Brothers 3

Chapter 1

200 years later...

"He said he wants to see us." Robert stood by the ancient fireplace with his leather jacket on. He had not grown to the same height as his father but almost. His eyes were metallic blue and seemed to reflect the light that the fire spat on them.

There were lights hanging from the ceiling that the house keeper, Mrs Greene had insisted one turning off in mourning. Now candles stood to attention around the room randomly. The soft glow did little to illuminate the living room. It was a huge room. Too big for most houses. It had stone statues of women with no arms standing beside the two doorways that led to other rooms of the house. The mat, which lived in front of the fire, was a series of squares of varying degrees of gold. The middle was the smallest square and the darkest colour.

The huge brown curtains were drawn, and their tassels hung against the faded wallpaper. The fireplace itself was the centre of the room. The worn sofas and flat cushioned chairs all faced it. It was wooden and decorated with many twists and knots. A mirror hung above the fireplace and was surrounded by relief carving figures who were all enduring some horrible punishment at the hands of a blood crazed vampire. Either side of the fireplace were coffee tables lined with expensively decorated vases. All the vases were of varying ages. Richard collected them all through his one thousand three hundred and eighty-seven years. Safe to say, there were a lot of them.

"Well I'm up for that." Eddie dusted off the arms of his suit and pulled it tighter against himself. While shaking out his arms, a silver cufflink fell off and he raced across the floor to retrieve it. His floppy hair fell into his face and he battled with it to remove it.

When he had caught the cufflink, both the brothers turned to the third. James was leaning against the front door. He wore a ruffled white t-shirt and dirty jeans. He was taller than Eddie now, about Roberts height, and his hair and eyes had become darker with age. He was like a cat lounged carelessly on a branch. He shrugged. "Whatever father wants. He is going grey after all." James smirked.

Mrs Greene emerged from the kitchen door on the left of the room. Her auburn hair was tied in a bun and she wore a knee length skirt and a blouse. "James don't be disrespectful. He may not be man of the year but we all need the closure."

"Maybe you do. But fine." James held his hands up in surrender. "I'm sure when he says all, he means you two anyway."

Robert ignored the venom and led the way to their father's room. The hall was long, and the journey made longer by James stopping at some of the paintings to have a look. It was dark, and a glow beckoned the brothers to the room where their father lay.

Robert was the first in. He strode over to the side of the bed and then sat on the edge of it. Eddie and James piled into the space just beside the door and stood together, James leaning and Eddie scuffing the floor with his shoe.

Their father looked small. As if there was something under the bed that was sucking all the life out of Richard and shoving it into the place where he would go next. He was pale, but vampires were pale by nature, so James ignored that. His cheeks were caves and his eyes sour milk. The curtains around the king-sized bed were pulled on every side but the one where they looked in. The large windows had long ago been bored up. Vampires don't really like the sun at the best of times, when they were sick sunlight would burn them and make them die much faster. Or worse, James thought, he could have caught fire and burnt the whole place down. The rest of the furniture looked normal. The wardrobe door held Richard's trench coat, now rotting with age, out to him on its handle. As if in a moment he may decide to go out somewhere and would need the coat again. The full-length mirror showed the beds veiled reflection. The photograph of their mother had been moved from the bedside table to the pillow beside Richards face. He would lift it and just look, for hours, at her face. He tried to reach for it but was too weak to lift his hand.. Robert picked it up for him and held it where he could see it.