Chapter 9 – Matthew (1929)

At first, I was dumbfounded, and then as I regained my senses, I saw blood everywhere. The smell was overpowering, filling up my head, burning my nose and the back of my throat, causing the venom to start flowing in my mouth. I looked up and saw two pairs of red eyes staring back at me.

Challenging me.

I knew what they wanted me to do. And for a second, nothing else mattered except the wasted blood, spilling over, staining the cement. I took a step forward, and the two faces smiled at me. But another face came into my head. He was a man of morals and of another life that I could have. I could see his face clearly now, he looked at me disappointedly. The figures in front of me growled at my hesitation, and the face in my head scowled as I took another step forward. It was the same face he had the last time I had seen him. His burgundy eyes flashed with rage and his lips curled over his teeth in a snarl.

I knew what I had to do. I closed my eyes and brought forward every memory, every conversation that Eddie and I had shared. I focused on the life that he had with his 'parents', a life that didn't involve murder, or keeping to the shadows, only occasionally having contact with other vampires.

A life that didn't involve my brothers.

I opened my eyes and stared at the two of them. My younger brother saw the look in my eyes and stood up slowly, confusion in his face. My older brother was smarter. Before I had the chance to turn and run away, he had grabbed me around the chest, swung me over his head and slammed me into the ground, creating a dent in the road.

"You are not going anywhere" he snarled at me.

"What are you doing?" my younger brother asked, though to whom, I wasn't too sure.

"I have worked too hard and too long to let you ruin it all!" he exclaimed, grabbing my arm and pulling me up to a standing position. He was stronger than me, and faster. My mind raced, my eyes darted around, trying to find an escape. Suddenly I saw my brother, staring at me in fear.

"Robbie!" I screamed at him in my mind. "We don't have to live this way!" I desperately told him. If I could only get Robbie on my side, then we could defeat him.

"Stand back, Rob" he growled at him, as if he could hear the silent conversation going on in our heads.

"Robbie, listen to me" I pleaded. "There's another life that we could live, a life that doesn't involve killing other people for food"

"How else would we eat?" Robbie asked, deliberating the thought.

"Animals. Humans kill them for food, so why can't we?" I told him, repeating what Eddie had told me.

"Stop it!" our brother screamed and suddenly I was flying through the air. I saw my opportunity and landed on my two feet and started running. I knew that he would catch up soon enough, but I had to try. I kept running until I could no longer hear the sounds of the city anymore. It wasn't until I realised that I had run all the way to the coastline that nobody was pursuing me. I was alone.

I looked behind and nobody was there, waiting in the shadows. My brother was stronger, and faster, but my sense of smell was better, and I knew that if he was there, I would be able to sniff him out. I collapsed on the ground, not out of exhaustion, but out of helplessness.

Just in the one night, I had lost my two brothers. I sighed at the pain of leaving my twin with him. Robbie was younger and would surely get hurt if he stayed behind, maybe not by our brother, but by other vampires. But there was nothing I could do to help him. Robbie would have to make a choice between his two brothers, something that I knew he couldn't do. And I couldn't make him do it.

I knew I had to keep going sooner or later, my older brother was a tracker, and he could easily follow me wherever I went. I looked out over the expanse of the sea and knew where I had to go. I had to leave everything behind. Find my life in another country. I had to leave Eddie and my brothers behind. But worst of all, I had to leave Robbie with James.