Cont.
As soon as we arrived to the mansion. I quickly went to my room. Vampire took his time to get there. I was pouring the contents of my pockets on my bed. He came in and sat on chair and watched me closely. I was about to start reading my sister’s journal, when he said: “My lady…would you like me to leave you alone”.
I smiled at him and said, “ Please, call me Jade…and yes, I would like to be alone for a while, I shall call you if I need you…”. He nodded, took a book and left.
I sat on my bed and opened my sister’s journal. I went to the last pages. This is what I found:
“…Last night, I heard mother and father talking in the kitchen. Something weird is going on. I heard Mother say: “She’s not my daughter anyways…think of all of us…what’s worse? Losing your daughter or getting the rest of us killed?. They are watching us…if we escape, they’ll come and take her anyways. And then, we are going to get ourselves killed for trying to get ahead of HIM…”. Father said to her: “ I don’t want them to take her. I refuse to believe she’s one of them…My brother is just probably trying to get a hold of her because of her inheritance…”. Mother replied: “Why would he want this house and the money your former wife left her? He’s rich…he doesn’t need it.”
I was confused, at first. But now I understand that Diana and I are only half sisters. I didn’t know we had different mothers.
I also heard them talking about a letter they had received from father’s brother. Mother seemed to be frantic for some reason. Then, I heard knocks on the door. I ran upstairs and hid behind the grandfather clock. I heard someone’s voice. Father asked him to come outside with him. Mother went to Father’s studio. I quickly went downstairs and went to the basement door. I went down the basement and sneaked outside through the ‘secret’
door. I hid behind a shrub when I heard their voices. A deep voice said to father: “ You are giving us your daughter, aren’t you? ”. Father said: “What if she doesn’t want to go with you? ”. I wondered what did uncle wanted with sister? I didn’t even know we had an uncle. Father had always said he was an only child. Uncle then said: “I will take my niece, regardless of what you or her think. Remember, if you don’t give her to us, we’ll come after your family. I’m warning you, little brother”. I didn’t like his tone. His voice made me shudder. Father said: “ I thought I would never hear of vampires again”. Uncle laughed and said: “It’s really amusing how your daughter turned out to be a potential one…”. Diana? A vampire?, I said to myself, that’s crazy! What nonsense were
they talking about?. I took a peek at them from the shrubs, and uncle turned around to where I was hiding. He just looked towards me. His gaze was piercing. I was sure he knew I was there. But then, he turned around and said to father: “Goodbye my brother…I will see you in two days…”. And then he disappeared! He vanished!. I was scared. I sneaked back into the house and slipped into my bed. Mother came into my room and gave me a kiss goodnight. I pretended I was sleeping. As soon as she left, I took my flashlight and wrote down what I saw and heard. I don’t know why I’m not waiting until the morning to do so. I have to tell sister about what’s going on. I don’t want her to be taken by that man. He’s bad. I can sense it. She’ll have to run away. Maybe I can go with her too. Mama and Daddy can’t be trusted. They are the ones that want to get rid of her in the first place. It will be safer for them too. They won’t know where she’ll go, so Uncle won’t hurt them, I think. I don’t know what to do. But I’ll have to tell sister anyways. I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep tonight. That man is going to give me nightmares. I know it…”
The quote ended there. My little sister knew about vampires? Impossible!. And who was that mysterious uncle anyways? And what was that about us, having different mothers? I was so confused, but I knew what Emily had written was true. The next entry in her journal had been written the following night. This is what she wrote:
“…I haven’t had a chance to talk to Diana. Mother gave us chores every minute. I tried talking to her after dinner but Father told me to go to bed. He said I looked tired. He’s right. I didn’t sleep much last night. I’ve been yawning all day and I almost fell asleep in school. I still can’t believe all the things that I saw and heard yesterday. And I can’t believe Father never told us we didn’t have the same mother. Now that I think about it, Diana has some of Father in her. But just some. She doesn’t look like mother at all. I’ll try talking to her tonight…If I manage to stay awake. Time is running out…I need to tell her before it’s too late.”
After I read this, I tried to remember what happened during those days. Yes! Mother and Father had been acting a little strange. I thought maybe they had an argument and they were still upset about it. Father had been quieter than usual. Mother had been nagging that day, more than usual. I thought she was having one of her nervous fits again. They had known something all along and they never told me. I kept on reading. On her next entry, I noticed her handwriting looked different. It looked wobbly, as if her hand was weak. She wrote:
“ I feel so sick…so weak. It’s lunch time now. I’ve been lying on my bed since I woke up. Last night, I had a nightmare. After I hid my journal, I laid on my bed, waiting for mother and father to go to sleep, so I could sneak into Diana’s room and talk to her. I fell asleep. That’s when I had the nightmare: A man came into my room. He wore a black cloak and a hood covering his face. He stood at the foot of my bed. I could feel his piercing glare. He spoke to me and said: “Lass…get up”. I didn’t want to obey. I covered my face with my pillow and prayed that he would go away. His voice said again: “Child… Get up and come to me”. This time, his voice was pleasant and I couldn’t help but to do as he said. I walked up to him and he handed me a cup. He said: “Drink…”. And that I did. The flavor of the liquid was sweet. Since my room was a little dark, I couldn’t see what the liquid looked like. Then, I remember waking up at dawn, my forehead covered in cold sweat. Mother came an hour later (I believe), she said I looked sick and that I should stay in bed. So, I have. Diana is at school right now. She better come to see me after school so I can tell her. She has to know. I wish I could sleep peacefully until she comes back. But I’m afraid to have another nightmare. That man of the black hood, his voice, somehow, sounded familiar. It reminds me of Uncle’s voice. Could it be that he’s the man in my nightmare? I’m afraid to sleep. Well, I’ll just wait until Diana comes home. She’ll barely have time to run away but she’ll be away and safe. I have to stop writing now…my head is spinning and I feel weaker.”
I started crying. She had been poisoned. Vampire had told me the truth. That nightmare hadn’t been a nightmare. That man that came to see Emily was real, and he poisoned her. The day I was taken from the mortal world, was the day she woke up feeling sick. That man had been “Uncle”. I knew it was him. “Uncle” was probably coming to get me that night, when everyone was sleeping. Ha! And I had managed to get away. I put the journal down and turned to the letter I had found in father’s things. It was short, straight to the point, and commanding:
“ Dear Brother,
We haven’t seen each other for a long time. Remember the day I left the family to become a vampire?. You told me before I left, that you hoped you would never have to hear anything about vampires again. Well, it seems that you will be disappointed when I give you this news: Your eldest daughter is a potential vampire. You know how the rule goes: ‘In this household, in every generation the eldest child is born to become a dweller of the night, a vampire’. In our time, I was chosen to be that designated vampire. Now, it seems that it is your daughter’s turn. You knew it was coming all along. I don’t have any children, so that leaves yours for the taking. You must give her up. I shall come to talk to you soon. She needs to come with me, or else your family will be hurt. Either way, I will take her.
My regards,
Your brother,
Jonathan Seth Knight. ”
I screamed in a rage. He was the one who killed Emily. He knew she was there, hiding and listening. He knew she was trying to tell me the truth. He stopped her by killing her. I just knew it was him. I laughed bitterly. How ironic! He tried to shut her up by killing her, but she still managed to tell me the truth. He didn’t know about her journal. I wondered how did he never thought about her journal. Did he even know she had one?. Maybe he did. He probably didn’t bother to destroy it because he was sure I would never find it. Ha ha!. He probably thought he would take me with him for sure. His letter had a tone of arrogance. He must have been so sure of himself. Well, he didn’t get me. He failed. Fate brought me to Byron’s dominion. And Byron…why couldn’t he tell me all this? He must know of this. He just had to know. I crumpled the letter in my hand. I was angry. Well, If Byron had told me the truth, I wouldn’t have believed him. I still didn’t trust him. I wouldn’t have believed him. He probably knew I was going to find the truth by myself.
“…You shall come to understand the reasons of your loss…” he had said. Yes, he knew I would. That’s what he wanted. Ha! And all this time, I had believed that Byron was responsible for my family's murder and my suffering. Tears streamed down my cheek. Poor Emily. Poor father and mother. They didn’t deserve that death. More questions started to invade my mind as the truth started to sink in.
It started to rain outside. I walked over to the window and opened it. The wind whipped at face and hair. I was getting wet. I screamed again, outside, to the world. Let the world know my pain, I said. Let the world be aware of my rage. I knelt down and leaned my forehead on the windowsill, looking down at the floor. I cried. I heard the door opening, footsteps behind me. Then, a pair of strong hands held me by my shoulders and lifted me up. I turned around and found myself being face to face to Byron. He was back
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