Well folks, this is the second to last chapter of Ruby Red. :( I'm quite sad.
This chapter didn't get written until today, which I'm proud that I wrote it in one day, but also I'm upset with my self that it took like 20 something days to get started. Well I hope you enjoy this, Ruby Red is coming to an end.
ENJOY!
:D
I looked towards the door immediately, wondering who it could be. The door started to jiggle, as it opened my breath caught and a light growl started to form in my chest.
"Mom." I whispered.
The growl increased, shaking my whole body. She closed the door but didn't turn around immediately.
"Get me out of here, now!" I growled. I tugged on what was binding me to the chair; nothing happened, but I didn't stop. I bared my teeth as she turned around with a worried expression.
"V-baby." My mother whispered the nickname she called me when I was younger, as she slowly walked over with her arms folded across her chest. "Please, let me explain." She paused behind Jack, who looked a little bit uncomfortable.
"You don't need to explain anything to me." I growled. She started to bite her lip, probably wondering to herself what she should do next.
"V-baby," She repeated, but with shakiness to her voice. "I'm here for you now; you just need to let me explain." She begged.
I opened my mouth but closed it shut. My body relaxed, falling back into the chair. I could feel my wrists pulsating as they burned in pain from the ropes that tied me to the chair. I opened my mouth again, this time taking a deep breath before stating my thoughts out loud. "You haven't been there for me for ten years." I whispered with my head hanging into my chest. "What makes you think I want you here now?"
I could hear the slight movement from Jack as he shifted in his chair uncomfortably. I looked up to see my silent mother staring at me with painful eyes.
Part of me wanted to hug her, kiss her and tell her how much I have missed her. But the pain that was hiding deep, crept up, creating a burning fire inside of me, making the guiltiness disappear.
As we stared at each other, not saying anything or moving a muscle, she turned towards Jack. "Jack, please untie her. I will be back later." Her voice cracked, and she left the room.
Jack stared at the metal table; I waited him to make a move. His black eyes flashed up at me and they weren't the uncomfortable ones from earlier.
"You should let your mother explain. She has a lot to tell you." He stated. He got up from his seat and walked over to me; quickly untying me. "Do you know why she left you?" He quietly asked. I barely shook my head, which was all that I was going to do.
"She left you because of this company. It was either this company or we would have had to kill both of you." His voice quieted towards the end of his sentence. I was frozen in place; my mind was rushing through a lot of information.
"She left me for her boyfriend. She couldn't take care of me." I whispered while rubbing my burned wrists, which started to heal.
He sat halfway on the metal table and he shook his head. "When your father was killed, the company had no choice but to find your mother and have her continue what your father was doing. But when we actually found her, you were about six and she didn't make the decision to come with us till your seventh birthday. Trust me when I tell you this, she didn't want to leave. But she wanted to save you."
I wasn't sure what to think of this. I didn't know if I should believe her, or still believe she left me for her boyfriend. I let my healed arms rest on the cold metal table, thinking of what he said. They know about my father, and everything else.
I focused my attention back to Jack, which by the look on my face, he knew I believed him. He jumped off the table and walked towards the door.
"Follow me." So I got up from my chair and slowly followed him out the door. We walked out into a bright, grey walled hallway, where we were alone. He walked a few paces before me, which I made sure I was keeping my distance.
"Where are we going?" I dared to ask. He turned to corner before answering, "To a meeting." He stopped in front of a dark grey door that had a sign posted to it saying 'Meeting Room'; he turned towards me. "Your mother is in here, which there is a meeting going on, but it should be over with soon." He looked at his watch that was attached to his pale white wrist. "When the meeting is over with, please listen to what your mother has to say." He begged before opening up the door.
The room was filled with business looking people seated around a large wooden table. Men dressed in grey or black suits, the only few women dressed in women business suits all stared wide eyed at me. All of them were pale as me, with dark red eyes. Like Aidan's. I thought before entering the room. My mother was at the end of the table, with her mouth open; paused in mid-sentence.
"I think that's all for today everyone. Good work." Everyone scattered away from the table and out the door. My mother started to stack papers on top of each other and stuffing them into a briefcase.
Jack motioned for me to sit in one of the many seats around the table, so I picked to farthest one from my mother. He scowled, but walked over to my mother and whispered in her ear. She looked up towards me and finished packing up her stuff.
When she was finished Jack went to the door and closed it, and stood in front of it like a guard. My mother sat at the head of the table and sighed.
"V-bab—" She caught herself. "Victoria, I know you will never be able to forgive me for what I have done to you. But you need to understand why I did it." She shifted in her chair, making me notice something. I just then started to realize that her skin was paler than mine, and her eyes were a dark red. I should have known. I thought to myself.
"Your father was a—" I cut her off, I didn't need to hear things I have already heard.
"I know, dad was a vampire, he didn't agree with the whole claim thing. I know that." I said a little bit too rudely. Her head lowered to her chest.
"Could you please just cut all the crap and tell me why you left me." I hissed. She nodded her head in agreement.
"When you were six, Jack came up to me and told me about this company. I didn't want to believe him at first, but when he started to mention your father, I started to listen. He told me about how there was a couple of people who felt the same way about the claiming thing and got together to make this company. They needed someone to lead it, so they agreed to find me and have me be the leader. But they wouldn't let me bring you with me, so I told them no. That's when my life turned upside down." She paused and took in a deep breath.
"Jack told me that if I weren't to go with them, that the whole company would be in danger. So he told me that it was either the company or they would kill you. So the last day to make the decision was your seventh birthday, which I took the day off of work to meet up with Jack and tell him yes." She finished, causing the silence to become unbearable. She looked at me with pleaded eyes; waiting for me to say something, but I was speechless.
"I didn't want to leave you, but I had no choice. I wanted to tell you everything that day, but I knew you were too young to understand. Please forgive me Victoria." She begged.
I wanted to run out of the room, and crawl in a hole. But I wasn't going to be like my mother and leave without an explanation.
"I-I don't know what to say." I slowly explained. "I mean, what should I say?"
The silence returned; none of us knew what to say, until me and my mother's eyes met.
"I haven't been able to live with myself. I haven't been able to live one second without thinking about you. Victoria, please give me a chance. Please forgive me." She whispered. If I were human I wouldn't have been able to of heard it, but I heard it loud and clear.
A loud knock sounded at the door causing a shocked look to appear on Jack's face, but I was relieved because I was saved from this somewhat awkward situation.
"Mrs. Sherwood, there is a disturbance in the security room." A tall strong looking man, dressed in a neatly pressed suit, stood in the door way with a frantic look upon his face. I turned back towards my mother which she was already halfway across the room with a cell phone pressed to her ear.
"Jack, please give Victoria a tour of the building." She frantically said before walking out the door. Jack gave a small nod before looking at me, waiting for me to stand.
I rubbed my tired eyes, before getting up to get a 'tour' of the place. I'm defiantly not in the mood to be doing this.
"Don't even go there; I'm not in the mood either." Jack muttered before walking back out into the brightly lit hallway.
"How—" I paused and I remembered that I didn't block that thought, that made me chuckle a little.
He showed me several meeting rooms, which they all looked the same; grey and boring. I asked him during the tour if he could take me to the security room, which would have been much more exciting but he told me he couldn't. He then took me to the training room. It consisted of all sorts of weapons. Now this is exciting. It had swords, shields, boxing gloves, and boxing ring, and other weapons I don't even know of.
"This is the training room. This is where we train our newest members of our company. It's usually the hunters we train almost twenty-four seven, but even if someone wasn't a hunter and just does the business, we train them a little bit anyways." He explained.
We walked out of the room, as two huge guys walked in talking about how many kills they have made in the past week, they were high numbers.
A couple doors down he took a key out of his pocket to unlock a door that had a sign that said 'history room'. The room was extremely dark when he opened it, which he pushed me into the room anyways. He walked in right after me and closed the door while turning on the light. I looked around; surrounding us were old and new pictures upon the walls and old newspaper clippings in frames. I walked over to a photo that caught my attention.
Looking closely at it, I recognized the people in the photo. It was my father and mother, holding a baby. My father's smile was so wide, causing his eyes to be squinty, and my mother has sweat droplets across her forehead as if she had run a marathon. The baby in my mother's arms was wrapped tightly in a blanket smiling as well.
"That picture was taken when you were born." He quietly muttered.
I touched the photo lightly, running my fingers over my father's happy face. "This was the last day my mother saw my father." A hard lump was forming in the back of my throat. "The day my father was killed." I choked out the last word.
Not being able to stand to look at the picture, I walked over to a table that rested a few papers. Above that table, a large stone carving hung on the wall that read: Thomas Sherwood, a good man with good morals and a pure heart. He will live forever in the hearts of everyone here at Thomas Sherwood Co. May no one forget what he sacrificed his life for.
Forever rest in peace Thomas.
The pain that I endured earlier was back, slowly creeping up into my throat; I wanted so badly to cry.
I cleared my throat, trying to ignore the pain and aggravating urge to cry out. "This company is called the Thomas Sherwood Co.?" I asked quietly, still staring at the stone carving.
"Yes, it was named after your father. You wouldn't believe, but your father convinced a lot of vampires to stay away from claiming. There are over 3,000 workers working for this company, which I'm sure that is a lot more than what your father would ever have imagined." I turned around, and a smiled was displayed on his pale face.
"You guys just convince people to not claim humans?" I was curious. He shook his head no, and I know I heard a little chuckle erupt from his lips. "We do a lot of things. We do convince vampires not to claim humans, but we also have vampire hunters that go out and kill newly born vampires that are disrupting a town or city. Or any vampires that are killing humans for fun. Stuff like that. We also arrange vampire clans, like help them get developed and we keep them in order." My eyes widened as I thought of what my father's small opinion turned into, and how my mother is in charge of all of this.
"I don't understand why you guys made my mother choose either the company or me. I was seven years old when she left. I was left with no one." The sentence faded into a whisper. I can't stand this anymore. I want to go home and see Kelly, Chris and the werewolves. I want everything to be back to normal.
"Come; let's go see if your mother is finished with her work." He was almost out the door, so I walked slowly; absorbing the pictures and history around me. Before walking out the door, I paused and turned around; next to me on a table was the same picture I saw earlier on the wall, laying on a pile of papers. I grabbed it and folded it nicely and slipped it in my pocket. No one will notice. I thought to myself. It's my family anyways.
Jack was halfway down the hallway, causing me to jog a little. He abruptly stopped in front of a door with a small window, next to the window 'security room'. Before unlocking the door, he knocked three times; I guess it's a 'secret knock'.
The room we walked into was somewhat dark; if it wasn't for the small television monitors the room would be pitch black. My mother was on the phone and she paused in mid-sentence to smile; probably still happy that I haven't run off or something. I could see the same giant men that I saw earlier behind the televisions talking on walkie-talkies; muttering about some intruders. I was actually pretty excited about the action going on. With the boring rooms, tours, and lectures, it was time for some action to happen.
"Well as you can see, this is the security room. A lot happens here." He laughed a little.
"You mean, you get a lot of stuff going on here?" I was actually surprised, I mean, what happens at a boring company building? Someone loses their pen or something, and they go on a huge search? I laughed out loud, causing Jack to give me a strange look, which made me laugh even more.
Staring at the monitors, my laughing stopped suddenly. On one of the monitors, Daniel, Kyle, Mike and Collin were in crouching positions surrounded by five other men their size.
"Oh. My. God." I breathlessly yelled. "That's my friends, my brothers!" I yelled while tapping one of the guys on the shoulder. "You need to get your guys away from them!" I hissed. A low growl formed in the bottom of my chest, and the tapping increased to punches. Jack, put a hand on my shoulder trying to calm me down.
"Victoria, please slow down and explain it to us." He said as calmly as he could.
I stopped punching the guy and pointed to the screen. "That's my brothers and my friends. You need to tell you guys to get away from them." I explained a little slower than before, but I was still shouting. "You need to take me to them."
My mother hung up the phone and took one of the walkie-talkies off of the desk. "Back down, I repeat back down, but don't leave them. We will be down in a second." She rested the walkie-talkie down and started to walk out the door with Jack right behind her; I followed them. We walked down three different hallways, and into an elevator.
Jack told me that they were in the lobby, which is where we're headed. The elevator wouldn't go fast enough and I started to wish that I took the stairs even though it was thirty three floors.
When the elevator doors opened I ran out of them, spotting them.
"Daniel, Kyle, Mike, Collin!" I yelled while running towards them. I pushed my way through the big guards and wrapped my arms around Daniel, which ended up being a group hug.
"How did you guys find me?" I wondered.
Daniel broke away from the group. "Collin did it. He's getting pretty good at investigating stuff." Daniel started to laugh his booming laugh. I looked up at Collin as everyone broke away from our group hug and he had his usual bright white smile spread across his tan face. He hugged me even tighter, which I rested my head on his warm chest.
"You found me, my prince charming." I whispered. He kissed the top of my head over and over again. "Of course, my princess." He played along. "I will do anything and everything to save you from any danger." He kissed my head once more, but I looked up and he softly kissed me on the lips. It was a different kind of kiss though. He kissed me as if it was our last kiss, or as if we haven't kiss in decades.
"I missed you." He muttered while I stared into his hazel eyes.
"It was only one day, silly." I kissed him once more, before turning to where the rest of the group was. My mother was talking to Daniel and Mike, while Kyle fooled around with one of the emotionless guards.
I walked over, with Collin right up against me. I could feel him all tensed, like he's afraid something is going to happen.
"Well it's nice to meet you Mrs. Sherwood." Daniel politely said.
"So you're her 'brother, and you're his friend," she pointed to Mike, "and you must be her boyfriend." She smiled and held out her hand. I was hoping Collin wouldn't shake it, maybe telling her that we needed to go, but he did the opposite. He didn't even hesitate to shake my mother's hand.
"Yes, I'm Collin." He said in a polite voice; I wanted to gag. A loud group of people came through the glass doors of the lobby, which I turned to see a group of teenagers. That's odd. I thought to myself.
A boy maybe eleven years old, with same pale skin as a vampire that clashed with his bright blond hair; rushed up to my mother.
"Mom, you wouldn't believe what happened today." He said joyously. My breath caught and my body tensed against Collin's body. He felt it, causing him to wrap his arm around my waist.
My mother looked in between him and me with a worried expression on her face. A low deep growl started to form in my boy turned towards me, and then his eyes widened. "Your—" He paused and looked at my mother; she shook her head yes. "You're Victoria." He whispered almost.
The growl deepened and got louder.
"Victoria, this is your younger brother Victor." She nervously wrapped her arm around him. My breathing started to increase and I started to hiss uncontrollably. Victor's expression turned from happy to worry in seconds as he realized he wasn't welcome. Collin's grip tightened around my waist. Victoria, calm down. His voice appeared in my head.
I slipped out of Collin's grip and headed for Victor and my mother. But Daniel and Mike were too close to them so they grabbed me in time before I caused any damage.
"How could you?!" I cried out. "You left me so you could be in this stupid company, and you have a kid?!" Daniel was holding me around my shoulders, while the guards that were left; surrounded my mother and Victor.
"You left me alone. I had no one!" My voice was starting to fade from the screaming. "Then you finally look for me ten years later!?" I stopped trying to get out of Daniels grip; my body relaxed and the growling quieted. "You never loved me." I whispered.
My mother was in pain, I could tell from the look on her face. I knew she never wanted this to happen, but the anger built up over ten years was finally being released.
Daniel's grip loosened and Collin stood in front of me, almost as if he was guarding me from my mother's guards.
"I want to go home." I whispered.
I saw my mother nod her head, which two of the guards took Victor to a room across the lobby. My mother stood alone.
"Victoria, it will only take time till you fully understand and accept what has happened. You can't turn back time, trust me, I know that. If I could, I would change everything. I understand you have a life now, a family that loves you. I won't take you away from that, but always know, I'm here for you now." She tilted her head to the side and flashed me a half sympathetic smile.
I couldn't take it anymore. I ripped out of Daniel's grip and headed for the glass doors.
Leaving the past behind me.
Hope you liked it. :D
The next chapter is going to be alot of fun to write. Not only because it's the last chapter, but because it's going to be exciting with lots of stuff going on.
So get excited.
I hope alot of you review. It would make me really happy. So please REVIEW! :D
Thanks everybody!
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