Egbert

Between the lines

He doesn't even turn around to see me walk in, but he acknowledges my presence by gesturing me forward with the back of his hand. And like the idiot I am, I do so. But I remember my role is this. Talk them down. Even if the target has changed this time, my role hasn't.

"Sebastian, whatever this is, we can work it out. Also, what is this?"

He gets up from the chair and looks up at the cages. If I thought I knew him I was wrong. His eyes are devoid of any emotion but resentment as he stares at my father's one in particular. Why are they staying so quiet?

"Egbert I want you to leave."

"No, not until I know what's going on."

"Eg, please. I'm asking you nicely." He looks down at me, but this time his eyes soften when he does. This is the Sebastian I know.

"Egbert?" A voice croaks out from above us. It's my father. I can barely make out his face from that height. Mother still has yet to make an appearance. "She's alright, just unconscious." I hear Sebastian say to me, he steps forward and heads towards a metal link wrapped around a hook, the device responsible for the height of father's cage. By slackening it he brings the cage down to ground level so I can see the great Count Dracula in all his glory. His face is chalkier than ever, unhealthily so. He's so bound he can barely crouch.

"Father are you...Okay?"

I dislike my parents, it's been a constant in my relationship with them both. Believing they were both on a rampage was much easier to come to terms with than believing they are victims and yet here we are. That pit in my stomach could almost be fear. I'm- I think I'm worried about them, for this whole situation. I've never seen father look this weak, and if he looks like this then mother must look worse.

"I'm fine son," there's small pang in my heart when I hear him call me that. "I want you to do what he says and leave alright, nothing is more important to me than your safety."

Suddenly Sebastian steps between my father and I, coiling his fists.

"Don't do that. Don't manipulate him into saving you."

"I'm sure I have no idea what you mean, he's my son. I love him more than anything in the world."

"Get out of my way Sebastian." I shove him to the side with more strength than I thought I had and grip the iron bars.

"Egbert can't you see what he's doing? He's using reverse psychology. He's telling you to leave so you think he loves you and you end up saving him. It's psychotic."

"No, what's psychotic is that our maid seems to have betrayed us and kidnapped my parents."

He chuckles darkly and wags a finger at me, "man I knew they messed you up but I didn't realise how much." More to his self he adds, "It's my fault. I should have stepped in sooner."

"How dare you over step your boundaries like this? Release them both right now or I'll do it." My parents may cause me nothing but pain but they're my parents, he has no right to treat them like this. We're Dracula's for god's sake.

"Egbert you need to leave. I don't want to hurt you but I will if you get in my way. I've waited too long for this and I don't want you to see this."

"See what exactly?" I know what he means but if he really cares about me as much as he pretends, it'll hurt him to say it.

But he doesn't speak. He stares at me, frowning as he thinks until finally he gives in to whatever thought was bouncing around his head. Reaching around his neck he brings a familiar black thread over his head, pulling an amulet out from under his shirt. The amulet. My amulet. The one I thought I lost, the one I thought Van Swieten had. I don't understand, his appearance hasn't changed at all. So what was the use of it? It takes me a moment but I finally sense it, the change in his presence. He's a vampire. This time he doesn't address me, he addresses my father instead who seems to sense much more than I have.