Redemption (Waking Up Dead)

by April Margeson

  My father’s laughter rang in my ears like bells. He was truly a good man so far. I cannot help but to still be watchful. In my experience it pays to be careful.

  He had given us a tour of the house, which had taken about an hour, but it was extremely enjoyable. All of the rooms were decorated tastefully and screamed comfort and all of us. This house projected a homelike feeling and I could no longer imagine being anywhere but here.

  After the tour, my father walked me up to my room. We both remained in silence, but I had so many questions that I wanted to ask. My mother had never told me anything about Alzar and that made it harder for me to understand how all of this happened, how I was his daughter.

  There was a story behind this and I was desperate to know all the details

  Alzar opened the door to my new room and as I walked in the glowing of the bright walls stunned me. The room looked magical in ways that I was sure that was by my father’s hands alone.

  Something about the room made me feel more loved than I had ever felt. It screamed a welcoming to me that was unlike any other and I could feel my power growing again.

  “Do you like it?” my father asked.

  How could I not like it? Every detail of the room was perfect. The queen size canopy bed that sat in the middle of the room was my favorite thing of all, not to mention the oversized window that fills the entirety of the outside wall.

  The sunlight felt great on my skin and I can’t imagine what it would be like to live life as a night walker. That way of life had to be miserable.

  “I love it!”

  We talked, mainly about nothing that mattered, but I was trying to work up the courage to ask the questions that I needed answers to. I guess there’s no better time than now.

  “Can I ask you something?” I asked my father. I can only hope that he would be willing to have this discussion with me.

  “Sure.”

  I swallowed my pride and thought hard about how ask him about how he had met my mother. The only thing that I could do was blurt it out and I felt foolish after I had.

  He smiled and I knew right then that this would be a subject that he would not care to tell me about. And for that I was thankful.

  As he started telling me about the night that he had met my mother, I felt a weight lifted from me. It was like he had taken a large load than I had been carrying and allowed me to take a break.

  I listened carefully to ever word that he told me. The more that he spoke, the clear the picture became in my mind. I could see everything. I could see my mother, young and jubilant and Alzar shy and cautious in her presence.

  They had been at a circle meeting when they had met. All of the Elders had been talking about arranging a marriage and the two of them were frightened that it would be them. Thankfully, it wasn’t. They had chosen a couple witches that were a few years older than them.

  My father spoke of this time like it was the happiest times of his life and the most nerve wracking. He told me that he always had a crush on my mother and that he was certain that she felt the same way, but he couldn’t be sure. Everything back then was so complicated and the majority of the time the coven members arranged their children’s marriages.

  I sure hope that that’s not the way it is now, I thought to myself. The idea of being forced to marry someone without loving them is like a death sentence in my mind.

  Two years after my father and mother had started seeing each other; they had gone to the Elders and as to be married. They had both been excited and could hardly speak the words during the meeting, but my father managed to speak for the both of them quite well.

  The Elders agreed and declared that they would be married by week’s end. My mother could hardly contain herself from all the excitement she was feeling.

  I could see her flowing dress moving the tall grass as she danced in the moonlight at the festival. To see my mother that happy made me want to cry. The tears came before I could do anything about it, but my father remained calm. The sight of my bloody tears didn’t seem to bother him at all. Or he just wasn’t going to act like they were.

  I cleaned my face as best that I could and continued to listen to his story.

  Later that week he and my mother were married and getting settled into the house that the coven had built for them. My father’s tone changed and I knew that he was going to tell me what had happened that they could not be together. This was the part that I needed to hear the most, but there had been something in Alzar’s voice that changed my need for information on the subject. However, I no longer had a choice in the matter as far as I could tell. He was going to tell me whether I wanted to hear it or not.

  It had been raining that night and the clouds covered the moon keeping it much darker than normal. My mother had asked him to fetch more firewood. It was cold and she was worried that it would become too wet to provide them heat throughout the night. My father never questioned what my mother asked of him and he went right to work on her request.

  There was a storm brewing and it was causing my father trouble in his endeavor. The wind was strong and it was making it hard for him to see. By the time that my father had gotten to the door with the bundle of wood, something had gone terribly wrong inside.

  The front door was still open, but he had been certain that he closed it on his way out. As he walked in the door, he heard my mother scream. Dropping the wood, he ran to where her cries were coming from.

  There was a man in the room with my mother, one that my father could not recognize. He was holding my mother by her throat and telling her that if she made one single move he was going to kill her.

  My father yelled out, “Stop!”

  The man turned around, surprised that my father was in the house. He took my mother and placed the knife that he was holding to her throat.

  My father, instantly, stopped. The last thing he wanted to do was to startle the man and cause him to hurt my mother.

  “Take whatever you want and leave, but please don’t hurt her.” My father said as calmly as he could.

  The intruder smiled and released his hold on my mother. He instructed my father to stay right where he was and if he didn’t want any harm to come to her he would do as he says.

  The only thing that my father could do was nod his agreement.

  The man began searching for the house, looking for anything that was a value. The sounds were very clear in my mind as my father told the story and I could feel my fear growing with every word.

  After few short moments, the man had gotten all that he’d come for and was making his exit from the house. My father knew that if he did not do something now that this man was going to do this over and over to more people. I could feel his determination ran through me like it had been myself standing there watching the man leave.

  Without saying a word, my father pursued the man. I watched my mother run to the door, consumed with fear. She watched as my father struggled with the man. Before any of them had realized how quickly the situation had turned terribly wrong it was over.

  I heard the man gasping for air and in between those gasps he would scream out in pain. The knife that he had been using against my parents had somehow been plunged into his chest. It wasn’t long before the stranger had taken his last breath.

  My mother ran outside to try and offer the man any assistance that could help him. Neither of them wanted for this man to die, even though it seemed to them that it was going to happen sooner later. She quickly found out that there was nothing worldly or magical that she could do to prevent his death.

  My father had been standing beside her chanting spells trying to revive the man as well. But nothing was going to work. He was gone. The only thing that they could do was to call the Elders and explain what happened.

  My father took my mother in his arms, holding her like it was the last time he would ever be able to do it again. She began to whisper in his ear and she cried. What she was telling him was not something that he expected to hear after such
a dilemma.

  She had announced him that she was carrying his child; the child that would soon turn out to be me. My father looked back at the man lying on the ground. His sorrow soon turned into feelings that he was justified in what he had done.

  o0o

  When the Elders arrived and heard both my parents’ stories and walked around the house looking at the damage the man had caused. They checked his body and found some of my mother’s jewelry in his coat pockets as well as other things that he had taken from the house in a bag near his body.

  The coven leader approached my father, but was not in approval of what he had done. He reminded my father that it was against coven laws to take a life. He asked my father to come with him. He thought that it was necessary to have an immediate trial regarding the matter.

  My mother cried as she followed the Elders to their meeting place. Everyone that belongs to the council was in attendance.

  My father led her to the first seat and asked her to sit down and remained quiet no matter what she heard. Walking the tears from her face, she kissed him and tried to reassure him that everything was going to be okay.

  However, that had been a false promise on her part because she knew that this was not want to go the way they wanted.

  The council stated all the facts and then voted on my father’s punishment. Little did he know, he was about to be exiled.

  “This is a very hard ruling and it cannot be taken lightly. You have taken another man’s life and that is against our rules. You can no longer be a member of this coven and you will leave here immediately.” The coven leader made his orders very clear.

  My mother cried out and was instantly scolded for her actions. The council would not hear her plea for her husband. What he had done had to be paid for.

  My father was immediately escorted back to the house and was allowed to gather his things before leaving. They had not permitted my mother to follow and instructed her to never have contact with him. If she was caught with him she would be banished and stripped of her power.

  My heart was breaking for them. I could feel the love that they have had together and it seemed wrong to me to destroy such a thing. My father had only been protecting their and me, his unborn child. The reasoning behind their decision sickened me.

  My father had explained why he had not been in my life and I now know the reason that he and my mother could not be together. The only part that made me worry was what the Elders would do if they knew they were together again. Would they take my mother’s power?

  “I have become and very powerful sorcerer since then and I don’t think they are a match for us. The blood that runs in you is as ancient as the beginning of time and the power that goes with that is something they cannot control. They knew that when they’d banish me and they have to know that your mother is with me now” my father said smiling.

  Now let a few of my questions had been answered, the lost feeling that I had was gone.

  “But… What about me?”

  My father looked it me, clearly confused by my question. I had never told him about my feelings of being a vampire and witch. Would his coven accept me or would they shun me the way his coven had done him?

  “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  I explained my problem to him and he listened carefully to everything that I was saying. His face would change from time to time and I could tell he was thinking hard about the issue.

  “There is something that we can do about that, but there are more important matters at hand for you right now.”

  What could possibly be done about me being a vampire? Nothing. To change that now, as far as I understood, would be impossible. I am cursed to be this way until I meet the true death that would change all that forever. But somehow my curiosity had changed. What other matter could be as important as this one?

  My father began telling me things about Max, things that I had never expected to hear. He knew about our love for each other and that it was new and exciting for the both of us. But why he said next changed everything.

  “I would like for you and Max to be married.”

  I was stunned. For once in my life I had become speechless. Max and I are connected and there was no denying that. One question remained. Is this what Max wants?

  My father smiled, “I don’t think that he will have a problem with it.”

  I smiled back at him, but the fear of an arranged marriage took hold of me. Could this really work out for both of us? There was only one way to find out.

  Alzar left the room and called for Max.

  Soon, but both entered the room. Each of them seemed to be rather pleased about something and my only guess was that Max was going to go along with my father’s suggestion.

  Max took a seat next to me and began to talk to my father. I watched the conversation go on without really even hearing the words. Could this really be happening? Is this the best thing to do?

  Surely Max was not going to agree to be married to a creature such as I am. That would be wrong and against his coven.

  Come to think about it, I had never asked Max about anything like that. I knew that he had belonged to an organization that supposedly governed all the supernatural beings that exist, but I had not heard any more about that either.

  “You should tell her” Max told my father.

  Alzar began explaining that the story about the Organization had been a cover. It was something that Max had been instructed to tell Aden so that he would not get suspicious of him.

  More lies. I can’t stand this. I feel like everything that I know has been made up and I was not sure what I should think about anything. This had all been a cover for them, one that was used to take another person’s life. Is that not against their coven laws?

  “I need to know the truth, about everything” I told them as I stared at the floor, afraid to look up and meet either of their eyes. All of this makes me feel horrible, lost and I needed to be able to find out what my life is going to be like in order to live it.

  Max began to speak and I still refused to lift my head. I listened carefully as he told me every detail about the day that I had met him. When he had been talking to Alzar he knew that I was listening and had cast a spell so that I could not hear the things that they were really talking about. I could only hear what they wanted me to hear.

  That was smart on their part, I suppose.

  Thoughts and questions flew through my mind and I wish that I could find all the courage that I needed to be able to ask them all, but I was getting everything now. There was no use in me interrupting the story. I just tried to be as patient as I could as Max continued talking.

  He began to talk about the first time that he had seen me and for some reason it sounded like he was talking to my father instead of me. He started saying she in the place of you and I felt like he was declaring his love to my father.

  I could not keep my head down any longer.

  I had been right about that. Max was talking to my father now. He told him that he had felt the connection with me as soon as he looked at me.

  “I knew, right then, that she is the one that I am destined to be with for the rest of my life.”

  My face started feeling flushed and something inside me was telling me that he is right. I feel the same way about him.

  A strange sensation took hold of my body. It was not clear if I should be alarmed or calm. The longer that I sat there, the more I was starting to understand what was happening to me.

  Max and my father’s conversation had come to an abrupt stop and they had focused all of their attention on me.

  I heard my father whisper, “Just stay calm. It will be over soon.”

  His tenderness surprised me and I looked directly at him. His eyes were full of hope and love. Whatever was happening to me was making him proud and I knew that it couldn’t be bad if he felt that way.

  Max moved closer to me and placed his hand on my knee. He began stroking my hair as an attempt to comfort me and
to help me get through this.

  I could feel the power surging throughout my body and all my nerves were reacting to it in ways that made me jerk uncontrollably.

  I was sure that I was starting to look like a freak to them, but they didn’t seem to mind if I was.

  Heat filled my body and I was sure that if it got any worse I would possibly vomit. I began to swallow hard and as soon as I did, Max used one of the magazines that had been on the table beside the couch to fan me. The air soothed my skin slightly, but the feeling of being on fire never really lessened.

  Without any warning, the pain came. It was the most excruciating pain that I had ever felt. It twisted my body and caused worse spasms than in the beginning.

  Max put his arms around me right as I screamed out in agony. He held me tight and I think that he was just trying to keep me from hurting myself.

  It seemed like hours had passed since this started, but it had only been minutes. The force of the power that was building inside me threatened my entire body and I was not sure that I was going to make it through this alive.

  “You are going to be fine” Max whispered to me as he rested his head on my shoulder.

  I tried hard to focus on him, but I was having a hard time doing it. That is until I felt the first teardrop on my skin.

  Max had started to cry. Our connection allowed us to read each other’s thoughts and emotions. From that, I knew that he was both frightened and proud about what was happening to me. That left me confused in a way.

  I switched my focus from him and stared at the clock. Counting the seconds then turning to minutes helped to keep my mind at ease.

  Seven minutes had passed before Max has released his hold on me. The pain had gone away as quickly as it had come, but I could still feel the electrical pulses running through me.

  CHAPTER 4

  My father stood up and came over to me. The way that he was acting gave me a sense of hope that this was all over and I was going to be fine from here on out. I was right.