by Rue Volley
The bells rang at the door and my Father nods to the maid who quickly runs to open it up. I look up and there he is, Jonah. He steps in and hands his hat to the maid and then his coat. Lily steps in behind him and grins at me. I take a deep breath and place my hands behind my back and fiddle with my fingers. I look at my Father and then behind me. Where is Mina?
I turn back and Jonah is right in front of me. I stare into his beautiful eyes and then I feel a blush coming on. He is staring at me, with a slight grin and I do not know how to take it. I mean, a boy as pretty as he is, smiling at me. Not normal, not normal at all. I look around and my Father and Lily are nowhere to be seen. I look back to Jonah and feel my heart jump up into my throat. He takes a deep breath and touches my hand, holding it in his. He feels as the floor had felt to my feet as I rolled out of bed. Like a warm shower, something comfortable and needed. He places my hand to his mouth and I feel his breath before I feel his lips brush the skin on the top of my hand. I shake a little and he stops, glancing up at me. He grins again.
“Shall we eat?” Jonah asks me and I turn with him, letting all the confusion fade away. I did not ask where my Father was, or Lily or Mina for that matter. In fact, I do not care at all. All I can think of is this boy and how his lips had felt against my skin. I walk into the dining room and the lights from all the candles flicker. I look to Jonah as he leads me to the table and I watch him pull out my chair. I sit down, still feeling high from the soft kiss he had given me. Jonah stands behind me for a moment and then I look out at the table. It is full of everything I would love to eat. There are fresh fruits, vegetables, bread and lots of meat. My stomach growls again and I blush as I press against it with my hand. Jonah sits down at the table across from me. I glance up at him and smile as I reach for my water and try to drink it, but my hand is trembling. I suddenly break the glass, squeezing it too hard and cut the palm of my hand. I hiss as I stand up quickly, the blood running down over the edge of it and I turned it as it rolls down the side of my arm. I licked it, before I even realize it. I blink as I taste my blood and look up to see no Jonah. In fact no one is in the room with me at all. I take a breath and step back, tripping over something and I fall. As I hit the ground I start to pull myself up slowly and see Jonah, lying there. A huge knife sticking out of his eye and I scream louder than I had ever screamed in my life. I try to push myself up, slipping in all of the blood pooling out from around him and look around the room.
I grab my head and then feel a hand cover my mouth. Turning, I see Mina standing there in a red dress, the carbon copy of my own, her face smeared in blood. I try to catch my breath, but I cannot and she hugs me tightly.
She backs away from me and I look down, my dress has turned from red to white, but now it had blood all over it. I look up and Mina is gone. I hold my hand up to my face and see that I am holding a knife covered in blood. I drop it and it falls to the floor with a thud. I turn and see my Father, slumped at the head of the table, red pooling out from under his head, turning the white table cloth to crimson. I scream again and run to him, pushing him back. Once again, there is a hole where his right eye had once been. I let him slump forward and hit the table. I back away from him, not knowing what to do or what happened. I hear laughter, giggling echoing throughout the house and I heavily drop to the floor and go into a deep sleep where dreams cannot penetrate.
***
“Mia.” I hear echoing in my ears. I blink and then hear it again.
“Mia!”
I open my eyes and look up at Mina, who was petting the rabbit in her arms. She grins at me and then I look down and see Ogabond. He is shaking and I pet him slowly, trying to settle him down.
“He can be yours.” she said. I blink again and try to understand, but there is no understanding, no rhyme or reason to this. I have lost my mind. I have to be crazy, I mean…I have to be, right?
“Did you like the soup?” she asks me.
I look up, completely confused. I look back down and no rabbit, no Ogabond. I look back to Mina and she grins at me.
“I don’t know what is happening.” I whisper.
“The soup, did you like it?” she asks me again and the memory of her feeding me came into view. I nodded, not knowing what or where or why and not knowing if this was even real.
“Good… it was Ogabond… in the soup.” she said.
I tried to stand up, but I stumbled and almost fell. I hit my hand against the gravel floor of the shed and cut my palm. I hiss and stand up, holding my hand tightly. Mina places Oogie back into the crate and I look, no second rabbit, no Ogabond.
“What?” I ask her as I blink.
“Your pet, you ate it.” she said.
“No.” I say as I back away from her and memories start to flood my mind. The hours I had spent with Ogabond, petting him and whispering to him, sneaking him into my room, dressing him up, brushing his hair, my Father handing me the rabbit as I grinned. I stumble again and step back from Mina. She laughs as I start to run as fast as I can towards the house. I slam the door open and the smell hits me first. It smells of death and decay. I step forward and see a hat on the floor, along with coats, and then I walk towards the dining room. I stand there, staring at the table. It was set for dinner, but the guests were slumped in their chairs.
I cover my mouth tighter as the stink fills my lungs. My Father sits at the head of the table, propped up as if he is toasting, but his skin is gray, wrinkled. The maid sits closest to me, gray and withered. I step around to look into her face and her eyes are gone, only two black holes remain. I made a small noise and start to cry. Then, I see Jonah and start to cry harder. He sits there, at his seat, almost as if he is sleeping. I swallow hard and walk towards him. He suddenly opens his eyes and I scream. I turn to run and ran right into Mina who held me, grinning.
“Oh, God! Mina, look!” I yell as I turn back and glance at the death all around me. Jonah steps up behind me and touches my neck. He bites into me with such force that I cannot scream. He picks me up and I slowly kick my feet as he continues to bite. My heart pounding in my chest, my whole body starts to feel as if it is on fire and then he drops me to the floor. I moan as I roll onto my side and try to catch my breath. I place my hand to my neck and pull it back, my vision is blurring but I can see the blood. More importantly, though, I can smell it. It smells like honey. I look up, my mouth open but unable to speak and as Mina steps up to Jonah’s side she transforms into Lily, her hair changes from black to blonde and curls up as if magic was real. I gripped the side of my neck, feeling a burning in it so intense I wanted to scream out but nothing could allow it to happen. Blood oozed over my hand and Lily leaned down, reached out and swiped my blood with her finger, sucking on it quickly and closing her eyes as she lingered. She was pulled up by Jonah and e looked to her and shook his head.
“She is not food my love, we discussed this at great length.”
“Jonah.” Lily said as if she was a child being denied a piece of candy.
“My dear, how many times must I tell you that an army must be living? If you keep eating them as we find them we will never grow in numbers and it is numbers that we must have before the wrath of Valon creeps in upon us.”
Lily leaned against him and he touched her hair, letting his eyes linger on her lips longer than he should and then I coughed and kicked my legs, rolling onto my back and finally crying out as the burning in my body overtook my senses and set me fire from the inside out. If I had seen flames I would have believed it to be true but none rose from me. I simply laid there in pure agony as flashes of memory sliced through my brain…
Father sitting at the head of the table and me with a knife in my hand behind my back.
The maid, her hair in hand and me jerking her head back and slicing her throat.
The rabbit as it squirmed and I lowered it into the pot of boiling water.
And then… my birth, as if a memory should ever be real but there it was. I could hear the crying out, the weeping and being lifted f
rom a Mother who held a hand to her throat where I had bitten into her and found my first meal. This cannot be me, it cannot… cannot…
***
I can hear music and I roll onto my side. The bed felt soft and cold, but it comforts me.
“Well, that was fun.” I hear a boy’s voice say.
“Yes, quite.” A girl replies to him. I try to peek, but I am too afraid to. Where am I? What will be happening this time? What did I do?
I feel a cold hand to the side of my face and I shudder. The hand turns my face with a jerk and then holds onto my chin tightly. A beautiful girl leans forward and stares into my eyes as they try to focus on her. She lets me go, stands up in a flash and turns.
“Jonah, I may have broken her.” The girl says as she laughs out loud.
“It would not be the first time my love.” Jonah says and I try to push myself up, but I feel weak and my stomach growls again. Yet, this time it is followed by a sharp pain that doubles me over.
“Lily.” Jonah says as he walks to me and sits down on the bed. He touches my face and pulls it up as my eyes rolled in my head, the pain continuing.
“Bring food.” He says and I sit here trying to stop the pain, but it is overwhelming. I start to shake and sweat so much that I felt a chill come over me, not unlike the flu.
Jonah leans into me and smiles. “Now listen to me, little one. I insisted that you come, so you need to prove that you have a place here.” he says.
I have no idea what he means by that, but I barely care. My stomach twists itself into knots and feels as if someone is stabbing me from the inside out. I moan and he touches my hair wet from sweating. Jonah then stands up and wipes his hands on his hanker chief, sighing. “A bit human like don’t you think Mia?” he adds and I roll over, still pressing against my stomach as hard as I can.
Lily returns with a boy who must have been no more than 12. She stands there with him as he sways and she grips his arms. She suddenly bites into him and he moans, his eyes rolling back into his head and then she drops him. Jonah shakes his head and glances at me.
“You see how she is? So selfish.” he says as he moves to the boy quickly and stands him up. Blood rolls down his shirt, turning it from white to red and my stomach rolls again, another terrible pain spreading through it.
“Do you see this Mia?” Jonah asks me.
I try to focus, but everything is blurring into two and three of them.
“Perhaps she is food. She may not be able to function correctly.” Lily says.
“Oh come now. You’ve spent years toying with this one Lily. From five years old to now. Do not tell me that you just want to eat her now.” Jonah says.
Lily shrugs her shoulders and stares at me. I try to scoot back on the bed, but my muscles ache and my pain increases, rendering me helpless. I drop onto the bed and cry out as my stomach continues to knot up as Jonah steps up to the bed with the boy in his grip. The boy mumbles something and Jonah leans over to him, his eyebrows raised.
“What was that? You like Mia? Well of course you do. We all love Mia and her imagination. What a joy you have been to watch Mia.” he says.
I look at him and grit my teeth. “What?” I blurt out as I try to not look at the blood that’s still rolling out of the boy’s shoulder.
“Do you know how special you are love?” Jonah asks me.
I shake my head as my body continues to shake uncontrollably.
“You,” Jonah says as he drops the boy onto the bed. He bounces once, mouthing something that I cannot hear. His blood starts to soak into the mattress, looking like wine. I take a breath and the smell of it fills my nostrils. My heartbeat speeds up and I stare at it as Jonah leans into my ear.
“Mia, you are a delight to see blossom. You were born of a dead Mother, after your twin was born dead before you. A miracle really. Of course you were not exactly perfect in the mind, but that was the appeal, your imagination. You grew up believing that your sister existed and that your Father hated you. Alone and scared, killing pet after pet. At least until the rabbits that Lily gave to you. They seemed to touch you in some way.”
“What? Mina gave them to me.” I whisper, unable to comprehend what he is saying to me.
“Oh my, listen. This may help you.” Jonah says as he grabs me and stands me up. I keep my eyes on the boy as he takes his last breath and his body shudders.
“That was a waste.” Lily says about the boy as she looks at her nails and then fluffs her hair.
“No need, we have many to feed upon love.” Jonah says as he walks me out into what looks like white tents and an elephant walks by us. I blink as it bellows out his booming noise from his large trunk. I stumble and Jonah holds onto me until we reach an open field. He then scoops me up and runs with me in his arms. As he runs, everything starts to blur and I know we are moving faster than anything I had ever seen. Suddenly we stop and he drops me. I roll until I hit something hard and unmovable. I didn’t hurt though, as I guessed that I would of. I push myself up, brush my hair out of my face and look down at a large stone. I then look around me and see that we are standing in a graveyard, one I have seen before. I look back to Jonah, who pops up onto a large stone slab and sighs. He waves his hand and I turn and look down at a stone. I read it slowly and then again…and again…
Here lies a loving wife and Mother
Kathryn Rosemary Decrain
And daughter
Mina Elisabeth Decrain
I blink and look up at the sky, then back to Jonah.
“You see love? Mina never lived past the womb, only you, but you were special.”
“I don’t understand…” I feel my stomach roll.
“You are…” Jonah says as he twists his hand next to his head and I take a breath, shaking my head slowly.
“No… no, where is Mina? I have been with her since I can remember.” I say forcefully.
Jonah laughs. “Oh my, is this not enough for you?” he asks me.
Lily steps out from behind him and as she walks towards me, she changes from that of herself to the form of Mina, a mirrored image of me. I suck in my breath, stumbling back, falling and cracking my head on the gravestone.
“Lily.” Jonah says as he jumps down and stares at me.
“What?” Lily says as she grins and I see her pointed teeth. I narrow my eyes and she looks back at me, her form changes from Mina to herself again. I blink and push myself up against the rock and shake my head violently, grabbing at my hair.
“What are you?” I ask them both. Jonah smiles and looks at me. He was in my face before I could blink. I lean back and I see his nose move…he is smelling me, like an animal would its prey.
“Same as you… or close to it. You see, your Mother was with a vampire, like our own. She became pregnant, which is still, to me, a mystery…by your Father, a human. Mina, your little twin here,” he said as he touched the grave stone, “she was human, like your Father, but you…” he says as he turns to me and touches my face. “You are a mixture of both. Like Lily and myself. When you thrashed around in the womb from hunger, you started to feed and feed you did. First you fed upon your sister and then, at birth you fed upon your Mother as did we. It seems to be something we must do, messy business.”
Lily twirled with her arms extended out beside her and leaned her head back. The sun glinted off of her blonde curls and if not for the vicious nature of the subject at hand her beauty would remind me of a painting, but this is not a painting and hopefully a true lie.
I shake my head and lean over, vomiting onto the ground. “No.” I cough out as I wipe my mouth. Jonah steps back and looks at his shoes, happy that I did not ruin them as I threw up. “I don’t believe you.” I say as I stand up and choke on more bile rising in my throat.
“Really? Well, how do you explain your insanity then? You see, you are the only mixed breed that I know of beside us, and obviously there are problems with that, the most obvious of which is insanity. We tend to have a bit of a glitch in the brain pan so to
speak.” He tapped his temple and laughed as Lily slowed her twirling and stopped to look at him. “You were playing with your dead sister long before I stumbled across you.” I close my eyes tightly and try to wish myself to my bed, to Mina, to my home. But when I open my eyes Lily stands there, grinning with her pointed teeth in my face. If this is a nightmare, I cannot get out of it, I cannot escape, no matter how hard I wish it to happen.
“Why did you let me live?” I ask him.
Jonah grins and Lily walks to him. He kisses her softly on the lips and I stare, wondering what kind of love could produce that between a sister and a brother. Jonah looks at me and smiles, removing his Top Hat from his head and placing it to his chest.
“You will join us here. I can guarantee you food, safety and freedom to do as you wish as long as you embrace who you are and me… loyalty, to me and to Lily.”
“And what if I say no?” I ask him.
“Then we eat you, alive.” Lily says as she smiles and a chill runs through me.
I start to hold my stomach tightly and my vision once again blurs. Jonah scoops me up and, once again, we move back to the circus. It must be what they do. The circus must be home to them.
Jonah lays me down onto the bed and then with a simple swipe of his hand he knocks the now dead boy from my bed, grinning at me as he gently touches my face.
“Mia, your mind is broken, but blood and flesh can bring reason to you I am certain. You need to feed. I have given you what I could with a bite, but without feeding I fear that you will sink deeper into insanity.” His voice is soft, almost as if he cares for me, something I have never felt from anyone in my life before. I stare at him and say nothing. He stands and looks down at me. He looks back to Lily and waves his hand at me.
