Hello dear friends, yes I am back. Well heres the next part, bye bye. I have thought of hte most gorgeous twist, so keep reading.

Chapter 2

Children of the millenia

I walked about my tranquil abode in a state of vacancy and silence, I did not want to hear the sound of my footsteps, the heaving wind that whistled past the rattling windows or the straying thoughts of those in the busy town below. I was still sore from the past events but I eventually decided to check the post. Hum.. Post you think, just because I am a vampire it doesn't mean that I cant have mail.

I checked it and there was only two letters, I couldn't have been resting for long, usually after a long sleep the mail box would be swarming, or maybe people had forgotten about me. The first was from Nina, the girl that had seen me wandering my castle so long ago, I smiled when I saw the neat handwriting scribed in a dark green ink. I opened the letter gently, as so not to tear the quaint document.

Dear My Mysterious companion,

I have been meaning to come and see you for the past few years, but as
things have developed I have been busy with other things. I am of
twenty years now and I am happily married and living with my darling
husband, my mother and his mother. It was such a surprise when they came
to us in that spring after the major fight, Yuri and Alice introduced us
because we both wanted to travel to America.

Unfortunately we never had the chance, Zhuzhen, Halley and the rest of the
London Rats moved in with us, as we now had the shop and the mayors mansion;
which I have to say is enormous though beautiful in design and layout.
I became very close with Halley and he with me, and eventually on my eighteenth
year we were wed. Chris' wedding soon followed as she had fallen in love with the
new mayors son, Sebastian, who lives just outside the village.

We are extremely happy and I would be honoured if you would come and see me as
soon as you have the time, I am sure my mother, Zhuzhen, Halley, the rats and
Koudelka would love to see you.

Have you heard from Yuri or Alice, or Margarete? I hope you are well, but then
you always are. I hope your relationships are well and that you are prosperous.

I love you with the kindness of my heart,
your adoring runaway child,

Nina

I chuckled to myself, I had always loved that child in my dark way, though its purpose was totally innocent. She was the daughter that I would never have, but to be honest, now that I had nothing, I wanted nothing. I had absent mindedly walked out into the rose garden while reading, I hadn't been here since the conversation with Margarete, and even now I felt the awkward air that still lingered like a heavy fog.

Sometimes I wondered why I hadn't followed her, but I always came back to the conclusion that she wanted to go on her own and be the way she was before she met me. I had never liked that justification but I came to realise that it was the most probable one.

I looked at the next letter was scrawled in messy writing, I knew immediately who it was. Yuri had the most dreadful writing, which I had tried to resolve but to no avail- obviously. I wondered why he had written, usually it was Alice, but I didn't worry too much about this as I opened the paper just as cautiously as the first. This was the first time I had heard from them in ten years, I hoped that there was nothing too disturbing about the writing that I was next to read.

Hello Keith,

Alice couldn't write to you as she's in labour at this moment,
and she's screaming soo much its giving me a headache. So I decided
to write to you coz she told me in no uncertain terms to piss off. She
really must be in pain, ay!

I really don't know what to put, Alice always writes yard loads of letters
and yet I have no idea what she talks about. Ohhh how are you? Nope stupid,
your a vampire you wouldn't be ill. Ahhhh I know.

How are you and Maggie, You two lovebirds getting cosy on your round the
world trip. Did anything happen? You know like anything? You must have done
something, a little something rite?

If you have you better reply back to me. Hint, hint! Nah only joking,
but anyway are you two still together and have you seen the others lately?
Like Halley, come and see us soon as possible. Come and see the baby as soon
as you can, it would be great and maybe you could look after her in the night.
Nah only joking

Yuri

A baby? How delightful, my smile widened at the thought. I will have a busy few months ahead, I will visit Nina and then go and see the new-born of Yuri's. The one thing that bothered me about both letters were that none knew of where Margarete was, they clearly hadn't seen her at all. This was not good, why hadn't I followed her? It was foolish to sit and grieve on something when I could have been with her.

That determined my next move after going on my visiting excursion, I would find her and make sure that she was well. If she wanted to stay where she was without me then so be it, but if her feelings still remained then so would I.

I arranged my plans so that I could leave the next night, I didn't sleep, I couldn't. Besides, I had slept for too long, I had tried but I dreamt of something very strange. I was sitting out on the terrace watching all the night life carrying out its pointless tasks, when I had felt someone near me. I turned round, and there was a little girl. I had never seen her before but then I couldn't have been sure.

She was a little translucent, which made me think that she was an apparition, but when she came closer she looked as real as the stone that I sat on. She smiled faintly, she could have only been about six years old. She moved right next to me and touched my hand. Her palms were as cold as ice and I cringed, and yet usually I was immune to such things. Then she spoke, her voice was as cold as her touch but there was kindness in the wondrous tone.

Keith, please take heed on your travels, not everything is what it seems to be. Please take care'

She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek and she vanished. I was totally absorbed in what had happened, and I think it really shook me. I woke a few seconds later and I was not ready to try sleeping again, for a long while. So I rose and went it to a contemplative mood, that suited me to the tee.

I was glad that I was old enough to walk in the light, if I had been younger I would have burned and faced an agonising death. My thirst for blood was no more, it lingered a little though. Just like the chattering of images that my gift could hear but I easily sealed it out from my own thoughts.

Just as the sun was reaching high noon, I set out for the town below, I walked slowly savouring the sights that I had not seen in the last decade. I couldn't believe how much it had changed, it was strange to me that I had missed all this just by mourning for a loved one. Though now that I was awake I would never miss another moment.

The sun was sending its gorgeous golden beams down on me and I felt alive. It was peculiar that I could feel so alive when I was so dead. I laughed at myself again, I was happy. It could have been the sensuous aroma of all the flowers or maybe it was I was going to see people that I loved and cared for deeply.

This made my heart convulse by thinking of the group, I would be seeing all of them, apart from the one I loved with all the artificial beating of my heart. I reminded myself that I would look for her after my journey had come to an end.

But there was always a hesitant theory in my ever pondering head, that something may be very wrong and that my darling was in grave trouble. I remembered the dream that I had had and convulsed again, what in gods name did that mean? Was it just a dream? I really didn't understand, I pushed the ever more potent thoughts to one-side.

As I reached the gates of the village, two sprightly youths came running up to me. I recognised them at once, Sharon still wore her hair in bunches and was holding Joshua's hand. They grinned at me ecstatically, I smiled greatly. It felt wonderful to be wanted, Sharon unclasped her hand from her partner, grabbed hold of my sleeve and pulled me inside the town.