The Immortal door

by Lyra heart

  “So... I’ll call you?” Lloyd grinned.

  “Sure,” Chloe replied.

  “I could walk you back home, if you like?”

  “It’s far, I’ll get a taxi if it’s all the same?”

  Over time they grew close. The pain of the failed spell almost melted away and Chloe began to remember happiness. She knew George felt a strong amount of contempt for her as she swooned over the new man in her life, remarking how much he resembled Nolan, but she simply didn’t care. She woke up every morning feeling alive knowing Lloyd was in her life, that she was not alone.

  “You look amazing!” Lloyd said as he gazed into the soft blue sky of her eyes, as they sat on her bed.

  “I always do,” she said with a wink, smiling warmly.

  “If this is moving to fast…?” he asked breathlessly as he kissed her.

  “Not fast enough,” she replied between kisses.

  She undressed, allowing herself to give into temptation and become one with him. She felt comfortable with him in ways she never expected. The night seemed to last for ever.

  Chloe pretended to still be asleep as Lloyd awoke and left the bed, dressing quickly. He looked in her mirror, smoothing his hair before he made for a swift exit.

  “You planning on saying goodbye before you go?” she asked.

  “Of course I was. I thought you were asleep. I’ll call you,” he said hastily before darting for the door.

  Chloe knew then that she had been used. She was furious. Leaping from the bed, she snapped his neck with her hands. He crumpled at her feet, dead. She had lost a piece of herself and the pain burned.

  9

  Jasmin’s life had changed. She was no longer the girl longing for the world of fiction—her fantasy had become reality. Though she and Tim had conducted research, they had not found anything that made them believe other people on the internet really believed in vampires or knew anything about them. Without admitting it to each other outright, they had given up.

  She supposed she would never see George again; she couldn’t decide if he was evil. She believed he had been honest when he told her how he murdered his best friend. It was likely he had always been a bad person. Chloe had seemed cruel in the way she had tried to control Jasmin’s mind. Yet, although George now seemed dangerous, she missed the excitement of knowing a real vampire.

  GCSE tests in school were right around the corner. This was a big year in Jasmin’s life—turning sixteen, leaving school, and making her future plans. She wanted to go college doing

  A-levels and then possibly pursue a degree in law.

  She remained close friends with Tim and felt she could talk to him about anything. However, the strain of their shared experience threatened to draw them apart. It was like they were both too traumatized to be friends anymore. A spider’s thread now held their friendship together and it was deteriorating slowly.

  * * *

  George had hunted a lot that year. He had read about one person he had fed upon in the local newspaper. It had been a strange sensation to read about someone whose life he had ended. He felt no guilt to think about the deaths he had caused, but it was indeed peculiar. His relationship with Chloe was warmer. They wouldn’t always talk and sometimes she would completely shut him out of her life, but there were times when they would, laughing and watching movies like a real family.

  That night, George was on the hunt again. He wasn’t big on killing more than one person in an evening unless, for some reason, he simply could not resist the opportunity. He preferred to contemplate his kill, absorbing the person’s identity and feelings. He found it fascinating.

  As he prowled through a large shopping centre in Watford he sensed someone watching him. He looked around to see a tall, handsome girl with long brown hair and glasses casually observing him. She had a slim figure, petite features, and was dressed in the baggy black jeans, shirt, and shoes of a skater. What harm would there be in approaching her?

  “Hi,” George mumbled and invited her to coffee. She eagerly accepted.

  They found a cafe nearby. She ordered a black coffee and a croissant, while George ordered a soda. They made small talk about their lives and educational paths, or, in George’s case, lack thereof.

  “How old are you?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Seventeen.” George stumbled over the word a bit.

  “Really?” Elizabeth raised her eyebrows.

  “Yeah. Why do you sound surprised?” George leaned back in his chair.

  “I can’t explain. You seem older,” she said. “How old would you say I was?” She smiled playfully.

  “Eighteen or twenty. Something like that.”

  “Correct. I’m young for one of our kind.” A knowing smile grew on her lips.

  “You what?” he said dryly, keeping his cool.

  “Our kind. Let’s not play games. Can’t you sense it?”

  Looking at Elizabeth he saw a young girl—even dressed in skater clothes she smelt good and had an expensive air about her. He had never thought about what a vampire “felt like.” Chloe felt powerful to him, but it wasn’t something he had noticed when he met her—it was something he only sensed because she was his Maker.

  “I don’t know what you mean by our kind.” George looked around nervously.

  Elizabeth’s smile vanished. She searched his eyes for answers. “You know perfectly well what I mean by ‘our kind.’ I didn’t talk to you because I wanted to make friends. You couldn’t sense what I was? This is quite worrying. By the looks of you I would bet you were not born a vampire. Whoever made you did not give you great awareness. It’s highly disturbing.”

  “You’re not lying. Fuck!”

  “Please. Keep the gutter language for another occasion. I know for a fact you don’t belong to my own house. Which house do you belong to George?”

  “What are you talking about, house? I live in a flat.” George laughed nervously.

  “Every vampire I have ever met is educated about this, how very odd it is to meet someone who doesn’t know about such a fundamental element of our lives.” Elizabeth seemed genuinely perplexed. “What about your Maker?”

  “We live alone. I didn’t even think there were other vampires, let alone groups of them living together.” George was most definitely curious about the concept of a “house” and the existence of others of his own kind. “What exactly do you do in this ‘house’?”

  “A house is an institution brought together by a common ideology. In ours, we believe all vampires should fully reap the benefits from a world where man creates a garden of opportunities for us, while learning to influence said world without revealing our true identity. We believe vampires should feed without guilt and enjoy our nature freely. We have blood banks and hidden areas where humans are bred purely for blood.”

  “People are bred for us? Blimey!”

  “Perhaps it might be beneficial for you to experience our house? I will have to speak to my Elders first, though. We are open to new members and are often less picky than other houses recognizing our place in the education and guidance of a vampire being throughout eternity.”

  “That’s the kind of thing my Maker would say. You asking me would mean you’re not picky.” George scoffed at the indirect snub.

  “I hope I haven’t offended you. I will be blunt though, when I saw you and sensed you were immortal, I was shocked. I’ve walked passed other vampires and not been alarmed the way I was when I saw you. Your very…ordinary for a vampire. Our kind do not usually turn those of average appearance. It is simply not in our nature.”

  “In other words you think I’m pig ugly.”

  “No. I didn’t say that. We respect all vampires. You’ll find our house welcoming I promise.”

  “Thanks,” George snorted.

  After a long pause, Elizabeth asked, “You must love her very much?”

  “Who?”

  “Your Maker.”

  “Oh. No. Chloe? She’s just…Chloe.”

  “Well,
if you don’t love her, surely she loves you?”

  “No, she doesn’t.”

  “What other reason would anyone turn someone unless they loved them? I find it rather repulsive to consider a vampire so base, so very disrespectful as to turn someone out of any other motive than love.” Elizabeth shook her head. “It isn’t a crime. It’s just something which is frowned upon.” Elizabeth sat forward in her chair, leaning in closer across the table. “We can do great things for you, George. The knowledge we have, the transformation we can give you is unbelievable.”

  George felt Chloe would be furious to find out that vampires actually existed within this world. Her notion behind entering this world had been to find a place where she could obtain power. This George understood as Chloe’s reasoning behind locating this particular dimension. Chloe wanted to gain dominance over the human race and a Queen. When there were enough vampire’s from her world, such as Nolan, in this reality she wanted to reveal their identity, subjugating the human race. How could Chloe achieve this if vampires already hid in this dimension from people? In a world where the rules of how a vampire must conduct their life were already established, Chloe wouldn’t be able to achieve the power she so desired.

  “I’ll talk to her.”

  “Please do. And keep in touch, George. We have so much to offer you.”

  George exchanged information with Elizabeth and left the cafe. He would have to break the news of this to Chloe gently.

  10

  Chloe and George had shared a bottled of wine while watching television as George told her everything about his encounter with Elizabeth. She had remained silent while he talked, listening as she stared at the TV.

  “Do you want to meet them?” George asked.

  “This fucking house seems like a joke. But what option do I have but to see what it’s all about?” Chloe sounded like someone in shock.

  “I’ll let her know were coming,” he replied carefully.

  George called Elizabeth and let her know that Chloe was willing to meet. Elizabeth sounded thrilled. The following evening Chloe and George waited outside the house in Primrose Hill. Elizabeth answered the door dressed in a designer black dress, black gloves, and pearls.

  “Come in. I’ve arranged for an administrator to see you.” She beamed.

  Chloe noticed the title on the guestbook: House of Nobility. She shivered with the sad memories of the slaves kept by such houses of “nobles” in her own world. The house was a tall Victorian home with beautiful high ceilings and windows, soft red expensive carpet, and the smell of fresh popery. They followed Elizabeth to the garden where marble angels stood by the entrance. It was a warm and lovely evening. Fairy lights and candles decorated the large apple trees and rosebushes along the sprawling lawn. A beautiful woman sat on a stone bench beneath one of the trees.

  “Edner, this is George and his Maker, Chloe.” Elizabeth seemed merry as if she had been drinking.

  “Welcome. We have much to tell you.”

  Edner was short and of Hispanic ethnicity. She wore a long white dress and her hair was in loose brown curls. “Elizabeth’s told you all about our supplies and our breeding system. But she hasn’t told you the best parts about joining our house—we can transform your life in so many ways. We are the biggest house in Britain, with twenty percent of all listed vampires under our membership. We are also a self-sustaining financial institution, which you will have access to for personal and business loans. As young as you are George, you would not yet appreciate such things as new birth certificates, but there will come a time when you will need such a thing. We can also assist with all forms of governmental documents to conceal your true identity from the world of mortals. There are resources for just about every aspect of a vampire’s life that they may need altering or improvement to.”

  “Do you work with magic?” Chloe asked pointedly.

  “We have a library of the knowledge of this realm,” Elizabeth replied. “George, perhaps you would like to partake of the improvements to your physical appearance? It’s something that’s a great burden, I should think, being immortal and never having the beauty others of our kind all take for granted.”

  Chloe felt like telling her that beauty shouldn’t concern George. He wasn’t important enough to be beautiful, although she had started to care a little more for him.

  “Do you have any questions before you make a decision?”

  Chloe didn’t like being hurried into making a decision, though her instinct told her there was much to be gained from an alliance with such an institution. “I’ve heard of other realities, other dimensions. Do you know much of this?”

  “Yes. There have even been times when high-ranking members have been permitted to explore other dimensions,” Edner replied.

  “Wow,” Chloe remarked with honest amazement.

  “It’s incredible! Some worlds are rather horrific. Yet, others have proven very enjoyable. We are not alone in our abilities, though. We felt a portal open in the late 20th century, from some other realm to Earth. We do not know who or what it was, however,” Elizabeth said.

  “Do you know how they did it?” Chloe knew it was her portal that they referred to.

  “Oh yes. We investigated and found it was a rather oafish spell, if I do say so myself, using a very unsophisticated magic.” Elizabeth shrugged.

  Chloe felt the sting of Elizabeth’s condescension. “I must think on your offer. I will let you know in a month if we are to join your house.”

  * * *

  A month came and went and Chloe decided that she wanted what the house could offer. Over the remainder of the summer Chloe and George were initiated into the House of Nobility. They were each given an ID number and their names were recorded into a database at third class membership, the lowest rank in the system. Chloe had access to certain books on magic, although the actual spell books were restricted to second and first class members.

  George was treated like his own person, as opposed to Chloe’s assistant. They didn’t even ask her permission to go ahead with the transformation program, which would allow George to do two things: become handsome and grow slightly older. George found himself spending far more time with Elizabeth. She was happy for him regarding the transformation. He was prepared to hold back on feeding on any blood for the next ten years so that he would age.

  “For the ritual it is required that someone of first class rank sit in with us while the transformation takes place. I am of second-class rank. I expect it will be someone rather highly respected within the house, considering this ritual hasn’t been executed in centuries.” Elizabeth instructed George.

  George and Elizabeth waited for the first class member to arrive. Elizabeth greeted him and, together, they picked a rare medicinal plant that resembled a green lily with bushy leaves and a stem covered in moss—a tea would be made from the flower and leaves. The first class vampire, a young Indian man, was dressed elegantly for the ritual. He had long, glossy hair and dark eyes. He addressed them both, briefly explaining he would watch the tea take effect on George. He boiled the whole flower in a pot until it fell apart.

  When the flower itself had cooled George was told to consume the tea, as well as the remaining flower floating within the cup. The flower was pleasantly sugary, as was the water. At first George felt completely normal, but as time passed he began to feel dizzy and tired. He looked at his hand to see his skin turning green. The hue spread over his limbs as his body began to sweat. As he fell into deep sleep, George’s features seemed to melt upon his face like candle wax—a green outline of himself with no distinguishable features. As the plants qualities worked its way into George’s body overtime his features reconfigured themselves. His hair grew full and shiny, his cheek bones becoming high and defined as the green tint slowly began to fade.

  “Has it worked?” he asked groggily.

  “Yes!”

  “I want to see!” He could barely contain his excitement.

  “Wait just a little whil
e longer. You’re still a tinge green,” she urged.

  “Okay.”

  “Tell me what made you choose to age ten years?” She looked wisely into his eyes that were both youthful, but also a contradiction with a vampire’s soul. “Why didn’t you inform Chloe about your decision to partake in this sacred ritual?”

  “It’s personal.”

  “Surely she wants you to be happy? Even though it seems like she is only concerned for herself.”

  “I think she cares about me. Just not very much.”

  “You know her better than I do. I suppose every Maker grows to care for their children more over time?”

  George thought about Jay and Lance—they were probably both unhappy still. Chloe had told George never to mention them to the house—they would deeply disapprove of the way she had abandoned them.

  “You should rest some more. By the time you wake up you’ll feel like a new man. You look fabulous. I can barely recognize you.” She paused. “I must enquire, is there a girl you wish would notice you?”

  “There was a girl… Do you think she would be able to tell it was me if she saw me now?” he asked.

  “Not a chance,” Elizabeth replied.

  With this George and Elizabeth laid down on the floor to sleep. George dreamed about Jasmin. Perhaps, one day she would really love him?

  11

  Jasmin was nervous when she received her GCSE results—she feared failing so much she considered waiting a week to look at them.

  That night she had a strange dream. She was sitting on a train that sped through the countryside. The train seemed to move more slowly at times, stalling even, in comparison to the images that lit the windows. There were grey figures all around, as though they had long since forgotten to be colorful. It was hard to tell the men and women apart. Yet, one person on the train was vividly illuminated, a handsome and vibrant man.