“Caleb,” she said suddenly. “Alexander.”
In a single second, the situation was clear. Alexander had been in love with Caleb. Jeoff with Alexander and then Caleb had fallen in love with her. How could they have lived like this for so long? It was torture. Always having a loved one close by, within a single step and unable to do anything at all. Knowing that it could never be and knowing their feelings because Meryl was sure that Jeoff knew.
“I’m sorry ... I never suspected.”
“Neither did he.”
“So you like Luxt and he likes you, but you’re afraid that the war will take him away from you just like it happened to ...” Meryl’s voice trailed off at the painful memory.
“Yes. Your friend was far away, but I informed her that I told him that I would only accept his feelings if I managed to get out alive tomorrow.”
“I understand your selfishness,” she sighed. “That might give him the strength he needs to fight. Hey, when it’s all over, will you come home with us?” Meryl asked smiling.
“To the mansion? I don’t know. Caleb might get upset. It’d be as if Luxt were taking Alexander’s place.”
“Caleb would never think that Jeoff,” Meryl said, standing up. “And I know your happiness would be above everything. I’m sure he’ll want you to come with us. Come on, let’s go back. It’s the last night of tranquility. Let’s have a party.”
♫♫♫
Everyone knew that for many the laughter and the joy that they shared with each other would be the last thing they would live through until they died for a noble cause. But such were wars, unjust and in most cases, for reasons that had no real basis in anything. However, this time they were playing a dangerous game with the future of the planet and all those who inhabited it. Epsilon would never stop. His condition was getting more and more worrisome.
Meryl looked around and saw for the third time the companionship between the two races who were now on the same side, because now the vampires had their own nemesis. A nemesis that was as equally dangerous to them as they were to the humans. The vampires could now understand better all those terrifying years full of suffering for the humans. They were now in the same place as their “food” many of those who distrusted them now felt a rapprochement.
Caleb soon retired with Ajax, probably to finalize some details. The mission was complicated as they were going to act blindly, but they had no choice if they wanted to change the horrible vision of the future in which everyone lost their lives.
“Your very thoughtful,” Johana said, sitting down beside Meryl.
“Yes, tomorrow a lot will happen ...” Meryl said, leaning her head on her hand. “I’m scared.”
“We all are, even Caleb. Changing the future is not easy. It’s even harder knowing that our fate is death.”
“We have to be cautious.”
“Caleb has already thought about everything. Legrant has told me if things get too ugly we will leave quickly until we have a better opportunity. Come on, let’s eat until our stomach hurts.”
♫♫♫
When she opened her eyes feeling the chill of dawn, Caleb was not there, but Meryl was sure that he had rested for a while. His side of the bed had an indentation where his body had been. He had probably slept for only a couple of hours. Which annoyed her. With his new gift, he tired more easily than before and his mind needed a break to recover from the dreams and visions he had. Meryl went downstairs, where the rest of them continued to rest and began to look for Caleb to rebuke him. He was not in the strategy room. Meryl saw many maps that hadn’t been left out the day before. She continued searching for Caleb without finding him. A noise from the kitchen caught her attention so she headed for the door and was shocked. Caleb was in the kitchen cooking or, rather, trying to cook.
“What a mess,” Meryl murmured, feeling her anger disappear.
“It’s been so long since I’ve cooked but I didn’t remember it being so hard,” Caleb complained, looking with hate at the flour scattered all over the table.
“But what are you doing? Homemaker?” Meryl laughed, she saw that the flour had reached his face. Though his face was covered with the white powder Meryl could see he was embarrassed by the failure.
“I thought about cooking something for you,” he said. This made Meryl feel such tenderness that she only wanted to hug him tightly.
“You didn’t have to. Especially if you don’t know how to cook. What you should have done is rest, Caleb. Today is going to be a horrible day.”
“That’s why I wanted to do it.”
“What if we cook together?”
Caleb smirked, that was an even better choice. Between the two they made a breakfast worthy of a king for all who occupied the house and Meryl knew that he would enjoy eternally that memory that surely would not be repeated. Or at least would be terribly difficult to repeat.
While they all ate at the table, long, slow, deep sighs were heard. The tension was palpable in almost everyone, except Jacob, who seemed to be accustomed to it. Caleb continued to think. His brain running at full capacity. Without stopping he continued to review each step of the plan. However, it wasn’t worth thinking about what was going to happen during the next few hours. Just to wish that they would get lucky. That their plans would create an opportunity to be victorious. Just as they finished, feeling full, the front door opened, and Yong walked into the living room.
“My men are ready,” Yong said, dressed like the rest of his soldiers. “We are going to leave already with the group of humans that André will command. We are many and will need to organize before we arrive.”
“Good.” Caleb got up to join him. He placed his hands on Yong’s shoulders. “As soon as you have the situation under control. We’ll wait for you in the southern part of the city. We need you to stay in one piece.”
“Don’t doubt me. I’m still your teacher,” Yong said, smiling before leaving.
Meryl, Johana, and Legrant peered out of the windows. There were so many people that they could not see a single piece of ground and the view was lost beyond the borders of the small town. In silence, thousands of people began to follow both Yong and Andre to the ancient city of New York, whose splendor had been lost among the ruins. And the blood and the tears of those who inhabited it.
“There is no turning back,” Legrant muttered.
“I’m starting to get nervous,” Johana admitted. “My stomach hurts a little.”
“Calm down. We’ll have tea before we leave,” Meryl said, feeling as bad as her friend.
It was as if all their confidence suddenly broke. They were within a few hours of confronting Epsilon and perhaps Akad as well as a few spawn. They were fully convinced that Epsilon would never go alone to meet them.
“Let’s start preparing ourselves, too. We’ll be out in a couple of hours,” Caleb said.
Meryl stayed with her father. Johana and Legrant went off together looking for some solitude. Luxt and Jeoff joined Caleb in the strategy room to go over the whole plan. While Pein went into the kitchen to continue eating, nerves were killing him. After an hour they went out, the place looked like it was right out of a horror novel. There wasn’t a single soul. The few people that remained were in the same building, Amanda’s team, children, Ajax and Elizabeth. All of them would wait for the wounded. They would take care of them.
With some provisions for contingencies, the group left the small town that was several miles away from New York. They walked in silence, reconsidering, thinking and imagining what they were going to find. Meryl walked beside Caleb and soon reached for his arm. She thought it might be the last time they were together. Her mind said how unfair it was. Whenever they were together something happened that either separated them or put them in danger of death.
It’s like a curse. After so much suffering no one deserves happiness more than we do. Meryl thought to h
erself.
Hour after hour, the silence did not disappear. Not even when they stopped to rest so that the women could eat something and relax their legs.
“We’re almost there. We have to surround this area,” Luxt said, pointing the map with a finger. “If we don’t arrive in the east right now there will only be death.”
“Yes, I hope Yong is well,” Caleb muttered worriedly, feeling the urge to take a detour to see how things were going, but he had to discard the urge immediately. There was no time to waste.
“The journey isn’t difficult. It will only take a little longer,” he continued, keeping the map.
“Longer, the more time we give Yong, the better. Are you ready?” asked Caleb, looking at Meryl and Johana. They were standing up after a half an hour of rest.
♫♫♫
In the distance, they saw the tall dark buildings. Many of them were broken in a dangerous way and about to fall during a simple storm. The skyscrapers that were filled with windows that shone in the past were now shattered as if they were drawn from hell itself.
With the entrance to the city in front of them. They stopped to look at the place as if that instant were the last in their lives. Caleb gestured for them to get back on their way, but a few slaps on his back made him turn around and freeze in place. The rest followed with the same movement. There she was, the demon, Alexander’s last concern had just become real.
“Galatea ...” Jeoff whispered, stepping forward and trying to get in the way to cut off Caleb’s view of her, but Caleb wouldn’t allow it.
“Shut up butler,” Galatea said as two vampires stood on either side of her. They each had one of the chained spawn.
“They’re ... fuck ...” Pein was instantly on alert.
“My little boy has become a man,” Galatea continued with a grotesque smile.
“What do you want?”
“You know. Come here.” Galatea held out a hand. “You know you can’t avoid it.”
Meryl watched them both, over and over again. She frowned and remembered Alexander’s words. Caleb couldn’t help it. His need for her affection was stronger than him. Even knowing that Galatea only wanted to kill him. Without thinking about her actions Meryl reached down and grabbed a stone from the road. She threw it with all her might. Incredibly Galatea didn’t notice and the rock hit her forehead causing a small trickle of blood.
“Damn brat!” Galatea roared like a lioness. “I’ll rip out your guts while they’re still warm.”
“I won’t let you hurt him!” Full of adrenaline Meryl jumped toward her but Caleb’s hand stopped her.
“No, Mother.” Caleb stepped forward. He seemed abnormally calm. “That’s enough. I almost understand your madness. I also suffered from it but Akad will never give you what you want and you know it. The only one he has eyes for now, is Meryl.”
They all stared at Caleb in shock. He placed his finger over the place where she suffered from an impossible love that had even led her to try to kill her son, and in fact, to accomplish it. He smiled before Meryl’s eyes.
“I can control my mind and stupid instincts that push me toward you. The child inside me, who needed you so much, is gone. I didn’t want to see myself at this crossroads. I didn’t think to look for you, but you’re here in front of my eyes and it’s time to end this.”
Caleb removed some leather gloves from his trousers and he put them on. Meryl realized that they were not his own, the ones he always wore, but Alexander’s.
“Do you think you can kill me? When I finish with all of you I’ll pick up the pieces and take them to Akad.”
“Luxt and Jeoff with me.”
Jacob, Pein, and Legrant took a defensive position in front of Johana and Meryl. While the other three launched themselves without warning in front. They didn’t give the two bodyguards time to let free the spawn that they had chained. One of the guards head flew in the air. His chained captive was released and biting the air, he tried to bite Luxt. Caleb focused only on his mother. He managed to reach her more easily than he had anticipated. His hands tightened around her throat. He looked at her without blinking, allowing the lifelong hatred to accumulate within him to withstand the moment. Galatea shrieked, kicked, and realized that the young child that she had killed when he’d grown to adulthood, was gone. Caleb was as strong as Akad, as dangerous as she was. His eyes were those of a runaway killing machine. He gently began to press down and listened to the creaking of her bones and felt the blood accumulate at the exact point in which he pressed. His jaw tightened to the point of breaking. The seconds seemed eternal, around him the two bodyguards had fallen without resistance, but the two spawn were a problem. Jacob and Pein had no choice but to step forward to lend their aid to the others.
Caleb looked at the ground where his mother lay unmoving. Galatea’s eyes were still and empty. Just a minute ago, his hands had pressed that delicate little neck until it broke into a thousand pieces. She was no longer alive. She would not return. She would no longer call him. Something wanted to break in Caleb’s heart. So many wishes that would no longer be satisfied accumulated dangerously, but Meryl’s face closed that door and left the growing darkness sheltered deep within him from where it would not escape.
“Caleb.”
“I’m fine.” Caleb turned to look at the body that had been torn apart for the last time while Jeoff set fire to the bodies.
Caleb said the words but he was lying blatantly. Meryl used the only weapon she had. She lifted her hands around Caleb’s neck and forced him to crouch until his cheek was resting on her shoulder, then whispered, “The last promise I made to Alexander was to keep your mother from getting close to you. He would be proud of what you have done. How you have fought against your own desires. You have overcome pain Caleb, you have done it.”
He held her close and felt the unwanted and unloved child that he had been trying to emerge, but Caleb wouldn’t let it.
♫♫♫
They spent about forty minutes there without seeing any movement in the vicinity. In the part of the city that they looked in, there was not a single soul ... something was going wrong. The plan had been that Epsilon would arrive, but ... where was he?
“We should wait a little longer,” Jacob said. “We’ve been through hell to kill off those two chained behemoths and it took four of us to do it. I don’t want to imagine what’s inside. It’s a hornet’s nest.”
“Someone is coming!” Pein shouted from the top of a rusty truck.
They stood up, waiting, feeling the tension clinging to each muscle, suffocating and squeezing them horribly.
“Soldiers!” Pein shouted again, jumping up and down.
When they saw the two bloody men walking painfully they ran to meet them. Seeing their wounds made Meryl feel nauseous.
“What happened?” asked Luxt.
“An ambush ...” The first man fell to his knees, unable to stand.
“It was a massacre. They’re all dead. They left us ...” The man coughed and blood spilled violently from his mouth. It fell and stained the ground, “to tell you.”
“And Yong?” Caleb panicked.
“He was the first. They want you to go.”
“Then I’ll go.”
“Caleb?” Jeoff grabbed his arm. “It’s suicide.”
“I had a plan B for this. Are you sure they’re all dead?” Caleb asked the men again.
“Maybe, someone else managed to escape, but they’ve probably returned to the base,” the first man said. “The blood reached down to our ankles.”
They lay down on the little grass there was. Caleb told them to rest there until he returned. Then between questions and complaints from the rest of the group he removed a few vials from his backpack. They were light red and shone mysteriously.
“Take one. Humans and vampires both.”
Before the questions
came out of everyone’s mouth Caleb pulled a cell phone very similar to the one that Alexander had used to send a message when they had found Pein in the fight club.
“The plan is underway.”
“Are you going to give us any explanation?” Jacob asked.
“Yes, while we are on the way,” Caleb said earnestly forcing everyone to follow him into the bowels of the city. “A few days ago, Amanda was able to create a new virus.”
“With the blood she took after my transformation?” Meryl asked, to which he nodded.
“They created a liquid solution this time. That was plan B. They’re going to spray the whole city.”
“We’ve drunk that thing but you don’t know what it’s going to do to us?” Johana placed a hand on her head when she felt dizzy. “This is crazy. It could kill us all.”
“Let’s trust in our luck,” Caleb said simply.
It didn’t take them long to see the first signs of the war. They soon discovered the first signs of war. The spilled blood had splashed the stone and gave it a grotesque glow. Minutes later, the first corpses were visible. Suddenly it became a sea of bloody, torn and dismembered bodies. Vampires, humans, some spawn. They all felt lost at the sight before them and in the middle of it all Epsilon smiled at the arrival of his guests. Whom he received with Akad’s head hanging from a hand and a smiling face stained with blood.
That smile that was famous all over the planet, sadistic and sick, had reached an unthinkable level.
Melody N⁰ 15
One Last Drop of Blood
Meryl had fought the last few months to become stronger and was proud to have accomplished it, but at that moment in her life when she was surrounded with so much death and with Epsilon smiling before her, she felt fear deep within her. Meryl couldn’t stop her tears from falling. She fell to her knees and asked herself once again why she had such a cruel fate. So many people were dead. So much blood had been spilled. So much insanity.
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