Cross My Heart

by Elizabeth Morgan

  “Not panicking isn’t an option when I had you going on all night, stressing that if I got caught by the Vampires, they would kill me, so would wolves, and getting killed by either would be Heaven compared to what it would feel like t’be burnt t’death by the sun.”

  “Just laying out some home truths,” she replied with a shrug. “Besides, we found you somewhere nice and safe.”

  “I don’t really class breaking and entering into the first unoccupied house we came across as safe.”

  “You’re still alive, aren’t you?”

  “Alive?”

  “Excuse me, Mr Sensitive, mobile.” She shook her head. “Jesus, you’re so tetchy.”

  “You would be, too, if you were the living dead.”

  She angled a look at me. “I’m not even real.”

  Which was another key point added to my list of new superpowers ... I appeared to have gone mad because I was talking to an imaginary teenage Elle. Had been talking to her for weeks, and even though part of me was fully aware she wasn’t real, I was still able to see and hear her. Although, could you still be classed as insane if you were aware you were seeing things, if you knew you were talking to yourself?

  “Yes.”

  “Oh, hush you.” Being undead had another perk: the ability to not feel the cold, which was a blessing considering I was still topless and barefoot.

  “Even if we found you a top, how would you have put it on? Your shackles are in the way.”

  “Yeah, I realize that.” Apparently, I had the strength to bend metal, but that didn’t include silver, which was what my cuffs were laced with. I vaguely remember Elle mentioning such allergies to me ...

  “Plus, it was mentioned at the facility.”

  “Knowing I have a new allergy doesn’t help me. What I need is a spare set of hands and a chainsaw t’get me out of these damn things.” And my only hope was the real Elle who I was praying would have some form of tools to free me.

  “Guess we will find out shortly.”

  My feet knew the way to Elle’s family home, and without having to concentrate on a single step, I found myself there in no time, but I wouldn’t step any further than the large, black, iron gate that marked the entryway to their estate. Guarded by six-foot walls, the place was completely cut off from public view, not that I imagined many people would travel down this back road. The next house was at least five miles away, the Renauds’ nearest neighbours separated by fields and woodland.

  It was crazy. As children, I wasn’t allowed past this point. I wasn’t allowed down that drive or in the house at the end of the long garden. Elle’s parents knew me, knew we were friends, knew my parents, but it was a no-entry zone for anyone who wasn’t family. Her father was a very private man, though Elle had once admitted the reason they never allowed guests in their home was because none of them wanted to have people associated with them, that it was for everyone’s safety. If Vampires caught scent of me, they could come after me to get to them ...

  I didn’t understand. Apparently, it was mainly to do with her cousin Heather. Something was wrong with the younger girl, not that there seemed to be anything physically wrong with her, but Elle never went into details about it. I knew Heather’s father had died before she was born and that her mother was ill which lead to her taking her own life when Heather was eight. Heather hadn’t had an easy life, and if she was mixed up in all this Vampire hunting bollocks also, well, no wonder she always seemed so ... aloof.

  It was annoying. I could never quite see the entire house from the gate, not through the structure of hedges and trees, but it always looked big and exciting. I guess it was because my house was small and ordinary compared to the manor house that hid behind these walls. Mainly it was because Elle had told me her family were Vampire Hunters and that she had to train in the basement. I used to have all these wild ideas that they had cool equipment down there, swords and arrows, maybe even a stray Vampire locked up in a cage ...

  “Like you?”

  “No, not like me. Like a bad Vampire, one that actually deserves t’be locked up.”

  “And you didn’t deserve t’be?”

  “Why would you even say that?” I scowled at her. “I was on holiday, minding my own business. I didn’t deserve what happened t’me.”

  “Just wanted to make sure you knew that before you started comparing yourself to those original, cool ideas of yours.”

  Elle had confessed her family secret to me when we were twelve. At the time, I had thought she was joking about being a Vampire Slayer. I’d thought she’d made it all up because things at home had become so bad—her cousin Alexis had committed suicide—and she couldn’t escape, couldn’t cope, so she made up stories and creatures to amuse herself. Pretending to have another life always seemed like a good idea when you hated the one you had, when you felt there was no way out or to deal. I accepted all the little facts and details, the descriptions of the creatures, the fact she had started her training at eight, but she never let it go. She was adamant that her world was real, and I continued to amuse her, even after I had moved to Switzerland.

  “And now, you know better.”

  Now I knew the truth—that she wasn’t mad, or over-imaginative. It was real. All the facts were true. One being that now I was a Vampire, I couldn’t enter her house without an invite. I could push the gates open and walk down the drive, something I had wanted to do for years, but I couldn’t move. Fear kept my boots planted before the iron gate.

  “Well, you can’t stand out here forever. Best t’get in there and get this done with.”

  “Say I go in there and I get to the door and ring the bell. Then what? What am I supposed t’say t’her? ‘I’m sorry I haven’t seen you in years, that I stopped writing. I know you’re probably pissed about it and that I am no doubt the last person you want t’see, but you’re right, everything you ever told me about Vampires ... it’s all real, which means you probably are a Vampire Hunter and funny story, I’m now a Vampire. Please don’t kill me, I need your help.”

  “Sounds fine to me.”

  “Get serious.”

  “Honesty is the best policy. Besides, it has taken us two nights t’get here. You can’t just give up now we’re at the end of the line.” She passed through the iron gates, turned, and looked up at me. “Get in here, and when you see her, just apologize for being a shite friend and tell her you’re in a fuck load of trouble and she is the only one you know who will be able to help you. Get on your knees and beg if you have to.”

  “So, leave out that I’m a Vampire?”

  “Just until she invites you in the house. Then again, she has been doing this for years so might also know straight off that you’re a Vamp or she might not recognise you ... Either way, the fact that you’re topless and in chains might clue her in. So maybe stand a couple feet back from the door so you have room t’move encase she has a weapon at hand.”

  Elle would have more than one reason to not be happy to see me, the fact that it had been years since we’d last seen each other being the main one, but me being a Vampire and showing up at her door begging for help after years of not seeing her ...

  “Maybe it was a mistake t’come here.” I stepped away from the gates. “Maybe I should figure this out myself.”

  “Figure what out? You don’t know any other Vampire so you have no one t’guide you and help you get t’grips with ‘life as one of the undead,’ the Vampires who are aware of you want you dead because they sure as hell didn’t see you as an equal ... you were their prisoner, remember? I’m the only person who firstly, knows Vampires exist so I at least won’t think you’re crazy, secondly, show me the folder and I might actually know how t’find out answers about why Vampires have a facility and are doing experiments.”

  “If the real you chooses t’help me.”

  “There is only one way of finding out, and that means being a big brave Vampire and walking down this drive.”

  For weeks, all I had thought about was whet
her I would get out of that facility ... and how insane everything was, but I had never thought past that. Never thought about what I would do if I was back in the real world. I couldn’t go back home to my family, because even though I would love to see them, and they would be happy to know I was okay ... I was dead. What kind of a life could I have? Would I be a danger to anyone? I didn’t have the urge to go killing anyone or anything, but would that change? I hadn’t drunk any blood for the last two days, and I felt fine. I had no idea what else I was capable of and no idea what I was supposed to do now with my newfound freedom.

  “I thought you wanted t’find out why this has happened to you?”

  “No, you want to find out why this has happened to me. I don’t know if I want to know.”

  “You were kidnapped, technically murdered, turned into a—”

  “I know what has happened t’me, Elle.” I lifted my arms, rattling the chain to my cuffs, the folder still in my clutches. “You don’t have t’keep reminding me.”

  “Don’t you want answers? Don’t you want t’know why?”

  I didn’t know what I wanted. My focus for the last few nights had been getting far away from that place ... had been on finding Elle, the real Elle, because she was the only one in the world I knew I could trust with what had happened to me. I had questions; I had a shitload of questions. Things that didn’t add up to what she had told me when we were young; things I couldn’t wrap my head around. Surely, Elle was the perfect person to ask? I knew she was, but now, standing outside sanctuary, I felt unsure.

  “I can’t do this tonight. I need time. I need to think.”

  “You’ve been thinking the last few nights.”

  “No, I’ve had you chattering at me for the last few nights, keeping me locked in that cell.” I tapped my head. “I need peace and quiet. I need you t’go away.”

  Arms folded, she gave me a shrug. “Fine, but just remember without me, you’re now all alone in the world.” She started to fade, like the sand in an etcher sketch, only I wasn’t shaking her to erase her. She was just blinking out of view. “So, make sure you use your quiet time wisely and figure out what the fuck you’re going t’do.”

  My gaze remained on the space which she had currently occupied. Silence engulfed me as I stood in the darkness. “What the heck am I going t’do?”

  *****

  ~ Danielle ~

  Wednesday 14th October, 2015

  6:33am

  Glendalough Monastic City hadn’t been an active place of worship in almost a century, and despite it being a tourist attraction, not to mention the perfect backdrop for a scene right out of a hammer house film ... there was an echo of something sacred here amongst the crumbled walls and headstones. A security and peace I had never felt anywhere else. Some might have found it strange to sit amongst graves and be at peace, but I suppose it was ironic that I felt safe here in the ancient Celtic cemetery, at home amongst the resting dead.

  I had visited this site often in my childhood, ever since I had been dubbed old enough to go exploring on my own. The Round Tower and the accompanying buildings had been mine and Nathan’s favourite place to explore as children, and after he left, I’d kept the ritual up, visiting the site at least once a week, once the gates had shut, sneaking in and climbing the wall to watch the sunset.

  However, working evening into night had its drawbacks which meant some days, I had to watch the sunrise instead, which was why I sat on the high crumbled wall of what remained of the Friar’s House, my back to the Round Tower, huddled in layers with a flask of hot coffee cradled between my gloved hands.

  It was an odd ritual, perhaps morbid, but I had never made my mind up whether I believed in God, and for years, I had come here to unburden my soul, first to Nathan, sharing secrets and stories, and once he was gone, to anyone who would listen. I figured, at the very least, if Vampires existed, then a person’s spirit could linger and be around their family at times. In my teen years, it had been Alexis I would talk to, about my fears over Heather and the pressure and restrictions Sofia placed on her.

  However, I recently found myself talking to Sofia. Mainly because it had been a long time since I had seen her, and I was angry that I hadn’t been able to say my goodbyes, that I had been robbed of that part of the grief process. She wasn’t my grandparent or my guardian, but she had been an active role model and present every day of my life for nineteen years. It had been strange enough when she and Heather had left, but now, she was gone.

  “The thing is, Auntie S, you seem to have forgotten that this family’s burden is as much mine t’bear as it is Heather’s.” I sighed, rolling my flask between my palms. “Clearly, y’knew deep down it was too much for her t’cope with, despite what you drilled into her. Otherwise, why else would you get a Werewolf involved?”

  It didn’t make any sense why my aunt would go to an outsider over family or why anyone would agree to help a stranger with something so big and, well, dangerous. How did Sofia even know a Werewolf? Clearly, my aunt was a bit of a dark horse.

  “You clearly had a lot more secrets than the family’s shared lot. I just wish you would have sent for me instead.” One way or another, I was determined to find out what the hell was going on with my cousin.

  I had gone into work and told the manager I would be working my last week. Not that I could see it happening, but it all depended on the conversation that my mother would be having today with Heather. I’d finished five hours ago, had gone home for a nap, and got back up at six to come here as I knew it would be the last time I would be visiting my haven for a good while. Something was brewing. I wasn’t sure what. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I felt restless, helpless. I couldn’t help Nathan, and Heather didn’t want my help. So I guess it was more to do with the fact I felt useless.

  “No more.” I wasn’t sitting around on my arse any longer while everyone got on with their lives and duties. I was serving no good by staying in Wicklow. It was doing me no good standing here hoping things would change so I could be of some use. I had to go out there and embrace my destiny ... Jesus, you sound like Sofia.

  “No offence, Auntie S.” I tilted my flask to the sky.

  “Sorry t’hear the ole girl has passed,” a tenor voice commented behind me.

  My heart leapt into my throat, and I pushed off the wall to land on my feet on the grass below, dull pain licking my calves on the impact. Dropping my flask by the wall, I grabbed my sword from where it rested in the arched, glassless window, my focus fixed to the remaining half a house as I backed away, searching for my unwelcomed guest. “What kind of a creep stands in the shadows spying on a woman?”

  What kind of hunter doesn’t hear a creep sneaking up on her? God, I must have been tired or turning lazy with all this sitting around. I hadn’t even heard him approach.

  “What kind of a woman hangs out in graveyards?” Amusement lit the male’s tone.

  “One who doesn’t want t’be bothered by creeps.”

  “Lucky for you, I’m not a creep.”

  “The fact that you’re slinking around a graveyard in the early hours of the morning would state otherwise.”

  “Well, that’s hardly fair.” The male stopped at the front, right corner of the house, his form pressed against the wall. “You’re out here, too, and I’m not calling you names.”

  Great, creepy and weird. Just my luck.

  There was no light out here, the site in complete darkness. The gravestones and buildings around me were blocks of black that only became solid as I moved closer to them. The male was a shadow, almost as lost in the dark as everything else was, and even thought I couldn’t see him, see his face, I could feel his eyes on me.

  “Why don’t you just slither away and leave me be?”

  “You’re not scared out here on your own?” Something metal rattled.

  My muscles tensed. “I’ve no reason t’be.”

  “All sorts of ... monsters … lurk in the dark.”

  “Aye.” I rais
ed my sword, unsure if he could see it, but the weight in my hand always felt reassuring. “And I know how t’handle myself.”

  “You always did.”

  The words were soft, thoughtful even, and not what you would expect some weird, creepy stranger to come out with. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, a chill sweeping down my spine. What the...?

  My brow furrowed as I stared at the male’s form. “Who are you?”

  I waited, poised, on edge. Silence seemed to stretch out forever, deafening in the darkness, uncomfortable. He hadn’t moved, not an inch, but I could still feel his gaze on me.

  “Cat suddenly got your tongue,” I found myself saying, needing the strange silence to end. “Or have you suddenly gone deaf? Either tell me who you are and what you want or get lost.”

  That unsettling scrape of metal was my reply, right before he stepped away from the building. His form moved toward me. “I want your help.”

  Not the reply I was expecting. “What? Why?”

  He paused. “For old times’ sake.”

  Unease washed over me. Confusion beat in my temples. “Stay where you are.”

  I reached into my left coat pocket and retrieved my mobile. A few taps and bright, white light streamed out in front of me from the phone’s torch. I stumbled back at the sight— the light poured over the man in front of me. The pasty-looking, half-naked man.

  “Hello, Elle.” A small smile lit his pale, exhausted face.

  Vague familiarity tickled the back of my mind at the sight of that almost cheeky stretch of his parched lips.

  His smile died as he glanced down at himself.

  “I realize I’m not looking like my fine self. I didn’t expect t’see you so soon, especially not at six-thirty in the morning.” He glanced up, his black eyes meeting mine, dark circles beneath them. “Nice t’know this place still means something t’you. It hasn’t changed.”

  My stomach bellowed out. It couldn’t be, could it?