Chapter 2

I woke to the smell of stew below me and I saw Darren sitting there cooking, the smell drifted up my nostrils and I took it in, in delight. It smelt delicious indeed. Darren noticed I was up and gestured to my bowl…which he'd prepared for me ready to eat when I woke and I couldn't help feeling better enough though my sleep was disturbed.

Sitting down the two of us wolfed down the soup happily, Toward the end I looked over at Darren and decided he'd had enough time to think about yesterday's events and I wanted to know what had happened. Discretion was the best way and so I coughed inwardly.

"It is very nice Darren…" I told him.

"Thank you…" he answered softly.

"I…um well…that is…" I began and then sighed, "I was never good at being subtle…what went wrong yesterday? Why were you so upset?" I asked him at last and then in blur of movement the boy started telling me what happened.

He had been playing a game of hockey with boys in the last town we visited. He'd told me because of his vampire skills he was very good at sport and one of the other boys had injured him and so Darren, out of anger, accidentally broke both of one of the players' shinbones. I listened carefully and as I did I couldn't help but think it coincidence.

When I was a half vampire in the very early 1900's I had been still a little eager and anxious when it came to friends…the only friends I ever made were vampires, witches or the freaks at the Cirque. I hadn't had a real human friend since before my blooding, the boy I had befriended after saving his life from an angry slave owner.

I had taken on the alias of Vur Horston since I had heard a rouge vampire ((name unknown)) had wanted me dead and it was for my own safety, another reason we had gone to London was to be in a large crowd and not so easily found. Seba and I were worried for this rouge vampire had teamed up with five vampaneze and it wasn't certain why they wanted us dead.

So I had been walking round London alone whilst Seba was sleeping, myself about 100 years old, feeling and looking more twenty. When I saw a couple of London lads my psychical age kicking round a leather ball in the snow. At the time it was not as popular a game as it is now, but even then people enjoyed it all the same. When they saw me watching standing there in my awe of what a wonderful game they were playing they called out

"Hey!" said one and came running over. "We need a striker…wanna join in—"

I wanted to say no and run off but the boys beckoned me on and then one of them sneered at me. "Why do we want him playing with us anyway John? He looks to posh to play with us working folk!"

That settled it. I took the challenge and as always wanted to prove them wrong. I found the control of the ball easy enough. My vampire strength and advantage made me a quick learner and the John, my team captain, was looking at me like a god as I scored three goals to make us draw. The lad who had insulted me - Henry looked at me was disgusted after scoring the third goal. He tried fouling me but I was too quick for him and so to wind me up he started to foul and injure the other players in my team.

I was smiling to myself weakly, we would win this match up when I walked over to Jon at the tip off. "Horston you're an amazing player with those plates of meat!" said John smiling, and I smiled back, not sure what plates of meat were and I found out later it meant my feet in cockney slang.

"Thanks John, you are not so bad yourself…" I replied.

"You do realize that we have lolly on this game right?" I frowned inwardly, did he mean what he think he meant. They were betting on who'd win?

"Lolly means money right?" I asked confused and he nodded eagerly.

"Henry is offering to give up all his work savings if we win…that's almost forty pound!"

I sighed inwardly, I then realized why Henry was cheating…after all to a human in this decade forty-pound is not a lot of money, but in the 1900's that could rent you a home in a decent inn in London for almost a year or just less…!

We continued playing but this time I was less eager to score. Henry's team went up by one goal and then just as I walked to the center point I saw Henry hold something, which was flashing in his hand. Not sure what it was I thought nothing of it when we continued playing. I passed the ball to John near the goal and then Henry ran up behind him and the flashy object finally was revealed to be a knife, which embedded into John's back!

John looked round, the ball falling away at his feet and into Henry's grasp whilst he went and scored, but I wasn't paying an attention. I ran over to John who had fallen onto the floor. I checked for a pulse. It was there but then I looked down at his spine and knowing a lot about how the human body worked and looking at the extent of the injury I realized the terrible truth—John would never walk again…

I looked down at John and then all I saw was red, I was mad as hell…the first friend I'd had for years was hurt …because of an evil man who had bet his money away and changed his mind.

"Looks like your captain's taken a trip!" remarked Henry eagerly and evilly, "without a captain you can't continue play making the match forfeit…"
"Not necessarily!" I said coldly, staring at Henry, eyeball to eyeball. "I'll take his place…"

The game continued, John taken away by spectators to the sideline and henry didn't try to hurt anyone else, but he didn't really need to. The rest of my teammates were too scared to go anywhere near him and so it was left to me to take him down. Anger and rage feeling me I ran up to him and with the mud as my ally I slide tackled him to the ground.

It would have been a dangerous move for a human to play on a human. However, for a vampire to play on a human—I didn't even want to see what I'd done. I heard a scream, and soon realized why, Henry's legs had broken in two—the white bone seeable through the crimson. I wouldn't be surprised it he died or shock to the system or of blood loss in a few moments…

This time Henry looked at me with fear not anger. It was then that I decided to leave before I caused any more damage. "I shouldn't play this game anymore" I had told him, "It won't catch on anyway…" and with that I walked away, still feeling the deadly cold stare of my teammates.

But that had been 100 years ago, I hadn't imagined that the same kind of thing would have happened to Darren. But it seemed it had, I could have told him my version but it would take too long, I decided instead to tell him what Seba had told me after I had told him what happened.

"It is something you must get used to…" I said, "It is a fact of life that we are stronger than humans, faster and tougher. If you play with them, they will be hurt…"

"I didn't mean to hurt him!" said Darren "It was an accident!"

I shrugged recollecting on what Seba had told me

"Listen Darren, there is not way you can stop this happening again, not if you mix with humans. No matter how hard you try to be normal, you are not. There will always be accidents waiting to happen."

"What you're saying is I can't have friends any more right?" he said sadly and I began to cut in to disagree but he continued before I could.

"I'd figured that out by myself, that's why I was so sad. I'd been getting used to the idea of never being able to go back home and see my old friends, but it was yesterday, I realized that I'd never be able to make new ones either. I'm stuck with you! I can't have any other friends can I?"

I rubbed my scar as I considered what he said, what I had told him—and disagreed—It had been different in my story. My friend had been hurt because of a bet—Darren was only playing—he is only a child. Seba's advicemy advice had just made him feel worse—my advice had just told him that he was a freak and shouldn't and couldn't have friends…but that's not what I wanted to say.

"That is not true—" I told him sadly, trying to take back my words without sounding like a hypocrite. "You can have friends…you just have to be careful. You—"

"THAT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH!" he said and he looked at me with watery green eyes. I wanted to tell him to calm down but his words stopped me.

"You said it yourself! There will always be an accident waiting to happen! Even shaking hands is dangerous, I could cut their wrists open with my nails." He told me bitterly.

"NO—I won't put people's lives in danger. I'm too dangerous to have friends anymore. Besides—it's not like I can make a true friend!"

"Why not?" I said not sure if he was really asking me or giving me a rhetorical question.

"True friends can't keep secrets from each other! I could never tell a human I was a vampire. I'd always have to lie and pretend to be someone I'm not. I'd always be afraid they'd find out who I am and hate me!"

"It is a problem every vampire shares—" I said impulsively…I sounded like Seba—well a much younger Seba, he was much nicer now and less strict since he was much older and the expression "almost past his peak" but did I want be like my old mentor? Did I want to mould the kid into my clone? Did I want him to be a better version than me? I didn't get a chance to think of the answer because he looked at me with such anger at my words, which really were placed there by an older being.

"BUT EVERY VAMPIRE ISN'T A CHILD!" he said fiercely "What age were you when you were blooded? Were you a man?" he asked me. The most personal question he'd ever asked me whilst he'd been a vampire—or before. I simply nodded.

"Friends aren't that important to adults!" he said truthfully. "My dad told me that grown ups get used to not having loads of friends. They've got work, hobbies and other stuff that keeps them busy! But my friends were the most important thing I had in my life—apart from my family…well you took your family away when you pumped your stinking blood into me and now you've ruined the chances of letting me have a proper friend again! Thanks a lot. Thanks for making a monster out of me and wrecking my life!"

I looked into his face and all I saw was despair, he took a piece of meat from his almost empty plate and rammed it into his mouth, but I just turned and couldn't face him. The words of the child made me consider my views of the vampires. I like Darren was made a vampire quite young ((twenty is young for a vampire). So I too had all these questions I wanted answering yet I had never seen it from his point of view…All this time I had always been thinking how Darren being a vampire would affect my life—whilst I'd forgotten how it would affect his...

When I started speaking, my voice went croaky, as though I was suffering with a terrible cold. "I am sorry…" I muttered bluntly, Darren turned giving me a surprised expression which inwardly made me sigh—I will have to get Darren to understand that I may be a vampire but I was once a human too…"I should not have blooded you Darren. It was a poor call. You were too young, It has been a long time since I was a boy I had forgotten what it was like. I never thought of your friends and how much you would miss them. It was wrong of me to blood you terribly wrong I…"

I trailed off into silence. I felt to miserable now realizing the full horrors I had actually committed, taking Darren away from all the things he'd treasured. I felt like a monster…I felt wet drops in the corners of my eyes and whilst Darren wasn't looking I wiped them away.

After a few more moments silence the boy turned to me and sighed, "Well there's no use moaning about it," he said, breaking the silence and trouble between us. "We can't go back. What's done is done right?"

I looked at him, and would have smiled at his optimism and his wistful thinking if I had not had felt so darn lousy. "Yes…" I sighed, "If I could I would take back my terrible gift, but that is not possible, Vampirism is forever. Once somebody is blooded there is no changing back." I said and then dwelt in my own thoughts for a few minutes, I wanted the boy to be happier now I knew what I had really done…when a thought came to me.

"Still it is not as bad as you think—perhaps—" I said, my eyes narrowing thoughtfully.

"Perhaps what?" he asked.

"We can find friends for you!" I said realizing how stupid I'd been. "You don't have to be stuck with me all the time!"

"I don't understand" said Darren frowning, but still looked very optimistic at my idea. "Didn't we just agree it wasn't safe for me to be around humans?"

"I am not talking about humans…" I said and with my idea swirling in my head, getting clearer and clearer every time I thought about it I felt my mouth curl into the warmest grin. "I am talking about people with special powers…people like us. People you can tell secrets too!"

I leant across and took my hands in his, wanting this to sink into the boys mind. For him to understand that my attitude toward him and his needs had changed. "Darren…" I muttered, "What do you think about going back and becoming a member of the Cirque Du Freak?"