“You know sis, I didn’t really believe Marcus, not at first. But he is committed to the life, and I’ll admit I was fascinated at first. The reality is, I don’t like it. Not after the Hills.”
Juliana wanted to shh Rocco up, but knew that Marcus did this to his brother all the time. So she picked her next words with care.
“Maybe you can just tell me what you feel, without mentioning any names.”
“I feel…we are in a lot of trouble. We can run, but not forever. The police will find us, and if they don’t catch us first, our brother will.”
“I won’t let him harm you,” said Juliana in a very sisterly manner, but looking at Rocco’s sad face, she knew harm had already been done. “I’ll get us another coffee, then we’ll figure out what to do.” Juliana took a napkin and smoothed out her brother’s face; his cheeks burned red
and his eyes were all blood-shot and watery.
“Just a coffee,” he said. “Not that I can really taste it.”
Juliana mouthed an okay and patted her brother’s hands.
***
Juliana returned with the cups of coffee, only for Rocco to gesture towards the TV screen high above him in the coffee house.
She could not advance further before the cups fell from her hands, and the hot liquid splashed against her legs. She did not scream, but gaped open mouthed at the screen, as the picture of Marcus appeared on the screen in the top right hand corner.
Running along at the bottom of the screen was the news ticker tape, which stated in white lettering on a red background
HUNT FOR POLICE KILLER
Along with the newsreader saying how a manhunt had already begun to find a boy who allegedly killed five police officers and had taken hostage a young child. Members of the general public were advised not to apprehend the boy, as he was considered extremely dangerous.
“You okay, sweetie?” asked one of the assistants.
As Juliana wore an expression of absolute shock, the assistant continued. “Yeah, the young killers are the worst. Why don’t you go sit down, and I’ll arrange some more coffee for you?”
Juliana nodded and wandered in zombie-fashion towards the table, and sat down opposite Rocco.
“He’s really done it now, hasn’t he?” offered Rocco. Juliana said nothing in response, but dug her elbows into her lap, and propped her chin up with cupped hands. She closed her eyes so tightly, it hurt. After a few moments, she opened them again.
“This wouldn’t have happened if we had stayed with him. We were stupid to go on the run. You don’t have to do everything I say, Rocco.”
“That’s what our dear brother would say to me too,” he smiled. “Could it be that both of you are wrong?”
“Don’t get smart with me, Rocco. We have to figure out what to do.”
“It’s obvious. Embrace the life, as dear brother has.”
“What do you think they will do when they catch him?”
“They did catch him. You just weren’t paying attention, sis. Neither were they, it seems.”
Juliana could understand why Marcus would kill, but not why he would kidnap someone. Whilst she was working this out in her head, the answer, one possible answer anyway, emerged.
“I am paying attention now,” scolded Juliana. “He’s taken someone because we ran out on him. He’s going to make the child in the same mould as himself.”
“You mean, make her a vampire.”
“It’s a girl?”
“That’s what the news says.”
Juliana wanted to look at the TV screen, but was simultaneously trying to make things look as normal as possible. At that same moment, the replacement drinks arrived.
“Here we go, you two,” smiled the assistant. “Say, have you two ever been on TV before?”
“No,” replied Juliana, “we have not.”
“Well, I thought you had been in one of them commercials. A pair of angels is what you two are. I guess some people just win the gene pool lottery.”
“Maybe. I suppose. Thanks for the coffees, and sorry about the mess.”
“If you want anything else, just give us a shout.”
Juliana nodded gratefully. She was also grateful that Rocco had kept quiet. She was even more grateful that no mention of herself and Rocco had been made so far.
“They’ve cut to another story,” shrugged Rocco, and sat back in his seat.
“You’re looking relaxed,” said Juliana as she sipped her coffee.
“Well, we’re free of him, see? It will only be a matter of time before they catch him. Again.”
Juliana sighed heavily. She wanted to see the world in the same way that Rocco did, but it just wasn’t that simple. If only Marcus had stopped at the kills. Why did he have to take someone away?
“We are not free of him, Rocco. He is controlling us, even now. He knew that the kills wouldn’t be enough. Taking someone, he wants us to come after him. That’s what he wants us to do.”
“You think you can stop him? Good luck sis.”
“We’re going to stop him. Come on, get your things, Rocco. We will run no longer.”
“Where are we going? You can’t possibly know where he is.”
“Oh but I do,” Juliana said, punching her brother on the arm. “What would he say to you if you said something like that?”
“He’d say I’m a vampire, brother.”
“You just got your answer then.”
Rocco understood. Juliana was taking them back to the cemetery.
Cemetery Gates
“A dreaded sunny day, so I’ll meet you at the cemetery gates.”
The Smiths – Cemetery Gates
Juliana hadn’t thought things through thoroughly, that much was certain. What was also certain; Marcus could be relied upon to be unpredictable. Fortunately, Juliana had one ace up her cotton jumper sleeve, and she doubted that even Marcus would be prepared for it.
Still, as they made the long journey back to the cemetery, Juliana knew he would be there. She just hoped the girl was safe. Once Marcus got something into his head, there was no way of turning it around. This time, however, Juliana believed things would be different. They just had to be.
Bringing Rocco along meant things could get complicated. She knew how manipulative Marcus was of his brother, and also that in a case of two-versus-one, she was likely to lose. Likely, but not for definite. Marcus did not hold all the cards; Juliana just needed to bet and win over him. Just this one time.
Looking around the cemetery, she could see a variety of headstones and gravestones. Some were quite simple, as in Here Lies Kathleen Morris, with a date added and nothing more.
Others were of children, who had their photo on the gravestone and had died from an age of only months to just a few years old. It was these younger ones that Juliana felt sorry for, but in another way, they would not live to see the kind of brutality that Marcus specialised in.
We are what we are, and we do what we do. That’s what Marcus had told them whenever they deviated from the plan. His plan.
But Juliana did not agree with Marcus. In her view, we are what we believe we are, and we become what we believe, and we live that life. Because you can change elements of who you are, and you can decide to do something, or not. That’s the real power humans hold. But so many humans believe who they are, and are shackled by something that may or may not be real, but their stupid, self-pitying beliefs make it so.
At least that is something I won’t do, thought Juliana. I will deal with what is real.
The reality was that Marcus had to be stopped. Did she have what it took to truly kill her own brother?
***
“He could be behind any of them,” said Rocco, gesturing to the stones.
Juliana shook her head. “No he won’t, Rock.”
“You know sis, sometimes I am right. He’s waiting behind one of the small gravestones, waiting for just the right moment to jump out and scare the crap out of us.”
Yes, sometime
s Rocco could be right. But Marcus was hiding for two, unless he had hidden the girl somewhere. The fact that there were no police sirens closing in on them, meant that even they didn’t have a clue where he was.
“It could be one of the larger gravestones, like that one with the angel over there,” said Rocco brightly. “Let’s hope he’s hiding behind one of those.”
“No,” said Juliana truthfully. “Let’s hope he’s beneath one of those.”
“Sis!” Rocco exclaimed. “You don’t mean that!”
“Don’t tell me you haven’t thought the same thing as me, Rock.”
With Rocco testing her with his bid to be heard, it could get all three of them killed. Marcus had already shown that his angelic face betrayed a fierce desire to kill, and she wasn’t convinced that Rocco had been made in the same way that Marcus believed he was.
“Rocco, open your mouth.”
“What?”
“Open. Wide. Now. I want to see what’s in there.”
“You know what’s in there.”
“Teeth. I know. But I’m looking for something else. Now show me.”
“No.”
“Pretend I’m Marcus, Rock. Play along.”
“I’m not playing. Not with you.”
Rocco’s childish voice unsettled her a lot. Yes, they were young, but they were old too.
At least, Juliana felt like she had been around a long time. She could not remember a time before things had been, as they had always been.
We are what we are.
This line bothered Juliana immensely. ‘What are we, then? We are just what we are at a point in time, right? So right now, that means we are trying to find this girl, and bring her home safely.’
And we do what we do.
Well that was simple. Stop Marcus doing what ever he was doing.
“Rocco, you know what we are doing here, right? We have to stop Marcus. We have to return that girl safely.”
For once, Rocco did not answer. Not straight away. Juliana was about to speak again, when finally, he responded.
“It’s like you believe it’s that simple. Stop Marcus, get the girl back, return her, no questions asked. Marcus has killed five cops, sis. Not to mention kidnapping a daughter of theirs. For our own part, we ran away from here like two kids who didn’t know better. The police look dimly on that sort of thing, Jooly. Whatever we do, we’re involved. We should be siding with Marcus, not against him.”
Juliana took a step back, then two more, before there was a reasonable distance between herself and her brother.
“He got to you, didn’t he? That’s why you won’t open your mouth.”
“Oh sis, it’s down to what you believe, isn’t it?”
“Did he get to you or not?” Juliana clenched her fists. It wasn’t beyond the realms of possibility for a girl to strike down a boy. She didn’t want to hurt Rocco. She didn’t want to hurt anybody. But right now, she found herself agreeing with Marcus about the whole we are what we are statement.
“You’ll have to come closer to see, won’t you?”
Juliana would not risk that. But something had changed since they had returned to the cemetery. Rocco had begun to talk in the authoritative tone that Marcus often used.
“You know where she is, don’t you?”
“I might.”
Now this was something Juliana could believe. Marcus and Rocco were very tight, much closer than Juliana was to either of them. It was clear that Marcus held Rocco under his control. Rocco had told her as much, even to the point of saying that he - Marcus, was frightened of his sister, because ‘she’s different to us, brother.’
Juliana would often sleep in a different part of the house, far away from her brothers. She would also sleep in a different way to her brothers. But to Juliana, it had always been this way. In her mind, it was her brothers who were the different ones.
Juliana finally decided to show them just how different they really were.
Where Angels are Made, not Born
Rocco had done a runner. Juliana was okay with that. She knew the cemetery well, and it would only be a matter of time before she found Rocco and her darling brother Marcus.
The cemetery, strewn with Autumnal leaves tempered red, gold and brown, had an oddly calming effect on her, and as she walked slowly, but purposely, she wondered how long Marcus and Rocco could outrun her. After all, they had treated her pretty badly for someone who was different, which wasn’t fair. It just wasn’t fair.
Hadn’t she treated them the same? She simply did not agree with Marcus’ methods, and had told him so on many occasions. ‘There has to be a new way of doing things,’ she had told them one time. Marcus had simply chosen to ignore what she had said.
‘The old ways are dead,’ she had told Marcus. Again, she had been ignored. Sometimes, you tell people something, they will listen to you. On other occasions, a simple tap on the shoulder, a word in their ear, will suffice.
For others, like Marcus, a mallet would have to be smashed squarely in his face. Then again, his preferred exit from this Earth would be via the vampire’s bite.
Okay, so Rocco had made his choice and had sided with his brother. Juliana looked to the sky as she heard the screech of the bats. Three bats, flying in close formation to each other, and then….she realised they were not bats at all, much less the true thought in her head; that they were vampire bats.
Seagulls. Completely harmless.
“Rocco?” Juliana called out in various directions. “I’m not mad at you for running off. But it won’t help you to side with Marcus just now.”
Another screech in the sky. Clouds filled the expanse, covering the later afternoon hue in darkness. Juliana had to find the girl. She had to know she was safe. Marcus wouldn’t understand. He constantly called his sister an interfering meddler, it has to be said that was one of his kinder names for her.
“Marcus! Let the girl go! The old ways are dead. Whatever you think you are, you’re not. Please, let her go.”
Juliana heard the sounds escape from her mouth. She did not like the sound of her voice. If the dead had ears to listen with, those that lay around her would say that she sounded like she was pleading. People like Juliana did not plead.
Juliana could hear a clinking sound. At first, it sounded like a glass bottle rolling down the tarmac, only for her to realise what it really was.
The cemetery was closing for the day, and the clinking sound was emitted from the gates being locked down.
“Noooo!” cried Juliana. She began to run in the direction of the gates, but this was a big cemetery, in which it didn’t seem to have a centre of any kind. As the seconds passed, the darkness in the sky deepened. Soon, Juliana would only have the moonlight to show the way in front of her.
The cemetery staff could let her out, anyway. She wouldn’t be locked inside. Oh, how she hated to be locked inside. Cemetery, wardrobe, coffin. It didn’t matter; she disliked them all in equal measure.
The darkness closed in. Actually, Juliana responded much like a cat in these circumstances, with her eyesight getting keener and sharper, the more the light left the sky.
She came to a full stop, on the brow of a hill; with so many, so many graves surrounding her. But yes – she could make out the cemetery gates. There were three exits to this cemetery, and though it looked like it was closed already, a light was lit in the cemetery office.
On inspection, she could see clearly that the gates were locked. There was no way out. There had been some commotion in the office, so she ran towards it.
“Hello? Hello?”
Juliana did all she could to avoid her voice becoming a shrill.
The office, which had been lit up, exploded into darkness as one after one, the light bulbs shattered.
“Heeellllllo?” The voice was now a shrill.
A light came on, with an object obscuring it. A human male, hanging from the wire, gargling his last. His feet tremored for a few moments, then stopped.
�
��Rocco? ROCCO! Tell me you didn’t do that!” screamed Juliana. “Is Marcus with you? Is he?”
No answer.
“Answer me! Roc-”
Juliana turned around into something that felt like her face had bounced off a mountain. She felt fuzzy for a second, saw the room move with the now deceased man seeming to swing on the noose, as she fell to the floor.
Three Tales of Vampires (The First Three Books in the Tale of Vampires Series) Page 4