Human Sacrifice

Chapter Twenty One

Chapter Twenty One

Patrique’s POV

I watch Gwen while she slept, she frequently got nightmares here and would begin to shake or cry. I felt like I was looking after a child. Brix seemed a more spirited person. Sighing, I stood up from the bed and picked an ash coloured shirt from my wardrobe: it wasn’t my favourite but all of my others reminded me of events I wanted to forget.

I missed her, every day I would hope she’d come back

I buttoned my shirt up and fixed the collar to find Gwen still asleep. Lucky. She never stopped talking and it was getting on my nerves. Sometimes I questioned my choice in girls, Gwen seemed like somebody who had to have all of the attention and Elwyn hated me, and I hadn’t seen Mae since she got locked up.

I carefully opened the door, trying to avoid making a huge noise that would wake Gwen. I ran down the corridor at speed and sat at the dinner table as Scott ate his breakfast. He looked at me and laughed. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost”

“No, I just had to put up with another night of Gwen and her constant talking. I swear if she does it anymore that I’m going to have a headache” I laughed, rubbing my temples. Actually, I was starting to get a headache myself. “Did you make me some breakfast?”

“There’s some spare in the fridge” Scott smiled up at me, his mouth full of red scrambled eggs. He must have been hunting last night. He didn’t seem very worried about the fact I’d let Brix go, but I hadn’t told him that it was my fault. He’d probably rip me up like he threatened ages ago. When we were kids we always used to play pirates and he always used to be the bad pirate, I guess that attitude stuck with him.

“Thanks” I muttered, placing the eggs into the microwave and pressing the button. The sad thing was that I had little to no cooking ability whereas he could be a chef, and the eggs were always red (all the food here was) because of the blood. Scott always wanted to be a chef whereas I wanted to work in media or fashion.

“You look upset today” he sighed as I sat down, taking a fork from the draw. I grabbed a carton of juice from the side of the table and drank some, looking up at him through my fringe. Even though I was the smarter of us, naturally, I had no common sense or way with women; even with that though, I still felt something for Brix.

“Am I not allowed to be?” I replied, pushing the eggs around on my plate before eating them. They were still partly cold and it slid down my throat like the reverse feeling of sick, nice. The blood provided a nice flavour to the mush though.

“Look, Patrique, everyone’s noticed that something hasn’t been right with you over the last few days, and you need to tell somebody before it eats away at you” he frowned, looking at me. “It’s like when you say that you can’t bottle up your feelings”

“Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do” I growled back at him as I finished eating. “You always do this Scott, act as if you know everything about everyone and it really annoys me!” I stormed out of the room only to bump into a girl. I ran my hand through my hair and laughed slightly. “Sorry”

I heard her mumble something and my instinct forced me to grab her arm, making her look up at me. I gawped. “What are you doing here again? You should leave, quickly” I said, hiding her from Scott. He would flip out if he saw her.

She shrugged: “It’s a free world, I’m allowed to go where I want thank you very much” she laughed, pulling her hood down. I shook and kicked the kitchen door shut, running my hands through her hair and pulling her up into a kiss. It felt like fireworks, the spark, and I never wanted it to end; I hated the fact that ‘all good things must come to an end’.

I felt her slam me back into the wall and a mix of pain and pleasure washed through me. Oh how I wanted her. I couldn’t. I pushed her away and ran off down the corridor, running at such a speed that everything became a blur and everything morphed into a blob of colour. I liked running at my vampire speed; it made me feel free that I could run faster than normal people.

My father though just had to ruin my fun, like he always did. Scott was allowed to do whatever he wanted to but I couldn’t. I folded my arms and looked up at him. “You can’t run at that speed down corridors, if you hit a human you could kill them”

“Dad, the girls are out in the garden and nobody else except those for food is human here. You always spoil my fun” I pouted, turning away from him. “You always liked Scott more and put boundaries on what I was able to do”

“You honestly want to know why?” my father said. I looked up to see he had a glint of red in his eyes. Swallowing, I nodded slightly.

“You do realise why your mother is dead?” he asked, looking down at me. I looked down. “Of course you do. Well, I found out about the affair soon after you were born, and I was unsure as to whether you were mine or not. I guess I never got over the fact you might not, and treated you less like a son. I’m sorry. You are mine though; we had a blood test done”

I wiped my eyes quickly. “Well it would’ve been nice to have a dad who cared” I sniffed, walking off down the corridor. Gwen frowned at me as I walked into the garden and straight past her and Monica. I didn’t want to talk to anybody. I walked into the orchard and traced the route that was burnt into my childhood memory. I looked up at the tree and climbed up the ladder to the tree house, noticing that I’d grown significantly since my last visit.

Sitting down, I smiled and looked at the walls. Scott and I had built this with mum when we were little and we’d drawn over the walls in crayon, like children do. One of the drawings was done by Scott and was labelled ‘family’ with stick pictures of me, himself, mum and dad. I smiled and ran my hand over the picture he’d drawn of mum. He still remembered her.

I sat back against the wall and sighed. This was a nice hidden place where I could just get away from everything. I kept all of my feelings bottled up and I kept my diary up here, so I began to write in it. Tears hit the page. Although the tears made the writing smudge I didn’t really care, it was just a way for me to get out my feelings without anybody else knowing. I had to keep up my strong ‘tough guy’ appearance.

I heard a creaking from the wall with the window and blinked as Brix climbed through. She brushed herself down and smiled at me. Her smile could light up the darkest room but she didn’t have confidence in herself. She was beautiful. We talked for a while, and she laughed at me. “My brother keeps trying to wipe my memories, but it’s not working. I’d rather be home but occasionally visit here”

Without thinking, I pressed my lips to hers, forming a kiss. She looked shocked at first but relaxed. I smiled big and pulled away from her to continue writing. “I’ve never seen you in that shirt before” she laughed.

“I only wear it on my mom’s anniversary of her death” I replied. Her face dropped.

“I’m sorry”