Human Sacrifice

Chapter Twenty Two

Chapter Twenty Two

The thing is, I always said the wrong thing at the wrong time. Patrique looked really upset and the only thing I could do is comment on what shirt he was wearing. Silently, I admired the pictures in his diary but he had not yet noticed that I was looking at them. I couldn’t really make out any of his writing though. Maybe it was about Gwen. All hope was lost at that point for him: I didn’t like him but he liked me and it was getting obvious.

“The draining ceremony has been postponed because Mae and Janice are missing; you don’t happen to know anything about this do you?” he asked me. I shook my head. Suspicion corrupted his expression and he looked at me full of doubt.

I needed to change the subject; “Who’s Phoenix? I mean, do you know him? He visited me and he seemed arrogant”

“Eugh don’t even get me started on him. He used to be one of my friends from school when I went, and he always got me into trouble. He dated Katya for a while and that’s how she got turned; he can barely control his thirst. He got the family into a lot of trouble so Katya had to stay here. She never saw her family again. After that, I never really wanted to talk to him, so I guess he’s getting back at us by talking to you” Patrique explained to me.

“What happened between him and Katya?” I frowned, looking at him a bit confused.

“She broke up with him because he was flirting with everyone else, if I remember right, and she ended their relationship soon after. Unfortunately, he didn’t deal with the break up as well as she did and well...he followed her home. Left her to die after biting her. My dad found her, crumpled up in an alleyway slowly bleeding to death, and decided to save her. From then on she had to live here to be safe from him” he sighed, writing more in his diary.

“Sounds horrible” I frowned. “No wonder Zach didn’t want Phoenix to talk or go anywhere near to me”

“Brothers have good instincts when protecting people. He knows that Phoenix is no good and, because he cares for you, wants to keep you away from him and safe” Patrique smiled. “Even if Zach isn’t there, you can always rely on Scott and I to look after you”

I looked over the pictures on the wooden walls and traced over the crayon trails with my fingertips. Some of the pictures made no sense. “From this picture, it looks like you have a sister” I stated, pointing to what I meant.

“Well, I do have a sister, I have two in fact. They’re twins; they left here about ten years ago to find a better life for themselves. One went to Switzerland, the other to America” Patrique nodded, showing me a family picture. King Ashtin as sat with two small boys on each knee (Scott and Patrique) and the Queen standing by two teenage girls, and they must’ve been the twins.

“Do you miss them?” I asked, looking at him as he looked through more pictures. He averted his eyes from mine and shrugged.

“I hardly knew them, I was only about five when they left so” he replied, sketching now. He had handed me a file which contained a lot of pictures and as I flicked through them, I stopped on one that confused me. Pulling it out from the rest I looked at it closer.

The picture contained Patrique sitting beside a large mirror, and the other side of the mirror was him again. On one side Patrique looked like how he does now but on the other he had darker hair, a dark suit and piercing blue eyes. It seemed like a good and evil version of the same person. He snatched the photo away from me before I started asking questions; little did he know I would ask questions anyway.

“What the hell is up with that photo?” I asked, shaking. Something wasn’t right about it; the tow Patriques in the picture were identical and it confused me heavily.

“You shouldn’t have seen that” he mumbled, hiding the photo in his pocket as if I hadn’t seen it, or as if my previous question was never asked.

“Just tell me what it is Patrique” I scowled, folding my arms. He looked at me in shock and shook as he pulled the now scrunched up photo from his pocket and placed it on the floor between us.

“When a vampire is born, they’re born normal. Then when they turn into a vampire, they kind of develop a twin like version of themselves. This split persona turns evil, and they usually move away. This is a picture of mine and I” he sighed, pointing to the picture. “But when I get married, it disappears”

They both looked identical; this proved that if he was saying they were like twins, it was right. Patrique didn’t look comfortable discussing it and quickly changed the subject: “So, how’s Zach? I haven’t spoken to him for years” he asked, looking at me.

I shrugged. “He’s fine I guess. Addicted to blood and hiding out in his room”

“Sounds like him” Patrique grumbled. “The first year, he would not stop drinking blood and even dad began to get worried about him. Blood has the effect of alcohol on our bodies and Zach was becoming ever more ill. We had to stop him from drinking it; it was a very scary time”

“I’m glad I’m not a vampire to be fair, it all sounds a bit violent and scary” I chuckled, but Patrique didn’t really appreciate my brief outlook on his life. He looked hurt.

“What if you were dying, wouldn’t you want a chance to live? I mean, look at Katya, she did. It’s human instinct to find a way to survive” he explained. I shook my head.

“I’d rather die knowing that I’ve lived to the best I could, than live knowing that all of my efforts had been wasted because there was a safety net. Dying human is an honour for me, even if death is the thing I fear the most Patrique, and I want you to respect that, even if you disagree with it” I sighed, looking down. When I looked up again, he’d gone.