The Four Elements:- Earth, Air, Fire, Water.

Chapter 9 - The Funeral

Sam

It is 7:30pm and the night is cool. I am dressed in a new black suit with black shoes. As I look upstairs; hoping to see Phoebe soon so we can set off. “Phoebe, hurry up or else we are never going to get to the funeral,” I shout up to her. She doesn’t answer which I find very rude. I can hear the floorboards creaking so I know she is on her way down the hall. As she steps around the corner I can finally see what she is wearing. She is wearing a beautiful black dress that goes to her knees. She has little black ballet shoes on and she is wearing a black hat. She is really going all out for the funeral. As she descends the stairs I can’t help but smile. I know I shouldn’t because it is a funeral but seeing her is the most wonderful thing in the world. “What?” She asks me. I just grin at her. I am so glad I have someone like her in my life. “You look stunning, even for a funeral” I whisper. I wrap my arm around her waist and we go to say goodbye to the others. “Right, we will see you in a couple of days. Okay?” I say. Brandon nods his head and says “Have a safe journey,” I nod back and we leave the house locking it behind us. We both clamber into the car and it purrs to life as I turn the key in the ignition. “You ready?” I ask her. She nods at me and stares out of the window. I push down on the accelerator and we leave the town. We ride into the darkness leaving the town behind us.

 ***

 Phoebe

The journey is long and tiring and I need blood. As we pull into a gas station just inside a small town I give Sam £40 to fill the car up. I look for someone that I can take my lunch from. I see a young male walking down an alleyway so I decide to follow. Yummy, he looks tasty I think to myself. As I walk slowly down the dark alleyway I can smell him. I slowly walk forward, ready to attack. He suddenly comes to a halt and turns around. He gives me a half smile and walks away. What the hell was that? Why did he just look at me like that? I follow him until I reach a door. I gently pull on the door handle and it opens with ease. There was no creaking noise to be heard. I slither inside and it is dark. I walk into the middle of the room and I hear the door bang shut behind me. I spin around, there is no one there. As I look around the room something soft touches my leg and I jump. “Phoebe, Phoebe, Phoebe, you little devil. You had to follow the sweet innocent little boy” A cackling laugh echoes. “Who are you?” I shout. I see something move within the shadow, heading towards me. When I see his face I don’t recognise him. That is a bad sign. I quickly step back and head towards the door. I yank on it and it hardly moves. I yank on it again and pull it off of its hinges. I run out into the light but he grips my leg. I scream as he drags me backwards into the dark. One minute I am being dragged back into the darkness, the next minute Sam is running towards me. I watch as he flies over my head and attacks the man. The fight is over in seconds and it is clear that Sam won. I stand up and we walk silently back to the car. I am till thirsty but the boy is nowhere to be seen. I sigh. “What’s wrong love?” Sam whispers. I shake my head at him and he gently grasps my hand. He moves my face to look at his and his kisses me on the lips. “I love you!” He whispers. I smile my biggest smile. I love him more than anything. “I love you too Sammy! Now let’s get a move on or we will be late to the funeral, not that I care” I say. He looks at me like I have just slapped him. I raise my eyebrow at him and think to myself. Ok why is he looking at me like that? What did I do? I just stand there until he pulls me along to the car. He grabs something from the back and throws it into my hands. I can already feel my fangs elongating from my mouth and I can smell the heavenly blood. Sam watches me as I pop the bottle cap open and I drink it greedily. I lick the blood from around my face and Sam hands me a wipe. “Thanks” I whisper. I wipe all of the blood from my face and chuck the wipe out of the window. He turns the car back on and we head off to Ashleigh’s funeral.

 ***

 Phoebe

I knock on the door of Ashleigh’s home and I wait with Sammy. I can hear the footsteps coming from the living room and as the door opens a blonde haired blue eyed woman steps out to greet us. “Hello, are you Phoebe?” I nod my head at her and hold out my hand. Sam steps next to me and does the same. “I’m so sorry for your loss Mrs Dirt” Sam says gently. She nods and opens the door wide enough for us to walk in. “Please come in” She whispers. I can see the shin in her eye and I know she is going to cry soon. We both step into the house and I see Ashleigh’s father in the corner talking to some family friends. Her brother Zane is stood by himself looking depressed. I raise my eyebrow and he turns to look at me. I see the small tear trail down his cheek and I instantly look at the floor. “Excuse me can I have your attention everyone” We all turn to look at her mother. “I want to thank you all for coming today. The hearse has arrived so if we could all make our way there please” The family all pile out and we leave the house and climb into our own car. It’s a black Ferrari. I climb into the leather seat and I watch as people look at us. The hearse leaves first and we all follow suit behind it. The journey doesn’t take long and we arrive at the church. We all walk in and take a seat, the priest starts to talk. “We are here today to celebrate the life of Ashleigh Dirt, she was a lovely child and she has left us too soon. God, please take care of this child” We all say Amen and leave the church and head for the graveyard. The coffin carriers begin lifting it over their head. As they slowly descend the small hill to reach the place where Ashleigh would be buried, I felt like I shouldn’t be here because I don’t even care that she is dead. I stand in silence as the burial service finishes.

 Sam

I watch Phoebe closely, looking for the emotion I was expecting from her but she doesn’t shed a tear. I worry for her; I don’t want to lose her. I watch as Phoebe picks up some dirt and slowly walks to the coffin. She throws in onto the coffin and then she places a Lillie down with her. She walks back over to me and whispers “Who cares. I hated the bitch anyway”. I look at Phoebe with utter disgust. Slowly the rain begins to pour and I watch as the coffin men cover the grave fully, now she is gone. I think to myself I wonder why she doesn’t care anymore. I don’t want to lose her. We all leave the funeral and go back to our cars. Both I and Phoebe set off into the sunset, heading home.

 ***

We arrive home quickly and walk into the house. I breathe a sigh of relief. I watch as Phoebe walks upstairs and doesn’t say hello to the others. I walk into the living room and they are all sat there watching a horror film, they don’t even know we are here. I sneak behind them all and jump up from behind the sofa and shout “BOO!” Lillie and Aurora scream whilst Shane jumps up with a weapon. Brandon sits their smirking. Of course he knew I was there. “Jesus Sam, what the hell was that you idiot?” Aurora shouts. I just laugh and she soon starts giggling and they all join in. “Where’s Phoebs?” My grin turns to an annoyed face. I point upstairs and say “She is being really weird lately, she didn’t even cry at Ashleigh’s funeral and she says she hated her” Brandon says “I’ll talk to her; it could be this new Hybrid thing that is freaking her out a bit” I nod at him and say “Well, I’m going upstairs, I’ll see you guys later” “Bye” They all say in chorus. I walk upstairs and I see Phoebe just stood there looking out of the window. I walk up to her and wrap my hand around her waist. She jumps and claws at me whilst screaming. Everyone downstairs moves and Brandon uses his vampire speed to get up here first. He wraps his arms around Phoebe to stop her from clawing me. She growls at him and she tries to attack him but he is stronger than her right now. I can feel the blood trickling down my face and she looks at me and I see her eyes. They are black, like they were always that colour. I watch her closely, still struggling against Brandon and then it stops, just like that. She looks around the room and says “Errr why are you holding onto me? What’s going on?” Then she looks at me and sees the blood. “What happened to you?” She asks. Then I lift my hand up and point at her. She looks down and sees her hands with blood on them. “Oh my god, what the hell did I do?” She hits Brandon and he lets go, she runs past us all and straight into her room. I immediately look down at the ground feeling dreadful for telling her it was her that hurt me. I should have said it was someone else. A warm hand touches my head and I look up to see Lillie with a towel. She wipes the blood off of my face and quickly walks down the stairs to throw it in the wash. I look towards Phoebes room and all is quiet.