Thou shall not kill chapter four
For Disclaimer see chapter one.
The Other Day
Frog brothers at home
Edgar and Alan were having dinner with their father and where trying to keep what happened from him at the same time.
Only, Paedrig Frog, actually owner of the Comic-Shop, in real life he was a doctor med and also very perceptive. Really, how did they expect for him to not notice something with the way they had come home?
There had been a time he had been a full time doc, but not nowadays. Well, he still did some work at the local hospital but just in cases of emergencies. Yesterday had been one of those. He had been for almost six hours in surgery and so he had been very late at home and been right in time to see them coming home.
He had noticed his son's dirty clothes and ruffled looks. Now he was very curious about what happened yesterday and gave them suspicious look after look.
"You've been on a vampire hunt, weren't you?" he asked them right after finishing eating dinner, out of the blue and thus catching them off guard.
"Vampires, dad? You believe in vampires?" Alan asked astonished at this admission.
"Of course I do. They are real as you and me." He smiled a knowing smile at them. He couldn't help but feel secretly amused at his boys' puzzlement. Oh, they were in for a surprise.
"Why…Why did you never say something?" Edgar asked sounding slightly offended.
"I've tried to protect you. I knew if you two knew something like vampires existed, you would have gone on a wild goose chase to hunt them down. They are too dangerous for you to hunt them down alone. I simply was worried about your well being." He explained while gesturing wildly.
Alan gasped. "But we've found alone out, that they exist."
"I know, I should have told you. So what did happen, yesterday night?"
"Well, it's a long story…" Edgar answered.
"We have enough time, son. " Paedrig smiled to himself.
"Okay, well we met this a new kid in town, Sam Emerson. His family just moved here. He's really a bright kid even if he has a rather odd fashion sense. But that wasn't the problem. It began when Sam's brother fell in with that pack of vampires."
"I'll see" Paedrig nodded, motioning for them to go on.
"But that was not the real beginning, Edgar", Alan objected. "I know, but that comes later. I have to tell the story the way it did happen to us. So, those vampires made Sam's brother, Michael, a half-vampire. Sam asked for our help. We told him to kill him, but he couldn't do it. And so we began to search for the head vampire."
"Sam suspected that Max would be this head vampire, because there were several hints. You know like he always shows up after dark he got a nasty dog and so on. He got a point there and the whole trouble began, when Sam's mother started to date Max."
"So, Max was the head vampire, wasn't he?" Paedrig summarized.
"Yes, he was. But he got through our tests in the beginning." Alan sounded shameful.
"Why this?"
"Well, when we tested him, in Sam's home, Michael accidentally invited him, not knowing Max was a vampire. We didn't knew that at that time," Edgar said, explaining.
"I see, so guess it didn't went well." Paedrig smiled a knowing smile.
"Hell, no. But in the end we killed them all, the vampires. Yeah, with a little help from Sam's grandpa. Actually he deserved the glory of having killed the head vampire."
"And now he's back to normal, Sam's brother I mean?" Paedrig leaned forward, looking somewhat sceptically at the two.
"Yes, they all are." Edgar and Alan confirmed, sounding proud.
"They? There had been more than one half-vampire?" Paedrig raised an eyebrow, questioningly.
"Oh, yes. Michael, this girl Star, his girlfriend, and Laddie, a little boy"
"And they are all completely normal now?" Paedrig repeated his question, sounding now even more sceptical.
"Yes, of course they are. Why, do you have doubts, father?"
"There's always the possibility of failure, son. But if not then you saved them all. And I'm very proud of you two." Paedrig told his boys, "But I think I should tell you more about them, the undead. There's a lot more to know than in those comic-books of yours is mentioned"
"There is? Really?" Alan and Edgar asked both. Their eyes had grown big with curiosity, oh, the joy.
"And there's more than just vampires, a lot more. It's not only black and white. There are many shades of grey in between."
Paedrig was very interested in history, especially history of magic, legends and so on.
On could say that he knew a lot. He will teach everything he'll knew about the supernatural, everything that might help his sons survive encounters like yesterday night in the future.
"But most important I should tell you why I first was a bit sceptical."
"Why is that?" Alan wondered.
"Well, it's because that killing the head vampire does not always bring all half-vampires back to normal. There are factors which change its success drastically."
"What kind of factors would that be?" Alan asked, alarmed now.
"Well, there are several but the most important ones are about the mind and soul. The very essence of a being." He lectured.
"What? You mean if someone doesn't want to return, he doesn't?" Edgar asked shocked.
"No, no, it's not that simple. If it where it would be a lot easier, but it's not." Paedrig sighed heavily.
"Innocence, Alan, is very import. Children almost always return to us." He explained, "Guess it's because the curse is so much heavier on them. Think about living for centuries but being trapped in a child's body."
"Yeah, that would be horrible." Alan and Edgar agreed.
Paedrig starred outside and still thinking. Something about the things happened seemed not quite right. Something was amiss. Then suddenly he stood up.
"Dad, what's wrong?" Edgar asked worried.
"What's wrong, Edgar?" He asked his sons. "Everything son, I'll think I know now."
"What do you mean dad?" They asked together, totally mystified by this.
"Alan, didn't you say that that Emerson boy, Michael and that half-vampire Star were a couple?" He asked his son, trying to confirm his suspicions.
"Yeah, they were quite cosy with each other but what has that to do with becoming human again?" Alan wondered.
"A lot son, a lot," he replied, then swallowed. "Well, we can't be sure right now."
"Then how long does it take to be sure?" Alan asked.
"How long does it take to turn?" Paedrig returned, eyebrow rising.
"Three days, sometimes less, that is right, isn't it dad?" Edgar answered.
"Yeah, that is right. And that is the time it takes to be sure they are back for good." He explained.
"That long?" Alan wondered. "Last night I thought it had been rather instantly, hadn't it Edgar?"
"Yeah, it had, bro." Edgar smirked, remembering the smiling faces from last night.
--
Mike's room
Michael Emerson had a nightmare or should it be called a daymare? He couldn't sleep, not really. He was turning and tossing in his bed. He dreamed of that very night, of his fight with David.
He heard David's voice again and again, "You are one of us!"
"No!" he replied in sleep.
"Yes, you are still mine." He heard him whispering. "You are both mine. Nothing's going to change that." David chuckled.
"No!" Michael whispered a second time, but this time he wasn't all that sure.
He wasn't sure if he wanted to fight it anymore.
He woke up, shaking his head in denial "Had David been right?" Back then he thought not so, but now he knew that wasn't true.
David had been right; he was still one of them.
"Michael?" he heart Star whispering. He had woken her up, too.
"Yeah?"
"You all right?" She looked him in the eye.
"Yes, only a bad dream." He explained then shrugged.
He got halfway up, starring at the ceiling now.
"Star?"
"Michael?"
"What about David?" He asked uneasy. "I mean he disappeared and I've this strange feeling any time I think about him."
"Me, too," she replied. "He's out there I think."
He took her into his arms.
Thank you for reading.
Miarath