Chateau de Grimm

Journey to Nowhere

                                                                                         Morgan

"Morgan! Wake up! We're almost there."

I felt a harsh jab in my side as I jolted awake. I hissed as I tried to lift my head from the window but it was stiff and sore.

"How long was I asleep for?" I mumbled as I rolled my neck and shoulders.

"Too long, I've been bored out of my brain for hours. Here." I was handed a hairbrush. I looked to the woman driving beside me and rolled my eyes.

"Don't look at me like that we have to be presentable."

"Mum, it's fine, I look fine, stop pestering." I whined, shoving the bright pink piece of plastic into the glove compartment.

"These people- These creatures are different to us Morgan. We're gifted, we see things others can't, dream of potential futures, but we're still human, mortal. Where we're going...No one is human and no one lives like us. The bloodsuckers already think our powers are useless, let's not give them any other reason to look down on us, now please just brush your hair." She reached over and snatched open the compartment before huffing and staring out at the country road ahead.

I sighed, giving in to her. She was right. I'd never met any other magical or ancient being. They didn't live in the normal world. Seers like us are just humans with an extra ability. We live and die just like anyone else, most of the time without ever using our gifts for anything more than to help ourselves or others get a glimpse of the future. Some of us suppress our gifts, never uttering a word of any visions our whole lives. I never thought I'd get to go to the Chateau, neither did my mother. We were never supposed to be here, we're 100 years too early....

As we drove through the woodland it hit me how far away we were from home. I'd never visited Europe let alone anywhere this remote. I turned to my mother, who was becoming increasingly stressed the further we disappeared into the trees. "Do they know us? The vampires? I mean, how will they know what we are?" I asked.

"Oh, they'll know. They know everything Morgan." She said with a shudder. I blinked at her before turning back to the window. The sun was setting and the branches of the trees seemed to dance in the breeze. I focused on the movement outside, trying to suppress my nerves. Vampires were feared amongst all those who knew of their existence. I was told many scary stories about them as a child. How they would hunt young and beautiful humans, keep them hostage until they were bored of them, or until the poor mortals had died of blood loss. They were seductive and cruel, brilliant, yet wicked. And they were impossible to read, unless they craved your blood, then they became as transparent as a sheet of glass.

I stopped breathing for a moment as my mother stopped the car in front of a huge dark gate. She sighed and undid her seatbelt slowly. "Morgan. Listen to me. Whatever you do, don't let me out of your sight, for this whole week, we're glued together ok? I can only protect you so long as you're next to me. The creatures in this mansion are dangerous, but the others yet to arrive are even more so." She looked at me with heavy eyes, intensely until I nodded at her.

"Trust none of them. And don't ever share your visions with them. No matter what or who they concern. Only confide in me, got it?"

"Ok..." I meekly responded. My mother wasn't normally this serious, she was cautious, but only to protect my gift. She worked so hard to make my life as normal as it could be, and I was grateful for that. I may have been an adult, but had no plans of disobeying her on this trip.

As she got out of the car my heart skipped a beat and I wanted to jump out with her. Instead I sat and watched, not moving my gaze an inch from her. She stepped up to the gate and took a letter out of her pocket. It was the letter she'd received exactly one month ago requesting for her and one other representative of our kind to attend the meeting at the Chateau. It was unexpected, but no one had a choice, if you received a letter you must attend. Why my mother and I were the Seers summoned was a question I wanted an answer for. If there was anything I did know about vampires, it was that they never did anything without having a calculated reason. My mother opened the envelope and took out a copper key. I noticed her hands shaking slightly as she slid it into the lock on the gate. She removed the old chains and padlock from the rusty bars before pushing the gate open.