Chapter 13 – The Betrayal
Amelie's POV
Sam stared at me with a bored expression on his face. "Yes, we decided to hunt vampires. But don't stop now! We're getting to the goodpart!"
I inhaled as deeply as I could, knowing that vampires did not need to breathe but feeling the need to. This was not the situation that I had expected to be in at this moment in time, and certainly not the way I had expected to be telling all of the people that I cared about the worst deed I ever did.
"So..." I continued, "After that was decided, we left the place we stayed with an army of rebellious vampires, all loyal, all brave, all kind. We were a family, and we decided that together we would be a family for all of eternity, that together we would avenge ourselves and our peers for the horrible thing that had been done to us.
"And we did what we had set out to do. We murdered both Sam and Morley's fathers – as mine unfortunately got away – and we murdered the hundreds of innocents that followed those whom we hated. And when we were done, we were happy. Although we knew that it wasn't the end, that there were vampires out there who did not want to be vampires. And my people, they decided that they wanted to put them to rest; to kill them all one by one so that they would suffer no longer with the curse of immortality.
"I told them no. I told them that if it had been us that had been turned into vampires by strangers for no other reason than for them to experiment, we would have wanted to be saved, to be helped by people that had been through what they had. Though none of them would listen to me, they were all so determined to 'help'the other vampires of the world."
I heard a clap and looked up from the floor which I had been staring at with tears in my eyes, and saw that it was Morley whose hands clasped each other, though his eyes did not hold a glint of praise. "You make us out to be the bad ones, when it was you that locked us in..."
"Lether finish, Morley," Sam said in a very calm and collected way. "We asked her to do this, so the least we can do is listen to what she has to say."
I nodded my head in appreciation – real appreciation this time, not fake – and continued on with what I had been saying. "I did not want to allow this, though I could think of nothing that I could do to stop them. I sat for days on end, thinking of ways to reason with them, to bring sense to the words they spoke and the actions they planned to make.
"And then I realised that there was something that I could do, but if I went through with it then I would lose the only family I had left in the world. So I decided that it was them, or more innocent people's lives; and the choice was so... so obvious that I had to do it, I had to throw away the trust that I had gathered after years and years from the only people that I had ever loved.
"So I locked them in the Crypt." And when I said this, I heard someone gasp, but I did not look up to see who it was. "I locked them there with no blood, no clothes, and no comfort. I locked them in the place that haunted all of us in a way that ran so deeply through our veins we could never recover from the memories. I put up the wards so that they could not see the escape way and left them there. I had always believed that I would go back to let them out, but eventually I just let myself forget; if they were in the Crypt, I could forget all of the terrible things I had ever done in my life, all of the people that I had killed. So I kept on pretending.
"I had always thought that they would have died down there with no blood, but it turns out I was wrong." I lifted my head up and signalled to the giant audience that I had betrayed so very long ago, and I let out a very bitter laugh.
And then I looked into the eyes of Claire. She looked at me with fierce determination; it showed how strong she was. I could see just from her face that there were so many mixed and battling emotions fighting the others for attention inside of her.
I heard Sam speaking to Morley, and Morley seemed to be arguing with him. But before Morley could say anything to us, Sam stood and gestured to the entire hall. "So you see. This is why we cannot allow you to leave this place, not without a fight at the very least – and we all know how that will work out." The hall of vampires laughed and chattered among themselves as if they had interesting gossip to share, and then the sound of Sam's voice continuing stole the attention away from the little conversations that conversed between the people. "You will not leave here alive, so if you would just give up with any hopes that you may have, it would be much easier for both you and us."
"Why do you wish to punish the people that stand with me?" I demanded as I began to feel slightly disoriented. "Why do you wish to, yet again, harm innocents when they have done no wrong – to you or to anyone else? You can take me, and you can kill me, but do not lay a hand on the people that stand here with me."
The pity that swam in the eyes of the man that I had cared for so deeply many hundreds of years ago wiggled its way under my skin. "Why, Amelie, do you not understand? We do not wish to harm you, that is not our intention, we simply wish to cause you emotional pain, pain that physical harm could not even begin to accomplish. We shall not kill you, Amelie... We shall allow you sit by – very much alive – and watch as we murder each and every person that you care for."
I walked forward so that I stood in front of my loved ones, protecting them from the harm that threatened, "Over my dead body."