Dark Night

by Stefany Rattles

  “And I don’t want anything to do with you, I don’t want anything to do with any of you. The sooner you understand that the better.” I said walking away. She didn’t dare stop me, and I didn’t glance back but as I was leaving I heard her say “Good.” and then Robert stood in front of the door, blocking it.

  “No. Genevieve that’s where you’re wrong,” He said to her. “You do not run things around here. As much as you would like to, but see I have been speaking to your parents since they arrived and… well, I don't think the bond between Mia and I is going to be a problem anymore, in fact they said we could work it out.” He smiled at me.

  When I looked at Genevieve she was speechless, and she also looked like she was about to cry. “But, that’s not what Illyanne said….” She whined.

  “What does she know?” He laughed darkly. “But don’t worry, you can fill her in if you’d like.” He opened the door and motioned for me to go first. We walked in silence for a few minutes when I noticed where he was leading me.

  “I can’t,” I told him, looking away from Illyanne’s office. “Not yet.”

  He nodded. “But you need to think about it, and fast before the entire school knows they are back. Trust me you are going to want to know as much as you can about them. Before… you are seen in public again.” He sighed.

  “Fine, I’ll think about it.” I promised, only because of the new information that I had just learned. We were now walking towards our room. “So, tell me… is it true? What you told her?” I was confused about everything going on with Robert. First hot then cold then hot again then cold again, he was giving me whiplash.

  “Yes.” He said simply.

  We walked past a few staring students but we ignored the stares until we reached our room. “Is that why you said: not everything is what it seems to be,” I tried to say, what he had earlier. He knew what I was talking about.

  “Yes.” He said again. Not explaining a damn thing which really ticked me off. I stood at the foot of his bed looking, glaring at him. He had sat down and was now trying to watch the TV, but I blocked his view and he rolled his eyes. “Look, I wanted your parents to tell you. Not me. I already said too much. Why don’t you wait until you talk to them?” He stood up and walked over to me, after he saw that I wasn’t going to be satisfied with that. “Mia, I want you to know once and for all that I don't want anything with you or your sister. Okay? If we stayed out of each other’s way from now on, we should be fine. And when the time comes to deal with this… bond, then we will. For now, we all need to back off each other. Nothing personal, but your parents are giving us a break. We don’t want to give them any reason to re-think this, and punish us. Then we would really be screwed.” He said it as careless as ever. As if there was nothing between us. But there was, I knew that. I also knew there was something else he was not saying, and he wasn’t going to say no matter what I did. I shook my head, and walked out of the room to get some fresh air.

  CHAPTER 22

  After seeing that Mereily hadn’t changed, and her condition was getting worse I was not prepared for what was going to happen next. I had decided to take Robert’s advice and talk to… my parents. Maybe then I could finally get some answers. I was outside Illyanne’s office, where I found the same guards that had been there the day before. They greeted me, and opened the door so I would go in. Only I was having second thoughts, but I took a deep breath anyway and walked in slowly.

  My mother was sitting on the desk writing something, when she looked up. My father was not in the room. “Mia.” She said as she stood up and walked towards me. I held my breath, but then when she hugged me It was warm, welcoming, and she was crying. Blood.. She took out a tissue and wiped her eyes fast. But it was too late I had drips of blood on my sweater. When she hugged me again, I hugged her back then I felt a knot in my throat. It was my mom. She took a step back and then led me to the sofa. “I have so much to tell you.” She said wiping her red eyes. “You have to know, we never told Julissa to lie to you. We told her not tell you where we were. But at least to tell you, we were coming back. Though, those months turned into years. Oh Mia, I am so sorry.” She cried. “Our intentions were never to leave you. It was hard, trust me it was the hardest thing we have ever done. But we didn’t have a choice. You have to believe us, please?” I just wanted her to stop crying, because now tears were coming down my face. But for some reason what she was telling me sounded logical. I didn’t know what to think, but I was starting to believe her.

  “Then tell me, why Genevieve? Why did you take her with you and not me?” I had the right to know the truth.

  “I knew I would have to be the one to tell you. But I’ll tell you. You two are… twins. When you were born, she was taken from me. They had injected her with the V2 as a baby. When she was returned to us, we knew she was not normal. Then, we were summoned by the King and Queen Albaros. At the time, no one knew of the existence of vampires. They told us the only way she would live was if they took her in, and raised her as one of their own. But we could not allow that, and they were too… old. Then, we proposed to take their place, and we could keep our daughter. So after training and years of learning the ways of the vampire, we became them, the problem was that we could not keep you as human among us. And it was far too dangerous to turn you then, not only that your father would not allow it. When you were born, you were under weight and very fragile. Genevieve was the strong one, that’s why they infected her. Not you though, until now. We were only trying to keep you safe, until we came out in the open, and finally we could reunite. That’s the whole truth.” She sighed. And hoped that I could understand, but there were some things that just didn’t add up.

  “What do you mean, we’re twins? That’s impossible. She’s like twelve, and I’m eighteen.” I said exhausted.

  She was shaking her head slowly. “No. Actually, you’re both seventeen. See, since she was injected with the V2 as a baby she looks younger than she really is. You however, aged pretty well, until now of course.” She shrugged.

  I was in denial, it was just way too much to take in. “But we don’t even look alike, look at us we fight like cats and dogs and we‘re completely different people.” No kidding. “And what do you mean we’re seventeen?” I was eighteen!

  “Not exactly, both of you are really hot tempered. And you are not identical twins either, but you are twins nonetheless. Even if you fight now, I know you will work out your issues.” I could see how she didn’t really believe what she was saying herself but she tried. “Well, the thing is … we had to change a few things, that way no one other than Julissa and us knew that you were my daughter. You have to understand that the position we are in is wanted. We do have plenty of enemies as you might have heard… and that was why you had been lied to, for your safety. I see now why Julissa had said… what she said. It was not exactly the right thing to do, but it was smart.” She said looking up at me from her hands.

  “I don’t know. This is… crazy.” I said standing up. She looked up at me. Her face was flawless. She too looked like she hadn’t aged in years. She was wearing a very chic dress that came right to her knees. It was a gold color which brought her eyes out and her hair had been put up in a loose ponytail and she wore sparkling jewelry that I would definitely wear.

  “How old were you when you turned?” I asked a little shy.

  But she just smiled, “Twenty four.”

  “You still look it.” I admitted. Although she had just told me about enough to keep me busy for a while. I still wanted to know more, the details. Though, I didn’t think I could handle much more today. So I let it go. “Give me some time. I have a lot I need to think about.” I gave her a brief hug.

  “Take your time.” She said before she walked me out the door. But before I turned to leave she called. “Mia. You should speak with your father. He will be here tonight, if you want to stop by.” She patted my back.

  I nodded.

  …..Genevieve was looking at herself in the mirro
r. I saw her reflection off. The opposite mirror in the school bathroom, she wasn’t paying attention to me, she was in her own little world. Looking at her, this time was different. I didn’t only see the spoil-ness, and the stuck-up-ness but I saw the resemblance between her and me. How we both looked like our parents. Her hair was as straight and long as mine, except blonde almost white. Like our fathers‘. Her little face like a child’s, but her green eyes like our mothers and her petite body was like a mature teenagers though she would never have the curves like me or our mothers‘. But she was still a beautiful little princess, if you took away the attitude and replaced it with a nicer one. Still, I couldn’t help thinking that we could never be friends, we were complete opposites. Add to that the fact that she wanted Robert who after all is hers anyway, so there was just no way in hell we were going to hang out. Like Ever.

  When she caught me looking at her, she turned around and walked up to me. “Now, tell me what the hell are you looking at?” She glared.

  I only smiled and looked away. “Nothing important,” I wasn’t going to start anything else with her, I didn’t have the time or energy to waste.

  “Whatever. So, what the hell are you still doing here?” She looked me up and down. And when I didn’t answer she continued. “It doesn’t matter if you stay, because I own this place. You and I are in a totally different level here, they are my parents not yours, no matter what anyone else says.” And here we go again, I thought to myself.

  “Sure. I don’t like this at all either but we have to learn how to live like this… even if we don’t want too.” I lied because I knew damn well that she wasn’t about to back down and just leave me alone but a girl had to try.

  “O-kay, you freak.” She was not expecting that, like I had thought. Like Bonnie used to say “Kill them with kindness”. She grabbed her little purse and walked out giving me a “you’re crazy” look. But I didn’t care instead I looked at myself in the mirror, and wondered if I was after all crazy for staying here.

  ….. At my lunch table, Delilah, Anna, Sophie and their’ boyfriends were eyeing me funny. So I spoke up. “You guys don’t have to look at me like that. I’m not going to eat you.” I rolled my eyes, to show that I was rather irritated by their silence. For not telling me that the King and Queen were actually my parents when they knew all along, actually come to think of it the whole institute knew.

  “We’re sorry…”

  “We just couldn’t tell you…”

  “We were under oath…”

  I held my hand up to stop them all from talking at the same time, and when they did, I said: “I know. That’s why I’m not mad. But still, I can’t believe that everyone knew. Everyone, I think what surprises me the most is how no one snitched.” Their faces fell. “What?” I asked not knowing what they were freaked out about.

  Delilah spoke. “You have no idea what happens when you break an oath. And you don’t want to know. We don’t even know all we do know is that is terrible, that would be enough to scare us all to death.” I gulped when she said that. So I didn’t press the subject.

  “So how much do you know?” Anna asked looking at her food.

  “Everything… I think.” I hoped. “Genevieve being my twin sister__”

  They gasped in surprise. “She’s your what?” Sophie’s eyes went wide.

  I didn’t understand their surprise. “I thought you knew that.”

  “We knew you were sisters not twin sisters.” Delilah agreed. The guys were just looking at each other not really comprehending any of the conversation so they just shrugged. Except Jack who was at the end of the table eyeing me.

  Anna laughed and laughed, until Delilah cleared her throat. “Sorry.” She said still laughing, “Out of all the things, I did not expect that. Wow.”

  “B-But you guys don’t even look alike? How is that even possible?” Sophie was clearly the only one that actually saw what I did when I first found out.

  “It’s a long story.” I simply said because I wasn’t ready to talk about it at all. Though I could see how Sophie wasn’t satisfied with that. I ignored her and turned to Delilah. “What do you think?”

  She shrugged. “I think, it all makes sense in a very bizarre way, but I am not that surprised.” Whatever that meant...

  I saw Robert standing by the door, where he waved… at me…to go to him? I looked behind me, but the other students were not even paying attention.

  “I’ll catch up with you guys later. I have to take care of something.” I said fast as I got up to leave.

  “You want me to go with you?” Sophie offered. But before I could answer Delilah spoke.

  “No hon, you’re coming with me, I need you to help me with something.” Then before I could turn to leave Delilah winked at me quickly and went back to her conversation.

  I walked towards Robert ignoring the stares of the other students. Once I reached him he grabbed my wrist -which made me feel fuzzy when he touched me-and pulled me outside the Cafeteria. “I need to talk to you…about the bond of course.” He added, releasing my wrist.

  “Okay.” I said looking ahead.

  “Follow me.” He said, but this time not touching me at all. We walked to the auditorium.

  CHAPTER 23

  We were in his old room, behind the stage in the auditorium. It all looked dusty and it smelled funny, it lacked cleaning. I sat on the corner of the bed, while Robert sat in a chair across from me. He hadn’t said a word yet, he was just looking down at his shoes that by the way were nice, they were black dress shoes that were shiny new and I bet were worth a lot just like everything else in the institute was. He cleared his throat and looked at his hands before he spoke.

  “Your father asked me to speak with you. They’ll be having a ceremony tonight for their return. He will not be able to speak with you yet, but he told me to fill you in on the ceremony.” He paused for a minute and looked at me briefly to make sure I understood, so I nodded and he went back to looking at his hands. “Basically it will be in the auditorium at seven pm., your dress is already in your new dorm along with the rest of your belongings. Since you are also a princess, it is required you wear it.” He took out a folded piece of paper and handed it to me. “Those are the directions to what you need to do once you are ready, don’t be scared it isn’t anything that will embarrass you at all. Just make sure you’re ready by six thirty. I will be escorting you…” He trailed off not wanting to finish the sentence.

  I didn’t ask, but what I was thinking about, was about what he had just said. “What do you mean new dorm?” I asked irritated, if it was what I thought it was, then he was about to hear it.

  “It’s not what you think, the royal wing has been opened and only “the royals” will be occupying the wing. You are one of them, and I am one also. Don’t look at me like that.” He said looking at me glare at him, till what he said sank in.

  I sighed. “I heard about that, I thought it was locked down though?” I asked unsure.

  “It used to be, yes. But It was ordered to be unlocked again, and now it’s ready for its new members__”

  “Why did they close it to begin with?” I had heard that “the royals” wing had been closed a little over a year ago, but no one had told me what the reason was. I never pressed the subject, at the time it didn’t matter but since I was going to be moving into it I wanted to know what the big deal was.

  Robert didn’t answer right away. He stood up and walked to the door. “I think you should ask Anna, it’s not something I should talk about.”

  “O-kay,” I said as I followed him out of the room. “I thought we were going to talk about the bond thing?”

  “Oh It’s still unbreakable, and being in different rooms… will help. Maryse thinks that… we should, you know…. get together and talk about this… for the future.” He was clearly having a hard time talking about this, and I didn’t feel all that comfortable with my parents yet.

  So I hesitated, thought about what I was going to say for
a minute. “Tell me, what are you so afraid of? I mean I get it, you and I are never going to work right?” He doesn’t answer right away, but I know what he’ll say anyway.

  Sigh, “Yes, you are absolutely right, but I also know that if we don’t do something about this… something bad will happen. I read all about it, I’ll give you the notes I took and… you can tell me your thoughts. Maybe then, we could speak with your parents about this?”

  “Agreed,” He nods, and I continue. “So we don’t get to be roommates? Where is “the royal wing” anyway?” I wanted to know all of these things, for one I had not come across this wing since I lived here. I was also hoping that Robert and I were still roommates. But judging on the look on his face and by what he said earlier, that wasn’t going to happen.

  We walked down the spiral stairs in silence, until we were almost out the auditorium. “No. We don’t get to be roommates again.” He paused. “We don’t actually get roommates… it’s like a private suite. I can’t believe what I’m going to say…” We stood right at the door, and he whispered. “We have a secret society here called “Immortals”, and you are about to join them. For now that’s about all I can say, oh and “ the royal wing” it’s actually Crimson House where only the best of the best go, but it adopted the nickname “ the royal wing” because only royals are allowed to live there. … Anna will explain these things to you if you meet her in her room in about__” He checked his watch. “Five minutes, and don’t worry about your classes, you’re excused for the rest of the day.” He smiled at me and quickly led me through the door. He patted my back and walked away, I sighed. If only he knew how much I cared about him, he wouldn’t act the way he did. But he couldn’t know, because we couldn’t be together.

  I knocked on Anna’s door and she opened before I could knock again. “I’ve been expecting you.” She said as I walked to the center of the room. “You should sit.” I did as she said. I noticed that her room looked empty. The only thing remaining was a couple of suitcases that were on her bed. “What I’m about to tell you, is something that only very few people know at this place, and I need to tell you for… personal reasons.” She winked, and I knew what she was talking about the Immortals.