Chapter Four
Will, East, and Taranee were helping Dark look for the Heart of Phoenix. Meanwhile Irma was trying to referee Hay Lin and Cornelia.
"All right, I want a clean fight," she joked, "No pulling hair, no scratching, and no name calling." Dark looked up.
"Well dang, what's left?" he teased. He started searching again.
"Dark," North called from upstairs, "the Heart is still there with you, just in a different place." Everyone stopped.
"Where?" Dark asked. North laughed, quietly.
A master of Concentration, she thought, and yet so naive.
She decided to try to help him without giving him the answer. "Look to your left," she ordered.
Dark turned left.
"No! No!" North shouted. "The left of you."
Dark gave her a puzzled look, and turned to his left again.
North sighed. And they said he was a genius!
She turned him to face her. He still looked confused. North sighed again. "It's in your heart," she told him. Dark tilted his head and raised his hat so he could see her better. "You think I'm nuts, huh?" She asked him. "Where did Will's Heart come from?"
"Inside of her?" Dark said.
"Right. So where would yours go?"
"Inside of me?"
"Good. When you want to use the Heart, summon it."
"How?"
"The same way you Concentrate."
Dark closed his right hand. He seemed to be concentrating very hard. When he opened his hand, the heart was not in it. He shrugged. He was going to give up, but then he noticed that everyone was not looking at him, but behind him.
"The Heart," Dark said in awe. He reached for it. It came, as if it was reaching for him as well. He wrapped his right hand around it, but pulled it back, shaking it and blowing on it. "Is yours hot?" he asked Will, continuing to try to cool his hand.
"No," Will said.
"You used the wrong hand," North said, "Try using the left hand."
Instead of arguing, Dark reached out for the Heart with his left hand. It started to shake, then it pulled back. It looks like it's bracing itself, Dark thought, Like it's going to break...through...something? ME?!
Before anyone could react, the Heart of Phoenix flew towards Dark, and bore its way through his hand. The power of the Heart was visible, for not only did it break through Dark's hand, but it knocked his hat off, which had been on his head ever since he met Irma.
The force of the Heart was too much for any normal person, but not Dark. He was special. "Guys," he strained, "The Heart is powerful. It's running through my veins. Soon it will make it to my..." Dark didn't get to finish his sentence. The pain had been to much. He passed out. His eyes were closed, but was murmuring something along the lines of "He is worthy. He is pure. He...is the Seeker."
Dark woke to find himself laying in one of the beds of his guests. He blinked to see better. "Pitch black," he whispered, "Finally!" He slid out of the bed. "I can't believe I passed out," he chuckled, "This Heart seems to have melded with my own." Dark closed his eyes, and instead of just darkness, he saw waves of energy. Magical energy! "Not only that," he continued, "but I think it's working like my heart, too."With every beat of his heart, Dark could hear the Heart of Phoenix beating in sync with it.
Ba bump! Ba bump! Ba bump! Ba bump!
They seemed to be coexisting just fine.
His body, though weakened, seemed to be fine. No blood. No bruises. Not even a scar. Dark was still the same way he was when he first touched the Heart, except for...
"My hat!" Dark whispered loudly. "Where is my hat?" Dark started to walk down the stairs.
Dark heaved a relieved sigh. His hat was right where the Heart had tossed it. "I like my eyes," Dark said to himself as he walked towards it, "But others don't. They see them, and the first thing to come to their minds is 'Vampire! Grab the torches! Burn him at the stake!'" A tear tried to form in his eye, but he pushed it away.
"So what if I'm a vampire?" Dark said, his voice breaking. "So what if I can fly? So what if I need blood every now and then? I have feelings, too! I bleed too. I die too." He fell to his knees. "All I want is to be accepted. I just want to be normal. I never asked for anything special. I just want to be treated equally!"
"Dark? Is that you?" she asked. She was wearing a white nightgown.
"Flash," Dark said, "Leave me alone. I just need to think."
Flash walked towards him. "Please," she said, "Let me help you."
Dark stood up and turned to face her."You can't."
A lightning bolt flashed in the window. As it did, Dark could see Flash's big, gray eyes filled with tears. "I'm gonna go for a walk," Dark said, walking to the door.
"You're not going to wear your hat?" Flash pondered.
"No," he said, "I'm tired of hiding. In the morning, I'm showing the girls what I really look like."
"And what do you plan on doing when they try to kill you? Run again?"
"No." He turned to look into Flash's eyes. "I'm too important to their parents' fate to be killed." With that, Dark ran out of the house into the newly formed thunderstorm.