by Amy Cross
No, he was gone.
I'd seen the flames, and I'd heard his final scream. He'd been dying for years, but he'd managed to cling to life so that he could see his brother one final time. Now they'd gone together. Or, if they still had to stick to the rule about dying alone, I figured that Hugo might have dragged himself away before finally dying. I hadn't seen Hugo's body, of course, but that would be pretty much impossible. He'd already been little more than a set of charred bones, the last time I'd seen him. I waited, but I knew that – if he'd survived – he'd already be coming after me.
In the distance, sirens were already getting closer as police cars raced through the morning streets. No doubt they wanted to know how and why the old Zieghoff mansion had been destroyed. Somehow, however, I doubted very much that they'd be too impressed if I told them my story.
“I'm sorry, Matthias,” I whispered, as I looked toward the rubble again. “I wish we could have found some way to save you.”
I hesitated for a moment, and then – as the sirens got louder and louder – I turned and hurried away.
***
Once I was back in my apartment, I felt a sudden wave of exhaustion take hold of my body. I made it through to the front room, where I slumped down against the sofa and tried to work out what to do next. The only real loose end was Jackson, but I figured he wouldn't bother me again, not now that he'd no longer get paid for doing Hugo's dirty work.
I was all alone.
Except for one slight thing.
Looking down, I touched my belly. From my perspective, only a few days had passed since that night at the abandoned church. In reality, more than seventy years had gone by, but Matthias had reassured me that any child in my belly would be fine during the journey back to the present day. He'd also promised me that there must be a child in there, since apparently couplings between vampires and humans always resulted in a pregnancy if the human happened to be female.
Perhaps that one night of pleasure, right before Judith had revealed her true nature, meant that there was still some hope in the world.
“Michelle for a girl,” I whispered, as I realized that coming up with a name wouldn't be too difficult, “and Matthias for a boy. Matt for short.”
I hesitated as I realized that I had idea how a vampire child was supposed to be raised. Would he or she have fangs from the start? Would I need to find a supply of fresh blood? Would he start randomly going on about destiny and prophecies?
Suddenly the phone rang, and I grabbed the handset.
“There you are,” my mother said haughtily on the other end of the line, “I've been trying to get hold of you all morning.”
“I -”
“I went to that shop in town again,” she continued, apparently all set for a long rant, “and it was the same girl. She gave me back the amount she'd over-charged me, but I could tell she didn't want to do it. If people don't like dealing with customers, then why do they work in retail to begin with? I very nearly insisted on speaking to the manager, but there was no point. I've had a run-in with him in the past, he's no better. Anyway, darling, how are you doing?”
“I've been busy,” I replied, smiling through the tears as I realized I hadn't heard her voice for several years. In fact, make that several decades. “How are you doing, Mum? It's so good to hear from you!”
“I'm fine,” she said cautiously. “Why? What's wrong?”
“Nothing's wrong,” I told her, “it's just good to hear from you.”
“I was reading something in the paper today,” she said, “about train tickets to Paris, and I decided that maybe I should finally come and visit you. I know I've been rather skeptical in the past, darling, but that was only because I worry about you. If you're really determined to make a life for yourself out there, I suppose I should be a little more supportive. So if I -”
“Actually,” I said, interrupting her, “I think I might come home.”
“Home?” She paused. “You mean... back here?”
“Paris has been a whirlwind,” I explained. “It's been a real adventure. But there comes a time when home seems kind of appealing.” I looked down at my belly again as I realized that at some point I'd have to try to explain how I'd become pregnant.
I was pretty sure that my mother wouldn't be very impressed by stories about vampires and Nazis in the Second World War.
“I'm not saying I'll be home forever,” I said finally, “but it might be nice to be around family for a while.”
Not to mention having people to help once I gave birth, of course. I'd always been pretty good at taking care of myself, but being a single mother had never once entered my mind. The thought of doing that all alone in Paris was a little heady, and I didn't feel too bad at the idea of going home and reconnecting with a few people who might be able to help out. At the same time, I still wondering exactly how a vampire baby differed from a normal child.
“Well,” Mum muttered, “I can't say that I'm disappointed, although I was starting to think that a trip to Paris would be fun. There were some nice offers on a few of the websites I checked.”
“It's a nice city,” I told her. “There's a lot going on. I just think I'd like to be somewhere a little calmer for a while.”
“I suppose that's understandable,” she replied huffily. “Everything is okay, though, isn't it? You sound very tired, darling.”
For a moment, I tried to imagine how she'd react if I told her the whole crazy story:
“I met a vampire and his brother, then I went back in time to Nazi-run World War Two Paris and I got tortured before escaping and briefly joining the rebels. Then I argued with the vampire and he ran off, and I had to go and fetch him from a monastery. We went to Second World War London, where we got double-crossed a bunch of times, most tragically by a woman I'd begun to consider to be a friend. Then one of the vampire brothers turned truly evil and tried to travel back in time again, only to somehow send me to my own time. There were some shenanigans, and both the vampires are dead, and now here I am. Oh, and I'm pregnant by one of the vampires. Oh, and I got pregnant in a church, which is probably super sinful.”
I swallowed hard.
Yeah, I was pretty sure I could never tell her any of that stuff.
“It's a long story,” I said finally. “Listen, Mum, I need to make plans but I'll have to let you know in the morning. I think I'll be home within the next week, though. There's no point spending too long sitting around here, and it's not as if I have a lot to pack.”
Once the call was over, I leaned back on the sofa and closed my eyes for a moment. I'd barely had time to rest over the previous few days. In fact, I realized with a faint smile that my last proper night's sleep had – technically – been more than seventy years earlier. I needed to start organizing my journey back to London, and I needed to try to find a new job, and I also needed to start packing, but for a moment I allowed myself to simply stay on the sofa and think about the fact that Matthias was gone.
I could only cling to his last words, and hope that they were true:
“One day I'll find you, Chloe Carter. I don't know how, it might be on the very last day of your long, happy life, but I will find you. I'll see you again. Beyond life. Beyond death. I'll see you in whatever comes next, and I'll hold your hand again, but right now... Run, Chloe. Run and don't look back.”
Epilogue
Chloe
Many years from now...
“No,” I said firmly.
“No?” Hugo replied, still staring down at me. “Perhaps you'd like to consider that answer for a moment longer, Chloe.”
“There's no need,” I told him. “After everything we went through, after everything that happened, did you really not learn a thing? We can't change time, Hugo. What happened to Judith can't be undone. What she did can't be undone. Instead of trying to break the rules of reality, you have to accept the truth.”
“You're still a fool, then,” he said, with contempt in his voice. “You still don't understand that J
udith -”
“Judith killed Matthias!” I snapped.
I saw a flicker of shock on his expression.
“You never realized that, did you?” I continued. “I think Matthias was worried about hurting you even more. She admitted it to us on the bridge, while you were unconscious. Poisoning Matthias was all part of Zieghoff's plan to lure the pair of you to Paris, so that he could pick your brains. I'd say it was a plan that worked much better than any of them could ever have expected.”
I waited, but I could see the puzzled shock in his eyes.
“I'm sorry,” I added, “but I think you needed to know.”
“You're lying,” he replied through gritted teeth.
“Do you really believe that?” I asked. “Or is this just another true thing that you're not brave enough to believe?”
“You're a liar!” he snarled, grabbing me by the throat and hauling me up, before slamming me against the wall. “Why did you and Matthias start to hate Judith so much?” he continued. “She did nothing to either of you, she was sweet and innocent and perfect in every way!”
He turned his head slightly, as if he'd just heard something.
“I know,” he said softly. “I won't be much longer.”
He hesitated, and now it was clear that he was listening to some sound that I couldn't hear.
“I'll persuade her,” he continued finally. “Don't worry, I have other ways.”
“Do you still hear her voice?” I asked, shocked that even after all these years he was lost in his madness. “Hugo, I feel so sorry for you. Matthias said that her voice was the one thing that kept you from dying, that your belief in her presence was somehow allowing you to delay the end of your death. But you can't go on like this forever, Hugo. After that last night in Paris, I was so certain that you'd died along with Matthias. I thought your suffering was over.”
“You have no idea what I've experienced,” he replied. “When I sensed that you were dying, I knew that I could no longer delay things. You're going to come with me, Chloe, and we're going to change time.”
I shook my head.
“We're going to save Judith,” he continued, “and we'll also save your granddaughter Harriet. That's a little bonus that I'm willing to toss your way.”
“No.”
“You rather let her stay dead?”
“I know better than to try messing with the timeline,” I told him. “You've tried it twice now, and both times it backfired on you. Zieghoff tried it as well, and how did that go? Learn from the mistakes of the past, Hugo. Accept that some things are -”
“Never!” he screamed, leaning closer to me.
“And there's one other thing that you've forgotten,” I replied, struggling to stay calm. “One other rule about vampires.”
“You dare to lecture me on vampires?” he asked with a sneer. “Fine, I'll take pity on you. Tell me what you think I need to know.”
“I'm sure you know it already,” I told him, as I looked past his shoulder and saw a shadow moving slowly, rising up the wall. “When a male vampires takes a female human as his lover, there's always a pregnancy. But most often, the resulting child isn't a vampire. The genes skip the first generation, and it's the grandchildren...”
My voice trailed off, as I finally saw Harriet beginning to slowly rise to her feet. There was blood all over her neck, but she's managed to put her head back on, and now she was stepping up behind Hugo.
He opened his mouth to say something, but at the last moment he seemed to realize that he was in danger. He stared at me, and then he began to turn around.
Before he could do that, however, Harriet drove a wooden stake straight into his back, with such force that the tip tore through and burst out from the front of his chest.
“No!” he gasped, clutching my shoulders in a desperate attempt to stay on his feet. “You don't understand, I...”
He hesitated for a moment, before slipping down and landing in a heap on the floor.
“I wasn't sure whether that would work,” I said, trying to stay calm, “seeing as how he cut out his own heart.”
“What are we supposed to do with him now?” Harriet asked darkly, as she stared down at him. “If he never accepts that Judith is truly gone, does that mean he can never die?”
“I'm really not sure,” I replied, hugely relieved to see that she was still alive. “I often wondered whether you'd become a vampire yourself, my darling, but you never said anything about it. Even over these past few nights, you seemed as if you knew very little about vampire life. I suppose now at least I understand why you were so quick to believe me.”
“I'm sorry I didn't tell you before,” she replied. “I guess I just wanted to surprise you, although I never thought that this would be how it came out. Let me tell you, it's freaky when you have to stick your own head back on.”
“You must have a lot of questions,” I told her.
“Kinda, but that's what the internet's for.”
“You found information about being a vampire on the internet?”
“Well, in relay rooms and on the dark web.”
I raised a skeptical eyebrow.
“It's cutting edge stuff,” she explained. “You wouldn't understand.”
“I'm sure I wouldn't,” I muttered.
Feeling exhausted, I made my way to the chair next to the window. Harriet accompanied me and eased me down, but as I tried to settle I realized that this exhaustion was actually something else. I felt tired in a way that I'd never felt tired before, and all I wanted was to close my eyes. At the same time, I was overcome by a sudden belief that if I closed my eyes now, I might never open them again.
“Poor Hugo Bane,” Harriet said, looking over at him. “Is that the third time he got staked through the heart in this story? You'd think he might have started to watch out for that kind of thing a little better, but instead he scored a hat-trick.”
I tried to reply to her, but I wasn't able to get any words out. I could feel my breaths becoming a little shallower now, but at the same time I wasn't panicking at all. For some reason, there was no fear. I turned and looked out the window, watching the dark garden for a moment, waiting in case there was any hint of movement out there. I couldn't help thinking back to Matthias's words about one day coming for me, although now I was starting to realize that he might not have found a way. I'd waited at the window, but he hadn't come.
And now it was too late.
Suddenly, however, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned and saw that Harriet was kneeling next to Hugo, so I looked up and to my surprise I saw Matthias standing next to the chair. He looked as young as he'd been when I'd first met him, and he was smiling at me.
“Waiting for someone?” he asked.
“Who's that?” Harriet gasped, which at least meant that she could actually see him, that he wasn't all in my head.
“Harriet,” I replied, feeling a rush of relief in my chest, “allow me to introduce you to Matthias Bane. Your grandfather.”
“For real?” she said. “Wow, this is really turning into some kind of family reunion. I wish Mum could be here for it, but... Well, you know she never likes to talk about vampires. I think maybe she has some instinctive understanding that there's something going on. I've got a lot to clear up before she finds all this stuff and freaks out.”
“It's time, isn't it?” I asked Matthias.
“We've got a few minutes,” he replied.
“Where are we going?”
“You'll see. I think you'll like it.”
“As long as you're with me,” I said, reaching up and squeezing his hand, “I think I will.”
Before he could reply, we both heard a crunching sound, and we turned to see that Harriet was starting to remove the stake from Hugo's chest.
“No!” I gasped, suddenly filled with shock. “You mustn't do that!”
“Relax, Gran,” she replied. “I might be a kid still, but I'm not completely stupid. I just think, right before I staked him, I could
sense that he was realizing the truth. Don't worry, I can easily put it back in again if he starts acting up.
I watched in horror as she finished pulling the stake out, and Hugo immediately gasped and began to get to his feet. After a fraction of a second, however, he turned and saw Matthias standing next to me.
“You're dead,” Hugo said, his voice filled with shock. “How can you be here?”
“I came to keep Chloe company as she leaves this place,” Matthias replied. “You can do the same, you know. For Judith, I mean. I never believed she was evil, even after what she did to me. You can go and find her, Hugo. You can be with her again, if that's still what you want, but first you have to accept that she's not with you right now.”
Hugo turned, as if he was hearing another voice, and then he hesitated.
“You know she's long gone, don't you?” I said. “I'm so sorry that she died, Hugo, but maybe if you can find her soul somewhere... Maybe there's a chance for the pair of you. Call me an old romantic, but I truly believe that.”
He hesitated, and then he turned and stumbled toward the door.
“This is over, Hugo,” Matthias said firmly. “You have to realize that.”
Hugo muttered something under his breath as he pulled the door open. He stepped out onto the landing, and then – clutching the wound on his chest – he turned to us again.
“The fight is over,” Matthias continued. “I'm sorry, my brother, but Judith's spirit isn't with you, not right now. Wherever she is, she's far from here. Even in death, it might take you some time to track her down.”
“I know that now,” Hugo gasped, “and thank you... my brother.”
He turned to walk away.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
He glanced back at me, and I saw – for the first time in many years – an expression that wasn't filled with hatred.
“You'll have to excuse me,” he said, with a hint of tears in his eyes, “but... I really want to be alone right now. I thought you'd join me, Chloe, but when you refused... I saw something in your eyes, something important. I finally understand that I can't change the past.”