Long Lost Friend

Story time

You will notice I am updating all my chapters, fixing spelling and adding on some little bits. 

Chapter 8

"So do you want to explain how you're still the same age?" David was straight to the point.

"I guess I have to explain but so do you. I'm assuming you're all a lot older then you pretend to be" I wasn't stupid if Marko hadn't aged all this time then it was clear the others hadn't either.

"Happily but ladies first" he said.

Smiling, I sat back down on the sofa, Paul had gotten up so Marko could sit next to me making his way to the fountain that took up a big space in the cave.

"Well I guess it's easier to start at the beginning. After Marko went missing lots of people looked for him and turned up nothing. Most people gave up and I couldn't stay in a place that had given up hope. So I saved as much as I could and planned to travel the world, it was something me and Marko always wanted to do, my parents were sad to see me go but understood why I needed to do it. The day I left my whole family turned up as well as Marko's family, I had still stayed very close to them and promised to write to them when I could which I did." Pausing for a second I looked over to Marko, sadness at the mention of his family, I wonder if he ever thought about them once he left? The rest of the boys were now invested in the story, Star too as she sat on the edge of her bed so she could listen in.

"So my first stop from Italy was France, I spent about a week learning art as well as looking at some of the buildings they had taken in all it's beauty before going to Romania. For some reason it was one of the places me and Marko always wanted to go, so that was my next stop. Only I didn't know the trouble I would face when there. I had been there about 3 days and the experience was just amazing. I'd met some people that invited me to a gathering, there I met a boy called J. Everyone called him that because his name was too hard to pronounce. I spent the rest of the night partying away with my new friends, then the morning came and so did the killer hangover." At the mention of J Marko stiffened, nice to see someone can get jealous even though I haven't been part of your life for so long.

"Something didn't feel right since the party, so I went to find the others. That's when I noticed the sun it was so bright, brighter than normal it made me just want to sleep and made my skin crawl. Next came my reflection. It was ghost like, I knew something was wrong so off I went searching for answers" Everyone was more silent then normal, waiting for me to continue. 

"I found the others and they too had the same issue, none of us knew what was happening to us but it became clear overtime. That night me, J, Poppy and Claire had all been turned into half vampires but none of us knew how or who by. We stuck together then leaving Romania and continuing to travel looking for answers, we learnt what we were and what came with it. As time went on our numbers dwindled, we all made a pact to not kill, we wanted to know who turned us and for what reason" I let out a sigh coming to the harder bit of the story. 

"The first to go was Poppy she couldn't take to constant hunger, not knowing if tonight would be the night you killed. So she ended it Claire was the one to find her stake in the heart as she laid in bed, she left a note explaining why she had done it, none of us were surprised we all felt what she was going through.

Next was Claire, she hadn't been the same after what happened to Poppy. One night we found her killing someone in the street, the guilt ate her up inside at what she had done so she waited for the sun to rise. I can still hear her screams and smell the burning off her flesh until there was nothing but dust.

Me and J decided we needed each other more than ever, we travelled together seeing the world and it was the best feeling it almost distracted us from what we had become. We tried to feed on animal blood but that just made us sick, until we found a way to feed without turning. Blood bags became our life. It stopped the hunger and made it easier to go out in public and because we hadn't killed anyone we wouldn't change. 

Yet that wasn't enough for J the blood drove him insane all he cared about was getting his next bag. He was starting to not care who got hurt if it meant he could get his next fix, he needed to be stopped and that's what I did. That was six years ago, I've been moving around ever since, I have one bag a week to keep me going" 

There everyone sat not saying anything, processing everything that I had just told them. Until Marko broke the silence.

"I'm sorry" was all he mumbled.

"What do you have to be sorry for?" I was confused.

"If I wouldn't have left this wouldn't have happened to you. We would have explored the world together and no one would have gotten hurt, you wouldn't have had to go through all that."

"Marko none of this was your fault I decided to go traveling, it was my choice to go to that party"

"Marko she's right you couldn't have stopped any of this happening" It was the first time I heard Dwayne speak all night, there was something comforting when Dwayne spoke.

"Did you ever find out who turned you?" David asked.

"Nope it could've been anyone that night, we didn't know anyone at the party. All we know is that we all drank the blood. There could be more of us that night that turned but we've never been able to find out" it was frustrating never knowing why this happened.

"We could talk to someone and see if they've heard about this kind of thing before?" David spoke.

"Someone? I'm not being funny but most people don't believe in vampires...." I was cut off by Paul laughing like I had missed some important information.

"Girl have you not realised you're in a room full of them" he laughed in his high state.

Looking around I was confused how they could be, they smelt normal to me. Then it hit me that's why they smelt normal! Everyone else smelt like food yet these guys didn't maybe that's why I was so at ease with Paul and Dwayne them nights, I wasn't looking at them like a meal.

"Wait all of you?" I asked.

"Yeah everyone of us, including Star and Laddie. They're just like you" It now all made sense.

Turning to Marko, his face was no longer the sweet boy I grew to know, it was demonic with cat-like eyes and extended fangs. Any human would have run screaming but I wasn't human. Instead I grabbed his face in between my hands and pulled him closer to me.

"You're gonna have to try a lot harder than that to scare me" I laughed as I once more looked at the fangs. Looking back up my eyes no longer human but also a golden cat-like colour, my fangs on display just not as long as the boy in front of me. Smiling wide we both let out a heartfelt laugh as our human forms came back.

"It's nice to have you back Rose" he pulled me close and placed a kiss on my forehead, it had been a long night.