He rolled his eyes and gave an exasperated sigh. “Don’t pull the Vampric card.” She squinted her eyes, and tilted her head. “Well don’t ignore the big idea, Saytrix. Do you remember our lockets? This has to mean something. It wasn’t a coincidence, and you know it.”
Saytrix seemed indecisive, as he aggressively ran his hands through the dark curls that was his hair again. He did that a lot. His words sounded anxious. “What if we discover something that doesn’t want to be found?”
There was desire and pain in her voice. “But I want to. Don’t you understand how important this is for me? For us both. We have to do something about this. We can get someone to...”
He cut her off. “We must leave this alone.” She heard him sigh, as she drank dark liquid from her cup. “We really shouldn’t.” Scarlett spoke, as she swallowed. She stared into the silver mug. “Anyway. I’ve met your brother.” She then laughed. “You two are complete opposites.”
It was true. When she’d spoken to Lucian, she’d felt intimidated. Almost less-than. He had that effect on people, she guessed. She hated to feel that way, she knew she was strong, so why should a person make her feel any different?
He sat up almost abruptly. “Lucian?” He sounded confused.
She cocked her head. “I know for a fact that i’m going to be recruited to train at your palace soon for some...unknown reason that I couldn’t get out of him.” She mumbled, as she studied the pattern of her comforter. She looked back up at the screen, “Do you know anything about that? About your palace collecting the Vampric students at Shylack? It’s strange. They could have recruited the Knights at the Vampric palace instead of the soldiers in training at my conservatory.” She questioned, he yawned.
She figured he would have opened up to her more. At least she didn’t have to flirt with him to get information, unlike Lucian. The thought of ever being romantic with Saytrix sickened her. Even if he weren’t her brother, he didn’t entice her. He was pretty. In fact, his beauty was overwhelming. The way the curls of his hair swirled like enchanted winds, how his eyes sparkled in an organized clamor, and the way his words sounded as if they were woven together in a relaxed tempo. But there was something off-putting about him, she thought.
He was quiet for a minute, until he spoke again. “I suppose it has something to do with the Undetermined.” He thought, as he raised his eyebrows. “Lucian rambles about it all the time.” He said to her. That struck something in Scarlett. “However, you should not get involved with my step-brother. Lucian is very dangerous.” He confessed, his brows her drawn together. “Trust me, I know.”
She nodded. “I see.”
The Undetermined. Something that they both could be. Maybe that was why Saytrix wanted nothing to do with her. He didn’t want to face the possible harsh reality of it all. “And,” He paused. His head turned left, and then right, and then back to the screen, when his voice had dropped an Octave. He sighed, “even if you are my sister, I would never want to be related to you. I am a royal. You are Vampiric. It's dangerous to be Undetermined. And I do not want either of us to get hurt.”
“I know,” Scarlett spoke, quietly. The silence was screaming between the two of them. All they did was look at one another. They didn’t need proof to see that they were related to one another. They both felt it, both knew it. It was like warmth and conformation to know that she had a family member. A biological family member. Scarlett felt it in her undead heart. Their lockets told the story. She just needed proof. Somehow, she knew it was out there. She loved Liveria, and she loved her step-parents, but it meant something important to her to know that she had a brother, who was related to her. She didn’t want to lose him, or any of her current family members, for that matter. Her family meant everything to her.
“I have an idea.” She was about to say something to him, when out of the blue, her door slammed open.
It revealed a bloody Liveria.
Scarlett widened her eyes in shock. She took her oracle and jammed it into her pocket, rushing over to Liveria in a quick-like fashion. Black Vampric blood soaked the ends of her hair, as tears screamed out of her eyes. She exclaimed in terror, “What happened?” Scarlett’s eyes bulged.
“Someone attacked mom!” She shrieked, as her body shook. Liveria cried into her sister shoulder as Scarlett held her tightly. “What do we do??!” Liveria shouted, her body feeling as if it were paralyzed. Her lips parted, her body felt numb, her eyes felt glossy, and her hands shook with despair and fear.
Scarlett was stagnant for a second.
The idea of something happening to her mother had forced tears out of her eyes. She barely cried.She didn’t have the time to. Time. What was time? Everything felt as if it were going in slow motion. Nothing felt real. Everything felt like it was being torn apart. Scarlett raced down the staircase. She was met with dimness. She saw that the torches had been torn to pieces and were in destroyed fragments as they littered the carpeted floor.
The house seemed dark, and quiet. Fear and death shouted out into the abyss.There, right beside the mess, was her mother. She was laid out on the floor. Her eyes half open. Her blood dripping in a pool around her dying body, dampening her blouse.
Death lingered in the room like the aura of perfumes would at a party. She kneeled, and gazed at her mother. Her eyes looked exactly like Liveria’s. Her mother’s blood-drenched rose hair. It felt surreal. Scarlett shook, her lips trembled. Her stepmother looked at her, and gave her a painful half-smile as her lips had twitched. Whatever bullet that shot her was illegal, if it caused her to die. To kill the Vampric, you needed a special type of substance. They were immortal.
There was an anger so livid, that flurried inside of her heart that made her fingers quaver, as she stroked the tear that fell down her cheek. Her stepmother took her in as an orphan, cared for her when she was sick, got her enrolled into one of the greatest conservatories, shaped her into a better person. And there she was, on the ground, blood leaking out from her body, about to die. Something was wrong. Her wounds wouldn’t close back up. Scarlett wanted to call someone, but as she tried to use her oracle, it had a low battery.
“M-mom?” She mumbled. This couldn’t have been real. “M-mom please. N-n-no.” Scarlett’s body shook, and she dug her fingernails into her palms. She licked her fangs, “Please.” She begged, when hot tears fell down her cheek. Her voice grew hoarse as she tried to fight the pain of losing her mother, but she couldn’t. “Please, mom.”
The woman smiled and wiped the tear from Scarlett's cheek. Her wounds stopped fighting and stopped trying to help her body. Dark blood began to spill from where she’d been injured. She said, “You two are so beautiful. My precious girls.” Her words were slow and painful as she choked on them. Death was getting nearer and nearer. “Scarlett, Liveria I love you.” She muttered.
Scarlett eyed the black bloody mess, and picked up the bullets that were seeping out of her mother. It was a tiny, circular metallic thing, the bullet. When she placed it over her nose to get a whiff, it was like acid. The fumes had burned the insides of her nostrils. She threw the bloody bullet away from her face angrily in pain.
“Glycarian.” She said, and wiped her eyes from tears.“Someone’s trying to kill us.” The one substance that was strong enough to absolutely destroy the Vampric. Whoever killed her mother, had gotten those bullets illegally, as it was completely illegal to own or make the substance in the country of Impala. Glycarian was forbidden.
She gazed at her mother in melancholy, her lips trembling. Scarlett didn’t want this to be the end. She needed a mother, she needed a father. She needed parents and stability. She then turned to Liveria.
The pink-haired girl sobbed quietly, as her mother’s eyes then slowly closed, and her head went limp. Liveria shook her head, her eyes glassy as makeup ran down her cheek. She held her hand over her mouth. “Where's dad?” She questioned. Scarlett was silent in shock. Somebody was out to get them. Why would a random person even think to break in their house a
nd shoot their mother? And where was their father?
Pushing her emotions back, she wiped her tears once more. “Pack a bag, Liv. We need to leave.” Scarlett spoke, “We can’t stay here, whoever came and shot Mom probably left something inside the house. It's too quiet. So pack quick. Someone’s out to get us.” She told her sister. Scarlett didn’t want to believe her own words.
Her mother’s blood was soaked against the green sweater. She looked Scarlett into the pale of her eyes, how terror danced inside of them, and she nodded. Liveria’s expression exploded in a paroxysm, as her lips shook. “Okay.” Her voice was weak and fragile, her eyes still glossy.
Scarlett raced up the staircase and into her room. Quickly, she’d grabbed two dark duffel bags. In one, she threw a majority of her clothing and shoes, and her toiletries. In the second bag, she packed it with as many of her weapons as she could fit, a few books, and the charger for her oracle. She then grabbed all of the coinage that she could possibly find that was hidden away in her room. Scarlett tried hard not to remember how her stepmother looked as she’d said goodbye to her and her sister.
She then raced quickly to her parents room, and twisted open the door. As she entered, reality felt altered. There, in the center stood her parents’ bed. It held thick dark covers with expensive satin pillows, and black drapes that fell in front of the window. There were photographs of Liveria, Scarlett, and of course, their mother, on their dresser. Scarlett looked at a picture of her mother and her father. They looked happy, she thought. Oh, how she longed to be inside of a photograph. In a frozen moment. A frozen world. A lense of everything perfect, where nothing could touch her. Nothing could trap her. Where nothing tried to kill her. All of her emotions were crashing down on her and she realized that she was crying.
When she’d finished packing in the little time that they’d both had, she began hearing a ticking noise. She was right. Scarlett raced down her staircase in Vampric frenzy. Liveria was already down there, she held four bags. Two on each of her shoulders, and two in the both of her hands. They were sparkly. Despite the chaotic events, Liveria always seemed to be in some sort of style. The silver haired girl both motioned them out the door as the two sisters then rushed out of their house. They heard the explosion behind them, and watched as it fell apart in tiny but gradual fragments,as if it were a firework. The ground had vibrated, as chemical-like smoke had littered the air. It burned to pieces, and the glow of it all reflected into their open irises. Soon, neighbors would hurry outside, as different Vampric creatures came rushing to see what the large commotion was. Liveria was still sobbing quietly, as her sister hugged her and kissed her forehead.
She felt unstable, but Liveria was the only family she had left. “It’s going to be alright.” She spoke, the ruins of ash and dirt littering their faces. Scarlett’s hands shook. She wanted reassurance. From someone else. She was only saying what sounded right, she was only saying what she wanted someone to say to her. “It’s going to be alright.” But was it?
For the first time in her life, she was scared. And she didn’t know what to do. She watched, as their home fell apart. The flames reflected into the paleness of Scarlett’s iris, and the deep green of Liveria’s. Flecks of black blood streaking their clothes and tinting their hair. They watched their house be destroyed in silence. There was a mixture of anger, sadness, and grief that Scarlett had felt within her at that moment. Her nails dug into the skin of her palms, creating holes and sores of blood that kept on healing itself over and over again. She bit the corner of her bottom lip in dismay, her hands in violent fists as tears kept streaking down her face. Liveria sobbed quietly into Scarlett’s shoulder as she stroked her hair gently. Just like her mother would do to her when she’d had a bad dream. There were neighbors surrounding their house, a crowd of people watching the flames eradicate everything in that house their parents had ever worked for, away, as they stood back in the darkness.
Their house was isolated yet exposed. Surrounded by Drearykus tree’s. They were tall and dark and had silver leaves that the woodland creatures would often collect in the winter before they went into hibernation. A million things raced through Scarlett’s mind. Liveria’s mental health, her mother dying, where her father was, the fact that somebody was out to get them. It was like she was an orphan again, she felt incomplete without parents. Like she didn’t belong anywhere. The only person she had left was Liveria. Her stepmother’s siblings hadn’t lived in Impala, her stepfather’s family they never spoke to.
She knew one person that would always be there for her, one person who would always be considered family to her, no matter what. Suddenly, she let go of Liveria as her eyes flashed to hers. “Let’s go,” Scarlett spoke, as more people began to approach the horrid scene of the house burning down.
***
The night air was one with the dark sky, and it made Liveria quiver, as they walked up to the wooden door. Shoes were littered everywhere, and as were different types of plants and crystals. Her eyes were no longer wet with tears, the both of them were too numb. The scenes kept reenacting inside of their heads. It'd gotten to a point where it was either Scarlett quietly ignoring her feelings, or Liveria sobbing without stopping. Scarlett knocked on the door of the house that they’d approached.
After what seemed like five seconds, a brown-skinned woman dressed in a silk robe had answered the door. She widened her eyes in shock as she took in the blood on their hands, the bags on their backs, and the tears in their eyes. It was Morgen Drovanagus.
Her right hand covered her mouth. “Scarlett, Liveria?” Silas’s mother exclaimed, “Please, come inside.” She spoke, as she directed the two of them inside of the house.
The woman held a firm expression and knitted her eyebrows together, and gazed at them with folded arms. Her hair was a deep red, which curved at the ends and engulfed her chin.
They both took a seat on the dark plush couch that sat in the center of the living room. She lit two torches and put them on the walls, as it lit up the entire room in an orange glow. She’d left for a moment, but when she came back there were blankets in her arms, with a confused Silas which followed behind. His hair was ruffled and his eyes flashed from both Scarlett to Liveria. His lips parted. His father and Silas’s two brother’s followed up behind him, with the same expression.
Scarlett forced a smile, Liveria’s face not allowing her to. There was trauma in her glass eyes. She was silent. Her sister nodded her head to Silas’s mother, her smile faded. “Thank you, Mrs. Drovanagus.” Scarlett spoke, and then looked to his father “Mr. Drovanigus.” Silas rushed to her side, his eyes focused on her. His hair was tousled and eyes wild as his eyes scanned Scarlett’s, as he froze, and stared at her with wide eyes. Even when Scarlett was drenched in blood, with cuts slowly healing themselves littered all over her body, there was beauty in her existence. How, the curls of her hair fell loosely over her eyelashes and light grey eyes.
The little Vampric boy rubbed his eyes, “Mama, are they dying?” He whined, as he held close to him a stuffed animal. Silas’s father picked him up lovingly. He wore a dark grey long-sleeved shirt that crossed at the front, and black pants. Silas looked more like his father than his mother. They both had a lean but muscular frame, with full lips and dark eyes. “Shush, Tobias. Go back to your room.” He told his younger children, “You and your brother.” He lectured, when he rubbed his beard.
The older little boy dropped his shoulders, and tucked his head inwards.“You’re kidding? Silas gets to see everything! Not fair.” He complained. “This is like the climax to one giant game and we can’t see how it ends?” He rubbed his tired eyes. The boy hadn’t slept in five days which was too little of a time for Vampric children. Adult Vampric creatures could last ages without sleep; children were a completely different story. Vampric bodies stopped aging after fifty years. “I want in.” The boy said, with crossed arms.
Morgen set her hands on her hips, with a complicated expression. She couldn’t take her eyes away
from the blood that soaked both Scarlett and Liveria’s clothes. “Tobias, Greyson. You both have conservatory tomorrow. Bed, now.” She spoke, as she tied the coils that was her hair into a high bun, as she glared at her two children. “Your mother’s right.” Her husband chimed in.
Greyson pouted. “I never get to see anything cool, this blows.” He mumbled. “Come on, Toby.” The little boy said to his smaller brother as he turned his back from the intense scene of a bloody Scarlett and Liveria.
“Hey, it’ll be okay.” A familiar voice spoke.
Somehow, she knew that it wouldn’t. Silas wiped blood from her cheek and examined the black on her hands. She didn’t say anything, and he didn’t understand, but he hugged her. She leaned into his chest, as her body shook with fear. She couldn’t stop the tears that fled from her eyes, she could not stop the trembling of her lips, or the shaking of her hands. Scarlett was so used to holding everything in, but in that moment, she broke. In the background, she heard Silas’s parents speaking with Liveria but she drowned out everything. The only thing she heard was his voice. The only thing she wanted to hear was his voice. Silas stroked her arm, “C-can I crash in your room?” She asked, when her voice broke. She knew that Liveria would be fine. He kissed her forehead, which sent shivers down her spine. His brown eyes then gazed into her own, his expression was stern and passionate. “Of course you can.”
The Mystic Chronicles: Locket Page 6