Blood Ties (NaNoWriMo 2015)

Thirty-Nine

The only  funeral I'd ever attended I'd been three years old and it had been for my grandmother. Now I was eighteen and attending one for a vampire. At Ife's direction I slipped on the same black dress I'd worn at Cruor Luna and she'd lent me a shawl to cover my shoulders which was also black. I put on my usual make up and rather than do my hair, I left it down around my shoulders. I wasn't sure what to expect with this. I knew almost nothing about vampire religion and burial customs and quite honesty I hadn't known Johnathan so well either. I had come to respect him in the time I had known him and cared enough for his youngest son to feel sorry for the loss but would that be enough for me to earn a place there at the burial to say my goodbye and pay respects? I was alright with feeling like an outsider, but to feel like I was intruding was another matter for me.

The very last thing I wanted to do was say some off-hand, thoughtless comment and cause someone pain. I hadn't known much death in my life, at least, not the sort I could remember clearly, but I knew it was painful and had no desire to add more to it for being stupid.

God or Zalam, I prayed, I still maintained that neither one existed but in the event I was wrong, it wouldn't hurt to ask for a little help and if I was right, well no time was wasted over that either. Please, look after Johnathan's friends, family and coven. This can't be easy for them and please don't let me do something incredibly stupid and make it worse. The end.

I still felt a little stupid at the end, but at least I'd tried. "Come," Ife said. "They're going to start soon, we need to be out on the lawn."

I swallowed hard and felt sweat bead up on my forehead. "Alright," Ife looped her arm through mine and I felt her shaking.

"I'm so sorry," I said and I hated that for how many words we had in the English language when it came to consoling a grieving person all we had was "I'm sorry". How many years and we couldn't come up with something better?

"Thank you," she whispered, dabbing at her eyes with a hankie, the cloth came away red. I'd been right about Caiyun the day she'd found Damon and I after the attack, she'd been crying and it had been blood.

We walked in silence outside the manor, the humid night air clinging to us like cobwebs. Misty clouds hung overhead, partially obscuring the stars and a crescent moon. Crickets and misquotes buzzed around us, well me actually. Guess they didn't like vampires. In the center of front lawn, a crowd dressed in all black was already waiting.

"What are they going to do?" I asked Ife as we neared, voice low.

"You'll see," Ife said and we settled onto the far right of the crowd. I peeked closer to the front and I felt my eyes go wide and I'm proud to say I swallowed a gasp. A pyre was set on a stone platform, wood shining in the light with what looked like oil. On top, Johnathan Lockwood laid, dressed in a plain black suit, eyes shut and body frozen in the way that only death could bring. They were going to burn his body? That seemed a little medieval to me. I decided then it might be a good idea to write out what I wanted in the event death came for me while I remained here at the manor.

More people filed in and finally, right when the moon was directly overhead us, Archie and several other people wearing bedsheets (or at least it looked that way) stood around the pyre. One at his head, one at his feet, and one priest on each side. Now that I looked closer I could along see they were aligned like a compass, north, south, east and west.

Archie began to chant, as did his other priest and a priestess, I realized. Much like the night before they spoke in a language I didn't  understand but their tone was unmistakable-a farewell, a sorrow as they said goodbye and prepared a man who'd lead them faithfully for their version of the afterlife. They continued on like that for a few minutes, then they motions towards the mourners and my heart jerked in my ribcage as I saw the Lockwood family step forwards, bloody tears running down their faces. Caiyun whom I noticed was wearing the same dress she'd worn for Cruor Luna approached her husband's body and at the priests' instructions place a simple wooden walking stick across his body. Keith was next, holding a little coin which he placed in his father's mouth. This I recognized, a Greek tradition. A coin to pay the ferryman.

 Damon was next, and he held nothing, I saw a tear slid down his face as he approached his father. He placed a pocket watch in his dad's hands and stepped back. The priests began to chant again and I watched, morbidly fascinated as they walked in sync to grab torches and chanting louder and louder they touched the flames to their respective side of the pyre which went up with a loud whoosh.

I turned away from the bright, burning heat and felt my eyes burn from the heat. I waited expecting the foul smell of burning flesh to fill the grassy area but it did not come. Rather I smelled something entirely different. Furniture polish, ink, cologne and spearmint. Ife must have noticed my questioning expression because she leaned over and explained. "It was holy oil on the wood, when it burns, rather than the scent of flesh,  it gives us the scents that clung to the departed in life."

"That's amazing," I said but I still didn't attribute the oil to the reason. It reminded me more in incents. That was the logical explanation.

"It can remind us of better memories," Ife replied, eyes streaming once again.

"Yeah," I remembered that idea, that scents brought back the strongest memories. Even I, who had few memories of Johnathan Lockwood was now brought back to the night I met him. When he welcomed me to his home and explained what had happened to me. "It does."

I stared at the flames now, the strange smoke burning my eyes. The air was thick and for reasons I didn't fully understand, I felt a warm, salty tear slide down my cheek. Johnathan Lockwood was gone and Damon was now left on his own to lead Robur.

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Okay weirdest funeral I've even written about hands down! I promise we're going to get some insight as to what all those objects meant later, but for now the chapter ends here. I'd love to hear what you thought so please do COMMENT and VOTE if you enjoyed the chapter!

Write on! =D