Avenge Me

Avenge Me - Chapter 10

Chapter 10

As I walked down the steps the stairs the next day, all eyes fell on me. And for good reason. It’s not everyday you hear a vampire like me crying out in her dreams. No, I’m sure it was a first for most of them.

            I was dressed in all black and was heading towards the door when someone stepped in my path. Anja. She looked at me with pity, which I promptly ignored as I started to walk past her. I didn’t need her pity. In fact, by her keeping the secret of Emil, she was committing a felony. Falling in love with humans was a punishable offense, and as with most crimes, knowing about it and not reporting it was illegal as well.

            “Celina,” she called after me. Sighing, I turned around.

            Her eyes searched my face as if I would give her the answers. Of course, if she wanted answers, all she had to do was use her gift. She’d know where I was going. She gave me a curt nod and turned around. I watched her retreating form for a moment, before turning around myself. I opened the large metal door of the “mansion” and stepped outside. The cold air blew my long hair around my face as I started walking.

            It was time I paid my respects.

            Once I was in the main streets, I called for a taxi. The gruff driver asked me where I was headed. I told him the name of the cemetery. The one where Emil was buried. Once there, I paid the taxi fair and stepped out.

            Again, the wind whipped around me. If I were human, I wouldn’t be able to stand the cold biting at my face.

            Walking through the wrought-iron gate, I couldn’t help but feel surreal. I passed through the “old” section of the cemetery, and noticed I was older than every single soul under all this dirt. It made me wonder of death. By being a vampire, I felt I had cheated death, in a way. I had lived so many lifetimes— it was a bit baffling. I continued on my way, towards the newer section of graves. There weren’t many people here, so I could read all the engravings on the tombstones along the way towards where Emil lay.

“Lisa Smith— Loving Daughter And Sister. 1995-2006” one of them read. This made me stop walking. I approached the grave slowly. Eleven years. Eleven years wasn’t nearly enough time to live. How many years had I lived, nearly two thousand? This wasn’t fair. And it suddenly struck me that I’d never have this: a grave with kind words on it. A place for people to go and remember me. I’d either live forever, or be killed and have my body burned to ashes.

Who would remember me?

I gently ran a hand over the grave marking, and stood up. I wasn’t here to pity myself- or others, for that matter. I was here to pay my respects and leave. I sighed and continued on my way.

After a few minutes of walking at a human pace, I turned when Emil’s name popped out to my eyes. The frost-covered grass crunched under my feet. The leaves rustled slightly as they fell from the trees before sailing to the ground, and getting blown away in the wind.

I crouched down to read the inscription.

“Emil Fox

1989-2011

A Kind Son- You Left Us Too Soon”

The words sent an ache through my heart. It was my fault he left the world too soon. He could still be alive if I never interfered.  I suddenly knew why the Ancients had made this law. “Never fall in love with a human.” Not to keep us isolated. But to keep us sane. Because everyone had to die. In the end, everyone falls down. Immortality was not meant for everyone. There was no such thing as a vegetarian vampire, contrary to human belief. We killed, it was a part of us, how we survived. There was no sincerity that made us feel bad for the humans we took our blood from. And watching some one you love die, awakens such strong emotions. It awakens the humanity locked up in the farthest reaches of our minds. It weakens us.

That’s what I was right now: Weak. I was caught up in something I couldn’t change. The past stayed in the past, or you don’t move forward. But how do I take that first step?

“How do I move on?” I murmured into the dead air.

I sat there for a few more minutes, thinking, until the soft rustle of fabric brought me to my senses.

I turned and watched as an elderly woman made her way down the pathway. She glanced up as if feeling my stare. She slowed when she came to pass me.

“Hello, dear,” she said to me. I could hear her unsteady heartbeat pulsing through her weary body.

“Hello,” I said softly. Her tired blue eyes bore into mine, as if she knew exactly who I was. But of course, she couldn’t know that. She was just a human.

“I haven’t seen you here before,” The lady informed me.

“It’s my first visit,” I admitted. “It… hurts.”

The lady offered up a sad smile. “It’ll hurt longer if you don’t face it now. You can’t run from death,” She told me. Oh but I can. And I have. It’s death’s affects I can’t run from.

“I can’t. It eats at me every day. Death took love away from me,” I whispered. Why was I saying this? It wasn’t like me. But I couldn’t help it.

“How do I move on?” I asked her, suddenly.

“You have to let go. What’s done is done. You can’t change anything. You’ve got to live with the aftermath.”

To think I was older than this woman. But age had taken its toll on her, while the years had simply passed by me. I was asking this woman who was relatively young, who was a stranger, for answers I couldn’t find myself.

“Fate is cruel. It has a funny way of working. But I wouldn’t change anything in my life. You shouldn’t regret anything that wasn’t in your power,” the words of the elderly woman echoed through my mind. Fate has a funny way of working…

“Thank you,” I told her. She smiled, and walked away. I don’t think she knew how much she helped me.

Sighing, I stood up. You have to let go. I took a deep breath. I walked out of the cemetery.

Live with the aftermath…

Fate has a funny way of working…