The Way You Bleed

Six.

Standing around the empty grave was even more surreal than accepting the fact I'd never be able to talk to Curtis again. His name was engraved into the slab of grey marble, immortalizing him in a completely new way. I wasn't sure what he would think of it all, he never liked being the center of attention but he was always there in the middle of it all.

And that's what got him killed.

Luke's eyes were hidden under dark shades, the most reluctant to attend out of all of us. Being one of the undead, celebrating a life was a different concept. He had not had to grieve like this since he was living, our own death was the one which we are haunted with, the glimpse at where we could have been instead like a song you can't get out of your mind and you didn't like the tune. When we die, we turn to ash. We are left where we fall, the winds or in the vampires case of dying at the apartment, vacuum, sends us into nothing. There is no grave to mark that we once were someone who lived and existed, no place for any of the living to come and grieve.

This changed that, made it real and it was more uncomfortable than offering closure like these things are meant to do.

He blamed me.

I blamed me.

It had been a week, a week of existing not living. Everyone was expecting me to crumble and completely fall apart but the walls around me kept me in one piece. Just. With every minute of silence Luke served in my direction it helped my resolve to keep it kind of together, for him, strengthen. I deserved to suffer at his hand but he never made it physical or even vocal.

He knew I found the silence worse than anything he could do.

"Would anyone like to say anything?" Mandy asked from where she was tucked under Cams arm as if she was made to be apart of him. This whole thing was her idea. The living grieved the dead. "Luke?"

He shook his head, still not speaking.

"Lucy?"

"I don't know what to say," I mumbled, cringing slightly as Andre tried to put his arm over my shoulders.

"You had plenty to say when I said no to the pair of you!" My head snapped up to look at Luke from across the gravesite and the venom in tone had everyone on edge. Somewhere nearby a crow cawed, the sound filling the silence, as even the bird knew how horrid this situation was.

"But....."

"But what? You didn't know it was going to happen? It wasn't your fault? That Darvid wasn't you fault? I've lost everyone from my human life and now, what family I had as a vampire is gone" He sighed, lifting his glasses to sit on top of his head to reveal clouded eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose and while his voice had been filled with anger his face was as revealing as the stone tombstone. His eyes found mine, so empty and deadly he wasn't done and his next words made up for the week of silence, it was the blow I had been waiting for him to serve.

"I should have left you to die"

Owen growled, stepping up to defend me. I couldn't even tell if there was any regret in his actions and before anyone could think of something to say he was half way across the graveyard.

"Lu, he didn't mean it" Andre stood in front of me holding my shoulders I was expecting him to start shaking me.

"I'm pretty sure he did" Mandy opened her mouth to protest and I moved away from Andre, torn between chasing after Luke so he could continue his assault and hiding from him so he couldn't. I decided to give him space, and fell to my knees in front on the tombstone. Reaching out I ran my finger over his name, and the first tear since the night he died rolled down my cheek and fell onto the grass below.