Bloodstained Lily

Chapter 2

I met him the next day on the crowded street. I held tightly onto my brother's hand and the other hand held onto the strap of my backpack firmly. Jordan stayed behind me, glaring at the tall vampire in front of us and growling slightly. For a kid to growl at a vampire, he had some guts, but the vampire sinply gave a dimpled smile and chuckled softly. Jordan didnt exactlt look very threateninf, I mean how could he? He was a small pale boy with strawberry blonde hair and big, slightly faded hazel eyes. Even he was small for his age and had a sweet face, like he could never even hurt a fly. Honestly, he just reminded me of an abandoned puppy. He just wanted, longed even, for a safe and loving damily withkut worry of them dying or somehow being separated from him. Its like when you go to the pound and you see all the different types if abandoned dogs, no two have the same personality. Some would wag their tails and become friendly to everyone, hoping they would get adopted. Others just snarl and growl in self defence. Unfortunately, my brother and I were the latter. I held him close to me, wanting to protect him but also held him in a way that almost felt like I was relying on him for support. Somehow it felt like I needed him by my side in order to feel safe around this strange vampire, who I was still VERY unsure about.

"Are you ready? I'll take your bag for you."

He reached for my bag but I pulled it further behind me and his smile faded a little and turned to an expression of hurt. That expression shouldn't have fazed me but in a weird way, it killed me a little inside slightly. It reminded me of the way my father would look at me when I ate the last TimTam in the packet. Such a mundane memory now seemed more precious than gold or the most expensive gemstone and I would have gladly traded all the gemstones or wealth in the world to relive such a simple memory. I always hated that hurt expression my father pulled and now this vampire was just bringing it all back up, unintentionally of course, but it still hurt. Eventually that lingering feeling of hurt gor to me and I gave in, hesitating before I finally let him carry my bag.

"You don't trust me, do you?" He asked and tried his best to muster up a smile.

"Does a mouse easily trust a cat?" I was surprised at how cold my voice sounded, I seemed so blunt and with that tone, I sounded like my brother, which in a way was both good and bad. My tone and speech made a small smile creep its way across Jordan's face and I couldn't help but feel a tiny bit victorious.

I knew better than to trust any old vampire I came across. Even the vampire store clerk my mothee and I uses to buy candy off of was now someone who couldn't be trusted in my eyes. The only person I could trust was my brother. He was all I had left and I would sooner have died than to see anything happen to him. He was definitely way too young to know that kind of sacrifical love, but I didn't care and I most certainly didn't expect the same from him. Even though we both grew up quickly and matured fast, I could never expect or wish for him to put himself in harm's way for me the way I do for him. He was way too young for all that. It killed me that he didn't have a normal child's upbringing. He couldn't just smile and laugh like other children his age used to, like I could when I was his age. Even though he was only a small boy, he was growing to have the heart of a soldier and I could tell he was very strong internally.

"I'm Henry by the way." The vampire said as he smiled gently before he tilted his head toward the direction of the forest and as he started walking, I pulled Jordan closer towards me and we hesitantly followed him.

I moved my hand through Jordan's lengthy, strawberrt blonde hair that shone in the sunlight, almost making it look like pure gold the way our mother's used to and I gently pulled his head closer to my hip as if it would somehow protect him. With every step we took, I made sure Jordan was right by my side, not trailing off and never being a single step behind me. For all I knew this vampire could have been leading us into some sort of raid trap or really anything. But at the same time...what if this really was our ticket to freedom? I couldn't deny Jordan his freedom. Even I, myself, was growing tired and dreamed of freedom and peace no matter how silly or unreachable that may have been. My head was spinning, being pulled both ways. At least if this vampire was leading us to freedom, it would be easier to trust him and perhals I could even go as far as to one day say we could become friends, PERHAPS. I would never promise such friendship to a vampire.