by Elle Grace
1
Aurora
1.30am 5th September 2020
It was the early hours of Saturday morning when I died. That feels like the strangest thing to even comprehend. I suppose I always thought that my death would have been more spectacular, but it wasn’t. I reckon we all think that our lives should have more meaning than they actually do, in the grand scheme of things.
Friday evening had rolled around unexpectedly. After spending the week packing boxes for university, I was ready for my next step in life. School had finished weeks before and although my memories were mostly good, I was relieved that it was over. University seemed like the next step in my future. At least that is what everyone around me kept saying. Being accepted into one of the best chemistry courses in the country was an honour. My Dads were proud of me and everyone was thoroughly impressed. Science had always been a passion of mine. It was something that I had been told I was good at. Everything seemed a little bit distant as if I could not quite remember it all correctly. It was hazy. I had a weird feeling that I just could not shake.
Frankie, my best friend, had insisted that we were to do my last night right.
“Come on, Rory.” She whined. “How can you know you won’t like it if you have never even been there.” Her voice clear and confident. I had known her all my life, but it was not until recently that I had become such close friends to her. My memories of Frankie were a little cloudy, I put that down to only being close to her for a short amount of time. She constantly reminded me she was raised by her Mum and her millionaire Stepfather, so she got away with a lot. Frankie was not new to the nightlife of our small town. She was planning on taking a gap year before university to travel. It seemed like an expensive way to fill her Instagram account to me, but she was happy.
Luckily her cousin worked the door at the only nightclub in our town, Sin. It was a shabby run-down venue that sat looking almost derelict on the main street, but on a Friday and Saturday night it came alive. Business always boomed at Sin at the weekend, but a monopoly always did that to an establishment. The drinks were cheap, the floor was sticky, and the music was always that little bit too loud, a typical club. It was infamous, it was iconic. It was a place that I would normally have never visited but it was the only place to have any real fun after the sun went down in the town, we lived in. I never really understood the allure of nightclubs. Perhaps I was either too young or too old headed.
This particular Friday night was no different than any other at Sin, apart from the fact I was there rather than at home studying. My Dads had encouraged me to go out, they thought I spent too much time studying. We always joked about how I clearly had not inherited their party loving genes. It was always particularly funny because obviously with two Dads that looked nothing like me, I was adopted. My adoption was clearly no secret to me. I had grown up with the knowledge of it. We lived as a happy little family unit in a suburban paradise, I could remember nothing from my life before my existence with my Dads, I guessed I was too young when they adopted me.
After buying a few too many shots at the bar, we shuffled over to the dance floor. The sambuca still sticky on my hands. I felt a little uncomfortable in the stiletto heels and tight dress I had been forced to borrow from Frankie. I was constantly playing with the hemline. It was not that I was particularly insecure about my body or anything, it was more that the whole outfit seemed somewhat impractical. Her dress sense was so different than mine, but she had insisted if I was to go out with her, I had to dress the part. I would have been happier in jeans and a t-shirt. Simple and versatile. She had handed me the dark purple dress and even though I had protested, I liked the way it looked on me.
“If you are coming out with me, you have to look the part.” She had said whilst holding up a tight black dress to her own body before tossing it aside and opting for a neon pink dress instead. Frankie was a confident blonde. She seemed to personify the saying that ‘blondes have all the fun’. She was carefree and her confidence was beautiful.
“I just don’t understand why I have to be so dressed up for Sin.” I protested. The night club was not exactly a day at the races.
“You will thank me later!” She laughed. The memory dancing around my brain as we walked through the crowds on the dancefloor, making me smile.
We reached the centre of the dancefloor just as a new house track was starting up and the DJ was muffling something through his microphone. The floor below up lit up in various colours to the beat. It was distracting and captivating. Next to the DJ booth was a small platform stage featuring some of the older local single women strutting their stuff for the males watching. Frankie eyed it up, deciding whether she wanted us to join the peculiar mating ritual which I think David Attenborough would have been able to comment on. Deciding against it, Frankie began to make a claim on the centre of the dance floor, moving her hips wildly to the music. She danced loudly in front of me, encouraging me to join in and I watched as guys flocked towards her. I danced awkwardly, not quite moving to the rhythm. She smiled as a guy around our age begun to dance very close to her. He tried to whisper in her ear, but it was more of a shout over the music. It meant that I could hear every word, making me feel uncomfortable, it would have been an understatement to say that he certainly was not Shakespeare.
“I’m going to get some water.” I shouted over the music to her, hoping to cleanse my mind of his dirty talk.
“No water!” She shouted back. “Only shots!” She laughed as I tried to push across the dancefloor back to the bar. Hoping the bartender would oblige in me by putting tap water in shot glasses for me to drink to fool Frankie. I rolled my eyes and smiled to myself at the thought. I walked straight into a large object and jumped backwards looking up at a tall man.
“Sorry.” I mouthed trying to get past him. “Excuse me.” He did not move, he just kept looking at me with a strange kind of intensity. His blue eyes were piercing as the lights danced across them, illuminating his well-structured face. He was handsome and totally my type. He leaned in, his hand on my cheek and kissed me. My first thought was to lurch backwards and push him off me, but my hands found his chest and stopped. His lips still on mine, my eyes closed. The world around me seemed to silence and suddenly we were the only people in the room. The kiss ended as abruptly as it had begun. Opening my eyes, he flashed a torch at my face, it had a weird green hue to it, and it was bright. It made me blink and when I looked again, he was gone. It was as if he had never even been there. For a moment I thought I had imagined it. Looking around for him seemed pointless. I knew he had only kissed me as some kind of bet. No man that good looking was going to be interested in me and I had no time to start anything new with someone. I knew if I looked for him, I would find him laughing with his mates at how I had kissed him without a second thought. Turning back, I knew I would see Frankie and her judgemental smile. I took a breath and looked to where she was dancing minutes before, I was surprised as she too was gone. Frankie had a habit of disappearing on night’s out, it was one of the reasons I never went out with her. She would often be in the bathroom or just outside of Sin, ridding her body of the excess of alcohol she had drunk, I knew this from stories I often heard at school on Monday mornings when she had a ‘big weekend’. This was before we were close enough to go out with each other on a night out. I looked in the bathroom and after helping about fifteen girls fix their makeup, outfits and lives, I did not find her, so I decided to check the lane by the side of the club.
Walking up the stairs and out of the club, I realised how tipsy I was, and I took a deep breath and let the feeling wash over me hoping my head would clear with the fresh air outside. I stumbled slightly onto the street, my shoes burning my feet. There was still no sign of Frankie. Something was beginning to feel very wrong, my stomach churne
d, and I hoped it was just the alcohol and not something more sinister.
“Hey Aurora, are you okay?” Frankie’s cousin asked as I passed him, I guess my face reflected my growing inner anxious feelings. He looked a little concerned.
“I’m fine, have you seen Frankie?” I was straight to business. I was equal parts mad and worried about Frankie.
“No, I haven’t but it’s been a busy night, she could’ve slipped past me. I would check the lane, if I was you.” He dismissed me for the attention of some very drunk girls who were trying to jump the queue into the club, claiming they were on the VIP list. Sin did not have and never had a VIP list.
Some oddly dressed men and women brushed past me. There were five of them in total. They were dressed head to toe in black. The women wore what seemed to be tight fitted black leather dresses. A strange symbol almost seemed to be illuminated on their chests. Which I thought seemed odd for the warm September night. One of the women stopped and looked at me, blowing me a kiss. Her lips a dark scarlet. I could have sworn her eyes flashed a bright burnt orange for a moment as she winked at me. Must be coloured contacts, I thought. Although it was not something you really saw outside of Halloween. Frankie’s doorman cousin never even stopped them. It was like he never saw them. It was strange because I could have sworn that I recognised a couple of them. It was a bizarre feeling because I knew I had never met them, but it felt like I knew them really well.
I gingerly walked across the quiet cobbled road, cursing the shoes on my feet. Growing increasingly angry that Frankie had just left me, I had to see if I could see her in the lane. I felt a little out of sorts. As I reached the pavement on the other side, the club behind me exploded. The force of the explosion knocked me forward and to the ground. Everything went quiet, like all the sound had been sucked out into the sky. The world was blurry and hazy for a long moment. Colours seemed to dance around me, and I felt as though I was in a big bag of water. The light was too bright, and the pavement was too hard.
Pain ripped through me for a second reminding me that I was still alive. I allowed myself to take a breath realising that my heart felt it was going to beat out of my chest. My knees were sore from the impact with the ground and as I turned over, I could see they were heavily grazed. Blood trickling down my legs from the minor. My purple bodycon dress was torn and I had pretty much lost my shoes. Frankie was going to kill me for ruining her stuff, but I did not care. I could feel the heat of the frames engulfing the club. I could see no one else on the street. I did not understand where the people from the queue had gone. Perhaps they had run to safety, I thought to myself.
A hand was in front of me, snapping me out of my own little world. I followed it up to its owner and was surprised. The man I had kissed next to the bar offered me his hand to help me up. I cannot be sure if he said anything straight away as I would not have heard it thanks to the explosion blasting my ear drums. Shaking my head in disbelief I took his arm and was lifted to my feet abruptly. Just beyond him the club was collapsing from the devastating flames, the building all but destroyed and I just knew Frankie was in there. Dread washed over me. Trying to run over to help, his arm grabbed me around my waist and held me in place. I tried to fight him off, kicking and punching and screaming. He deftly placed a small syringe to my neck. Sound was beginning to return to me. I could hear my own ragged breath shouting and swearing at him.
“I’m sorry about this.” He mumbled gruffly close to my ear as the darkness took me.
2
Aurora
2.30am 5th September 2020
A smell of chemicals and the dull hum of a pop song filled my senses and my eyes fluttered open. I could feel I was in a moving vehicle. I looked down at myself strapped down onto an ambulance gurney with large thick leather straps, although the van around me did not look much like an ambulance. Both the van and the gurney were old. The walls were tarnished and there was no medical equipment in sight. My hands were cabled tied together at my wrists in front of me, I could feel the plastic biting at my skin. It seemed like overkill considering I was already strapped down. Who did they think I was? I thought to myself struggling against my bonds.
Sat across from me were two men, one I recognised and the other one was someone new, he was very dark skinned and seemed to be about my age. He had a kind face and was dressed very stylishly. I stopped wriggling when I noticed them watching me.
“Where am I?” I asked quietly. Testing my voice. I could feel the panic and the anger rising.
“Safe.” The kind faced man said with a smile that made me angrier.
“What happened? I need to go back. My friend is still there!” The panic was getting worse as I remembered every detail of what had happened. Frankie was still in the burning club.
“You can’t.” The large man I had kissed said definitively and looked away from me. The other man gave him a look. His thick rural accent was extremely evident.
“Who the hell are you?” I shouted. He looked back at me, his eyes narrowing. He was incredibly good looking, but I felt like he knew it. “Take me back now!” I demanded.
“I said we can’t, don’t you listen?” He gritted his teeth; I was making him mad.
“Why the hell not?” I retorted ignoring his remark.
“Because you died in that club.” He snapped.
“I…I…what?” I was completely taken aback. Very confused. No one spoke for a moment. I looked up at the roof of the van wondering what he meant. I was not dead, clearly. I’m in a van with a couple of absolute psychos, I thought to myself.
“You didn’t really die, obviously. We just had to make everyone think you died.” The other man spoke, trying to offer some kind of explanation. “Colt, you need to go a little easier on her.” He hissed at angry blue eyes.
“You killed all those people, just to fake my death?” I was shocked, thinking about how packed the nightclub was. It was insane. This had to be an elaborate prank, I thought.
“Oh no sweetheart, you aren’t that special.” The one named Colt laughed at me. After he finished chuckling, he said. “The fire-bombing was your government.”
“What? Why?” I frowned. It made very little sense. There was no way that could be the truth I thought to myself. The kinder man offered me a gentle pat on the shoulder to try and reassure me and I pulled away like a wild animal. I was one more weird comment away from growling, snarling and biting one of them.
“Containment.” Colt just one word.
“The strange people.” I said like I had just struck a eureka moment. The men looked at each other for a moment like I was bonkers.
“What are you talking about?” Colt looked at me like I had lost my mind. “Did you hit your head a little too hard?” It was a bit cheeky really considering he had been the one to kiss me, give me a forced sedative and kidnap me. He really did not have a leg to stand on. “Tristan are you sure she is okay?” He spoke to the other man as if I was not there.
“I checked her vitals and she seemed fine.” He replied.
“What is she talking about then?” He questioned.
“Probably the vampires we saw.” The man called Tristan sighed.
“Oh, was that the containment?” Colt rolled his eyes.
“Must have been. The intel did not say exactly why they had a strike planned, only that there was one.” They continued their conversation and I felt like being sick. I really had been kidnapped by a couple of people who were out of their minds, I thought.
“Did you just say vampires?” I was bewildered.
“Tristan, I thought you said she should know about things?” Colt looked at the other guy and he shrugged. They looked almost as confused as I did.
“She should. We have confirmed she is one.” He replied, pulling out a small torch and flashing it at me, it had the familiar green hue. “Yes definitely.” He nodded.
“Is that like a weird UV or infrared or something?” I frowned; they did not respond. Tristan started checking his phone and Colt
looked impatiently at him. “I am one what? Can you stop talking like I’m not here please?” I was getting agitated.
“You don’t know?” Colt asked me.
“Clearly not.” Tristan said and Colt looked at him. I was clearly a disappointment; they must have kidnapped the wrong person. The thought made me want to laugh.
“Hey little lady, have you even heard of the Inperium or heard the term Mult before?” Colt said as if I was the one who was weird.
“Are you kidding?” I snapped. “I have a name, I’m not some cowgirl at a rodeo you are hitting on, you jerk.” I rolled my eyes.
“Just answer the goddamn question!” He barked, getting fed up of dealing with me. He grabbed the neckline of my dress aggressively. “Answer me!” He gritted his teeth.
“No.” I spat in his face. He closed his eyes and took a breath because wiping his face. He looked even more angry. I struggled again with my restraints. I had to get free, I kept telling myself.
“I suggest you get some rest.” Colt said coldly and I knew it was a warning about what was to come. He stood up and prepared another syringe carefully. Tristan seemed unhappy and concerned about it but did not stop him. I tried to move away from it, but I could barely move. He placed it to my neck and the darkness came for me again.
* * *
I had the same dream a thousand times before. It was always the same, always watching from the sidelines never able to help.
“I have told you a thousand times, you need to be more careful.” The man scolded his young son as his wife cleaned up the small gash on the little boy's arm. He was the spitting image of his father even though he barely looked old enough to be going to school. His dark moppy hair flopped uncontrollably on his head and his smile although filled with gaps from the loss of his baby teeth was cheeky and infectious.
“Henry, calm down, it’s just a little scratch, it’s not that bad.” The woman spoke softly. She was the more lenient parent to the two children. She glanced over at a small girl, barely a toddler who was fast asleep in a large floral armchair.