The Contract

Chapter 13

„I'm gonna show you something", Shin whispered in my ear when we had calmed down. I nodded and separated from him, feeling a little embarrassed because we had hugged. I never, ever hugged anyone. So I wiped the rest of my tears from my face and faced him. Shin smiled at me, grabbed my wrist and dragged me along, through the mansion to the door and outside in the overgrown rose garden where bees were buzzing and the sun was shining so bright I had to cover my eyes with my free hand. We crossed the garden and squeezed through a hole in a small stone wall leading into a forest. The branched cut into my skin, but Shin dragged me ruthlessly along until we reached the back door of a really dilapidated house. Well, at least we reached a hole that had used to be a door. Maybe.

Shin entered and I followed him, trying not to trip over the bricks and pieces of the wall lying on the ground everywhere. The floor led to small stairs and when we went upstairs I notices how big this house actually was. Sallow light shone through dirty, broken windows and flowers and tendrils grew all over the place, letting the whole room look peaceful and long abandoned. Birds' nests were hidden in every corner, protected from wind and potential enemies and trapped in here at the same time. An old sofa stood in the middle of the room on a carpet you could just barely recognize because of the plants.

„This house belonged to my grandparents. I lived here for a long time", he said, walking across the room and chasing all kinds of birds away. I didn't say anything and only stood there, watching him stroking the old sofa and sitting down on the carpet.

„So much has changed", he murmured and gave me a sign to sit down beside him. Slowly, I got closer and sat down on the edge of the carpet, still a bit embarrassed about before. From there, I could see the beams that were crumbling away with time.

„You didn't live with your parents? Did they die?", I asked even though I knew exactly that I was being insensitive. Shin flinched a little bit, then grit his teeth.

„Sort of", he said and leaned his back against the sofa. Sort of died? Well, that was an unique answer.

„My grandparents let me live here. They were such magnificent vampires – the parents of my mother. And they cared for me so much." I didn't know what to say. He had been lucky to have nice grandparents and I felt a little envious, but I ignored it.

„If they were vampires, I doubt they just died because they were old", I assumed and Shin agreed. But he didn't explain. Maybe his grandparents had been murdered like my parents and he didn't want to talk about it. Well, even if they hadn't been murdered, I understood he didn't want to talk to me about his life since I often felt the same way. To be honest, I wondered why Shin had opened up to me in the first place. Because I was in his reach right now? Or was he that lonely? I couldn't tell but I certainly wasn't the person you were friends with. I had none, neither Shin nor Reiji or Dante – they were just means to fulfill the purpose. What was I supposed to do? It was not like I was able to comfort Shin in any way or like I really wanted to. That he had seen me cry was bad enough, I didn't need to get any closer than this. Maybe I had gotten too close already, and that was why I was thinking about this now.

A sudden noise pulled me back into reality – a loud cracking above my head and the ceiling began crumbling away. Small lumps of stone fell onto my head as I jumped up and searched for the noise's source. The ceiling split open and exposed us to whatever was raging up there. I could hear claws scratching stone and several creatures growling dangerously. When my hand grasped for my weapons, they weren't there. Of course not, they were inside the mansion. When had I gotten this careless about my weapons?

„We have to get out of here!", Shin shouted over the louder and louder getting noises. Whatever was up there was supposed to kill me, I knew it. So I turned around and began running as fast as I could, stumbled downstairs and made my way through the dark, molding floor. My breathing was uneven and panic had reached me now. Grass and branches flew by as I ran and ran.