After Hours (VAMPIRES PART 1)

Chapter 8

JENNIE

I'm doing the right thing, I know I am. I shift on stage. What choice do I have? This is the only way to stop everything from unravelling.

I take a deep breath, brush down my cream ballgown and look out at the crowd. It's show time.

"I've always been fond of antiquities. When you're as old as I am, memories fade, their edges fraying and blurring. It becomes difficult to hold on to them when their essence is slippery. Which is why I like antiques. You can attach a memory to the object, and it holds steadier, like an anchor.

"I was searching for antiques in the Montague territory thirty years ago. Many of you will remember that the city used to be fully accessible. There was no magical boundary preventing us from accessing the heart of the territory."

There's a murmur of agreement from the older hunters and most of the vampires. When it dies down, I continue.

"But what many of you won't know, is that I was there the night the boundary was created."

There's an audible gasp in the room. I close my eyes, letting the memories flood over me and begin to tell them my story.

Thirty Years Ago

Night washes over me, bathing my skin in pale beams only the moon and stars can. The Montague territory is peaceful this evening. The large lake in the heart of the territory is calm save for a few bubbles from the koi beneath the surface. I traipse through the maze-like streets towards the ancient castle at the heart.

I'm here because Miyeon's heirs have a grimoire I want. Before she was turned, Miyeon, the witch who cursed me, had dhampir apprentices, and this grimoire in particular is rumoured to have belonged to one of them. I'm not holding out hope that it will contain the cure to her curse. But anything could be a clue, so I'll treat it as such until I prove otherwise.

Unfortunately, as I step onto the grounds of the castle, I'm halted. I stretch my fingers out, testing and prodding the air, uncertain as to why I can't move forward. But there's no perimeter, no fizz of weak magic in the air. I'm just stopped and no matter how hard I try and push forward, I cannot.

Miyeon's heirs stumble out of the castle and onto the driveway. All of them bearing the same startled expression I fear I'm wearing.

"What's going on?" I shout across the courtyard.

But my words are swallowed as if I never produced them. More of her heirs appear on the porch now. A cluster of ten or so. All of them wearing deep frowns.

The man at the front waves. His mouth moves but I can't hear anything. I wave back and he turns to those behind him, but they're all nonplussed.

The air shifts, there's a crack of thunder and the ground rumbles as if it's tearing itself in two. And I suppose, in a way, it is. Between us, the courtyard fractures and tears, a thin fissure appearing down the middle, separating them from me.

Their eyes widen. My mouth falls open. This is no longer worth it. I care more for my life than the grimoire.

I step back, but my feet don't move. I'm frozen in place. My heart hammers in my chest. Blood pounds through my veins, I need to get out of here. I yank at my feet. Try to punch the gravel around my boots to force it to release me.

Nothing works.

The earth rumbles, shakes, and then through the widening cavern in the courtyard, creeping plants whip up, lashing at the air as they mat and intertwine. Her heirs stand aghast, some with hands over their mouths, others unable to watch.

The green stems twist and plait, interlocking. They're forming something, growing something. Faster now, more and more burst up through the earth and mesh with those already in place. It starts on the ground, as if the crack in the earth contains the roots.

A frame appears and I realise what the plants are making.

A door.

It's an enormous, ornate door. More and more vines erupt from the earth and slither their way towards the frame. They grow darker, harden into woody limbs and branches. The door has lower panels now, a handle, a lock.

But then something more. Words appear, etching themselves onto the door. A burst of light and sparks erupts as the words ignite and burn the wooden branches until the words are black scars upon the door. I pull a scroll and ink from my satchel and write as fast as I can, not wanting to miss a single letter.

And this is what it said:

Behold the Door of Destiny, forged in realms unknown,
Guardian of secrets, in its magic it is sown.
A portal bound by time, an enigma to explore,
Yet heed this warning, for thirty years it stands, no more.
Blood of the night, a child of two worlds' embrace,
A dhampir born, a dhampir turned. The heir to unlock this sacred space.
For millennia dormant, the door now stirs.
Only the worthy may approach,
Only the true heir.
In shadows they walk, with pulse of sun and moon,
The first of their kind, with fangs that hunger and a heart that beats,
They alone shall open the door and reveal the grimoire secret within.
The prophecy whispers of this sole chance,
For the rightful heir to undo the city's dance.
But heed, oh seeker, the sands of time are swift,
Thirty years' span, and then the door shall lift.
Open the portal, reveal the truth concealed,
Or lose forever the chance for Sangui's fate be healed.

Once the last word was scorched into the door, the earth stopped rumbling. The door was complete. My feet released from where they were being held. I took one step forward and the world exploded.

White blinding light burst from the heart of the door and expelled everything and everyone out of the vicinity. I was flung, pushed, propelled out of the castle grounds. Further and further. Flung through the air like a rag. Yanked away from the door by a shimmering boundary pushing and pulling me away.

Until I was so far from the door, I could no longer see it.

There, the magic rested, sealing the door and the heart of the Montague territory behind a boundary that none of us have crossed in thirty years.

My story ends, and I come out of my memories, finding myself back in my eldest daughter's Whisper Club, the entire room stony silent. At least the story had the impact I needed.

I clear my throat and continue.

"Those thirty years are almost over. And that is why I'm here. And why I need us to work together. As a city, we must unlock that boundary and open the door because what lays behind it is the keeper of all of our fates."