Forever Here

by Harold Wall

  been really rough on me, and as more time passed, we seemed to grow more distant. What had once been an easy loving relationship had turned sour and awkward. She didn't

  know what to say or how to act around me, and the only thing I could think about around her was how much I missed her and wanted her back.

  "You better watch out, Redfern," she said, backing away from me. Her voice was light and playful, but I could tell that underneath, she was completely serious. "I'm onto you."

  "Noted," I returned, giving her a small salute.

  Inside, all I could focus on was how much harder hiding all of this had become. There was not a doubt in my mind that, if Rashel found out about Mare's curse, she would tell MaryLynette.

  And that could only end badly.

  Over the next couple of days, I'd individually warned Thea, Kestrel and Winnie that we could no longer keep shooting each other looks of conspiracy and that Rashel was on to us.

  None of them seemed as alarmed by this as I was, only shrugging off my concerns but agreeing to be subtler all the same.

  Winnie still hadn't noticed any significant changes in MaryLynnette. She'd told me one morning that MaryLynette's case didn't match any of the ones in the book, and that she

  hadn't shown any worrying signs. Of course I'd told Winnie about the night in the apartment, but the lack of regress in Mare's state had us all believing that perhaps that was the

  worst to come of all this. In fact, we were all starting convince ourselves that perhaps we'd over reacted entirely.

  Both Thea and I were beginning to doubt that what we had saw was in fact the mark of a curse, after all we'd only seen it very briefly, so there was every possibility we'd been mistaken. Even Winnie, the most cautious and knowledgeable of us all concerning these matters, was beginning to doubt the severity of the situation.

  Kestrel, who had frequently been observing MaryLynette's training sessions with Rashel, said that Mare hadn't shown any signs of lacking in strength or becoming tiredly

  abnormally quickly. She even stated that Mare was making rapid progress in her combat training, a fact that made me swell with pride.

  "What?" I said back, twisting round on the sofa so that my body faced him, though still keeping one eye on the TV. The show wasn't exactly the most enticing I'd ever seen, but

  after watching it for the past hour I felt committed to finishing it through.

  "Dad asked me to tell you that he's gone out tonight with Bill and his wife, and that he probably won't be back until late. But he will be back tomorrow in time to take you to that

  place you want to go," Mark said, waving his hand in disinterest.

  "Okay, thanks," I trailed off, glancing back towards the TV. "What about Claudette?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows slightly whilst bringing the time up on the screen. It was gone

  six, she'd usually be here at this time, unless she'd gone out with Dad. I couldn't help but feel it odd that she hadn't told me, especially as she'd been home all day.

  "I don't know," Mark said, not seeming concerned in the slightest. "I'm sure she's somewhere."

  "Well of course she's somewhere, I wasn't suggesting that she'd just disappeared into thin air. "

  "Just saying," he said, holding his hands up in surrender, passing by me and into the kitchen, Jade trailing closely behind him.

  Rolling my eyes and shaking my head slightly, I settled back into the sofa cushions, my complete attention now focused back on the TV.

  On the screen, the main character had just kissed her brotherinlaw on the day of the guys wedding to her sister. I turned my nose up distastefully at the selfishness of the girl.

  How could she do that to someone she loved? I could only assume that the sister would find out and it would all end in tears.

  A crash sounded from the kitchen, and it took me a couple of seconds before I realised that the sound hadn't come from the TV. Jumping to my feet, I ran to where I'd heard the

  crash, expecting to find Mark looking sheepishly at a broken plate.

  Rounding the corner though, the first thing I saw was Mark leaning against Jade who was considerably smaller than him, in an extremely odd way. If I hadn't know that she was a

  vampire, I would have been worried that he'd topple her over, as it seemed that she was the only thing holding him up.

  "Mark?" I asked, frowning and drawing closer to the pair. As I did so, broken pieces of glass crackled under my feet, but I hardly noticed as I slowly crept forward.

  A pained groan came from Mark as he stumbled back from his soulmate, falling clumsily against the kitchen counter.

  The gasp that escaped my lips cut cleanly through the room, the only sound besides Mark's distressed moaning. "Oh my god," I whispered, rushing forward to help my brother. I

  tried to focus on his face, but all I was able to see was the large patch of red blossoming out across his chest, a steady stream of liquid spilling out of his wound.

  "Whwhat," I began, unable to formulate any words faced with the scene before me. With trembling fingers, I grabbed a dishcloth, pressing it tightly against Mark's chest, not able

  to think of anything else I could do. Of course with a gash so big, my efforts were useless. Within seconds, the cloth was drenched in my brother's blood, staining my hands a rusty

  red.

  "Ccall 911," I said, my shaking voice betraying my state of fear and shock. Reaching out, I swept Mark's hair back off of his forehead, leaving a bloody smear across his pale skin.

  "Keep with me okay," I pleaded, trying with everything I had to keep my voice level, though the tears streaming from my eyes undoubtedly betrayed my emotions. "You're going to

  be fine, you're going to be absolutely fine."

  He didn't answer me; he didn't even notice my existence. If it weren't for the fluttering pulse in his neck, I would have thought he was already gone.

  "Why aren't you calling 911?" I yelled upon seeing Mark's eyelids begin to droop. I couldn't lose him. I just couldn't.

  Turning round I saw Jade just standing there, her eyes locked on Mark, but completely blank. In her hand was a knife, the end coated in a thick layer of blood, which was beginning

  to drip onto the tiled floor.

  My heart ground to an abrupt halt at the sight. I carefully positioned myself in front of Mark who had now gone completely silent. "Jade," I began slowly, raising my hands in a

  pacifying gesture. "Please. Put the knife down." I stared at her for a moment longer, trying to search for any sign of remorse or even hatred in her blank stare.

  Closing my eyes for just a second, I tried desperately to sort my thoughts out, to think of some sort of plan or explanation to all this. But even as I did so, I could practically hear

  the timer on Mark's life running out.

  Opening my eyes I prepared to face my brother's soulmate, my brother's killer, only it was no longer Jade standing in front of me. In her place was the girl who had been haunting me for a while now. She had the same malicious smirk she always had, her dark eyes menacing under the dim kitchen lights.

  "What do you want?" I yelled at her, stumbling backwards slightly in an attempt to put distance between the two of us. I went back too far and knocked into Mark, losing my

  balance in the process. My heart spiked at the idea of hurting him even further.

  Spinning round to check on him, I let out a muffled scream. On the floor was not my brother who had been there only moments earlier, but a man, a vampire, his skin papery white

  and a stake plunged through his chest. Bells of recognition vaguely sounded in my mind, but before I could stop to consider, his eyes jolted open.

  For a second I looked into them, chilled to the bone at their emptiness. I tried to formulate words but my lips were numb, unable to form sound in their current terrified state. It

  was probably a good job too, for even if they had worked, I wouldn't have had a clue what to say.

  Too quickly to process, the vampire had shot
to his feet, despite the piece of wood protruding from his chest. A small yelp escaped my throat at the shock of it, and I quickly

  shuffled backwards, fully aware that by doing so I was moving towards the witch with the knife.

  Slowly stalking towards me, the vampire growled, baring a pair of long fangs. With one eye on the vampire and one eye on the witch, I navigated the kitchen so that the small

  dining table was between the former and myself. With every step I was backing myself up into a corner, making an escape less and less likely.

  My back bumped against the wall and I knew for certain that I was trapped. My heart rate picked up, so much so that I felt that my heart had jumped out of my chest entirely and

  into my throat, where it was slowly choking me.

  In a moment of panic, my eyes flitted to the witch who was looking over the scene with a vaguely amused expression, as if this was nothing but a network drama. My eyes met

  hers for only a moment before being drawn to the knife in her hand. It was still dripping a steady stream of blood, which glistened under the kitchen lights.

  Seeing my gaze, the corners of the witch's mouth twitched into what I could only describe as a smile. Her eyes flicked between me and the knife, lazily as if this wasn't a life or

  death situation. At last, she placed the bloodied knife on the table, and slid it across to where I was standing.

  Without hesitation I caught the knife, holding it in the way Rashel had told me to in one of our lessons. Somehow in the short time she'd been teaching me, I felt supremely more

  confident in my odds of survival in these situations. Still, I wasn't foolish enough to believe that this would be easy. I was still only a beginner after all when it came to fighting.

  Quick as a flash, the vampire pounced towards me, effortlessly hurdling the dining room table, soaring through the air. Despite his hulking size, it was perhaps one of the most

  graceful things I'd ever seen.

  A small yelp escaped my lips at the suddenness of the attack. In less than a second, I was being knocked painfully against the wall, my head jolting sharply at the impact. My mind

  flashed back to Jeremy, leaping through the air towards his death. His face contorted into something that was entirely inhuman.

  The knife in my hand drove forward at the same moment I felt a double sting in my neck. The body in front of me suddenly went slack as it slowly backed away, bent over around

  the knife that had been plunged into its chest.

  Despite my triumph, little bells in the back of my head were jingling, warning me that this wasn't right. It shouldn't have been so easy to defeat this vampire. The knife should have

  had no effect on such a creature, for it was made of metal not wood. And I was certain that the knife had not hit its heart, it had barely scraped the ribcage. The vampire before me, crippled by the wound I'd inflicted should have been brushing it off as a scratch.

  My breathing was loud in my own ears as I pushed myself away from the wall. Warm blood trickled down my neck, soaking the collar of my top. Even as I moved closer towards

  the vampire, I could hear Rashel's voice in my head yelling: Finish him off. Don't hesitate, don't be stupid. But I couldn't shake the feeling that this entire situation wasn't right,

  something was fundamentally wrong.

  Completely doubled over, I could no longer see the vamp's face, though I could hear him wheezing and groaning. Tiny drops of blood tumbling out of his mouth and nose mixed with

  the waterfall spilling from his chest. He backed himself into the table, though not even that could keep him upright. For a moment, he seemed to put everything he had into

  propping himself up on quaking arms, in an effort that was pitiful even to the hardest of hearts.

  I found myself striding towards him, feeling unexplainably protective over this person who I'd been fully intending to kill just moments before. I stretched out my hand, placing it

  softly on his shoulder, fearing that even this small action would cause him pain. An overwhelming feeling of dread filled me at the touch, which only grew as his head tipped up to

  face me.

  Even with the rivulets of blood poring across his tanned skin, the face was as familiar to me as my own. "No," I whispered, clutching onto my brother's shoulder even tighter,

  wrapping my other arm around him also in an effort to support him. Even as I did so, his arms gave out beneath him, sending us both clattering to the floor.

  The impact of the fall sent the knife flying out of his chest, spinning across the floor.

  "It wasn't you, it wasn't you, it wasn't you!" I sobbed, each one wracking through my body violently. "No!" I yelled, as for the second time in the space of five minutes, I watched my brother bleed out on my kitchen floor. Only this time I had been the one to kill him, and that made me fell infinitely worse.

  I shook my head violently, my hair whipping about my face in a frenzy, as slowly but surely, the river of blood began to lessen. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no," I said, gripping Mark's

  limp frame in my arms, my entire being becoming saturated with his blood. How could this be happening?

  "MaryLynette!" A voice sounded from behind me, though I barely heard it over the sudden silence in my own ears. A silence so loud and so hollow that it was impenetrable. And in

  that silence there was a distinct lack of a certain heartbeat, and that nothingness, that lack of rhythm and consistency, that stillness, was all I could hear.

  Then, just like that, the rest of the world flooded back in, more powerful than any tsunami. "MaryLynette!'

  "Mare!"

  "MaryLynette!"

  "MareBear!"

  All of this over the sound of my own heaving breathes, and my heart shattering into millions of razor sharp pieces. And then it was not only my sobs that were wracking through my

  body, but an outside force, as if I was being shaken. Violently.

  I looked up for a moment, up from the corpse of my little brother, only to find the witch standing before me, her hand raised in a half wave. "I'll see you again soon," she said, with

  a smile before disappearing into the sudden darkness that surrounded us.

  The darkness only consumed me for a second before a dim yellow light took over. "Whwhat?" I asked, unable to form anything more elaborate.

  "You're okay, MaryLynette. It was just a nightmare, it wasn't real," Rowan said, pulling me gently into her side. "Shhhhh," she calmed me. However it did nothing to stop my

  ragged breathes which filled the room, nor did it slow my heart from beating at a million miles an hour. I was covered from head to toe in a coating off sweat, which was only

  partly responsible for my uncontrollable shivering.

  Taking in my surroundings I saw that I was in my own bed in the Daybreak mansion, not in a kitchen, not anywhere near Briar Creek. I'd already established that I had just

  experienced yet another nightmare, like I had been every night or the past few weeks. But this one was different. This one had felt entirely more real. I hadn't realised that these

  night terrors could get any worse than they had been, for this wasn't the first night I'd found myself being woken like this, but apparently they were getting entirely more worse.

  "Hey, hey, don't worry, Mark is right here," Rowan said, moments before Mark settled down on the bed next to me. I hadn't realised that I'd been calling out for him, but I couldn't

  describe the relief I felt at seeing him here. Seeing him well and alive.

  "Oh my god, Mark!" I cried, throwing my arms around his neck and pulling him into a tight hug. His solid form alleviated some of the intense worry I'd been hanging onto, but I

  couldn't quite shake the shock I was in. "You're okay," I whispered, more to myself than to him. "You're okay. I love you so much."

  "Mare, I'm fine, I'm here. It was just a dream, only a dream," he said, his voice level and calming, though I could detect traces of worry in his tone. H
e was holding me almost as

  tightly as I was holding him, almost as if he was afraid that if he didn't hang on I would disappear.

  He pulled away from me for a second, using his sleeve to wipe away fat tears that were rolling down my cheeks. It was the first I'd noticed that I was crying, but from the swollen

  feel of my eyes, I must have been doing it for quite a while now.

  "Thank you," I murmured, looking over his shoulder to see that the room was half filled with people. There were more than had been here before. Most of the inhabitants here had

  by now grown used to, or learned to ignore my nightmares, however tonight I had quite a crowd.

  Rowan, Kestrel and Jade were all closest to the bed with varying looks of worry playing across their faces. At least one of them was always here for when I woke up yelling or

  sobbing, and I figured they must have made some sort of rota for who would come and see what was going on. For the past few days, Rowan had even taken to sleeping in the

  same bed as me to save the journey from her room to mine.

  Rashel, Quinn, and Winnie were also close by. My eyes hovered on Winnie longer than the rest, due to the fact that she looked sick to her stomach. Her skin was ghostly pale and

  she seemed to be shaking almost as much as I was. Once she realised that my gaze had landed on her, she quickly looked down, determined to avoid my stare.

  David, Eric, Nissa, Poppy and James were all huddled towards the back of the room, clearly not wanting to intrude but curious as to what was happening. I could also make out a

  couple of other shadowed forms in the door way, none of which I could make out, though I could just barely hear there whispers.

  "She's getting worse."

  "What do you think is wrong?"

  "When will they stop?"

  "Poor girl."

  Their comments sent a shiver down my spine.

  Lastly, my eyes landed upon Thea and Ash who were standing slightly off to the side. Both of their expressions were dark, both their faces tired and drawn. Thea's eyes were turned