you should give it a chance. For me?"
I sighed heavily and leaned towards her. "Just for you, Ma."
She kissed my forehead. "Thanks, darling."
"G'night," I said, sinking back into my bed.
"Good night dearie," She said.
I went to sleep as soon as she was gone.
Vampires' sleep is different than demons', sérnoxes', or even humans'. Demons sleep to recharge their energy, much as the humans do. Sérnoxes do not sleep at all. Vampires, on the other hand, sleep to improve and strengthen their bat forms. If we do not sleep, our bat forms weaken. In extreme cases, some have been unable to return to their bat forms ever again because of lack of sleep.
It is not really sleep in the way you'd imagine. We do not dream or snore. We just lie in bed, completely and utterly motionless. Our bat forms inside get strengthened and revived.
I awoke early the next morning to get some water. I tried to go without my brothers like I did yesterday with Sarah, but Edmund insisted he go with me.
Isai was still sleeping, so I shrugged and went with Edmund. It would be a short trip anyway.
We ran in the dark until we changed into our bat forms. Unlike Isai and Sarah, who change at a similar time that I do, Edmund takes longer. He does not usually fly, because he is disgusted of his bat form. So I had to float in the air beside his running, struggling body until he finally changed.
He does not fly well. I am not the best bat around, but I am comfortable in claiming that I fly a whole lot better than Edmund.
Edmund was flapping heavily, struggling to catch up with me. I felt smug and satisfied. I teased him by flying very far away from him, and then hanging around a little for him to catch up.
When we finally reached Jasiaka, he found the closest mountain and changed back to his vampire form. Even though he was trying to hide it, I could tell he was in a raging fury.
I floated and flapped my wings a little, still in my bat form beside him.
He looked up at me and tried to swap me out of the air. I dodged his strong hands, which would've squished me in a second.
"What?" He snapped.
I changed back to my vampire form.
"Nothing!" I snapped back.
I looked at the buckets in his hands and mine. They had appeared as soon as we changed back into our vampire form. One great thing about flying is that, when one ever does decide to switch back, he's still in the condition he was before flying. This means that anything in my hands before flying will still be there after flying. Any clothes, anything I'm wearing, anything I'm holding, do disappear when I become a bat, but reappears when I transform back as a vampire.
Edmund and I walked to the lake. A different sérnox was sitting here today. Edmund politely handed him the buckets.
I looked around, waiting for the sérnox to finish filling the buckets up. He was much slower than yesterday's.
I caught eyes with the demon I had seen with Sarah, the one I had talked to yesterday. The one who was rude to the sérnox. The one who wiped his hands on his pants in disgust of my touch. The one Sarah said likes me.
His face turned red as my eyes met his. Thank goodness I have no blood in me. Otherwise, my face would've turned as red as his.
But… he looked angry. Why was he angry?
I guess he realized I was still staring at him. Because he turned back to look at me. His eyebrows were contorted, close together. His golden, auburn eyes were glaring coldly. His fists were held tight together. His jaw was clenched, his teeth grinding beneath his trembling lips. He had a look of pure, raging hatred in his deep, sunset-colored eyes.
I backed away in shock, bumping into someone in line behind me.
"Oops! Sorry—" I stuttered.
"No problem, darling," She replied, stepping back to give me space.
I looked back at the demon. He was gone.
I had never seen someone with so much anger, so much hatred, so much mercilessness before.
I shook my head and, for the first time in years, held tightly to Edmund's hands. He flinched away from my touch, for I hadn't touched him in a long time.
He looked down at me curiously, and then grabbed for my hand and left the lake, our buckets filled up.
"Aella?" He asked, glancing at me.
"Yeah?"
"You gonna go to that party tomorrow, right?"
"I guess."
"Wanna buy a dress?"
"I donno."
"You should probably buy it now, before the sérnoxes find out there's a party. They'll raise the prices."
"Good point," I told him. "That's a nice booth." I pointed towards the booth that Sarah bought her blue dress from yesterday.
Edmund nodded and walked me to it.
I asked the sérnox if she had any purple dresses that weren't too long, remembering my incidents with long dresses.
She brought me a satin one that came right below the knee. It was simple and elegant, with sleeves that stopped at the elbows and a scooped neck. It contained little threads of silver around the corners and at the bottom.
It was perfect.
Edmund, though, was starting to say, "Don't you think it's a little too—"
I hurried up, paid for it, and folded it up before he could say anymore.
He glanced at the dress worriedly. Out of the corner of my eyes, I could see the demon. He was walking, hand-in-hand, with another demon… a woman. She was gorgeous. Her eyes glittered. They were a light sea-blue color. Her hair was, as all demons', dark black. But the streaks in her hair were a pale, shining purple color. Her features were soft and delicate. He whispered something in her ears. She blushed and smiled, obviously embarrassed by what he said. He whispered something else. She laughed. Her laugh was an intoxicating chiming of bells.
She must be his lover!
I looked up at Edmund, but I noticed that he was looking at her too!
After a while, Edmund finally snapped out of his daze. He looked around nervously, and then rumpled his hair with his hands.
He snuck one last look at the girl, and then quickly walked to the mountain, with me rushing close behind him.
I looked back at the beautiful demon and his beautiful lover. They were both looking at me. They weren't holding each other's hands anymore. Instead, their fists were clenched in balls, and they were both glaring furiously at me.
I was shocked. Demons would usually control themselves, smooth out their features and make them appear neutral and nonchalant. But today, now, the anger and the fury and the rage appeared on their faces, freely and expressively.
I shivered quietly, shaking my head and looking away. Standing at the top of the mountain with Edmund, I ran downward quickly, feeling refreshed and relieved. I was slipping, falling…
Just as the scream was about to escape my lips, I felt my shoulder, back, and neck lift. I felt the weight of the dress that I had just bought vanish.
I was flying. But Edmund was not yet. I flew patiently beside him, waiting for him to change. He was growing impatient. Then I saw his speed quicken and his body lift, and in a matter of seconds, the buckets in his hands disappeared and he was flying beside me.
We flew back to the vampires' territory.
Flying with Edmund was infuriating. I found myself constantly waiting for him to catch up, or lingering in the air as he took his little breaks, or being smacked by his awkwardly flapping wings. Once, his wings smacked me so hard that I smashed right into a mountain. After that, I stopped trying to be nice and fly so close to him. I did what I had always done before: keep a long, safe distance away from him.
When we finally got there, I heard strong, piercing wails. I glanced worriedly at Edmund, and it seemed he had heard them too. We quickly changed back to our vampire forms and ran to the village. There was an awful, reeking stench. I looked around and caught sight of a huge group of people encircling over something. They were crying, wailing, even slapping their faces and pulling at their hair. What was going on? I saw Ma and Zoria in the midst of this chaos; they were also crying!
I hurried to them and made my way through the huge crowd of tears and screams. In the middle of the circle, there lay a man. He was lying there, perfectly motionless. His mouth was wide open, his eyes a deadly white. No pupils. Just white. His body was jerked in an odd way that I had never seen before. I inched closer to him and quickly backed away. The awful stench was coming from him. I knew he was not asleep. I was afraid.
"Ma!" I called out to my mother, trying to make my way back out of the circle. "Ma! Ma!" I called again.
A woman pushed me and I landed on the floor. "Watch out!" I yelled, angry. A fat man then stepped on me. "Oooww!" I hollered. He did not get off. Rather, he stepped on me even more, walking and stomping all over me. I bit his legs really hard. He yelped and fell on top of me. He tripped the woman in front of him, and she came landing on the both of us. "GET OFF ME!" I screamed. I put my arm under his flabby back and heaved, trying to move his weight off me. "I SAID GET OFF!" I was getting furious, angry, fuming.
Finally, I kicked and punched them both off, and then made my way, crawling, out of the tight circle of mourners.
At last, I found Ma and Zoria. I rushed to them. "What happened?" I cried. "Why was he like that?"
Zoria cried even more passionately, her whole body shaking. Ma just covered her face. I could see snot oozing out from between her fingers.
I saw a man run to the circle with a torch flaming with fire. "Make way; make way!" Some people backed away, but others stubbornly hung onto the man's motionless body. A woman threw herself onto him, covering him, screaming, "No! No!"
A tall man came to pull her away, but it was no use; she would not budge. More people came to help until she was finally pulled away from the body. The man with the torch waved his arms to the back, indicating that everyone stay back. Finally, he threw the torch on the body.
"Ma!" I screamed. "What's he doing?"
More wails. More screams. More slapping. More pulling hair. More tears. More snot.
I watched as the fire dances as a reflection in the peoples' eyes. I watched until the man on the floor turned to a pile of ashes. I could see his blank, white eyeball. I watched as they carried these ashes and threw them into a nearby pond.
We walked back home, everyone silent. I could not sleep at night because I could still hear some people's shrill, high screams. I shook in my bed, my eyes wide open. The sight of the man's eyeballs kept coming back to me. The memory of his ashes would not leave my thoughts. The woman hanging onto him… The fire… The fire reflecting in everyone's teary eyes.
Why?
The stench… the lack of motion… the gaping mouth… the white eyes… I quickly got out of my bed and took out my Human Education book. I flipped the pages quickly to the index. There it was, right under "D".
Death.
