AN: This is by far the longest chapter I've written, nearly 3,100 words sans authors note. :) As promised there is action. Not as much as I had planned, but the chapter was running a bit longer than I expected, so I cut it a bit shorter. Next chapter will have some sadness. Angst might follow.
Thank you to those that continue to read and review, I'm sorry I don't have names right now. But whosever reviews will be mentioned :) It's not like I have many constant readers anyway.
I, of course, do not own neither "I'm not going to teach your boyfriend how to dance" by The Black Kids, covered by Kate Nash nor anything Twilight related. I only own my psychokinetic dreamboat and his equally kinetic insano-sister. And Geoff, can't forget Geoff.
Chapter 13: I'm Not Stabbing You.
Geoff had been driving for what felt like hours, but was in truth, only 30 minutes. I'm counting them. I had been staring out my window the entire trip, iPod blaring. It's not that I was ignoring him, I was just trying to ignore my traitorous thoughts of what I would do if he truly was a vampire. Did he drink from humans? If so, could I still love a murderer? Could I become one? How does one become a vampire exactly? All these questions and no answers. I focused again on my music, hoping that if I kept my mind occupied on trying to remember lyrics that I wouldn't think of much else. Too bad Kate Nash's cover of I'm Not Going To Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance is incredibly easy to memorize, even with her botched lyrics.
The sky above looked lightly cloudy, the sun being blocked by a small haze of clouds. The sun's rays would break through every now and then though and the sky would alight with the still-mornings oranges and blues. It was pretty, and I loved to just enjoy the nature. The way the treetops seemed to form a barrier against the sun, casting it's early morning light in wondrous shades and filtering it green.
As my playlist droned on and the drive took us further into forest I could feel the truck start to slow down.
"We'll be coming up the end of the road soon, from there we'll need to walk," Geoff explained, "it's not going to be an easy walk either, the ground is extremely slippery with mud and muck and the hill we'll be climbing gets steep at points."
"Well darn, if it was going to be this much trouble I would have worn boots," I crossed my arms across my chest and tried my best to pout, but when Geoff looked over at me and he knew I was being difficult on purpose, I couldn't help but smile, "Well, let's hurry up then. I'm not sure I can wait much longer."
Geoff started to drive a bit faster after that, I was almost sure that if we crashed they wouldn't be able to tell if a car had crashed or if something fell from space. In my mind all I could see was black, charred metal chunks spread out inside the nearby forests. All the metal bits would be so torn apart that there would be no part bigger than the size of you hand and that they would all me smelting-hot. Like...melted-while-flying-through-the-air hot.
Damn overactive imagination, now I was scared out of my mind and I hadn't even thought about what I would look like if we crashed.
My imagination kept me so busy I didn't notice that we had pulled over and were now parked facing a giant expanse of trees with a small, small, small, small trail that looked more natural than man-made. There were shrubs and ferns and other plants with scratchy leaves and needles all around the path, what I could see of it anyway, and I was even more glad I dressed in jeans and a long sleeved tee. We started the walk in silence, the plants were picking at my clothes as I expected. If I were to be without the coverings I'm sure I would be covered in small cuts and scratches.
We walked and walked and hiked and hiked. The sun was now blaring straight overhead, though we couldn't see it quite clearly behind the minimal clouds and large tree cover. I kept glancing at my wrist as if I had a watch on it. I didn't, and never have. I guess it was just some retarded thing my brain was making me do, a force of habit from watching other people with watches look at it every 10 seconds.
We kept walking in the forest with silence following. It was funny, I couldn't hear birds or bugs or any other signs of life in the forest. As if we were the only living things for miles in all directions. The walk started getting steep but not steep enough that it would be difficult. I was pretty sure Geoff wasn't going to start talking anytime soon so I took my iPod back out and put in one headphone, leaving the other hanging by my ear by the wire, but not in it. If he did say something I didn't want him to need to repeat himself.
Songs played one after the other, bands played, genres that had no relation blaring in my mind. Somewhere along the walk I started singing quietly to myself,
Malchikgay, malchikgay
Handsome, tender, soft,
why do you look right through me thinking 'no'...
I softly sang Malchik Gay by T.a.t.U for a while but stopped as breathing was starting to become a little more difficult the longer we walked. My feet were starting to hurt and I was getting very tired.
"We can either rest for a while or keep going, there's not much left. Maybe 10 more minutes,"
"Ugh, I think I can hold out for another 10 minutes. It's not like we're in a rather comfortable place to relax anyway," the ground around us was covered in left over rain and sodden leaves and twigs. There wasn't even a small stump to sit on. With me all tired, I started wondering if where we ended up would at least be dry. I don't want to walk out of this place with wet pants, that's just sooo uncomfortable.
The semi-steep hill leveled out after a while and there was once again nothing but trees.
"Okay, we're almost there," Geoff had started to slow his pace and he ended up slightly behind me, I'm guessing wherever it is we're going that he wants me to see it first. We walked another couple minutes when I saw it. I pulled away my headphones and mindlessly shoved my iPod in my pocket. I was completely awestruck, the sight before me had me wishing I was worthy of such natural beauty.
A stream bubbled to my left while a small clearing, it was rather oblong in shape, left a small space open. It was the perfect place to sit and enjoy nature, it was something I have never thought possible. A scene only depicted in photoshopped greeting cards. The clearing was really small, maybe only the size of a rather large front lawn but the grass grew high and there were cattails strewn about with the odd wildflower here and there. The colors that dazzled my eyes ranged from cherry-blossom pink to tiger-lily red, it was almost like looking through a prism and watching the white light split itself into the eight colors of the visible light spectrum.
"Wow...it's beautiful...soooo preeeetty!" Geoff had stayed back a little behind me still.
"I thought you'd like it," I almost laughed at him for that.
"How could anyone not like it. Something this beautiful and peaceful would be hard to dislike. That would take some serious effort," I was slowly walking through the clearing towards the small stream, "Ooh, look. There's water lilies!"
I was so excited and this place was so pretty, it felt like someone might have slipped me something. Maybe acid. One of my friends always said acid makes the world look better, but this...is just wow. My brain felt retarded for a few minutes. Geoff had set the things he brought down by the stream, close enough so that I could see it clearly, and the entire mini-field clearly, yet far enough to not worry about falling in or being pushed in.
"So, do you like it?"
"Like it? I fucking love it! It's just...so....so...UGHGAH!...it's so awesome it makes me brain retarded. Not many things do that ya know?" I took a seat on the blanket that Geoff had laid out and he began to pull out a few sandwiches from the cooler he had brought along.
"Here, I brought you some yummy sandwiches and a couple water bottles to drink. Hopefully this is enough, I know you didn't eat much more than your bowl of cereal this morning."
"Aren't you going to eat anything?"
Geoff sighed, "Well, that's one of the things that will be explained in my proving that I am indeed a vampire."
"Alright. Well, since you're not the least bit tired and you lugged all this stuff here, that's one thing that kind makes you seem inhuman. There's one tick towards helping me believe, what else you got?"
"Would you like simple explanations or demonstrations?"
"Demonstrations," it'll be easier on my brain if I see it. And I don't think I can listen to him talk about vampirism and take it seriously.
"Okay, I'll do short explanations followed by demonstrations. That way you're not shocked into throwing up when I knock trees over with my bare fists.
"Now, first things firsts. Vampires are extremely fast, agile, strong and are near invincible. Demonstration," Geoff slowly stood from his sitting position next to me, "Speed."
He took off from my sight, it was as if he just vanished. I wouldn't have known he actually moved if it wasn't for the vortex of air that followed him, pushing my hair behind me. I turned around to see that he was on the other side of the stream with not a drop of water visible on him.
"See, very fast. Next strength," He put his hand on a tree, palm flat. His elbow was bent but when he straightened it out, it was as if he was pushing over a two year old barely learning to walk. The tree just fell with a very loud, very frightening crash, "Now, the damn near invincible part. Grab the knife from the cooler," he pointed to the cooler and slowly started walking back to the blanket, only using his 'vampirism' to cross the stream again.
I picked up the knife and held it limply in my hand, "Okay, now, I want you to try to stab me."
"Oh Hell No! I'm not stabbing you."
"Come on, with what I showed you I'm surprised you haven't run away yet."
"...I can't runaway, I'd be lost in the woods for weeks. And I'm not stabbing you, no matter how invincible you are, I don't stab people."
Geoff walked up to me, grabbed my hand with the knife in it and closed his hand around mine, forcing me to grip the knife, "Stab me," he brought the knife up to his chest and set the point against his skin, "now, it's not going to do anything Alyn. I promise."
My hand would be trembling if it wasn't for Geoff holding on to it. I could feel him trying to force me to push the blade into him but I was resisting. I can't just stab my boyfriend, no matter how much it's not going to do anything, "Okay fine, I'll do it myself," he pulled my wrist forcefully forward into his chest. I gasped as the blade bent at an awkward angle, curling back towards my hand . The point pierced the squishy bit of skin between my thumb and forefinger and blood slowly started to trickle down my hand.
"Shit, shit, shit, that hurts!" I wasn't paying attention to anything around me as I put my bleeding hand to my mouth. I didn't see Geoff's eyes turn black, I didn't see that there was a strange girl walking towards us with a knowing smirk, and I almost didn't see the tree flying at me.
Almost.
If it wasn't for Geoff quickly throwing me to the ground before the tree hit, I'm pretty I'd be about as flat as a pancake and as bloody as a zombie.
Geoff was crouching in front of me, blocking my view of the thing that flung a tree at me. I sat up a bit, staying behind Geoff, because whatever can fling a tree like that is definitely not human. Stupid paranormal.
"Well, well. I've finally found you dear brother," the voice was high pitched and melodic, though the obvious malice laced within made it sickening.
"Who are you?" Geoff all but demanded.
"Why, I'm Laura. And that cute, sad excuse of a human behind you, he's my baby brother," her smile was cynical and it showed in the way she walked, catlike, a little too feral but not so much that it made her look like a lioness on the prowl. Her long blond hair flew behind her, like a model in a photo-shoot. Her white, pale, pale skin contrasted greatly with her eyes. Her eyes were the most frightening red I have ever seen. They stood out shining like hauntingly beautiful Garnet crystals.
"I-I'm so-sorry, but I don't have a-a sis-sister," She frightened me, frightened me like nothing before. As if everything in my body was screaming at me to turn away from her and to flee for my life.
"Oh! Of course you don't. Parentals just love to drop the 'disappointment child' right out of their lives don't they?" her face dropped into a hideous scowl and her eyes were filled with a fury I couldn't fathom. "I'm gone for not even a year, and there's a new baby around the house, and not a single picture of me is left. The room that was mine, changed into a nursery. The toys that were mine, the clothes, the furnishings. All gone. Not a trace of dear, little Laura left behind," she was standing directly in front of Geoff now, but her eyes were on me.
"I do hope that we are more alike than not, because if that's not the case then I'll feel no remorse for killing you," Geoff, who was practically a silent sentinel throughout most of the encounter let out a ferocious roar that shook the nearby trees. It was neither bestial nor paranormal, it was brutish and very human sounding. It made my skin crawl.
"You will not touch him!" Geoff was furious, and it was obvious, his words were dripping with disgust and hatred and just overall lividness.
"Oh really? And what are you going to do? Stop me? Hell, if I can kill a room of vampires without much effort what makes you think one vampire is going to stop me?" Laura had started laughing and it sounded like nails on a chalkboard, I just wanted it to stop. "Time to take this seriously, Move and Stay,"the way she said it made it sound like a command and to my surprise Geoff complied.
"What did you do to me!?"
"Nothing really, just a little gift is all. Comes quite handy in situations like this," she was looking at her nails as if they were quite the matter of interest. "Now, dear brother, follow me." She turned to walk away and sounded so full of herself, she wanted me to follow her willingly which infuriated me. I could feel my blood rush to my face as my anger skyrocketed, quickly overheating my face.
"No," it was barely a whisper
"Excuse me?" she turned back to face me, her eyes narrowing into slits.
"I said no!"
"No, no, no. You don't have a choice. I said, to follow me!" she was using the 'gift' she had, I could feel it in my mind, willing me to submit. It felt like something invaded my mind and was prodding at it to get me to listen my legs twitched to follow but I put all my concentration into keeping still. I was biting down on my lip, clenching my fists at my side, I think I bit too hard and drew blood. The brain prodding continued and I could feel my legs forcing me forward.
"Stop it!" I screamed at her, "Just. Stop it, please!"
"Hows about NO."
Something in me snapped and I could feel an insane heat rushing through me, racing up my spine, filling up my fingers. I could feel it dancing between my fingers, leaving one only to fill another, my forehead was dripping with sweat that was matting my hair down.
"I said. Stop. It!" and I could feel it's release, the fiery heat left my hands as I clenched them again and a nearby tree exploded into flames. Falling over the tree blocked the straight path between me and my so-called sister and I could feel the prodding in my mind stop. I kind of freaked out then, and the world then blurred as I could feel myself swaying and falling. But thankfully before I fell and made a mess of myself during a forest fire, Geoff had caught me and the world blurred about ten times more.
This new blurring feeling however was coupled with the world actually moving by and the wind rushing into my face stealing my breath for a bit. I think I passed out, I'm not sure, the world was still all fuzzy when I opened my eyes. The fuzzy, blurriness of the world started to slow down a bit and I could finally see properly and I now knew why the world went all retarded on me. Geoff had picked me up and was running through the forest at vampire speed.
I don't think I'm quite used to thinking of him as all...vampy. I mean, it explains a few things, but it doesn't explain why I'm not headed for the hills in fear he'll drink my blood. And here I am thinking about my boyfriend's vamp-ness when there's a crazy vampiress bitch probably chasing after us. Though, in my defense I've never really needed a reason to be scared around Geoff.
I'm not sure how long he ran, and I think I forgot getting in the car. Shock is quite fun, I don't think I've ever stared out a window while someone was driving way, way over the speed limit and felt safe at the same time. Like the world was just going around like always and there wasn't a sister-I-never-knew-I-had-turned-vampire chasing after me and that a tree didn't explode into flames. Yeah, I think I definitely love shock.