"Why are you doing this?" Mom asked tightly. She was seriously angry and I could tell because she had that vein-popping thing in her neck. I had encountered that vein far too many times before; she was pissed to the max.
"Because, Claire, I am angry." Amelie did not once loosen her grip around my neck and it hurt like hell. The arm around my waist, the only support that was keeping me upright, was extremely tight as well. The combination of both grips was excruciating, especially since I could hardly breathe to calm myself. I knew the Vampire was angry; from my position, it was totally obvious. "I did everything I possibly could to make you happy and give you freedom, but you left when you were needed most."
Amelie did not sound angry or sad, just very… serene, like she was stating facts she was not bothered about in the slightest. Of course, I did not have a clue was she was referring to; this was long before my time. "We couldn't be happy in Morganville, Amelie… this was our only option." Mom retaliated, though she was very defensive. "Please let my daughter go…" She pleaded, tears springing to her blue eyes. Dad said nor did nothing; just a rigid statue, anger and frustration oozing out of him.
"Like I said before, I will if you agree to my terms." If… So, if they did not agree, I was going to die basically. Fabulous.
"What terms?" Dad spat, the first thing he had said in a long couple of minutes.
"You return to Morganville with your children, and you stay there. Of course, I will offer my Protection once again, but I will not be as unforgiving as before." Where the hell was Morganville? "Claire, you work for Myrnin and I, and Oliver if need be."
"But-" The fingers around my throat tightened once more. I felt myself gasp in surprise, though I was unable to breathe fully. I squirmed uncomfortably, feeling my lungs burn as the build up of carbon dioxide began to kill me, but the firm hand around my body restricted me from moving anywhere. "Okay! Okay, we'll do what you want! Just… stop." My Mom was crying now, tears spilling over her cheeks and forming mini rivers of salty water. She began to shake uncontrollably as she watched me turn blue, but Dad caught her before she fell to the ground in a heap of misery.
"Good, so we have an agreement. You have two weeks to move back to Morganville. I will be watching, so do not try to run." Amelie dropped my and I fell in a fit of wheezing and coughing to the soft, cream carpet. Within seconds, Mom was hunched over me, rubbing my back as I struggled for free breath once more. Dad just watched as Amelie exited our home, cool and collected as ever.
Bitch.
"Mom, what happened? Is everything okay?" Rose climbed out of the trapdoor with Dad in tow, carrying a very unhappy Connor. His eyes were blotchy and red and the frown on his cute, plump face was enough to describe his feelings; he had been crying.
"Everything is fine baby. Just had a little scare, that's all…" Mom soothed. I was sitting on the sofa in the living room, staring off into the sky from the window. I listened to their conversation, lies upon lies. We had agreed not to tell Rose about what happened; she didn't need to know, though she would eventually…
"So nobody came to find us?" She asked.
"No, of course not." Rose came into the living room, took one look at my pale face and frowned. She knew, of course she did. Despite this, she said nothing, though I knew for a fact she would be begging me for the truth when we finally got to bed. She sat beside me on the sofa and placed her head on my shoulder, resting it there while we both stared off into space. I appreciated the comfort, so I took her hand within mine and held it closely. Being that scared, the most scared I have ever been, really showed me how important Rose and Connor were. I knew I would never take them for granted again.
"Rose, honey, go upstairs and do your homework. I'll shout you down when it's dinner time…" Rose looked like she may have protested, but she nodded nonetheless and clumped off upstairs in a huff. Mom sat beside me then, taking Rose's former place, and enveloped me in a huge 'Mom' hug. I almost laughed, I almost told her she was being silly, but she wasn't, I couldn't deny that that little episode was not completely terrifying.
"You need to tell me everything…" I whispered. If we were moving back to this Morganville, I needed to know what was so… bad about this place. I needed to know what happened, what goes on there, everything.
"I will. Once Rose and Connor are asleep, your Father and I will tell you everything you need to know." That was fine, but not exactly what I asked for; what I 'needed' to know wasn't necessarily everything… it meant they were not going to tell me everything.
The three of us, sat at the dinner table with no dinner placed, were quiet in awkward silence. Mom and Dad didn't even know where to start, not even close. It was up to me to start this conversation off.
"Where, and what, is Morganville?" I demanded, eyeing up my parents intently; I wanted to make sure there were no lies and no morphed versions of the truth.
"Morganville…" My Dad sighed, glancing at Mom for a very brief second. "Morganville is a small town in the middle of Texas. It's a place where humans and Vampires live in relative harmony, though Vampires have primary control over the town." And we were supposed to be moving there?
"And why were you there in the first place?" I asked, since it was clearly the most obvious question. Why would you live in a place that sounded so… awful.
"Your Father was born and raised in Morganville." Mom smiles faintly as she remembers her old life there; she was very nostalgic my Mother. "I was studying there at Texas Prairie University when I moved in with your father and his two friends, Michael and Eve."
"Okay, fair enough…" I nod, taking all this information in with an open mind. Everything so far sounded easy and simple enough. "And how does a native teenager and university student piss off a Vampire like that?" I had to know; it had been sitting there, wallowing in my mind, all night, eating at everything I held sane up there in that mind of mine. Mom gives me a warning look, but I'm sure its because of the colourful language I have chosen to use.
"I kind of worked for Amelie and another Vampire called Myrnin. I was very important to the town because of my talents and they had insisted, on many occasions, that I stay in the town. Forever." Mom spoke again, nodding at my Dad for confirmation on the story. He barely moved; he was still slowly simmering.
"And you didn't…" I came up to that conclusion myself. Kind of obvious anyway since we lived in Washington.
"No, we didn't." Mom agreed, sighing ever so slightly. I couldn't tell whether she regretted the decision or not, but there was a hint of resentment in her voice. "I hacked the computer that controls the town and wiped our information from it's files. Then we just… left. Just like that. It was easy enough since we had a lot of help, but we moved back and forth a lot and then finally settled here." Right… because, as we all know, hacking into a super computer that virtually controlled a whole town was totally normal.
"And now?" I asked, raising a curious eyebrow.
"Now… now we move back." Dad angrily rises from the table in a swift, fast motion, leaving the chair he sat upon upturned and on it's side. He leaves the room, fists balled up at his sides and a temper so hot I can feel it burning.