by Amy Cross
“Abby,” I reply, “you can't -”
“There isn't much time.” She gets to her feet just as the whole plateau starts shaking. “I can't let this thing live, I have to do whatever it takes to stop their plan.”
She starts stumbling away, before stopping and picking up a shard of rock with a sharp, knife-like edge.
“This'll do,” she mutters.
“No!” I shout, stepping closer. “Abby, you -”
Before I can say another word, she grabs my shoulders and throws me into the remains of an old wall. Wincing with pain as I feel several bones fracturing in my back, I nevertheless force myself up just in time to see Abby limping over toward the center of the burning plateau, holding the piece of rock against her belly as if she's about to cut the demon child out.
“Abby!” I shout, limping toward her. “Stop!”
“That was the dark side of me!” she calls out. “If you come closer, she'll do it again! I can't control her!”
“You can't do this!” I tell her. “Abby, there are other ways!”
Ignoring me, she starts pressing the sliver of rock against her belly.
“Abby!” Racing toward her, I feel the ground rumbling beneath my feet.
“It's the only way!” she shouts, squeezing her eyes tight shut as she starts cutting into herself. “I can't let this thing survive! Even if I have to die too, I can't -”
I try to cry out, but it's too late. One entire side of the plateau suddenly breaks free, crashing down into the valley below. As the ground drops beneath my feet, I desperately lunge forward and try to grab hold of something that I can use to steady myself, but I have no chance. Instead, I simply plunge with the rest of the debris, screaming as I fall hundreds of meters. At the same time, the rest of the plateau is also collapsing as the entire mountain comes crashing down, and when I land at the bottom of the valley I barely have time to wince with pain before huge chunks of rock and rubble slam down on top of me. The last thing I hear is my own voice calling Abby's name, and then an entire mountain buries me alive.
Everything goes black.
***
I don't know how long I spend digging myself out once I regain consciousness. One week, maybe two. Eventually I emerge from beneath the huge pile of rubble, and I immediately start my search for Abby. I call her name, of course, but I don't really expect her to answer. It's just a way to keep my hope alive as I scramble across the debris, digging in certain places even though I have no idea where, exactly, her body might have fallen.
After a month of searching, still ravaged and exhausted, I start to wonder whether I'm too late, whether she might really be gone. The prophecy always said that she'd die at Karakh, and she swore that there was no way to break that prophecy. I stop for a moment, trying to work out what I should do next, before reminding myself that this isn't the first time I've been tempted to give up on Abby. With renewed determination, I start sorting through the wreckage once again, convinced that I'll eventually find some sign of her. Hell, even if I have to dig through the remains of an entire mountain, I will find my sister. Whether she's alive or dead, I will see her face one more time.
I won't leave her alone again. Maybe I can't save her, maybe I'll just end up burying her body, but I will find her.
Jonathan
Three years later
The lights at the end of the street are still faulty, even after all this time. The red stop light just keeps blinking in the cold night air, but everyone in the neighborhood learned long ago to ignore the signals and make their own way.
Just as I reach the junction, I realize I can hear the voices of some teenaged girls nearby. My first thought is that they shouldn't be out this late, not so close to midnight, but then I realize that I actually recognize one of the voices. I tell myself I must be wrong, but sure enough I soon see the girls spilling out of a late-night diner and my daughter Maisie is one of them, laughing and joking with her friends.
Friends.
Maisie has friends.
My socially awkward, painfully shy daughter has friends.
In the year since I last saw her, she's grown so much. She looks less like a kid now and more like a woman, more like her mother in fact, although I definitely disapprove of that skirt that stops above her knees. Still, I guess I have no right to criticize, so I just watch as the gaggle of girls heads this way. My first instinct is to turn away, to hurry off into the night and abandon my plan to see Maisie again, but somehow I don't move fast enough and instead I just stand at the junction, watching as they approach and wondering whether my daughter will even recognize me.
As they pass, Maisie happens to glance toward me, but then she looks away.
And then she stops a few meters further on, as if her mind can't quite process what she just saw.
Slowly she turns and looks at me.
“Maisie!” one of the other girls calls out. “You coming?”
She stares at me for a moment, before turning to her friends. “I'll catch up!”
They carry on, while Maisie steps toward me. The expression in her eyes is almost completely blank, at least at first, but finally I see just the faintest hint of tears. Just as I'm about to ask if she's okay, she runs toward me and puts her arms around me, enveloping me in the strongest hug I've ever felt in my life.
***
“I thought you hated me,” she says a short while later, as we sit with milkshakes in the diner. “After all those horrible things I said the last time I saw you, about you being a coward, I thought you'd just gone away and you weren't ever coming back.”
“I could never hate you,” I reply, shocked that she'd even consider such a thing. “Everything you said to me that night was true.”
She shakes her head. “I was a bitch. I had no right calling you those names.”
I look down at my glass for a moment. After spending so long searching desperately for Abby in the ruins of Karakh, it feels so strange to be back among other people again. I swear, I picked up every rock from that fallen mountain, but still I never found my sister's body.
“Do you wanna see something cool?” Maisie asks cautiously.
I turn to her and force a weary smile. “I would love to see something cool.”
She opens her mouth wide and pulls her lips back on one side, revealing a small but growing vampire fang. Proudly, she takes another sip of her milkshake, before leaning back with the biggest grin I've ever seen.
“Maisie,” I stammer, “you -”
“Michael's showing no signs yet,” she tells me, “but it looks like I've definitely got the genes. I guess I'll be following in the family business, huh?”
“It's not quite like that.”
“It's totally like that. I've gotta admit, though, it'll be much easier with you around. Mom's been trying her best, but she's way out of her depth, what with being a human and all.” She stares at me for a moment, with a hint of fear in her eyes. “So what happened to my aunt? You said you went back to find Abby.”
I nod.
“Did you find her?”
I pause, before nodding again.
“And did you manage to save her?”
Another pause.
“No,” I say finally, feeling a heavy sense of loss in my chest. “No, I didn't. The last time I saw her...”
For a moment, my mind's eye is filled with the memory of Abby screaming as she started to dig the rock into her belly. I don't even know if I'm remembering it properly, but I swear I saw blood flowing out as she cut the child from her body. And then the plateau and the mountain collapsed and I fell, and after that I was never able to find her.
“It's a long story,” I continue finally, “but the prophecy shook out exactly the way your aunt said it would. She always knew she'd die at Karakh, and that's what happened.”
Maisie stares at me for a moment, and it's clear that this isn't the answer she wanted. “Was she a hero?”
I nod.
“So she died saving others?”
> “She died saving the universe from an unimaginable horror that had been planted inside her body,” I tell her. “I always thought she was exaggerating when she said that fate was un-bendable, but I guess she was right all along. Her father... Our father... Your grandfather, Patrick, learned that the hard way, and so did Abby.”
“So do you have a fate like that?” she asks. “Is there some book somewhere that says how you'll die?”
I shake my head. “Not that I know of, anyway.”
“And what about me?”
“Not you either.”
She pauses, before taking another sip from her milkshake. “Cool. But... I mean, isn't there a chance that my aunt's still alive?”
“I searched for her,” I reply. “If she'd made it out of there, if she'd been alive under the rubble, I would have known. I found Emilia's body and gave her a proper burial, but I guess Abby's was just too deep. I'll tell you the whole story some time, but the short version is that a race of ancient demons made one final attempt to return, and Abby stopped them. I don't suppose many people will ever even hear her name, but there's not a living soul in all of existence who shouldn't give thanks for what Abby did, and for her sacrifice. She wasn't the only one, either. A lot of people died along the way.”
Reaching across the table, Maisie takes my hands in hers. “But not you, Dad. I was scared I'd never see you again.” There are tears in her eyes now. “Mom said I should come to terms with it, but I knew you'd return. I don't know how, it's just, like, deep down in my heart I still clung to the hope that one day you'd turn up.”
“I'm not going away again,” I tell her. “I can't undo everything, but I can make sure that I'm here from now on.”
“That's good,” she replies, “because I think I'm gonna need you. This whole being-a-vampire thing is kinda scary. I mean, I'm totally up for it and all, but I don't think it's gonna be so easy.”
Before I can reply, I spot movement over on the far side of the table. Turning, I see a small spider crawling along the edge, and I instinctively reach out to crush it with the menu before Maisie grabs my hand.
“Don't,” she tells me.
“Since when did you care about spiders?” I ask.
She watches as the spider makes its way past us. “It's alive,” she says finally. “Let it be. It's kinda cool, don't you think?”
Staring at her, I realize she has none of the instinctive hatred for spiders that plagued me, or that lived in Abby's heart. I guess maybe that's one thing that wasn't passed on to her generation.
“So,” she says finally, with a smile, “about this vampire thing. Can I turn into a bat?”
“I don't think so,” I tell her.
“So I can't fly?”
“Not really.”
“That sucks. I'm okay with sunlight, though?”
I nod.
“So I can go on spring break when I'm older?”
“We'll talk about that another time.”
“And is garlic cool? 'Cause I've gotta tell you, I love garlic bread.”
“I don't think garlic's a problem,” I tell her. “You've got a reflection, too. In fact, a lot of the stuff people say about vampires isn't true.”
“Is Dracula real? Or was he real?”
“Apparently he was very real,” I reply. “From what I've heard, he's mostly hanging around in Florida these days. Apparently he's a bit of a loner.”
“For real?” Her eyes widen with awe. “Okay Dad, seriously, I have got an absolutely massive list of questions for you!”
“Fire away,” I reply, as I signal the waitress for two more milkshakes. “I guess that's what I'm here for.”
Epilogue
Another year later
Outside, the wind-chime turns gently in a morning breeze.
After scrubbing the last stain from the plate, I take the old wooden washing bowl outside and pour the water away. My back hurts, but I'm used to that and besides, a little pain is a useful reminder of how things used to be. Life here at the cabin isn't so bad, provided I take care not to lift anything too heavy.
Heading around to the front porch, I set the bowl down and then pause to look out at the vast view. Hundreds of miles from even the nearest road, this cabin is just about the most remote spot I could find in the whole of America, and I don't even have to bother with a mailbox. Sure, there's one somewhere, rusting in the undergrowth with the name A. Hart scribbled on the side, but that was mostly a formality. As far as the world is concerned, Abby Hart has been dead since that night at Karakh, and I think things are better that way.
Besides, I don't think I could face anyone again, not even my brother.
Not after what I did.
“Mommy!” a voice calls out suddenly. “Mommy, look!”
Turning, I see Elly running through the tall grass, on her way back from the river. She's holding something in her hands, and as she stops next to me I can see the excitement in her eyes. Holding her hands out, she slowly parts them to reveal a fat frog resting on her palms.
“What is it, Mommy?” she asks.
“It's just a frog,” I tell her. “Remember I taught you about them just a few weeks ago?”
“Oh,” she replies with a frown, “yeah. I think so.”
“You need to pay more attention during lessons,” I reply, ruffling the hair on top of her head as the frog leaps away to safety. “I think maybe you're old enough for a few tests now and again.”
“Can I go back to the river?” she asks. “Please, Mommy, can I play a little more before we start studying?”
“Sure,” I tell her, “but first...”
Kneeling in front of her, I look into her eyes. She's still so young, too young for her expression to be filled with anything other than childish wonder, but I can't help searching her gaze sometimes in case I spot something else, something that hints at a darker side to her soul. After all, she wasn't exactly conceived in natural circumstances, and her father was a vengeful demon. Sometimes I think back to the moment when I began to cut her out of my belly, and then to the moment when I realized I couldn't go through with it. When the plateau collapsed beneath me, I thought I'd die anyway, but somehow I survived. Somehow we survived, and I brought her here, far away from the rest of the world. I guess I managed to do the one thing my father couldn't. I beat a prophecy.
If Elly turns out one day to be evil, to be the horrific thirteenth demon that Damos wanted, I'll have to decide what to do. For now, my only hope is to raise her as well as I can, far from the rest of the world, and hope that her demon side remains completely suppressed.
“Mommy,” she says after a moment, “why are you looking at me like that?”
“Like what?”
“Like...” She stares into my eyes. “Like you're scared of me.”
“I'm not scared of you,” I tell her.
“Do you promise?”
I nod. “Of course I promise.” I pause for a moment, telling myself that I'm just overreacting, but I guess it's wise to be cautious given the circumstances. “Elly,” I continue, “do you ever had dark thoughts? Like, bad thoughts that you don't want to admit?”
She shakes her head.
“Nothing at all?”
Another shake. “Can I go play by the river now, Mommy?”
I pause, before leaning closer and kissing her forehead. “Of course. Just promise not to terrorize any more frogs.”
“I promise.”
“And come back after an hour! We have math class!”
“I promise!”
As she turns and runs back through the long grass, I grab the bowl and head into the cabin. There's a part of me that panics every time Elly is out of sight, but at the same time I know I can't watch over her the whole time. If the demon side of her soul starts to break through, I have no idea what I'll do, but I figure there's always a chance that she'll grow up to be a happy, healthy girl. I'll just take things one day at a time. No more worrying about the past or fearing the future. Today is all that ma
tters.
“Mommy!” she shouts suddenly from outside.
“It's okay,” I call back to her. “I'm right here.”
“There's a man!”
As soon as I hear those words, I freeze. Heading to the window, I can just about see Elly in the distance, with her back to me, and a moment later I spot movement further ahead, as if someone's coming toward the cabin.
“Get back here!” I shout, hurrying outside as my heart starts pounding. “Elly, come here right now!”
She turns and runs toward me. “Mommy, you said no-one would ever -”
“Go inside.”
“But Mommy -”
“Go inside!” I shout, grabbing her by the arm and pushing her into the cabin before slamming the door shut. I know I shouldn't be so abrupt with her, but at the same time I'm filled with panic as I turn and see that the figure is getting closer.
I never told anyone where to find me. I worked so, so hard to find a place where I can raise Elly without being interrupted. Why does the world have to come and bother me again? Even my own brother thinks I'm dead, although I've often thought that maybe he can somehow sense that I survived. As fear spreads through my chest, I step forward, ready for whoever the hell this newcomer might be. If It's Jonathan, I'll just send him packing right away, and it it's someone who's come for Elly... Well, I might be a little rusty but I still remember how to put up a fight, and I don't think there's anyone in the world who can get past me if my daughter's life is at stake.
“Stop!” I shout. “You have no business here! This is private land!”
As the figure limps closer he removes his hat, and finally I see his face. He looks to be a little older than me, and he has a several scars running down his cheek and onto his neck, but as soon as I see his eyes I realize that I recognize him. Still, it takes a moment longer before I can believe it's really true, and finally the man stops just a few feet away, with a faint smile on his face.