Mathias rolled his eyes. Not one bit of that was important to him. He wanted things to be back to normal. The best he could do was try to convince Vlad to chill out. “Maybe I finally have someone I can whine to? Besides, you don’t need to worry about me; I can take care of myself.”
“And that is exactly what I am afraid of.”
Mathias glared. Apparently, nothing mattered but what Vlad wanted. “Why is it when I talk to you, it seems like nothing I ever say makes a difference? What good am I doing just sitting here? I need to get out of this place. I need to see the sun!”
Vlad moved his hands into his lap. “Mathias, you do not know everything you need to survive right now. For your own safety, I have to insist that you stay here, within my chambers, unless accompanied by myself or Nosferatu.” Vlad got up from the table and left.
Mathias heard the click of the lock. He couldn’t believe it. It was like the old vampire just glossed over everything he had to say. Not a bit of it mattered. He stood up from the table. Fine. He threw the table across the room where it shattered against Vlad’s desk. Papers and bits of wood went everywhere.
“Good.” He walked to his room and slammed the door behind him.
There was a part of him that wanted to smash everything that wasn’t nailed down. If they wanted him to act like an animal, he could. But, if he destroyed his bed, who could say if they would fix it. Having a bed to sleep on was a lot better than the floor. Plus, if he did completely trash everything, he knew that his mind wouldn’t leave him alone. He’d feel guilty that he couldn’t repay his keeper for the damage.
It wasn’t like he could “blink” things back like Nosferatu. And he doubted that Nosferatu would believe that a ghost cat came in and wrecked the place. At times, he really wished that he could sever the ties with the way things were on the street, but what he did on the street was what had kept him alive. What he wanted was his old life back, and it couldn’t be done.
Back when he lived at home with his parents, Mathias thought that vampires were amazing magical creatures who could do anything. They’d bought him as many books about vampires as he could read. But the books were wrong. The only thing that vampires were good for was being historians.
He sat down on the bed and tossed his dirty clothing to the floor. He just didn’t care anymore. When he’d been on the street, he would have killed for good clothes, but a fancy prison was still a prison.
His old clothes were neatly folded in the dresser. They might be full of holes, but at least they belonged to him. He felt like himself in those clothes. The fancy things were bindings to keep him where they wanted him to be.
He fought the tears forming in his eyes and pushed them back. Crying was stupid and pointless. It wouldn’t solve anything. He just wished he could have saved his parents somehow, told them not to go out. Something. They all could have watched a movie at home. But, he’d been more concerned with having the house to himself and being alone. At the time, being alone was fun and exciting. Now that he was alone, he knew it sucked.
“Guess I got what I wished for,” he mumbled. He sat in his bed and leaned his back against the pillows. It was going to be a long night.
* * * * *
Vlad unlocked the door and entered his chambers. The first thing he saw was the obliterated table. He blinked it back the way it was supposed to be, and gathered all of the papers from the floor. He looked around. Nothing else was out of place, but something still felt off. Then, he heard something that sounded like pounding.
“What is that?” He angled his ears towards the sound. It was coming from Mathias’ room.
Vlad walked over to Mathias’ door and knocked lightly. The boy must not have heard because he did not respond. Vlad knocked again, and when he did not get a response, he opened the door. Mathias was sitting in his bed banging his head against the wall.
“Mathias,” Vlad said, trying to get his attention. The pounding continued.
Vlad stepped lightly over the carpet, stood near the bed, and placed his hand in between the wall and Mathias’ head. ”Stop this.”
Mathias raised up and blinked at him. “Stop what?”
“This, whatever it is you are doing to yourself.”
“Just leave me alone.”
Vlad stepped away from the bed and sat down in an overstuffed chair next to the bed. “I believe it is time that you calmed down. Hurting yourself is not going to solve anything,” Vlad said.
Mathias shook his head. “Just leave me alone. I need to do this.”
“You need to repeatedly pound your head against the wall?” Vlad asked.
“Damnit. Don’t you get it,” Mathias said. “If I hadn’t been so fucking selfish, then maybe I wouldn’t be here.”
Vlad stared at Mathias. “It was an accident, Mathias. Nothing more.”
“How do you even know that?”
Vlad sighed. “Because you aren’t blocking. You always forget to block.”
Mathias took closed his eyes. “This is so pathetic.”
“No, Mathias. Not pathetic. You are a survivor, and sometimes, the stress and pain just becomes something that is so overwhelming that instead of harming someone else, you begin to harm yourself.”
“That’s weird.” Mathias sat up on the side of the bed and slouched.
“Come. You need some time out of these rooms.”
* * * * *
Mathias didn’t argue. Even though he was getting what he’d asked for, it somehow didn’t seem worth it anymore. No sense in bringing that up now. Vlad seemed to be trying, and Mathias knew better than to refuse a bone when offered. He followed Tepes down a myriad of hallways and outside the castle walls. The air already had a bite to it.
“Isn’t it a little early to be this cold?” Mathias asked.
Vlad took a deep breath. The air was cold and Mathias could see the air billowing forth from Vlad’s nose.
“We are in Siberia, Mathias. Although it is only October, winter comes quickly this far north,” Vlad said.
Mathias took a moment to look at the surroundings. Unlike the last time he’d been out, the flowers were gone. What was left was brown and dead. But, they’d gone beyond the central garden. This was the first time he’d been beyond the walls of the castle completely. H was surprised that the castle was in the middle of a very large plateau. He could see for miles around, the peaks of the mountains were snow covered. It was desolate. And, it suited his mood. He didn’t feel very happy, so the fact that everything was dead felt right.
He walked to the edge of the plateau and stared out into the dark sea.
“Don’t even think about it,” Tepes said; the edges of his mouth twitching.
Mathias ignored him. If he’d been human, it would be so easy. But, if he killed himself, even if he was able to, what would have been the point to even leaving his aunt’s house. His time on the streets, Lucretia’s life would have been for nothing. He stepped away from the edge. “Come Mathias. I do not think that you wanted to get out here to just stare at the sea.”
Mathias nodded and followed the elder vampire through the grounds. Eventually, they came to a strange maze standing on a flat area with stands placed around it.
“What,” he pointed, “is that?”
Tepes laughed. “That, my dear boy, is our games-sized flying course.”
“Flying course?” Mathias had never seen anything like it.
“Come now, I know that Nosferatu told you the story of Mathias and how he was a Vampiric Games flyer.”
The course was huge, probably at least the size of four or five football fields. There were areas like small European villages, areas with forested placed complete with felled trees.
“Do the games still happen?” Mathias asked.
“Of course they do. They are one of the few things that vampires from around the world agree upon. Not that competing really means anything. You’ll find no endorsement deals, no money prizes. To win a medal in our games is about the acknowledgement of artist
ry. You’ll find, Mathias, that we are rather harsh critics. If “the” Mathias was awarded the gold medal, it means that he was the best flyer we had seen up to that point. Gold medals are rarely given in our games.”
“When did the last Games happen?” Mathias asked.
“Only twenty years ago.”
“Twenty years!”
“You forget. Time is different to us. Four years to the humans seems to be just enough time to train. For us, twenty five years is perfect. Four games per century,” Vlad said.
“Did you ever compete?”
“Absolutely not. Mathias always said I was far too clumsy.”
Mathias stifled a snort and followed “the klutz” back toward the castle.
* * * * *
Once inside Tepes’ rooms, Mathias threw himself down into the chair closest to the door and relaxed. It felt good to step away from everything. He could hear the students moving through the hallways, it was time to change classes again. The only way he knew the classes were changing was the barrage of footsteps suddenly throughout the castle. There was no bell or noise; it was almost as if they just knew when it was time to go.
“Mathias?” Tepes asked.
“Yeah?”
“I think that you are right about something.”
“Huh?” Mathias hated it when Tepes talked in riddles.
“I have been keeping you inside for far too long.”
Mathias was a bit surprised. Maybe the vampire had listened to him after all.
Tepes continued, “I think that I’ve been trying to protect you, but in doing so, I have made you feel trapped. I apologize for that.”
Mathias shrugged. “It’s okay.” Just cause he had a bit of a mental breakdown didn’t mean that he needed an apology.
Vlad walked around and rubbed his chin; thinking. “How do you feel about officially announcing yourself to our world?”
“I don’t know.” Mathias stared into his hands, trying to not think about it. Why couldn’t he just wander around with everyone else? Being announced? No, way.
“No,” Tepes raised his hand, “not like that. It’s just that many of the families wonder about you. I was thinking that we may have a sort of “family” event. Then they will see that there is no great mystery.”
Mathias tried not to roll his eyes. He hated “family” days at school when he had a family, and now that he didn’t, there just wasn’t any point to him attending one. It would be depressing, most likely. Not exactly fun times.
Tepes smiled. “You are not in as dire straits as you might think. There are many things that I have not told you yet.”
“You know,” Mathias said. “Sometimes you mess it all up. Just when I start to think about trusting you, you let me know that you are still keeping shit from me. What’s your problem?”
“Mathias, did it ever occur to you that I am giving you information gradually? I am trying to tell you without bogging you down with too much detail.”
Mathias grunted and went into his room, shutting the door behind him.
He supposed that he could handle having to go to the party if he had to, but truthfully, he found it kind of interesting that the families of kids he’d never met wanted to meet him. The families only wanted to meet him because he was the latest novelty. Not because they honestly wanted to meet him.
The truth was, that Vlad Tepes probably told them all that he’d found “Mathias”. And, now that they thought their king was back, they wanted to suck up. Too bad it was a stupid delusion. If only his mother had given him some normal name like Bob. There was no way in hell that anyone could take “Bob the vampire” seriously.
And, if he really was some lost king, how come he couldn’t reap the benefits from it. Like he’d had this stupid idea when he was on the street that one day he’d show up back at his aunt’s house all rich and famous. His cousins would bow down to him cause they wanted his money, and he could get his revenge on them by buying their house and kicking their asses out. But, he wasn’t a lost king. He was just a street kid with a goofy name.
What really kind of scared him was that apparently the Queen was one of the people that thought he was this old vampire from eons ago. If she was as crazy as Nosferatu’s book said she was, how well was all of this going to turn out? The bad part was that he didn’t even look like their idol if the statue was to be believed.
But if Vlad wanted a stupid party, Mathias would go to the stupid party. It was probably easier to just go than to try to convince him that he wasn’t “Mathias”. Maybe, if things didn’t go very well, he’d never be expected to go to another stupid party again.
* * * * *
That evening, as Mathias into bed, he began to plan. Leaving wasn’t a very good option. At least he wasn’t starving here. If he wanted to be truthful about it, when he’d last been on the streets, he’d been starving to death. So, while he was here, he might as well make the best of it. After all, so far no one had harmed him here.
But if he were to stay, he had to have some answers. First, he needed to figure out how to unobligate himself from Vlad the Impaler— not an easy task. And second, he wanted to track down the Queen and figure out if she really did believe he was “the Mathias”.
Hopefully, by the end of it all, he’d still be living. But to do everything he wanted to do, he first needed to survive the party and convince Tepes that he could be trusted around other people. But he knew it wouldn’t be easy if all the brats were like that blonde and his friend he’d met his first day. He still wondered if it had been the blond that was tormenting that kid outside his room.
“What the hell was his name?” Mathias tapped a finger against his leg. Crabby. Fuck-face... He laughed at “fuck-face”.
“No, it started with a ‘K’ sound. What the hell was it?” He thought some more. Then, suddenly, it popped into his head.
“Konstantin.”
Chapter Nine
October thirty-first, the night of the party. Mathias wiped his hands on his pants. He couldn’t stop them from sweating no matter what he did. He hated parties, mostly because he always had to pretend he was something he wasn’t, but this time it was worse. He was only going to this party because, supposedly, it would make the vampire world happy. And maybe, they would see that he was not who they thought him to be.
He stared and looked at himself in the mirror. The clothes were all right he guessed. He was wearing a black coat with a Mandarin-style collar, a black shirt, and black pants. When he’d opened his wardrobe the other day, the clothes had simply been inside it, waiting for him. It was almost as if there were vampiric underwear gnomes who gave you clothes instead of stealing them.
He adjusted his back. His wings fell around him gently.
There was a knock at the door.
“Who is it?” he asked.
“Do you need any help, Mathias?” Tepes asked.
“I dunno. You can come in if you want.”
Tepes walked into the room and smiled at Mathias in the mirror. “You’ll do very nicely I think.”
“What do you mean?”
“You clean up very well, Mathias.”
Mathias coughed and blushed. “Umm. Thanks I think.”
“Now come, Mathias. It is almost time for the festivities to begin.”
His feet would not move. His body began to sweat and he felt sick to his stomach. “I... I don’t feel so good.”
“Mathias, stop being so ridiculous. I will be there. Nosferatu will be there. We will not let anything happen to you.”
Mathias took a deep breath. After several minutes, he nodded at Tepes and followed the older vampire out the door.
* * * * *
Tepes led Mathias down a stairway he’d never seen before. It was lighted with old fashioned torches that were burning softly and filling the stairwell with a warm glow. He could hear the crowd before he could see it. His breath came in short gasps. Once again, he sweated.
Mathias stood back inside the stairwell and allowed T
epes to enter the room. The elder vampire was so graceful and sure of himself that Mathias really felt out of place. What business did he have being there? He was a street rat for god’s sake, and dinner parties were not something he had any business of attending.
The room was dark, but not dark enough so that Mathias could not see. All around were candles that tried to take away the shadows of the room, but the shadows were stubborn. Mathias watched as they seemed to undulate around the light from the flames and sometimes try to chase the flames away, but the light continued. In the dim illumination, he could see ornate tables with white tablecloths and gold cutlery. Maybe the room was supposed to look inviting, but it didn’t. Mathias felt like something was going to come out of the shadows and eat him.
Tepes paused. Mathias watched him. He seemed to then notice that Mathias had not entered and turned around, motioning for him to follow. No backing out now. Mathias took a deep breath and sincerely hoped that no one would notice him.
Multitudes of eyes stared at Mathias from every corner of the room as soon as he entered the room. There were no friendly conversations to be overheard, no laughter. Vlad had entered to a room full of friends. Mathias entered to complete silence. He tried to keep calm, but nothing kept him from feeling totally out of place. All he wanted to do was get the hell out of there.
“May I present, Mathias Charleyevich Drvar!” Someone announced. Mathias didn’t see who had said it. There were too many people.
The crowd roared. Then, the vampires closed in around him, smiled down at him. Their fangs glinted in the candlelight.
Mathias wanted to disappear. It was bad enough that he didn’t like to be noticed, but this was so much worse. Suddenly, almost as if on cue, all the vampires in the room, minus Tepes and Nosferatu, bowed to him. If Mathias didn’t know better, he’d say it was staged, but it wasn’t. It was just weird.
He smiled slightly. “Hi.”
Without any direction, the vampire families formed a receiving line. There were so many that Mathias didn’t know how he was ever going to get through them all. He didn’t recognize many of them, but he noticed Konstantin immediately.
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