The Forgotten: A Vampire Story

by Clary, Michael

  Footsteps could be heard in the hallway behind me. I spun quickly and realized that Lorcan was standing behind me. His handsome face gleamed with his eternal smile.

  “You startled me,” I said.

  “I won’t hurt you,” Lorcan said softly.

  “That’s nice to hear,” I said. “Your younger brother seems to enjoy frightening me.”

  “He does,” Lorcan said, “but he won’t hurt you either.”

  I looked out the window to the backyard, but Ciaran was no longer there. I had a feeling that he was already in the house, but I couldn’t be sure.

  “Have you seen Derry?” I asked.

  “No,” Lorcan answered.

  The vampire wasn’t interested in me. He seemed only concerned with the game system attached to the television, and he was busily pushing buttons trying to make it work. That’s when I realized that vampire hands don’t work like human hands. They lack the dexterity, but what they lack in motor skills they more than make up for in strength.

  “Can I help you?” I asked.

  Lorcan didn’t look in my direction, but he moved a good five feet away from the game system so that I could get closer. I found the problem quickly, pressed the correct buttons, and turned the television on.

  Lorcan reached out his hand.

  I looked him in his black eyes and felt comfortable in his presence. I handed him one of the remotes, and before I knew it, the two of us were racing cars like a couple of normal teenagers.

  I started laughing, and after studying me for a bit, Lorcan joined me. The reality of the situation had finally gotten to me. I was playing video games with a creature of legend.

  I was playing video games with a vampire.

  Ciaran was on the ceiling directly above us. I only knew he was there after Lorcan spoke to him.

  “Did you want to play?” Lorcan asked.

  “No,” Ciaran snapped.

  I looked up and almost screamed. If Lorcan made me relax, Ciaran had the opposite effect on me. I didn’t trust him, and the way he crawled across the ceiling like a spider did nothing to ease my worry.

  “Derry’s here,” Lorcan said after softly touching my hand.

  I peeled my eyes away from Ciaran and looked about the house. I couldn’t see anything, and I didn’t feel his presence, but then the backdoor opened just loud enough for me to hear.

  I stood up, made my way to the kitchen, and saw Derry gently closing the back door. His chin was stained red from the blood he’d recently drank. The thought of him hurting someone made me shudder, but I didn’t mention anything.

  I wrapped my arms around him, and he immediately held me tightly.

  “I’ve missed you,” I said.

  “I’m here now,” Derry said. “Did Gwen take good care of you?”

  “Gwen seems to be close to a nervous breakdown,” I said. “Maybe we should let her go.”

  Derry looked at me a bit before speaking.

  “We won’t stay here too long,” Derry said.

  I nodded my head against his chest, but I didn’t look to his face. A cold breeze blew into the room, signaling Ciaran’s appearance.

  “Have you already fed?” Ciaran asked.

  Derry didn’t reply.

  “I haven’t fed,” Ciaran complained. “You’re human is safe, so I’m going out.”

  Derry nodded almost imperceptibly, the room shook briefly, and Ciaran was gone.

  “Alone at last,” I whispered.

  “No,” Derry whispered back.

  I heard the sound of someone approaching, turned, and saw Lorcan peeking his head into the kitchen.

  “I didn’t want to interrupt,” Lorcan said.

  “You’re not interrupting,” I said.

  Lorcan’s permanent smile seemed to grow larger.

  “Would somebody play games with me?” Lorcan asked.

  “We’ll both play with you,” I answered.

  I reached out my hand as I passed by Lorcan, and he quickly accepted it. Together we sat down in front of the television and started playing. The three of us laughed and busied ourselves for the next couple of hours until Lorcan and Derry both stiffened uncomfortably.

  “This isn’t good,” Lorcan said.

  “It’s very rude,” Derry said.

  “What’s happening?” I asked.

  “Ciaran has returned,” Derry said, “but he’s brought company.”

  “Another vampire?” I asked.

  “A victim,” Lorcan explained.

  “Let’s go,” Derry said angrily as he stood up and reached out for me.

  I took his hand, and I allowed myself to be rushed out of the house, but I still heard the whimpering coming from the backyard.

  “Why’s he doing that here?” I asked.

  “He wants you to hear everything,” Derry answered.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” Derry answered. “You’re not one of us. Ciaran doesn’t care for humans much, and he doesn’t understand how I can have feelings for you.”

  “He’s scaring me,” I said.

  “You’ll need to be brave,” Derry said. “If you let him get to you, he’ll drive you crazy.”

  “I can be brave,” I said. “I can be very brave. I just wish he’d stop crawling on the walls.”

  Derry wrapped me up in his arms, and together we rose up into the clouds. When we came down once again, we were in a different part of California, and I could hear laughter and music from only a few streets away.

  “Where are we?” I asked as I looked around at the dark alley we had landed in.

  “Santa Monica,” Derry answered. “There’s a fair going on. I thought you might enjoy being here.”

  “Derry,” I said. “Maybe you don’t understand, but I’m a wanted woman. I can’t be around people right now. I’ll be captured immediately.”

  Derry laughed.

  “I think you underestimate my power to keep you safe,” Derry said. “Trust me when I say that no one can harm you while I’m around.”

  I pulled my hoodie over my head and followed Derry out of the alley. In moments we were skirting in and around the borders of the fair. Derry seemed to be enjoying himself as he watched all the people having fun.

  “It must be strange to always be watching,” I said.

  “Not at all,” Derry said.

  “Wouldn’t you rather participate?” I asked as I stood up and reached out for his hand. “Come dance with me.”

  Two hooded young people entered the dancing area. We kept to ourselves and had a wonderful time. It wasn’t until some kid with a flashlight shone his light straight into Derry’s face.

  Derry was exposed, but only briefly.

  A few people startled, and the kid dropped the flashlight the second Derry hissed loudly in his direction. I looked to my lover's face. There was no life to be seen. I was seeing only a dead boy with eyes as black as a widow’s back.

  I startled.

  There was a flutter of movement, and Derry was quickly leading me away from the dance floor. After that, I followed him closely as he stalked the child for the next hour or so.

  “Why are you so angry?” I asked.

  “That child upset me,” Derry said angrily.

  “So what,” I said. “He’s just a child. He didn’t mean anything.”

  “He ruined our dance,” Derry said.

  “So now you want to do what?” I asked. “Do you want to scare him? Do you want to hurt him?”

  “Perhaps I should take you home,” Derry said.

  “I’m not okay with you hurting that child,” I said. “I would like to go home, and I’d like you to go home with me.”

  Derry looked at me, and then he looked back in the direction of the child. In the blink of an eye, I was suddenly airborne, and moving quickly through the sky.

  “You’re scaring me!” I said.

  “Don’t be scared,” Derry said calmly while looking deep into my eyes.

  I felt lightheade
d and tired. Looking below, I saw only the city lights, and then nothing. I was weightless and drifting on the edges of a dream.

  I awoke in the morning to a stray cat meowing outside my window, the evening before just a hazy memory quickly fading from my mind.

  Gwen was already making coffee. I could smell it from my bedroom, and I got up to join her in the kitchen. I almost dropped the coffee mug I was reaching for once Gwen turned around.

  Her neck was bruised horribly, and she was doing her best to cover up the damage with the thick collar of her sweater. I also noticed that her left arm was hanging awkwardly.

  “What happened to you?” I asked in a voice that wasn’t really mine.

  “The young masters have quick tempers,” Gwen answered.

  “No,” I said. “That’s horrible. I’ll speak to them this evening.”

  Gwen didn’t acknowledge my words, and I understood why. Regardless of how I treated her, I was still the enemy. She’d do what she was told, but she hated all of us.

  I couldn’t blame her, not one bit.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “I’ll make sure we don’t stay here too long.”

  Gwen didn’t even acknowledge that she heard me.

  The rest of the day was awkward. I did my best to avoid Gwen, and she did her best to avoid me. All in all, it wasn’t that difficult to stay out of her way. Gwen seemed exhausted. She had to pause and catch her breath just to cross the room, and she seemed rather dizzy when she stood up too long.

  More cats showed up during the day.

  I went into the backyard and played with all of them, and they strangely seemed to accept me all too quickly. Was that somehow Derry’s influence?

  Once the sun began to descend, I sent Gwen to her room and told her not to come out until morning. I lit the few candles around the house that would be tolerated, and took a seat in front of the television.

  All of California was looking for me.

  Was I a part of what happened at the police station, or was I a victim? That was the question of the day. Was I even alive? That was another question. They showed a heavily edited video of what happened inside the station, but Derry and his brother only showed up a wavy blur. Not even their clothes were visible.

  “We’ll find whoever is in charge,” Ciaran said from the corner of the room.

  I could barely see him in the shadows, and I had no idea how long he’d been with me.

  “What’s the point in that?” I asked.

  “If we attack their leaders, they’ll soon leave you alone,” Ciaran explained.

  “I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that,” I said.

  Ciaran laughed, and I caught a quick glimpse of his reflective eyes in the glow of the television.

  “Selma,” Derry said gently from the other side of the room.

  I turned at the sound of his voice, thankful that I was no longer alone in the room with Ciaran.

  “You need to ignore him,” Derry explained.

  I looked from Derry to Ciaran, but Ciaran no longer seemed to be with us.

  “Why’s that?” I asked.

  “He’s harassing you,” Derry said. “You’re different, and he doesn’t trust you yet.”

  “Have you seen what he’s doing to Gwen?” I asked.

  Derry said nothing.

  “I’ve been misled,” I said. “You’ve misled me, and while I’ve moved beyond that out of my love for you, I don’t want to see that poor woman being mistreated.”

  “I understand,” Derry said.

  “I don’t think we should stay here much longer,” I said. “We’re ruining her life.”

  “We won’t,” Derry said. “We never stay very long in a situation like this. Humans are remarkably unreliable. It’s best to stay on the move.”

  “Yet you lived in that house my father gave you for how long?” I asked.

  “We were left alone,” Derry explained. “We didn’t rely on any humans, but the cats were still a problem. Vampire hunters look for the cats. We wouldn’t have been able to stay there too much longer.

  “I don’t want to see Gwen getting hurt anymore,” I said. “Can you do something about that for me?”

  Derry laughed softly, crossed the room in the blink of an eye, and wrapped me up in his cold arms.

  “Come out with me,” Derry said.

  “Where?” I asked, unable to stop the smile from spreading over my lips.

  “Let’s go to the middle of the desert,” Derry said. “Let’s go where there are no people. We can lie on our backs and look up at the stars.”

  “Yes,” I whispered. “I’d love to do that with you.”

  The greatest gift a vampire has is his gift of flight. To be in Derry’s arms as we rose up higher and higher into the sky was wonderful. Feeling my body dissolve into a weightless dark mist was also an undeniable joy. I could fly forever. Touching the ground only resulted in disappointment, but touch the ground we eventually did.

  I looked around at our unfamiliar surroundings. We had landed on one of the highest hills, and the stars looked bright enough to touch.

  “What do they look like to you?” I asked as Derry laid out the blanket I had brought along with us.

  “They look alive,” Derry said. “I can see them in different colors. I can see them shimmer and blink. To me, they seem like living breathing things that I can’t touch, no matter how hard I try.”

  “You’d like to touch the stars?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Derry said as he stretched out on the blanket. “I would like to touch the stars.”

  “They’ll burn you,” I said.

  “What a way to go,” Derry laughed.

  “I’d be devastated,” I said. “What would I do without you?”

  “You shouldn’t worry about that,” Derry said. “I won’t leave you. I’d rather touch you than any of those stars.”

  I snuggled up next to my lover, and joined him in his stargazing. After a few moments, Derry pointed to a certain constellation.

  “That was my mother's favorite,” Derry said.

  “You had a mother?” I asked. “Is this the woman that turned you into a vampire, or your actual birth mother?”

  “The woman that turned me,” Derry said. “I can’t really remember my birth mother. It was just too long ago. I can almost remember what she looked like, but I definitely can’t remember who she was.”

  “What about the one that turned you?” I asked. “What do you remember about her?”

  “I remember everything about her,” Derry said. “She was something else.”

  “Is she dead?” I asked.

  “I expect that she might be,” Derry answered. “She vanished one night. There was no warning at all; she was just gone never to return. Ciaran took it the hardest. Believing her absence was the result of vampire hunters, he wanted revenge, and I did my very best to help him find it.”

  “I can’t imagine what tragedies have befallen you,” I said.

  “Don’t feel any pity for me,” Derry said. “I’m much better at being a vampire than I ever was at being human. I had to learn just how cruel the world could be at too young an age. As a human, I could do nothing to improve my situation, but as a vampire…”

  “You found me,” I said. “You found me, and you know how happy I can make you.”

  “I do know that,” Derry said.

  “Will you ever want to turn me?” I asked.

  Derry turned and looked at me.

  “Would you like that?” Derry asked.

  “I’m not sure,” I answered honestly, “but I think it’s inevitable.”

  The next morning when I awoke, Gwen was nowhere to be seen. I spent the day by myself, watching the news, and playing with all the cats gathering around the house.

  I was worried.

  That evening, Ciaran was once again the first to arrive. I was doing my best to concentrate on the book I was reading when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked to the left of where I was sitti
ng, saw nothing, and resumed reading. Ciaran laughed his little boy laugh from somewhere in the shadows.

  “Where’s Gwen?” I asked.

  “Gwen who?” Ciaran asked in return.

  “Where are you?” I asked.

  More laughter.

  “Have you hurt her?” I asked. “Will she be back?”

  I felt a chill against my shoulders and spun around. Ciaran was directly behind me, and his teeth were looking sharp and deadly.

  “She won’t be back,” Ciaran whispered.

  “What did you do to her?” I asked.

  Ciaran slowly stepped away from me until the shadows swallowed him entirely. I was left alone in the small circle of light that I had been using to read.

  “What are you reading?” Lorcan asked.

  “I’m reading Peter Pan,” I answered.

  “Peter Pan?” Lorcan asked.

  “He’s a boy that never grows up,” I said. “He lives a life of adventure.”

  Lorcan moved into my reading light until he was directly on my left-hand side, sort of looking over my shoulder.

  “There aren’t any pictures,” I said.

  “Is Peter Pan a vampire?” Lorcan asked.

  “No,” I answered, “but he is magical.”

  Lorcan moved even closer until he was actually touching my arm and shoulder. His cold skin made me want to grab a sweater, but I didn’t want to offend him.

  “Can you read me some?” Lorcan asked.

  “I can lend you the book,” I said.

  “I can’t read,” Lorcan admitted.

  I began reading, and Lorcan perched himself on the arm of my chair as if he were weightless. For the next hour, I read from my book, and Lorcan absorbed every bit of the story, even asking me to explain this or that on different occasions.

  Every so often, I heard movement from somewhere in the shadows. Perhaps Ciaran hadn’t actually left the room, but if he were listening to me read, he gave no indication of interest.

  Derry arrived at the end of the hour, and I got to see him descending into the backyard like Peter Pan himself. Lorcan was excited to see him and started telling him all about the story I’d been reading.

  Ciaran did not reappear.

  “I’ve found us another place,” Derry said after Lorcan’s excitement died down just a little bit. “I think you’ll like it better than this place. My brothers have already been there.”