Chapter 28 (The flowers)
"Darren... Darren wake up. Come on you daft sod wake up." Zak was shaking me vigorously and sounded rather scared.
"What. What is it? I'm trying to sleep." I pushed him away and turned over in my "coffin and tried to find sleep once more, but to no prevail. Zak Jumped into the coffin with me and pushed me out and onto the floor. I lay there a while dazed, then found the energy to get up. After cursing the Day Zak was born into this world I slowly got dressed as Zak explained why he had woken me so early.
"I've not slept for the past few hours now, it's just my room, every time I close my eyes I'm positive someone is watching me, I'm positive my room is haunted. You need to come check it out with me." I was half way through putting my arm through my red leather jacket when I stopped; I froze and turned slowly towards him. "You really think your room is...is haunted?"
"I kid you not. I'm positive, 100% there is something supernatural in my room." Zak looked at me, I could tell he truly believed his story and as his friend I wasn't going to let him face this on his own. When I first arrived I hated having my own room. I thought exactly the same as he did now, but if Zak was new to the mountain I could understand. but he has been here almost the same length of time as I have.
"So what has been going on than to make you think this?" I sat down next to him and listened to his story.
"Thank the Gods you believe me, I thought you were going to laugh at me, you're a true friend Daz. Anyway, apart from what I just told you about someone watching me when I close my eyes, things have gone missing then shown up again in the most strangest of places. You know I carry around my human father's pen, just for memory sakes, well yesterday that went missing. I turned my room upside down, I searched everywhere, and I really thought it had gone forever. Well when I came back from the loo this morning it was there, in the middle of my floor. No way could I of missed it if it had of been there all the time, no way. See so that's why I think something is going on."
I stayed seated for a while, I'll admit I was creped out by Zak's story, I know how much that pen meant to him, and I know he wouldn't just leave it lying around. "Come on then let's go check out your room."
We walked quickly but quietly to Zak's room making sure not to wake any other Vampires in our hall. When we reached eye sight of his room Zak grabbed onto my arm for dear life. "What's the matter?" I whispered to him. "Daz I swear I didn't shut my door, as soon as I picked up my pen I legged it to your room. I didn't shut the door behind me." We continued slowly towards the door, turned the handle and flung the door wide open.
Nothing had been moved as far as I could see, Zak was always an untidy person but we spent a lot of time in each other's rooms so I knew where things went. The room was freezing, so cold you could see your breath, even though we lived in a mountain covered in snow and ice you could never see your breath, only in the showering rooms have I ever noticed you could. The room was silent; the only noise was of another Vampire snoring a few doors down. We crept further and further into the room, waiting on edge for something to happen.
"What in the God's name are you two doing?" The voice came from behind, making both myself and Zak dive for the nearest cover. "Have a look Daz, who is it?" Zak said shakily.
"How am I supposed to know? This is your room you look."
"How about you both stop acting like children and come out from behind the boxes."
We both agreed to look together and slowly raised our heads to peek over the top of the boxes. My face turned bright red when I saw Mr. Crepsley standing leaned up against the door way with the biggest grin on his face I had ever seen. Zak smiled sheepishly and we both left the safety of the boxes trying to hide our shame.
"Now, what in the Gods name are you creeping around for? And why did you almost jump a mile when I spoke to you?" Mr. Crepsley asked still wearing a giant smirk on his face.
"I thought I saw a rat in my room. I went and got Darren to get rid of it 'cause I don't like rats you see, and we jumped 'cause we weren't expecting anyone to be up and about at this time." Zak smiled again sheepishly paying his story would be believed, I just stood there trying not to make eye contact with Mr. Crepsley, he had this horrible way of telling when I'm lying or covering for someone just by looking at me.
Mr. Crepsley looked us bother over a few times then smiled once more and left not saying another thing on the matter. Zak and I looked at each other for a while then burst out laughing. "I have never seen you jump so high in my life." I pointed out to Zak who was rolling around on the floor laughing so hard tears where rolling down his face. "I was not alone; I thought you were going to attach yourself to the celling."
Once we had calmed down we decided it was time for breakfast, it was still rather early but food was normally prepared and ready to be eaten even before everyone was awake. Getting there super early had its advantages, all the food was still warm when you got it and you had first pickings of everything. We sat and ate our breakfast laughing about the incident in Zak's room. It would remain with us even when we are old and frail.
After a good time of being alone in the hall a few of the early birds started trickling in, Mr. Crepsley as normal was one of them. He took his food and came and joined us, not asking anything about earlier that night. Within minutes the hall went from peaceful and quiet to loud and rushed. We now had to shout to be heard whereas before we could talk at our normal volume.
Seba soon came and joined us; I offered him my plate as I overfilled it, being one of the first ones to pick your food you just get carried away. He smiled and gladly accepted pushing his plate of whatever was left behind to the other side of the table. "Oh Zak if you would not mind, I will be in need of your assistance's today. The new rooms that where being constructed have now finally been finished, and I will need your help furnishing them correctly." because Zak and his maker don't get along Zak thought it best to leave him and was taken under the wing of Seba, they had more of an employment relationship then a master and assistant relationship. Zak would work for Seba and as payment Seba would teach Zak all he knew about becoming a Vampire of good standing and help him on his way to becoming the greatest of all Vampire generals.
"Not a problem, If 'I'm honest with you I thought those rooms would have been finished ages ago, aren't they a good few months behind?" Zak had a fondness of keeping on a deadline.
"Yes they were supposed to be ready 3 months ago, however down to the consent moaning of the builders complaining about tools, we were put back." Seba waved the issue away and continued talking to Mr. Crepsley about times before I was even born. I always liked to listen to the stories Seba and Mr. Crepsley would talk about, it made me wonder if in a few hundred year if myself and Mr. Crepsley will be doing it with an assistant of my own listening intensely just as I do.
"Well then Daz I'll see you later, that furnisher isn't going to move itself." Zak said with a stretch, he slapped me on the shoulder as was the normal farewell between us and waved good bye as he left the hall. Seba soon followed leaving me and Mr. Crepsley.
"Why, if you do not mind me asking, does Zak call you Daz?" Mr. Crepsley asked quite puzzled by it.
"It's just a nick name; my human friends use to call me it to. It's just something friends do I guess." I didn't normally mention my human side very often I made a vow to myself to put my whole life into be a Vampire.
"Human customs are a very odd thing indeed, your name is Darren, not Daz," Mr. Crepsley seemed angered by the idea of nicknames but I just let him rant about how silly it was. After a while when he needed to take a breath I saw my chance to silence him. "Well I have to head off to my lesson with Paris; apparently I'm going to be sword fighting today. I smiled and gave Mr. Crepsley a quick hug before heading off to the game hall. When I walked in it was pitch black no one had lit any of the candles yes so I set to work running up and down ladders lighting as many as I could find. I wondered around for a while after I had finished and was happy it was well lit, it was very unlike Paris to be late for one of our lessons I was going to go and find him when the door opened.
"Darren I'm sorry I'm late I was stuck in a very boring and long meeting, now I know I said I would be teaching you how to fight with a sword today but there has been a slight change of plan." Paris took a seat on one of the many benches that surrounded the room. "I'm old and wouldn't be able to keep up with you, so I have a better teacher for you." The door slowly opened and I almost toppled over. Standing there in black leather body armour was Mr. Crepsley, "I know I've been teaching you even when Larten got back I continued our lessons, but with all the resent activity's I believe it would be better for you to return to studying under Larten." He smiled at my shocked and also worried look stood and left.
"Well I did not expect that to happen." I said laughing slightly I had seen Mr .Crepsley fight before he was famous for his unique fighting style and people who tried learning under him never lasted longer than 2 weeks at max.
"I thought I would let it be a surprise it was not finalised until this evening." He threw some leather amour at me and showed me how to put it on properly, he talked me through the basics of picking the right sword, "Not everyone can use pick up a sword and start waving it around, it has to become an extension of yourself, it needs to be the perfect weight and the perfect length, we tend to get young students to make their own sword but after too many people injuring themselves we let the Mountain blacksmiths sort it all out." He passed me a sheathed sword and I looked at him worried.
When I unsheathed it I found it breath taking, it was brand spanking new, not one mark on it, and it looked so fragile I was scared I was going to break it. "Obviously because of your age and only being half vampire I thought we would concentrate on one handed short swords rather than long swords that require two hands and a lot of strength to use." He unsheathed his sword which was attacked to his belt and lunged at me.
I was scared out my mind; I didn't know what to do my mind was racing I thought I was going to die, but while I was panicking instinct took hold and I managed to blocked his sword but only barely. I stood staring at our blades in astonishment but Mr. Crepsley only smiled. "I had to see what type of fighter you are instinctively."
"I thought you was going to kill me." I said still shocked I managed to block his attack.
"You were never in danger I may have scratched you if you did not manage to black it but that would be all." He patted me on the back and started to show me some simple moves I copied as best as I could and was shocked again at how easy it was coming to me, it was like I had learnt this all before and this was just a refresher course even though I had never picked up a sword in my entire like.
"Is learning to use a sword easy for everyone?" I asked him while we continued some more lunges and blocks
"Not from what I have seen only certain vampires built to wield a sword can learn to use a sword quickly." He blocked my attack and returned by slightly cutting my arm.
"How did you learn?" I asked ignoring the pain and carrying on my attack.
"I learnt when I was training to be a general, I was very much like you I learnt quick and my teacher pushed me very hard because of it." She slyly smiled at me.
"So what you basically saying is you are going to push me very hard as well." I sighed but I was glad Mr. Crepsley was teaching me again.
We had been training for 3 hours now, Mr. Crepsley had a few cuts here and there but I had then all over my arms, hands and a couple on my face. We both decided to take a trip to the showering hall. On our walk there I told him about my date with Emma.
"I said I would pick her up after my class but I don't know where to take her." I said while covering myself up with about 7 towels trying to warm myself back up.
"If you go down to the lower tunnels, there are flowers that grow this time of year, I took Arra on our first 'date' there, it is not that hard to find," I was taken aback by this bit of history, Mr. Crepsley never spoke of Arra, he truly loved her, I could tell. "You should hurry and get ready then; I have business to attend to with Queen Eve, Arrow and Paris. Be safe and have fun, but try not to stay out till the small hours of the morning like last time." He was already dressed and ready to leave; he ruffled my wet hair and waved as he exited through the large door. I smiled to myself as I quickly got dressed and ran back to my room to collect my new jacket.
When I was close to my room there was a funny smell lingering outside my door, I stood quietly and listened, I could hear things being moved about like someone was looking for something. I thought about going and finding Mr. Crepsley, but before I could move any further the door slowly opened, and I came face to face with my intruder.
"Duncan, what in the world are you doing!?" My legs where telling me to fun he was 3 times my size and if he was going to do some damage he could, just by lifting his finger.
"Darren, oh my boy I'm sorry." Duncan put his hand on the back of his head and laughed, a big grin plastered on his face.
"What where you looking for in my room?" I quizzed him.
"Well 'cause you and Emma where going on a date, the Queen asked me to have a look around see if you had any weapons, you can never be too careful." He sounded like he had been caught doing this a million times before. I peeked around Duncan and looked into my room, it didn't look too messy but I knew things had been moved.
"Well why didn't you just ask me?"
"'Cause if I had of, it would of given you a chance to hind anything you may have had, but I didn't find anything so you're in the clear." he slapped me on my back smiling like I had won an award. "Well I should let you get back to what it is you were doing." I waved him goodbye and entered my room,
"Oh and Darren," I peeked around the door and saw Duncan walking back towards me, "You look after Emma you hear me, you brake her heart, or you try any funny business, it won't be the queen you will have to worry about." My face turned a lovely shade of white making Duncan laugh at me walked off whistling to himself.
"I've never seen anything as beautiful as this." Emma looked around the hall dazzled.
"I did not even know this hall was down here, until Mr. Crepsley told me after our lesson." I walked up next to her and sat on the floor.
"How did he know of it?" She took a seat next to me and waited for an answer.
"He brought his sweetheart here on their first date. I think he comes down here some mornings just to be close to her." I smiled happily at the thought of being close to Arra down here.
"Where is she now?" she asked still looking around at all the different coloured flowers but looked at me when she heard me sigh sadly.
"She died a few years ago, there was an attack on the mountain and she died protecting it." She touched my arm and apologised for asking. We sat in silence for a while after that just looking around.
"If you don't mind me asking, how did you become his assistant anyway, we are born the way we are, why did you choose to give up humanity?" before my mind could think the story just rolled out.
"It was my own fault that I had to give it up, the first time I meet Mr. Crepsley was at a Freak show, the Cirque Du Freaks, I was a human at the time and had gone with my then best mate Steve, It was an amazing show, it is strange to think some of the performers I saw back then are probably old or passed on, but anyway, Mr. Crepsley was performing with a spider Madam Octa, they did tricks and all sorts, he would control her by what I thought was magic back them, and that night after the show I went and stole her from him while he was sleeping. He didn't come after me and for a while it was good, I learnt to control her with my thoughts, then it went horrible wrong, Steve came round and while I was showing off, my little sister came in the room, screamed and I lost my control of her, she bit Steve, putting him at deaths door. I begged Mr. Crepsley to fix Steve but it was going to cost me." I put up my hand so she could see the 10 marks on my fingertips.
"You turned to save your friend?" Emma looked at me in disbelief, shock and a little sad
"Yes I did, I hated Mr. Crepsley for ages, I remember I told him once that when I get the chance I was going to kill him, but we grew on each other over the many years, I don't hate him any more, not one bit, he has always been there for me even after certain problems we always manage to get over them." I placed my hand on my chest and smiled. "So tell me about your life then, you know all the dark bits of mine," I laughed nudging her in side playfully.
"Not much to tell. I was born, grew up being told how important I was, that the future of the clan rests on my shoulders when my mother passes on, I was told I couldn't do this or that and I rebelled I trained under every grand master that would train me, I even studied under a human master, all different ways to fight and defend myself, my mother hated it, and Duncan did to just as much. when I was 13 I was kidnapped by a group of human hunters after Duncan, that's when I tasted blood or the first time, hot and sticky but it left a horrible mess, I killed them all with no regrets, when I was found and they had realised what I was capable of I became a guard for my mother, she could keep me close and I could keep her safe."
"So are you like a princess?" even though I knew she was the queens child I never put two and two together.
"No I'm not like a princess I am one, I am the Queens real daughter, she gave birth to me." I fell backwards 'I'm on a date with a Princess' I thought to myself.
"So is Duncan like a king?" I asked I was curious to know if my room had been ransacked by royalty.
"No my father dies when I was 2." She looked sadly at the floor
"Oh I am sorry; I thought Duncan was your father."
"Duncan and my mother love each other but it can never be, Duncan was hired to protect my Mother when she was going through her training to be a Queen, and they fell in love, but she was arranged to be with someone else, My true father, and now Duncan and my mother must live together for the rest of their days never knowing the true extent of each other's love." She brought her knees up to her chest and rested her head on her knees, lost in her own world.
"Why does she not take him to be her mate now? If you don't mind me asking that is."
"Royalty must mate for life, any other vampire bat can mate as often as they like as long as they are not already in a relationship or promised to someone, royalty must be strong of will, stronger than anyone else. So even though my farther is dead, my mother must show to the clan she is strong willed and will never take another in his place. When I become of age I to will be promised to someone, so I'm taking life one day at a time until that dreaded day comes."
We sat there a while not saying anything, just thinking about how different our 2 clans where, but on the other hand how similar we were as well. We watched the flowers on the walls open and close, butterfly like animals hovering and dancing around us as we thought, and we watched the different colours of moss that hung to every inch of the walls and floor reflecting there light onto the ceiling, nowhere on earth could a place like this be possible, it was a new world in itself.
"Can I ask you something?" Emma broke the silence scaring a few of the butterflies and making a few flowers close.
"Sure."
"I mean this with respect but why do you talk differently to everyone else?" she looked at me smiling hoping I wouldn't take it the wrong way, I just laughed.
"I am sure you have noticed that Seba and Mr. Crepsley talk this way also, it has just rubbed off on me I guess."
"You must really admire them if you have taken to mimicking them, even when it comes down to the cloths." She smiled hoping not to of over stepped the mark.
"Yes I do. They have both helped me grow especially Mr. Crepsley and as I am sure you may have noticed I have a fabulous red leather coat where as they decide to wear cloaks. I could never…" something strange happened, I felt like the whole world had been flipped upside down I held onto my head.
"Darren? What's wrong? You have gone pale." She looked me over and put a hand on my cheek to check I didn't have a temperature. I jumped at her touch, "We need to go back, something is wrong" and with that I grabbed her hand and ran with her back towards the main section of the halls. Emma followed holding my hand tightly as we ran until we bumped into Zak, Duncan and Paul.
"Slow down you two, where is the fire?" Duncan slapped me on the back while Emma and myself tried to catch our breath, we were still holding hands and I could feel a burning glare come over me, at first I thought it was Zak, but when I looked up to say some witty remark I saw it was Paul glaring at me.
"So what's going on Daz, what you running away from?" Zak asked rubbing my back trying to help me breath.
"Has anything happened while we were away? Anything at all no matter how small?" I begged hoping I wasn't making a fool of myself. Zak and Duncan shared a confused look.
"Man are you ok. Nothing has happened; everything is fine, what's happening?"
"Something is wrong, where is Mr. Crep..."
Blackness.
I couldn't move but I felt weightless, I couldn't see either but I could feel warmth hitting my face, every time I spoke my only reply was my echo. All around me was dark, even after a while I couldn't make out anything.
"Darren, Darren you lazy boy get up, you'll be late for school." A female voice called to me. I snapped my eyes open and this time I was greeted by a white ceiling, something was oddly familiar about it, I slowly lifted myself up and looked around. I almost died; I was in my room, my human room.
I franticly looked around I had to be dreaming, this couldn't be, it was impossible.
"DARREN I WONT TELL YOU AGAIN GET OUT OF BED!" I looked towards my closed door that was my mom; I looked down at my hands and looked at my fingertips, no marks. I ripped my bed top open to look at my scars, nothing, I was skinny and had no muscle at all. I was about to scream when there was a knock on the door, I jumped out of bed and headed for the window, this couldn't be real.
The door slowly opened and a small girl walked in all dressing in her summer dress school uniform and hair in pig tails, "Mom's gonna kick your butt if you don't hurry up." I stood there looking at the girl's reflection in window I was planning to escape out of. It was my sister, not aged a day since I left her to become a vampire. She happily skipped away while my world started crumbling.
I got dressed at lightning speed and hated myself for the lack of red clothing I use to have, I had to settle for a pair of black jeans, trainers, a plain blue t-shit and a black jacket. I couldn't stay here, this wasn't real. I decided as I packed a bag I was going to go to the old theatre where I first meet Mr. Crepsley and PREY he was there.
With my bag on my back I flew down the stairs and straight out the front door not bothering to close it behind me.
Blackness. The same blackness I had only just woken up from, the same lack of sight, the same weightless feeling the same echo.
"Darren, Darren you lazy boy get up, you'll be late for school."
Back at the mountain, Zak stood holding Darren's lifeless body from hitting the floor. Emma check him over "He's alive, he just passed out." she looked at Duncan for the answers but he just shrugged, "Paul check him over, this is your thing isn't it?" Duncan ordered.
"Why, this... Thing has no worth to me, it would be better for us all if he stayed this way." Paul said straightening out his collar, but before he knew what had hit him, there as an amazing pain in his jaw and the taste of blood in his mouth, at first he thought it may have been Duncan, teaching him a lesson for disobeying an order, but when his vision cleared. There was a red faced Zak standing over him. Paul laughed as he stood up and dusted himself off.
"You should know I am one of the top fighters in my clan... I should kill you for striking me."
"And I should kill you for speaking so horribly about Darren, He is my best friend and no one will speak wrongly of him while I'm around" Zak took a fighting stance, ready to punch the smug look off Paul's face. "Now lads stop it, Fighting is for the game hall not for here. Darren needs our help, he doesn't need you fighting." Duncan didn't shout but his voice was loud enough for them both to heed his words.
Zak turned away from Paul slowly and headed back to Darren, Duncan was to find Mr. Crepsley and inform him on what had happened while Zak and Emma took Darren to the medical wing where Duncan and Mr. Crepsley would meet them there.
