Truth be told (on hold)

Chapter Seventeen - The Colour of Evil

So I waited until morning until I dared venture through this house. I would’ve probably got lost in this maze of a house. It may have been a two story town house but was so much bigger than ours. The walls were a lemon colour that seemed to glow an eerie happy summer glow. There were vases of flowers on the shelves and pictures pinned up. They were painted by children, handprints and badly drawn people. I sat down on the sofa as I stared at the slowly ticking clock. I intended to wake them up as soon as was humanely possible, but if I woke them up they would probably go in some sort of mood with me, like dad did. From what he had told me, this is mum’s sister’s house and her family live here. They still got on well with Dad because he never told them the true circumstance of her death, that it was solely his fault.

I switched the TV on and flicked through the channels. The news, news, chat show, cartoon, news. I stuck on the cartoon channel because the news just depressed me and put me in a bad mood. I quite liked cartoons and comic books anyway. I switched my gaze from the clock to the TV and hugged the comfy pillow to my chest, nuzzling my face into it. I could go days without sleep so I was perfectly awake. But cartoons this early in the morning seemed to make me drift off. I flicked my fringe in front of my eyes and fell asleep, making sure that my fangs weren’t showing. I smiled as I pictured home, and how I could be back in a month’s time.

‘Leave her to sleep, she’s tired’ a woman sighed, her voice sounded similar to mum’s but her voice was more broken and worn. She sounded as if she smoked, she had that hoarse voice of a chain smoker. Mum’s sister, Summer. She had ashy blonde hair that complemented her almost model like bone structure. Her eyes were a mix of blue and grey and she was tanned. From the pictures she lived here with her husband, her three daughters and the family cat, Sparrow. The tabby cat that prowled about, jumping on birds and acting like this house was its own. The three daughters: Sammy, Rose and Elisa. Triplets I think, they all had auburn hair and green eyes, and tiny freckles that covered their cheeks. They were five and a half and were the average height for their age. Rose was the curious one, the one who tapped on my window. She probably is scared of me.

‘But Mum! I want to show her all my dolls and my teddies!’ I heard Sammy sulk, pouting and folding her arms. Her mum moved my hair away from my face and stroked my cheek gently, shivering.

‘Wed. Wake up. I can show you to your room so you can sleep more?’ she smiled, shuffling back as I sat up and yawned, stretching my arms out.

‘I’m awake now’ I smiled, hugging her. ‘Aunt Summer’ I giggled, pulling away and sitting on the orange carpet in front of her. She rolled her eyes. ‘The last time I saw you, you were newborn’ she laughed, making a cradling gesture with her arms. I pretended to gaga and laughed under my breath, picturing me that small. I couldn’t imagine her younger, my memories weren’t that good. She modelled once. The wall by the stairs had editorial pictures framed. But she chose a family over her career, a thing I thought was so cute.

‘Nick won’t be back until five, I was thinking of going to get some stuff for you while you’re here, seeing as your dad left you with no clothes. We could grab some lunch and have a girly day out? Rian is looking after the girls anyway’

My mind drifted off into thought. Rian, oh Rian! She was Summer’s best friend and a teacher at my school. One of the trainee ones but she was clever, she would be a perfect Chemistry teacher. Kind to everyone and good with children of all ages, because she was understanding and friendly, and most importantly easy to talk to.

‘Sounds really good’ I smiled, zipping up my jacket that now hung around my slimmed down frame. Seeing as I hadn’t eaten as much rubbish, I had lost a lot of weight. It would be nice to buy some new clothes, and being spoiled made my heart flutter. I’d never truly been spoiled since mum died, and it would make a pleasant change to have someone acknowledge my existence.

‘Well. I have to get ready so we’ll go in half an hour, that ok?’ she asked, taking the grips from her hair and placing them on the table, her blonde locks hanging down to her waist. I nodded, sitting on the sofa again and plugging my headphones in. I didn’t mind how long she took because I was finally going shopping.

‘Oh! And Aunt summer, thank you for this’ I smiled, hugging her gently, knowing I was strong.

‘Welcome, it’ll be nice to finally spend some time with you. Now, I really need to get ready’ she smiled, blowing a kiss and jogging up her wooden stairs. I looked down at the pocket knife but the writing was in Latin. What did he mean, by the end I’d be a different person? This was like heaven compared to back home.

Back then, I forgot that at that age I’d be needing more blood than usual.

**********

‘Here’ she smiled, handing me a chocolate milkshake and a slice of caramel shortcake. I span the plastic spoon on the table, casually watching people as they walked past, someone recommended it to me, saying it was relaxing. I smiled up at Summer, who sat down with her baguette. She placed her bags down at her legs and shuffled closer to the table, taking a large bite of the salad.

‘You look happier than I’ve ever seen you before, maybe you’re just a little depressed at home?’ she asked, I shook my head and looked down.

‘What was mum like?’ I asked, stabbing the shortcake. I didn’t know if this was too much of a personal question, but she swallowed the piece of baguette and placed it down, her eyes looking down at the table as if she was questioning her answer.

‘Caring, but she wasn’t very sensible. She met your dad I guess, she saw us less and less, kept going on about vampires like she was crazy. Then my mom, your grandma, had a long chat to her. We all went to the wedding but after that we never really saw her. She brought you here to introduce us to you, but then we heard about her...her’ she stuttered, almost choking on tears.

‘But, what was she like?’ I asked, handing her some tissues because she looked ready to bawl.

‘One hundred percent in love, always smiling, always buying people presents. Beautiful, we all told her she could be a model, but she wanted to go into science work. She was clever and studious at school, very clumsy’ she said with a slight giggle. I smiled, pulling on the new charm bracelet I bought with some money I saved up. I looked at the pink heart charm and sighed.

‘Please tell me you like pink’ she sighed, looking up at me. No I really didn’t, colour of evil. But pink was better than nothing so I nodded my head in slight agreement