Eternal

Letters

Chapter 8: Letters

He leaned closer and whispered exasperatedly, “Let’s cut the game, okay? You wanted to know the truth well there it is. Keegan Masters is a Vampire, has been since the day he was conceived and will be until the day that he’s dead-dead. You can discard your mental image of Vampires right now because 90% of it is wrong. Yes, he’s a vampire. Yes he needs blood to survive. No, he’s never killed anyone nor gone rabid on a random human who spilt a drop of blood.”

Blue-grey hardened to solid steel in a split second, “What you think of as a vampire is an image and just that. Something that is based on truth has been warped and twisted so much throughout time that there’s more fiction than fact to almost everything you read. It’s the same with almost everything. Weres, witches, fae, Daemons…it’s the same with everything. Humans change facts to suite their lives, not wanting to believe that there is something more to the world than what is right in front of their eyes.” 

Oh dear god. They’re truly mental. All of them, they’ve obviously escaped from the loony bin because there was no way that what he was saying was true.  Keegan was a vampire, a bloodsucking monster from horror stories. Bram Stoker would’ve been leaping for joy had he been in my position. 

“Look, I knew it would take more than just a few words to convince you it was true –"

I cut him off, hell bent on calling his bluff as my fingernails dug into my jeans “If Keegan was a vampire, what are you?”

Jarrod grinned and placed his hand on the table. Once giving the restaurant a once-over to ensure that no one was milling about his hand started to change. And I mean either he had a massive hair growth issue or he was a…

“Wolf.” I breathed, gaping down at the furry, clawed paw in the centre of the table. “Oh my god.” I groaned, thumping my head down rather painfully onto the cool tiles, hoping that it would help ground me. Fat chance. “Atticai? Deirdre? Levi?” Did I even want to know? Probably not but I had to ask anyway. 

“Vampires. They belong to Keegan’s Coven.” 

I squeezed my eyes shut tightly, trying to block out Jarrod’s voice as I quickly flipped through my memories of Keegan, trying to spot anything even remotely unusual. Yeah, sure, he was stronger than the average teenager but he was mega sporty and had a gym from freaking hell at home. He had the muscles to show for it so I’d never thought of it as weird. He ran fast, not lightning fast but was always faster than anyone else and never tired quickly. I noticed that some days he looked particularly drained – ha! Get it? It’s punny! Oh never mind – but whenever I questioned him about it he said he had to stay up doing homework or was just having a bad day… this really wasn’t helping my nausea. 

My best friend was a vampire. 

When I gave a particularly defeated groan I heard Jarrod shuffling about before a piece of paper brushed my fingertips. “He told me to give this to you if anything happened.”

I snapped up immediately, snatching the sealed envelope with my name in Keegan’s messy scrawl written across the front. I eyed it dubiously for a minute before ripping it open. A single piece of purple paper was inside, folded in half with a rabbit sticker on it. I lifted it to my nose and breathed in the grapey scent that still clung to it after ten years. 

Sure enough in a lighter purple bubble Keegan’s name was written in my own horrible seven year old scribble and below it the thank-you letter my mom and I had spent hours writing out after a particularly large birthday party. I’d made Keegan’s different though and refused to let mom write it out neatly, insisting that I could do it so half of the words were unintelligible. I’d sprayed it with my lame attempt at home-made perfume and stuck a whole wad of stickers all over it, the bunny being the one I’d stuck on the envelope. 

There was no way this could be a fake, everything was too similar to what I remembered. On the back of it in black pen Keegan had obviously more recently written the note:

Bunny

If you’re reading this then it means I’ve screwed up big time and still haven’t got the guts to tell you the truth. It also means that you’re finding this out from a complete stranger and I’m most likely…well, not around currently.

Listen to Jarrod, Liz, everything he says is the truth, it’s not a joke and it most likely means you’re in trouble. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you and you have every right to be pissed as hell at me. Heck, I’m pissed at me for not telling you, so you’re not alone in this. 

Keep safe, Lisbeth. Remember to always listen to your instincts – they’re not telling you anything bad about Jarrod right? That’s got to count for something. 

Love you

K

Tears burned my eyes and the back of my throat grew tight with the effort of keeping them at bay. I tipped my head back and took a moment to calm myself down. It was true. Keegan, my best friend, was a vampire. “What do you want me to do?” 

Hehe, so stuffs is going to start happening again! Hehe, sorry, I know it’s been rather boring the last few chapters but I wanted to set everything out rather than rushing straight into it…

Drop me a comment and tell me what you thought!

AndUCallMeWeird