Moving to Hell

A drop of blood

I'm calling Valentino. 'Hello?' A warm feeling goes through my body when I hear his voice. 'Valentino, listen- I need your help.' I hear him scoff. He's mad at me, of course. 'You need my help, huh?' I hate the way he talks to me. It makes me sick. 'Yes, I really do,' I say then. 'And why would I do that?' I don't know what to say, mostly because I know I have no right to ask him to do this for me. Not after what I've done to him. 'Do you have any idea what you've done?' He softly says. I can clearly hear how heartbroken he must be. I bite my lip. 'You left me behind. You were going to leave, and you just left me here. And if that wasn't enough, after your failed mission to leave, you just decided to never show up again. I thought we were friends!' His anger breaks me. I remember the message in the room of my brother. The adrenaline's rushing through my veins. 'I know I've no right to ask you to help me, and I know I've been the worst friend ever and I'm sorry, okay?' 'Sorry isn't enough,' Valentino says. 'I know!' I say, 'I know it isn't! But nothing I'm going to say is going to change the way you feel and I can't waist my time trying to make it up to you right now.' 'So you just-' 'Will you listen to me for a second please?!' I shout. I breathe heavily. 'My parents just died!' Tears are streaming down my face. I try to calm down, but it isn't easy. 'And- and Johnny's missing...' 'What?' Valentino can't believe me. He has completely forgotten his rage. The only feeling he has left, is sympathy. 'He's really missing?' He feels stupid asking. 'Yes,' I say with a high-pitched voice. 'Someone or something left me a message about it in his room. If you come over, I can show you.' Valentino's silent. 'I- I know I've no right to ask you this at all, but I wouldn't have done it if it wasn't extremely important, okay? Listen, I can't do this without you. I just can't. I need you to save him. He's my brother, Valentino! I can't let him die. I really can't!' I'm crying louder. 'Hey, hey, sssh, relax, alright?' Valentino softly says. 'I'll come, okay?' I softly smile. I can taste the salt of my tears on my tongue. 'Thank you...' 'It's alright. I'll be there in a minute, okay?'

He arrived fast. Even faster than I had expected him to arrive. I immediately fall him in the arms, I'm still crying. Valentino lays his arms around me, to comfort me. 'I'm sorry,' I say in his neck. 'I'm so sorry.' Sshh...' Valentino goes with his hand through my hair. 'Don't worry about it, okay? It's good. We're good.' He plants a kiss on my crown. We keep standing like that for a while. Then I release him. Valentino wipes away my tears with his thumb. 'Okay, how about you show me that message you were talking about?' I nod. 'Yeah, eh... it's upstairs.' I lead him to my brother's room. The door's still open, how I left it. I automatically grab his hand as we walk in. Valentino doesn't retreat. The message is still there, written in blood; The darkness is where you can find who you seek, the blood and flesh is what He wants. I don't want to keep looking at it. Valentino notices and leads me back downstairs, this time closing the door behind us. We go sit on the couch. Valentino's arm lays around my neck. My head rests on his shoulder. It's almost like nothing had happened between us. 'So what are we going to do?' Valentino asks then. I scrape my throat before I answer. 'We have to wait first.' Valentino frowns. 'For what?' 'It's for who, actually.' 'Okay, for whom then?' I chuckle. 'For the back-up I called.'

She arrived. I can barely believe she's standing in the living room. It seems surreal. I want to run over to her to hug her, but that doesn't seem like a good idea. 'Oh Jackie!' Lulu says then. She runs over to me. 'Are you okay?' She seems worried. I force a smile. 'I will be when we saved Johnny.' It hurts saying his name, like he's already dead. 'Then let's do that,' Lulu says. She smiles back at me. Valentino comes standing next to me. All this time he's been observing Lulu. 'Who must this be?' She asks him. 'I'm Valentino, her new neighbourhood friend.' He doesn't sound very nice. 'I'm Lulu, her old neighbourhood friend,' she says just as blunt as he did. The two clearly don't like each other that much. 'Jackie?' Valentino turns to me. 'What is she doing here?' 'Her parents had the map of this town, so Lulu knows where everything is around here. She has a very good memory,' I explain. 'Does anyone know what to do?' 'On my way here I stopped by the library. There I found some information which might be useful,' Valentino says. 'Tell that information when we've arrived at location,' Lulu says. She now turns to me. 'I know where he is, and who has him.' Valentino doesn't let her finish: 'The centuries old vampire Yargl.'