Black Hellebore

by Maya Shepherd

  “Exactly, and there is only one person who we should suspect for something like that: Mary!”

  On the way to Mary’s bedroom, several of the other clan members eagerly join the search party. When the queen is heading somewhere accompanied by guards, it gets noticed. There are immediate whispers and assumptions made that Mary is the focal point of all of the commotion, which wouldn’t be surprising. But as they more or less storm into her room, the little girl seems the picture of innocence. She is sitting on her windowsill in a pink and white lace dress, eagerly looking out her window at the street-lamp lit neighbourhood. She is holding a blood reserve like a little juice pack in her hands, drinking it through a black straw. She is blinking in confusion at the group of vampires that have just burst into her room looking as though she couldn’t harm a fly, and as if she is the best-behaved child there ever was. Her full red locks frame her pale, childlike face making her look like a porcelain doll, the only thing giving her away are her glowing red eyes.

  “Where is he?” Claudia demands in a stern voice. Mary immediately presses herself against the window in fear.

  “Who do you mean?”

  Claudia snorts scornfully at her. She is sick of Mary’s innocent little pretence.

  “You know exactly who I mean; Orlando. Don’t even try and talk your way out of this, just tell us where he is, because we will find out either way.”

  Mary bravely raises her chin to the group.

  “But I don’t know where he is. He is a grown man, why should he check in and out with a child?!”

  While Claudia angrily glares at her, Victor steps in.

  “Do we really have to play these games? It is the same thing every time. The fact alone that she dares to lie to her queen should have been punished a long time ago.”

  His words are not directed at Mary, but towards all of the witnesses in the room to get them riled up, and it seems to do exactly that. Outraged voices can be heard and complaints are filling Chasity’s ears, all of which she must submit to.

  “Vivienne, is Mary telling the truth?” she asks her lie detector, who has entered the room as worried as the rest of the clan. She swallows hard and it’s clear to see that she wishes she had not come here, but it is too late to leave. She steps cautiously towards Mary and lays a protective hand on her shoulder, but her words come as a huge disappointment to the little girl.

  “Mary, try and think really hard. Are you certain that you don’t know where Orlando could be, or at least where he might have been going?”

  Even though Vivienne didn’t say it outright, it is clear to everyone present that Mary must have been lying. They once again angrily raise their voices, demanding that the blood thirsty little child be punished.

  Mary stares up at Vivienne with wide, tear-filled eyes. Betrayal and worry can be seen within them, but even if Vivienne won’t cover for them anymore, Mary could never betray Orlando, she loves him too much. She turns her head away from Vivienne and looks at the other clan members, until her gaze lands on Claudia.

  “I am certain that I don’t know where he is, but even if I did, I would never tell you.”

  Mary’s disobedient words cause havoc amongst the clan again, and Victor continues to spur them on.

  “There you have it! She admits it and that is how someone takes advantage of the queen’s protection. If any of us would behave like that, she would long have ripped our hearts out of our chests!”

  Chasity listens to the loud protests for a moment, but then she interrupts the commotion with a loud “Silence!” Even if many of them are not happy to see her on the throne, they all respect her so much, that they would never dare to defy her.

  “Everybody leave the room, I would like to speak to Mary in private!”

  “So she can tell you more lies?!” Victor immediately interjects, backed up by the anger of the entire clan.

  Chasity turns to him with stiff shoulders and an ice-cold stare. Her voice is brimming with authority.

  “I am your queen, don’t you dare question my decisions. Now go, like I ordered you and all the others!”

  Victor reluctantly bites his tongue. Normally he would have to bow to Chasity before leaving her sight, but his pride is too strong, so he just turns and leaves the room, followed by the other guards and clan members. Claudia is the last one to leave, and as she goes to close the door, Chasity calls to her; “Claudia, please stay!”

  Claudia is not the only one who turns back in shock; Mary is also looking at her great aunt in disbelief.

  “I keep no secrets from Claudia, what you tell me, you can also tell her. I trust her completely!”

  Claudia smiles. Chasity has never said anything like that to her before, let alone in front of anyone else, and that even though she just discovered her with Victor. Is that her way of ‘apologising’ for the last conversation they had or is there something else to it? Was she not just imagining the jealousy in Chasity’s eyes? While Claudia’s entire body trembles with joy, Mary interrupts her train of thought.

  “But I don’t want her to be here.” She looks at Claudia through her child-like eyes, and blinks her long black eyelashes.

  “I will tell you everything, but...” she looks scornfully towards Claudia. “...ALONE.”

  Chasity has watched each and ever move that she has made, and now she narrows her eyes as she looks at Mary.

  “You are not in any position to be making demands. I would suggest that you finally tell me the truth, because I won’t stand for your little games much longer. Claudia, please close the door!”

  Claudia does as she is told, straightening her shoulders with pride. Maybe her words have finally got through to her. As she turns back to Chasity and Mary, she finds great satisfaction in the look of desperation in Mary’s eyes, who is only now beginning to realise that her chances of getting away unpunished are wearing thin.

  But instead of instilling more fear in Mary, like Claudia wanted to see, Chasity grabs her delicate little hand.

  “My darling, I love Orlando as much as you do, but he did something awful, and for that he needs to be punished.”

  Her voice is demanding, but it almost seems like she is begging. Claudia wants to intervene, because a queen cannot lower herself like that. Mary is just taking advantage of her good nature.

  “What is so wrong with falling in love?” Mary stubbornly, but at least honestly asks.

  “My dear child, Orlando did not fall in love. He cold-heartedly raped that woman!”

  Mary looks up at Chasity in horror and disbelief. Chasity just stares sadly back at her, but Mary just shakes her head.

  “Never!”

  Chasity grips her hand harder, enclosing it in both of her hands. The gentler her voice becomes, the stronger her words are.

  “Do I really have to remind you how it is? Do I really have to remind you of the man who once called himself your father? Do I have to remind you how he sold you from one man to another? You can’t possibly have forgotten the pain you endured. You were as good as dead when Orlando found you, ready to end your own life. Do you really want to stand by and let the same thing happen to another girl? Nobody should have to suffer like that!”

  Mary averts her gaze towards the window, hurt by Chasity’s words. No one usually speaks to her about her past, nor does she talk about it herself. Even though it happened so many centuries ago, it doesn’t hurt any less. A wounded soul never heals, only the memories can be repressed.

  Mary’s past is no news to Claudia, and for a while she actually felt sympathetic towards the little girl, but as time passed, Mary just took too many liberties to be able to excuse them with her horrible past. Her father and all of the other men who ever hurt her already got their punishment all those years ago. Claudia herself took great joy in ripping many of their throats out, back when she and Orlando got along and Orlando actually cared about someone other than just himself.

  “Orlando would never do that!” Mary remains adamant, her gaze still fixed out the wind
ow.

  “I saw it with my own eyes!”

  “Then you must be mistaken.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “How can YOU be so sure?” Mary replies and looks back at her queen. “Orlando saved me, I trust him, and so should you.”

  Chasity is now the one who averts her gaze in pain.

  “He betrayed my trust, and he never follows any rules...”

  Mary energetically interrupts her. “He loves her! For the first time in... ever, he is really in love!”

  Even though Claudia held back before, she simply can’t keep quiet when she hears these words.

  “Has he not been in love many times before? Isn’t it someone else every week, no, what am I saying; every night?!”

  “It is different with her. She is something special!”

  Claudia laughs, not believing a single word coming out of Mary’s mouth, as convinced as she may be by her own excuses. It’s lovely how Orlando has fooled and lied to her for his own gain as well.

  Mary pauses for a moment, but then she can’t contain herself any longer.

  “He couldn’t drink her blood.”

  Claudia raises an eyebrow in surprise, and Chasity also looks at Mary inquisitively.

  “He tried to, but he said it burned like fire.”

  “When was this?”

  Mary hopefully looks towards the both of them.

  “On the first night and since then he has not tried it again. She is not like other humans. Who knows, maybe she isn’t even human at all.”

  Chasity looks from Mary to Claudia. She has never heard of anything like this, but Claudia just shrugs her shoulders, unimpressed by it all.

  “Then it is all the more important that we find her.”

  “But you won’t kill her then, right?” Mary pleads.

  “If she is human, then she must die. She has seen too much to stay alive.” Claudia says prudently, and even Chasity pulls herself away from Mary.

  Mary desperately jumps from the windowsill and grabs at Chasity’s hand.

  “You will break his heart!”

  “With every one of his lies, he also breaks my heart. I trusted him...”

  “Please! Please, you can’t do anything to her. She is different...” Mary begs, not prepared to let go of Chasity’s hand. Thick, bloody tears roll down her cheek, accompanied by heart-breaking sobbing.

  Completely overwhelmed by the whole situation, Chasity just stands there, while Claudia grabs the opportunity, and tears Mary kicking and screaming away from her.

  “Guards!” Claudia screeches, Chasity is not making any attempt to intervene. She is a prisoner of her emotions. On the one hand she wants to believe Mary, but on the other she is afraid to lose her power if she does, as she would be going against the entire clan. She has no choice but to trust Claudia’s judgement on the matter.

  - 16. Lia Green -

  No matter how much has gone on between them, and how badly they have been arguing lately, Lia still hopes that she can count on Lindsay to be there for her as her best friend. Of course she could go to Mike, who she is meeting up with anyway, but she needs advice from a girlfriend, her best girlfriend to be exact. Lindsay already warned her about Tru, but what about Orlando? She was happy for Lia, and plus, Lindsay is quite familiar with all of this vampire nonsense. She not only loves ‘Twilight’ and reads one vampire novel after the other, but she is also involved in the gothic scene. If Lindsay can’t help her, then who can? She simply has to help her!

  She looks at her wrist watch and sees that there is no time to go home and get changed. She uncomfortably looks at herself, realising that she is not exactly dressed to go to a party. Although her trainers are comfortable, they are anything but stylish, and the red blood splatter on the white tips is not making things any better. Her jeans are so old that they barely reach her ankle on the one leg, and there is a big rip on the other by her knee. But the worst thing is her blue jumper, which has a giant blood stain right in the middle of it, which has turned to a rusty red. She can hardly be surprised if she gets ridiculed by the others if she shows up like this, but in all fairness it wouldn’t really make a difference. She could show up done up to the hilt by a professional stylist, and still everyone would have something to say about her. The important thing is that she gets to talk to Lindsay, but she doesn’t want to stand Mike up again and so she takes her phone out of her pocket and dials his number. He picks up after the first ring.

  “Lia?” he asks with an oddly hesitant and slightly nervous voice, even though he knows that it’s her, because her name would have popped up on his screen.

  “I just wanted to tell you that you don’t have to pick me up from my house. We can meet at the party.”

  Silence.

  “Mike? Are you still there?”

  “Do you not want to be seen with me or why don’t you want me to pick you up?”

  “I’m not going to make it back home on time. I’ll see you there.”

  “Then tell me where you are and I will pick you up from there.”

  He is starting to get on Lia’s nerves, as much as she likes him.

  “You really don’t need to; I’ll be there in 10 minutes.”

  “We wanted to go there together.”

  “And we are!”

  “No, we’re not going to arrive together, we are arriving separately, there is a difference!”

  What is wrong with him? She doesn’t know him like this, he is behaving really stupidly, totally childish.

  “Mike, you are acting just like Lindsay. What is your actual problem?”

  “I’m not acting like Lindsay at all; we have nothing to do with each other.” He protests loudly through the phone. Lia sighs.

  “See you later!”

  There is no point in continuing this conversation, so she hangs up on him.

  The Party is in a pub on the harbour. There is a big banner hanging over the door that reads Scarborough Grammar School with a picture of the traditional lighthouse. The outside is decorated with pines and mistletoe, and there are Christmas lights in the windows, as it’s only two days til Christmas.

  As Lia turns onto the street, she is hit by the bass from the Linkin Park song “Crawling”, which gives her an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach. The pedestrians on the street have already spotted her and are staring warily at her, and although she should be used to it by now, her hands start sweating. She hates large crowds and having to squeeze into a small pub to search for Lindsay is making her stomache turn.

  “Without a sense of confidence”

  Before she manages to get past all of the whispers and into the building, somebody grabs her arm. Taken aback, she sinks into herself and sheepishly looks around. She stops and has to double take to recognise who it is. His wild hair is gelled tightly back onto his head. His thick-rimmed glasses have been replaced by unnoticeable contact lenses. Instead of his usual vest and shirt combination, he is wearing a red shirt and a leather jacket. For the first time, he is wearing a fitted leather pants and Lia can see that there is some kind of shape to his body, and not a bad one at that, apart from a little bit of a belly. He might not be as muscular as Orlando, but still overall attractive. Amazed, she looks into Mike’s eyes, and he smiles back in anticipation. Before she can say anything, someone rudely bumps into them and brings them back into reality.

  “Loser!” someone mumbles loudly into her ear, the word accompanied by the smell of alcohol, and two classmates who she doesn’t know personally but recognises from school push past them.

  Mike suddenly grabs Lia’s hand in a way she is not used to. His grip is tight.

  “Come on, let’s go get a drink!” He says confidently, and pulls Lia in to the pub with him. What is wrong with him? She doesn’t know this Mike, and is not so sure if she likes all of these changes. As they make their way through the sweaty, boisterous crowd, she spots Lindsay out of the corner of her eye, and immediately stops in her tracks. Mike doesn’t seem to care though, an
d pulls harder on her arm, forcing her to tear her arm forcefully from him. Only then does he turn around to her.

  “What’s wrong?” he calls through the loud music.

  “Lindsay is over there, I want to talk to her quickly.”

  Lia starts walking, but Mike grabs her arm again, and now she is sure that she doesn’t like this new Mike, because he grips her so hard that it is starting to hurt.

  “But you are here with me!” he abrasively reminds her.

  “That doesn’t mean I can’t talk to other people!” Lia shouts. Is it not enough that Orlando and Tru are vampires, or does Mike have to turn into Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde now too?

  His eyes narrow and he throws a hateful look towards Lindsay, who at first hesitates, but then sends him an equally awful look back.

  “Does it have to be Lindsay?” Mike wants to know, even though he knows exactly that Lia doesn’t have any other friends at school besides the two of them, and Tru of course.

  “I will choose who I want to talk to!” Lia says to him, trying to sound self-assured enought that Mike won’t try to answer back again. His eyes look in Lindsay’s direction and Lia asks herself what could have happened between the two of them, when Mike suddenly presses his lips to hers. Completely taken aback, she wants to pull away from him, but his grip around her is so tight that she can’t manage to. She puts her hands on his chest and tries to push him away, but the harder she tries to push him, the tighter and more desperately he grips her. As he finally lets her go, a hand comes in from behind her and punches him square in the face. Blood momentarily spurts out of his nose, while Lindsay stands there with tear-filled eyes.

  “You’re such a jerk!” she screams with a shaky voice and trembling lips, before she roughly pushes her way past Lia and out of sight. It takes a moment for Lia to realise that her words were directed at Mike, and not her. Lia quickly rushes after her former best friend, not caring what Mike has to say about it. After this, she couldn’t care less what he thinks, because after all, he didn’t seem to care much about what she wanted just now. She bravely pushes through the crowd of her classmates who are all laughing and joking about her, as if she were walking through thorn bushes.