Who could resist? She was at home, with her mother, her brother George and even her father seemed rehabilitated. She was with a happy family and so much love that it overwhelmed her. There were no worries. Everything was as it should have always been, but Meryl within her dreams felt she lacked something much deeper.
Meryl looked at her brother with bright eyes. She was so proud of his maturity and good heart. She wanted to hug them every moment of the day. Her parents prepared breakfast together, without fighting, like a normal marriage.
The temptation was too great.
Meryl woke up one morning like any other, everything looked the same, but she had the feeling of having lost the perception of time. Her mind was telling her that something was wrong, but everything in sight seemed extremely ordinary, perfect ... too perfect maybe. The neighbors greeted her with a smile on their face. Everything was wonderful, and yet she could not help feeling empty inside as if someone had removed half of her soul.
“I’m going crazy,” she whispered looking at the street obscured by sudden clouds.
That night Meryl closed the store at eight o’clock. It began to rain weakly and she increasingly felt that nothing was going as well as she thought. She began to feel bad as if she had forgotten something very important and it was frustrating not knowing what.
When she arrived home Meryl didn’t eat dinner. She concentrated on showering and getting into her soft bed. She liked the smell of the blankets. They smelled like berries. It reminded her of something, something very distant to her, but was so comfortable. Meryl could stay there all day without getting up.
Far from his mind but not his heart, Caleb stayed at her side. A week full of anger and despair had passed and things there were not quite right. The teenage vampire, Axel, had disappeared overnight without saying a word. Not to mention that Meryl continued with a high fever that wouldn’t go down. Caleb knew that she was fighting with all her might, because from time to time she tried to articulate a sound with her lips, nothing understandable, but it was a sign of her internal battle.
Meryl found herself in a desolate place. She looked down at her hands, and it was like a horror movie. She looked like a ghost. The projection of her own body was losing its image and flickered. In front of her, she saw a building full of vines and broken metal fences. It looked like a military base, but it was so old that the passing years had left it unusable. Meryl started walking towards the entrance. She could walk through the walls and felt a tingling sensation throughout her body. It was so real that it seemed impossible to be dreaming. She was also fully aware of everything around her and the fact that she knew that dreary place.
“A long time ago they told me a story,” Caleb said while looking at Meryl and resting his elbows on his knees. “It’s actually more of a legend. I guess I’m only able to tell it to you because you are unconscious. It is quite embarrassing to admit, but I believe in it.”
Caleb settled himself on the seat as he moved a strand of hair away from Meryl’s sweaty forehead. In his long life he’d seen millions of things, thousands of problems and hundreds of concerns, but nothing like this. He kept wondering how a mere human, a girl, had been able to captivate him.
“It is said that long ago, the emperor of a very rich and powerful country died leaving his young heir as the new ruler. The new emperor was very brash, and through his relatives learned that in one of the provinces of his kingdom. There lived a very powerful witch who had the ability to see the red string of fate. He had her brought before him, and when she arrived the young emperor ordered her to pull up the end of the thread and to take him to the woman who would become his intended wife. The witch agreed to the request and began to follow the thread. Behind her walked the young emperor with all of his court. The search took them to an old market where a poor peasant with a baby in arms offered products for sale. When the witch reached the peasant she asked her to stand up for the young emperor as he came near. The witch told him that this was where the red string of his fate ended, but hearing this, the young emperor became furious thinking the witch was joking. He pushed the peasant who still held her child in her arms and caused her to fall. This resulted in the newborn receiving a large wound on the forehead. Then he ordered his guards to detain the witch and behead her.” Caleb paused, thinking about and remembering the legend that was told to him by an old friend. Much time had passed, so he did not remember some details, but after a couple of minutes, he continued. “The young emperor returned to his castle and after a while, he forgot the whole affair. Many years later came the moment that the emperor should marry, and for this purpose. The court recommended that he marry the daughter of a powerful general. This idea did not seem bad to the emperor because he knew that the man was loved and respected by all his people. In addition, his daughter was reputed to be very beautiful. After all the preparations came the wedding day and the first time he would see the face of his betrothed. She entered the temple and wore a beautiful dress and a veil that covered her face. Upon reaching the altar, the emperor had to lift the veil and saw for the first time the beautiful face that happened to have a very peculiar scar on her forehead. It was the baby the peasant had been holding and through the actions of the emperor had fallen on the floor, he was responsible for the scar.”
Caleb got near to Meryl’s ear and whispered, “Do you understand the meaning, Meryl? My thread ends right here.” He reached out to grab Meryl’s hand. “You must come back because you belong to me.”
Without Caleb knowing it, far away, in another world, a young woman had heard his trembling voice as it reached her like a whisper on the wind, almost incomprehensible. She did not understand why she heard someone’s voice in an empty corridor. There was no one there, but the voice was so familiar it tugged on her heart. Making her feel more alone than ever, and causing her eyes to release a flood of tears.
Meryl walked unable to stop thinking about the voice that seemed so close. She came to a crowded room full of dusty old computers and screens. Some were broken, and there were little lights scattered around the room that let her know that there was still some energy supplying the place. She walked over and pressed several buttons without anything happening. She didn’t know the reason, but her instincts told her that there was something important here that she needed to know.
“Green button,” Meryl muttered while staring at it.
Meryl pressed the button and heard a snap that startled her. Then after a few minutes, the computer screens turned on.
“Professor Collins. We have all the data.”
“Show me immediately.”
Meryl watched the recording of both men. Collins seemed familiar, sickeningly familiar, so familiar that it gave her the creeps. It was as if she had met him at some point in her life.
The men entered a gray room followed by the camera. There were a large table and several cabinets, everything was full of yellowed papers.
“Have you checked everything?”
“Yes.” He reached the table and put his hands on the sheaf of papers. “Apparently, the experiment went quite well, but individual number two was the only survivor.”
“Their names?” He nodded. “Are they all in the database?”
“It was the first thing I did. Unfortunately, they remain the only ones suitable for the experiment.”
“Damn,” Collins murmured pulling out a handkerchief and wiping his sweaty forehead “Why the hell do I have to deal with the mistakes of others?”
“We have no choice. Anyway, we captured vampire zero while in slumber. He is asleep in the chamber.”
“Zero is not our problem. It’s the monsters that he left over the centuries along with his friend. That is if our information is correct. Nor do we know which of the two is the first vampire. See how we are! These inept alchemists and their stupid follies are about to kill us all,” Collin’s said.
“There is still a chance.
Currently, we have four results.”
“Only one is viable Sven. Had it not been for that strange woman and her foreign DNA. We would not be here like this.”
Meryl watched and heard everything while they talked. Meryl understood nothing whatsoever. The conversation came to her mind as something unimportant, but she couldn’t help but watch as everything happened. When the recording changed jumping to another room. The same room in which she found herself Meryl paled seeing the researchers observe the large central screen. On the screen, she saw her own photo, her little brother, that of a grandfather she had never met, but had seen only in a photo, and that of the younger sister of her mother, Aunt Agatha. If before the feeling that something was wrong invaded her body. This made everything worse. Being in that database and hearing the scientists speak of them as viable individuals for some sort of experiment, it was not pleasant, everything smelled fishy.
“These are all of them, right?”
“Yes.”
“Direct descendants,” Intervened a dark-haired woman. “We have looked at other people from the same family, but they do not share the same genetic lines.”
“Send Thomas and Ethan for the girl,” Mark ordered while sitting in front of the big computer. “A girl. How the hell is everything going to be okay? Those bastards from the council don’t want to investigate further. They are just going to leave the future of humanity to a brat.”
“But Professor Collins,” spoke the woman. “We have no time. We have to place her sleeping body in the cryogenics chamber and take all the necessary samples to create the virus. If we do not, it will be us who die. It is the only way to stop these monsters.”
“Activate Project Athena,” Mark ordered stroking his right temple wearily.
“Yes, sir.”
The recording stopped again while Meryl watched the screen that was already dark. She began to have a strange feeling that she knew some of the details that the scientists had spoken about.
At that moment, she felt a strong pressure on her head. The ache was indescribable and her knees buckled dropping her to the ground. It was unbearable, her mind was struggling to expose events that happened not long ago, in it appeared hundreds of images in a flashback: a completely different family, a strange man with an almost unreal appearance, a devastated world and a feeling that made her heart beat.
“Caleb ...?” Meryl muttered. “Who... who the hell is he?”
Meryl pressed both hands against her head trying to deaden the pain that pierced both sides and saw more clearly the young man. His strange red eyes and his cold stare caused her to feel tenderness. She realized that she loved him. She needed him but did not know who he was. It was if he was a ghost from a forgotten past. After a few minutes, the pain stopped. She felt as if she had awakened from a horrible dream and her feelings were different from her feelings from half an hour ago.
“Is this real?” Meryl asked frowning and looked at her hands. “I don’t understand anything at all.”
She went back to fiddling with the buttons on the titanic machine hoping to find some more information that would be helpful. Again, the screen lit with a soft light that indicated there was little energy left. On the screen, she saw herself in a boardroom talking on her cell phone. She didn’t hear any sound and thought it must have been erased. Then the image disappeared and returned to the screen. She was in another room. A room that contained a huge chamber that looked like a crystal coffin. The place was full of people in white coats who walked from one place to another looking at the screen and typing on the controls.
Meryl began to remember the experiment. The feeling of having been asleep for a long time, but was not sure what was real. Maybe it was a nightmare. It had to be because her life was wonderful. Her family was perfect, and she was happy, or at least that was what she wanted to think.
She must have spent hours thinking, remembering details and all sorts of things. Caleb, he must be real because her heart was screaming that he existed somewhere outside of her imagination.
“What happened?” Meryl almost shouted, hugging both knees with her arms.
She got up quickly and glared at the computer that occupied the entire room. They must have done more than make her sleep. That had become clear.
Meryl began to hit the keyboard hard trying to release all the anger inside her, and suddenly, on the big screen center screen appeared a few letters in red with the words “Warning Classified Files”. Which caught her attention causing her to stop hitting the keyboard and look up.
“SubjectTwo is asleep.” Mark’s image suddenly appeared.
“Subject three as well, but his mother has gone to the police,” added someone who Meryl couldn’t see.
“It doesn’t matter. They won’t be able to find him. Even if he is a child. Have you injected zero with the Holm Oak?”
“Yes, sir,” A woman with spectacles said, “We are waiting for it to take effect.”
“Let’s go see him.”
The camera that recorded from the roof followed the steps of the scientific team up until they reached another chamber that Meryl had not seen. It was also clear and inside, peacefully asleep, was a boy. When the camera neared she screamed so loudly that it didn’t sound like her voice. Inside the chamber lay George. Meryl’s younger brother.
“No, no!” Meryl repeated, again and again, spreading her hands toward the image.
“Look, Beth. The marks that extend below his eyes,” Mark commented in excitement to the woman with glasses.
“It looks like it’s taking effect very quickly. It’s beginning to change his appearance. It’s wonderful.”
“Definitely. It’s a shame that his sister was not useful for this experiment, but at least with her, we can create a virus that kills vampires. These two have unique genetic lines.”
“We’ll be able to create perfect soldiers with this boy.”
Meryl watched the scene stunned and with misty eyes. What she was remembering was real. Caleb, the new world, vampires ... everything, but she didn’t understand what she was. What she was doing there and what the days she had spent with her family meant.
“Caleb, Caleb,” she whispered hoping that he would come to save her.
Her soft whispers had gone beyond what any being would have expected. Caleb still sitting beside her bed had felt it, and what the couple had not discovered was that between them had formed a much deeper bond than they could ever have imagined. No matter where, when or how, Caleb could feel her.
“Meryl?”
She couldn’t hear him, because where she was, the ground began to shake.
Melody no. 8
The fall
The walls began to crumble in an unrealistic way. The pieces of the wall slowly faded before reaching the ground. Meryl saw she stood in the city without knowing how she reached the middle of the city. Everything was normal and people walked along the street as if nothing had happened. Meryl looked with an expression full of terror in all directions. No one was aware of her presence. No one noticed that there was a young woman in the middle of the street wearing pajamas.
“How is this possible?” she asked without drawing the attention of anyone, “but ...”
Meryl walked down the street and saw her own reflection in a shop window. Apparently, everything was normal. However, that wasn’t the case. No one could see her, touch her, or feel her. In that same window in which she was watching her reflection. There were several high-end televisions visible. They were changing the programs until she saw the newscast. Where the presenter started talking with a trembling voice.
“We have received disconcerting information from various parts of Europe. Where the lunar eclipse has not only left an absolute darkness. According to a European information agency, there have occurred hundreds of attacks across the continent. Currently, the cause for this is unknown. However, some scientists are b
eginning to say that it could be a secondary side effect of the eclipse. Meryl pressed closer to the glass spellbound while the presenter continued talking after receiving a new stack of papers. New reports indicate that the eclipse has nothing to do with the sudden madness plaguing Europe. North America and South America are also beginning to suffer attacks among its citizens, this could be a pandemic, the authorities urge all citizens to hurry and go immediately to their homes.”
“Dear God, what does this mean Pol?” A woman near Meryl looked at her companion and brought her children closer to protect them. “Should we go home?”
“Yes, I think that would be best. Come on.”
People began to talk on the street about what was happening. Minutes later, a long line of black vans crossed the road communicating with all citizens to go home without any exception.
Meryl just stood there. Watching the people begin to disappear quickly. The vans were from the government. This let the people know that the matter was not something to take as a joke. The news continued issuing new information and new attacks around the globe.
Meryl looked for a few minutes at the long main street that was now deserted, but that heavenly calm wouldn’t last long. In the distance, she saw several figures walking casually. As they approached. The more she found them strange. They didn’t seem like normal people. Knowing what was happening they shouldn’t be acting that way. When they were close enough she could see their graceful features and eyes stained with blood.
“At last,” One of them remarked with a macabre smile. “I have spent years waiting for this day.”
“Don’t rush. The plan is clear.”
“Destroy this empire and take possession of it all,” A young redhead added effusively. “It’s time that the world knows true terror.”
Melodies of Blood I Page 12