Fifteen minutes... fifteen freaking minutes to escape from that gigantic maze. It was obviously impossible, so the best we could do was run as far as possible to make it harder for the vampaneze to catch up with us.
I couldn't help but think I was the one to blame for the failure of our mission. I let Debbie come with us when she clearly was unable to do so. She kept up with our pace just fine, but she couldn't fight the vampaneze. I never should have let Debbie leave the hotel, and now we would all die because I was too much of a fool who let love get in the way of logic.
Lost in thought, I didn't realize Mr. Crepsley, Vancha and Harkat turned right. I kept going, unaware of it, until I heard a chuckle. I was carrying Steve on my back all along, but he was knocked out until that moment.
"You missed them." He said, his voice trembling slightly.
"Excuse me?" I asked coldly, without realizing what Steve meant.
"They turned right."
It finally struck me what he meant. I violently turned around and started to go back as fast as possible.
"Tic Tac Tic Tac..." Steve whispered in my ear, with a chuckle. "Times passing and now you have only thirteen minutes... and you don't know where you have to turn right." He added.
My eyes widened and I felt like smashing my head as hard as possible against a wall to see if I could get any more stupid. But, Steve helped me do that and punched hard the back of my head and threw me on the ground.
No need to stain the walls with my blood! Thank you, Steve!
If I weren't half-vampire, I'm sure that punch would have easily knocked me out. But I managed to get back to my feet, still dizzy.
"I should have known a vampaneze with no pride such as yourself wouldn't keep his word..." I said, angrily, grabbing my sword.
"Oh, c'mon, Darren! You know this has nothing to do with vampires or vampanezes, don't you?" Steve opened his arms. "No weapons. Let's settle this as men and..."
Before Steve could say anything else I had rushed toward him and left a rather deep wound on his stomach with one of my knives.
"The 'man' has been long gone, Steve... I'm a vampire now. A Vampire Prince! And I'll fight for the good of the clan, not for myself." I said as I pulled back and fell onto my knees as I felt the whole room darkening and spinning.
Steve put his hands over his wound and looked down, eyes widened. He fainted right beside me, a pool of blood forming around him.
As I watched Steve laying on the ground I remembered all the good moments we had together and wondered why exactly all that happened. I felt sorry for myself, and for Steve. That wouldn't have happened if we hadn't heard about the Cirque du Freak and, being kids, wanted to see exactly what we were forbidden to see.
I grabbed Steve in my arms and dragged both of us behind a pillar. I couldn't let him die, no matter how much I hated him for his foolishness.
I took off my shirt and wrapped it around his stomach, pressuring his wound so the blood wouldn't gush out.
I don't know how many minutes I watched Steve. I lost myself in thoughts, still wondering how it all came down to that. Steve's blond hair that wasn't as shiny as it used to be, when his mother forced him to take baths and washed his hair everyday. He looked worn out and his body was covered with tiny scars here and there.
I loved to be with him, to talk about monsters, comics, spiders, all that kids' stuff. I loved to play soccer with him everyday at school. I loved to talk about how we hated girls and didn't want to ever get married and have noisy kids like ourselves.
I loved Steve, I really did. He was like a brother to me, someone I used to want to spend the rest of my life with.
And now we were sitting in dirty, stinky water, bleeding and arguing like adults, the ones we used to despise.
I caressed his pale cheek with the back of my hand, feeling my eyes fill with tears that stubbornly rolled down my face.
"H-How did we get to this?" I whispered.
I had closed my eyes, trying to control the tears, when I hear a voice.
"Don't be such a..." I opened my eyes and Steve was grinning back at me. "Fag..."
I wiped off my tears quickly.
"A fool as usual, Steve." I said, rolling my eyes.
"You might try to hide in that little boy body, but deep inside you're still an old man using those complicated words and crap..." Steve chuckled. "Oh, I hate you so much..."
"Sorry, Steve, but I can't hate you back. No matter how much you hurt the other ones I care about." I shook my head. "It's too late."
"You should start hating me, then. Because the vampaneze have cameras all over. And since you hit me, Debbie is probably dead by now." Steve chuckled and I got up as fast as I could, letting him fall on the ground. "Ouch."
"Why... why are you doing this!!" I asked. "I can't believe all this! It's all..."
"Calm down, calm down..." Steve waved his hand at me. "I'm just kidding... ah, you should have seen your face..."
I felt my cheeks grow hot. I would have punched Steve a few more times I he weren't so badly hurt.
"So?" he asked me suddenly.
"So what?" I helped Steve sit up, holding back not to simply break his neck and end it all there.
"Do you love her?" Steve asked, looking away into some different direction.
That was a question I had never made myself before. Did I love Debbie? I wasn't only risking my life for her, but the life of the entire vampire clan.
"I guess."
"What a poor answer..." Steve rolled his eyes. "Just what I expected of someone like you, Darren."
"What you mean by that? You don't actually believe I attacked you with Madam Octa?" I asked.
"That's exactly what you did. Don't lie to me!" Steve shouted.
"I didn't! I swear!"
Steve looked down to his lap and I saw he was about to cry just like I was. Two grown ups crying like babies, what a shame.
"You keep on saying that, but I don't know if I can trust you anymore." Steve shook his head. "I can't trust you, Darren."
"But you used to! You trusted me since we were in Kindergarten and until that night when you came over to my house. I trusted you too... I still do, actually!" I felt that damn tears rolling down again, but decided it would be too much trouble to wipe them. "If you want, I can prove it to you!"
I took my knives and put one in each of Steve's hands, then lifted them up and pressed against my neck.
"I trust you so much that I'll let you be in the perfect position to kill me." I explained quickly. "Do it if you hate me so much."
Steve's hands were shaking and the blades of the knives were scratching my neck, letting thin streaks of blood leak out.
"Do it!" I shouted.
He suddenly stopped shaking and a tear crept out of his right eye and slid down to his chin. Steve let go of the knives and closed his eyes, grinning.
"Yeah, I can't do it." He admitted. Steve's gaze turned away once more. "Will you ever... forgive me... Darren?"
I smiled. "You've been forgiven by me long ago." I explained, bending down and hugging my best friend of so long.
When I pulled back, Steve was watching me so carefully it was almost frightening. He had never looked at me that way before.
Steve lowered his head, smiling, before pushing his lips against mine and kissing me tenderly.
What I felt was unlike anything I had every experienced in my life. Not with Debbie, not with anyone else. I was feeling warm, secure and calm like never before. The Vampaneze Lord didn't cross my mind, nor did Evanna's predictions, Mr. Tiny's horrible speech or anything else that worried me until a few moments before.
We parted and Steve got to his feet.
"I'm hearing steps coming this way, three of them. Vancha, Mr. Crepsley and Harkat are returning to get you." He said, looking around and analyzing the area. "Turn right and then go all the way up. You'll be at the Train Station."
"And what are you gonna do?" I asked, getting up myself.
"I'll go back to the vampaneze and say I killed you all. Then, we'll release Debbie." He said with simplicity.
"They'll want to check, for sure." I added. "And it will be too late for Debbie to be released."
"They won't come after you; I'll say they don't have to." Steve turned his back to me and was starting to run when I called him again.
"They won't do as you say."
"They have to, Darren." Steve grinned. "I'm their last hope."
Steve was gone with the blink of an eye, a second before Mr. Crepsley, Vancha and Harkat popped out of an entrance. Needless to say, they were fuming.
"Darren! What happened to you? Do you realize we had to-"I interrupted Mr. Crepsley before he could start a speech. I wasn't in the mood for one.
"We'll turn right and go up. The train station is there." I coldly explained as I ran so I would waste no more of the time left.
The three eyed each other and decided to follow me without asking, since I seemed so confident.
"Where's him?" Harkat asked as we jogged our way up various rows of stairs.
"He... returned to the vampaneze. Debbie will be released soon too, it's all fine." I said.
"Why are you so overly confident?" Mr. Crepsley said. "Do you actually believe him?"
I smiled. "Yes, I trust his word. Steve'll not disappoint us."
"I'm not worried only about Steve." The vampire added. "The other vampaneze wouldn't believe a mere half vampaneze."
"But Steve assured me the vampaneze relied on-"my eyes suddenly widened as I realized just what I had said. "Steve is... no! He couldn't be!"
I stopped, my knees weakening and forcing me to hold to a wall.
"Darren!" Vancha called, kneeling beside me. "Are you alright? Darren!"
The vampaneze relied on him... they would do as he said...
I pressed my ear against the wall, not very surprised to hear pure silence. Not a single vampanze was coming after us, as Steve promised.
I got up and I said I was weak because of a fight with Steve, but that I could keep on going. We found the train station as Steve promised, and we caught a train to a random city we found. A month later I would call Debbie and find her home, with no memories of vampires and vampaneze. It was all to perfect to be true.
I gazed out of the window of our hotel room in a different city. "How did he do it?" I asked myself, dreamily. "He could be..."
"Who?" asked Mr. Crepsley, who was sipping into some bottled blood.
"Steve. I have a little theory why he managed to do all he did but... I still don't want to believe it." I explained, watching Harkat open the door to the bathroom.
"I rather like weird theories! They make me feel smarter! Tell us!" Vancha asked from across the room as he bit his toe nails.
"I think Steve is the Vampaneze Lord." I said.
Mr. Crepsley spilled his blood, Vancha pulled out a whole nail and Harkat broke the door knob, all at my statement.
I looked out of the window again, ignoring the three shouting in my ears for answers.
Above whatever else, Steve was my best friend and would always be. But it was my duty to kill the Vampaneze Lord and, the next time I saw him, I promised to myself I'd kill him. And I, as a vampire, kept my promises.
I giggled to myself. Who would think fifteen minutes could solve so much?
-------------------------
I had this idea as soon as I finished the 8th book. I was a little disappointed with the whole thing about letting Debbie, Darren's weakness, go with them in all those dangerous missions. I like her, and that's why I disagreed with Vancha and Mr. Crepsley for letting her come without thinking on the consequences. Then I was crushed to know Steve was with the vampaneze. I like him better as Darren's rival, but he was acting so childish and freaky when he revealed the truth! I couldn't help but want him as a "good guy" again.
Put all those feelings together with my Darren/Steve devotion and this is what you get. I hope it was at least enjoyable.
But please bear in mind most of this is just supposition, since I haven't read the books to follow. So the whole Steve-Vampaneze-Lord is NOT canon, as far as I know.