Beyond Human: Queen's Shadow Series

22.) The Inevitable Choice

~~~Richard

'Richard are you sure?' I hear my brother's voice a sad smile and I smile and say, "as sure as I will ever be."  I could see the sadness in his eyes, but he was happy to see me alive even if I decided to be a vampire. I am so afraid though, I think about it more and more. I think about how the woman who saved me had red hair and how she guided me. I think about how I met that woman with red hair and how she saved me from all those other vampires. That was the night I knew I was in love, that was the night I knew I fell in love with the queen of the vampires from her alluring golden eyes, to her beautiful voice. I remember hearing how she said stay back I'll protect you, I remember how compassionate she sounded. The queen of all the vampires saved me, we were the very enemy of her kind.

I keep those stars to myself though, I remember her saving me though. I remember her prioritizing my life over her own people. Not only did she protect me at that moment, but she made me feel like the bravest little boy in the world. I was told that once you become a vampire you abandon a part of yourself, You give your soul to the devil in exchange for power. You are the most selfish man in the world if you are willing to feed on man to survive. Vampires are the devil's children incarnate. Yet all of the vampires I have met, they have all been kind they have all been merciful. Even though I and my brother didn't do too much fighting this time around it was good. We were protected, and all we had to do was protect the vampires who didn't fight or refuse to fight.

I have to make a choice, an inevitable choice. I have to choose to either die a man or become a monster of the night. Would I be a monster though? "I need to talk to Apollos." I say to Nathan, 'why?' I hear Angelica say, her eyes already mourning me. "Angelica, look at me." Tears began to roll down her eyes as she says 'Nathan..it's time to go.' Nathan hugs me and before he leaves I grab him by the head and we connect one last time. "You were the bigger brother, you've always been the big brother."

He turned away quickly, I hear sniffling before he left the room. I heard him say: 'I wish I said I loved you more brother.' there was a haunting silence as I said "me too."

~~~Apollos

I sit in my battle meditation going over the information. I finished my report on Lucifer's zealots not long ago, the information was checked and reviewed. The information on this new world caught my attention, especially with the different fruits and vegetables. They even have vegetables that enhance your stamina, unlike Earth but these vegetables are also very different. Some of these vegetables even looked like some of Earth's vegetables, it really has me interested to see how this mission of mine will shape up to be.

It's then that I hear knocking, I realized that it's time for me to leave my void. 'Apollos, are you in there?' I keep hearing the knocking and I get up to respond. As I open the door, I see Nathan's eyes, sad and completely tired. "Is he sure?" 'Yes, dammit. He's sure,' I walk out of my room and go to his, the equipment in his room was state-of-the-art and the doctors that were helping him make sure to make him as comfortable as possible. I just wish we could've helped him sooner.

I see Richard, his body is still muscular and fine but the problem is that he looks exhausted. He is far too exhausted yet still maintains a bright demeanor. 'I love her,' I hear him whisper. "Whoever you're talking about, you'll meet her soon enough. I'll be the one to change you," 'Fine. I'm sorry.' "What do you mean?" I say to him. 'I'm sorry I'm forcing you to do this,' "You're not forcing me to do anything. I'm okay with this," I take a deep sigh and I say, "Alright," I then bite my hand up as I gently put my hand around his head and I say, "Drink,"

He pulls up for a moment and says, 'This tastes like ass. Is this what dead people taste like?' I shrug and say, "I'm not sure," It's then that he begins to drink it some more and then he begins to lean back as he says, 'Okay. It's probably not that bad when you keep drinking,' "Alright Richard, I'm about to bite you," 'Right, it's okay. Gently bite down on me and caress me,' I bite him, ignoring his nervous commentary, I knew why he was nervous. It was something that I expected and I know why. He was about to undergo a change his body couldn't even comprehend, I couldn't even comprehend becoming Apollos. I just put on the mask and then the mask became me and I became the mask. Gabriel seized to exist.