A Shade of Halloween

by Robin Todd

  “You know I’m a vampire?” He asked.

  “Duh! I’m not stupid. Don’t judge the color of my hair.” She said, giving him a sarcastic smile. “I saw you move with enhanced speed, and compel that man in the hallway.”

  Ryan looked at her blonde locks and laughed.

  “I’m not one of those people who think blondes are stupid – If you consider me a person.”

  “Nah. Not exactly.” Trina couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Fair enough. Why aren’t you scared of me?”

  “How can you tell I’m not?” She asked.

  “Fear is easy to spot in a human. I don’t see it in you.” He replied.

  “Well, I was scared at first but then I stopped. Maybe you compelled me to.”

  “No, I didn’t.” He protested.

  “How would I know?” She asked.

  “...because compulsion doesn’t work that way. You’ll want to do what you’ve been compelled not to do. You’ll just not be able to do it.” He replied.

  “Wait... Is it like I wanted to scream back at the dorm? Did you compel me not to scream?”

  “What choice did I have? You were going to bring the entire hostel in there.” He threw his hands in the air in a dramatic way.

  “What else have you compelled me not to do?” Trina asked, glaring at him.

  “Run away.” He smiled.

  The car came to an instant halt with a screeching sound, causing them both to lurch forward in their seats. Trina’s leg was right on the brake pedal, pushing it to its limit.

  “Woah! Are you trying to get us killed?” Ryan frowned in confusion.

  “It’s not like you can die.” She taunted.

  “Yeah, but you can! Besides, someone could have run into us from behind. They can die too.” He scolded.

  “Well, no one did.” She pouted, crossing her arms across her chest.

  “Are you always a brat?”

  “Are you always a monster?” She retorted.

  “Well... Technically.” He grinned. “Come on. I need to get to Selena. You want to help her too, so don’t waste any more time.”

  “You could compel me to shut up and drive.”

  “True, but I don’t want to. I’d be bored stiff.” He pursed his lips, appearing even cuter.

  Trina wanted to laugh but she rolled her eyes and started the car instead. This was the opportunity she’d been looking for. Ryan was going to save Selena somehow, and she could help.

  “You’re not going to find anything at her house. The police should have taped it off by now.” Trina said after a few seconds. “If your brother has her, shouldn’t we be looking for him?”

  “Never say never.” He smiled. “Besides, Selena will be a lot easier to find than Ros. Vampires can shut other vampires out of their thoughts. Especially when they’re of equal strength... and my brother and I aren’t exactly on speaking terms at the moment.”

  “So why not just search Selena’s thoughts. Why drive all the way to Duck-Ville?” She asked.

  “She’s been shutting me out, painfully so. Ros must be making her do it.”

  “Hmm. What’s the deal with your brother, anyway? Why does he want to hurt Selena?”

  “Ros is an over grown baby who can’t let go of a grudge. He can’t even accept the fact that I’m the older twin.” Ryan smirked.

  “He’s your twin?” Trina asked, wide-eyed.

  “Um-hum.”

  “So we have an evil twin problem. Fantastic!” Trina grabbed the wheel even tighter, stepping on the gas.

  “Do you know how dramatic you are?” Ryan asked in a false sweet voice.

  “Like everyone isn’t.” Trina smiled sarcastically. “Just find Selena before your brother hurts her.”

  “...If you can manage to get to Duck-Ville in this century.” Ryan rolled his eyes.

  “Hey!” Trina yelled.

  “Just kidding.” Ryan put his hands in the air defensively.

  Trina pouted for a few seconds before speaking again.

  “So how did you guys meet Selena?”

  Ryan smiled. It was a painful smile that failed to mask the hurt he felt. He quickly shook his head and got back to his normal playful demeanor.

  “I met her at an engagement party.” He replied. “Why don’t we make this more fun. Will you like to see how we met?”

  “Like actually see it? How? Didn’t it already happen?”

  “Um-hum. Vampires have a lot more mind control than humans. I can project thoughts into your dreams, such that they appear like you were there.” He replied. “Cool, yeah?”

  “More like awesome! Will you show me tonight?”

  “Sure.” Ryan smiled.

  Trina pulled the car over to the side of the road and turned the engine off.

  “I can’t show you now... You have to be asleep.” Ryan rolled his eyes.

  “I know. We’re here.” Trina replied.

  “Oh!”

  “Yeah... Who’s the dramatic one now?” She asked.

  “You’re a very funny one, you know?” Ryan laughed. “Stay here. I’ll be back.”

  He stepped out of the car and in a split second, Trina saw him getting into Selena’s house from the kitchen door at the side. How he managed to go through the yellow tapes around the house at such a dizzying speed was incomprehensible.

  “Yeah, vampire speed is creepy in real life.”

  Chapter Seven

  Selena’s POV

  I walked to the coffee table and pulled out the chair in front of it. I had barely taken my seat when I flipped the cover of the Selena Ryder book open. With a sense of urgency, I turned the pages to the part where I stopped before the craziness in my life started. When I flipped past the pages detailing my mum’s death, tears welled up in my eyes and fell down my cheeks. I couldn’t believe she was gone, and in such a horrible way. I wiped my tears, determined not to let Ros have his way with me. Deep inside, I made a resolution. I was going do whatever I had to do to stop him from killing me tomorrow. At least if I failed, I’d know I gave it my biggest fight. I glanced behind me at Ryan, who was lying on the bed and staring at the ceiling. A silly consideration made me turn my gaze sharply away from him and back to the book. I found myself wishing I could just forget about everything and snuggle up to him. For what it was worth, I would enjoy the feeling of safety being wrapped in his arms would give me – but I knew that was just my desperation speaking. I had to face up to my challenges and if the Selena Ryder book could tell me what Ros’s plans were, then I could think of ways to beat them.

  I looked around for my phone, wanting to save a few search terms in my notepad app I needed for later but noticed it wasn’t anywhere in sight.

  “Ryan, do you have my phone?” I turned my gaze back to the bed and asked.

  “Of course not. I broke it back at your house. I didn’t want to give the police a chance to track your cellphone signal. The last thing you want is for them to keep you in a holding cell where Ros can easily grab you from.” He replied.

  “Yeah, you’re right. Thanks for looking out for me. I have a question though. Can’t you just compel them to forget about the case?” I asked.

  “Compel the entire police force?” He looked at me with a raised eyebrow that said ‘how dumb can you be?’ “You know how they are with murder cases. The FBI probably already knows about it by now.”

  I knew he was right. I had to stay safe first. The person who would have been worried sick about me being unreachable was my mum and thanks to Ros, she was dead now. I wondered how my dad was handling all this. Did he even care? Did he come to town to try looking for me?

  “Wait... What happens if Ros can’t find me tomorrow.” I asked out of curiosity.

  “He’ll wait until next year to try again. Killing you on Halloween’s day is more important to him than just killing you.”

  “How do you know for sure?”

  It was the natural follow up question. If he was only going to come for me on Halloween�
��s day, all I needed to do to stay alive was to avoid him until after Halloween so Ryan and I could come up with a more permanent solution.

  “...because he has done it before.” Ryan replied, completely stunning me.

  I thought I caught a glimpse of delight in his eyes but when I looked to make sure, it wasn’t there. What I saw were sad green eyes looking at me with so much sympathy.

  “He has done it before?” I repeated, trying to make sure I had heard him right the first time.

  “Yes. He enjoys making us pay for hurting him. He promised himself we’ll never have a happy anniversary... That was why you had to do what you did. Unfortunately, he caught on to that too.”

  “What I did? I don’t understand... What did I do?”

  “Why don’t you read the book? We can talk about it when things have been made a bit clearer.” He replied, getting off the bed and walking to the sofa.

  I turned back to the book with a mixture of anxiety and curiosity, skipping several pages and heading to the last chapter. I wanted to know how things ended first, to mentally prepare myself for what was to come. I could go back to other events later, if I had the time.

  “Selena and Ryan ran through the woods at Oakland, desperately trying to escape the fury of his brother, Ros. The enraged leader put every Serafino vampire on their hunt, with orders to bring them back alive. His brother would suffer the punishment of treason according to Council rules but that backstabbing human whore, Selena Ryder was going to die like the pathetic human pile of rubbish that she was. And no punishment would be greater than making Ryan watch. Ros was determined to sink his fangs into her slender neck, drinking every ounce of her adulterous blood and breaking every bone in her impure body until her body grew limp in his hands. Even in death, he would rip her body apart, a thousand pieces not being enough to...”

  I stopped reading the book and looked away, temporarily unable to continue. My heart raced and my head pounded. The fear that crawled under my skin was clear impossible to miss by the number of goosebumps that suddenly appeared all over my body. It was a horrible way to die and I certainly didn’t want to go through that. Violent bursts of tears made their way out of my eyes, rolling down my cheeks. I couldn’t erase the picture of horror that had formed in my head from reading about my not so distant fate. Everything the book described could really happen tomorrow and I didn’t even have a concrete plan to prevent it. From the moment the monster killed my mum I knew he was going to come for me but reading the gory details made everything seem more real - and I couldn’t handle it.

  I felt assuring arms wrap around me from behind, squeezing my arms to console me.

  “Shh.” I heard Ryan say against my neck and I wanted to stop crying but I couldn’t.

  “I can’t, I can’t!” I cried. “I can’t... go... through that...”

  Ryan lifted me off the chair and carried me to the bed. He laid me down gently on the comfortable sheets and wrapped his arms around me again, such that my head was buried in his perfectly sculpted chest - which I made wet with my tears.

  “I’m here, Selena. I won’t let him hurt you.” He said, running his fingers through my hair.

  I looked up at him with puffy eyes.

  “You... promise?” I asked through my sobs.

  He looked intently into my eyes, making me momentarily lose myself in his dark green orbs. If the situation wasn’t this dire, I would have looked into them forever. He didn’t say any words but his look told me he meant everything he said. He wasn’t going to let Ros hurt me. I could tell he was willing to do everything in his power to stop that horrific description in the book from becoming my fate. My attention was brought back to the present when he brought his lips down to mine and kissed me with passion. I would never have guessed how calming the effects of his kiss would be to me. My fears melted slowly as he claimed my lips as his. I yielded to his passion, closing my eyes and allowing him take me deeper and deeper into the kiss. His hands moved through my body, slowly at first but he quickly picked up the pace. He was feeling... caressing... loving me. He glided his hand across my chest and I was surprised at how fast a knot formed around my personals. My body wanted him... yearned for him... and yielded to his every touch.

  Chapter Eight

  Selena’s POV

  The atmosphere around me suddenly felt misty as I fell deeper and deeper into the enchantment of Ryan kiss. In my curiosity, I opened my eyes and froze at the picture in front of me.

  “Don’t listen to his lies. He’s Ros!”

  The voice in my head was as clear as daylight. It was a warning of some sort, I could tell. The sight in front of me was as confusing as confusion got. It was Ryan, the same one I was kissing, telling me not to believe himself. Telling me the him outside was Ros.

  “But outside where?”

  I jerked back in shock, feeling my body leave Ryan’s cozy arms. I opened my eyes and saw his curious face staring at me. It was then I realized I must have been in a weird dream, if that was what it was. But why did it feel so real?

  “Is everything okay?” Ryan asked.

  “Um... no. I-I...” I tried to get the words out but for some reason, they failed to bind together under the rules of proper sentence construction.

  Ryan tried to pull me into his arms again but I jerked back. I didn’t know what to make of the situation but it creeped me the hell out.

  “I... saw... you.” I managed to say.

  I could literally see his eyes catch fire. There was so much fury in them I was afraid the warning was not just a figment of my disoriented imagination.

  “Could he really be Ros?”

  No... it just couldn’t be true. He’d been with me the entire time, keeping me safe. But why did the person in my head look exactly like him?

  “It’s Ros. He’s reaching into your mind.” Ryan said, sounding frustrated.

  “He said you... were... Ros. He looked just like you!” I replied, struggling to keep myself from stammering.

  “What did you think he was going to tell you? ‘Hey, I’m Ros, the one who wants you dead. Leave the safety of Ryan’s protection immediately and come to your death’? Of course he looks like me. He’s my twin!” Ryan spat.

  I sat up on the bed and clutched my knees to my chest, rocking back and forth. Before now I knew they were brothers. But twins? They were complete opposites. Like night and day. Ryan was sweet and Ros was a complete monster. I knew Ryan was right. The countdown to Halloween’s day had begun and Ros was clearly getting desperate. Of course he would do something like that, since he was trying everything he could to find me. 

  “Shut him out. Don’t let him reach you again!” Ryan ordered.

  It was unlike him to bark orders at me like that but I couldn’t blame him. The situation was bad enough to make him act a little harsh.

  “Um... how?” I asked, turning to look at him.

  “Just don’t leave your mind blank.” He replied, pulling me back into his arms.

  I rested my head on his chest, feeling his muscles rise and fall as he took in deep breaths. The fact that Ros was getting desperate meant we were doing something right. I knew he was probably going crazy trying to find me before tomorrow when he planned to crush my bones and drink my blood. The thought made me shudder but I relaxed once I got a reassuring squeeze from Ryan’s hand.

  “Why is Ros so bitter?” I asked, staring at nothing in particular.

  “Everything is heightened in death, Selena.” Ryan replied. “Hurt, anger, betrayal... They all make you feel like your body is literally going to explode from within. What you did to Ros shattered his heart into a million pieces. Having him watch you live happily ever after with his brother would cut even deeper than the sharpest blade.”

  “Tell me about what really happened back then. I’m too scared to read it myself. I want to know how I’m here now. I understand vampires are immortal but I’m human, am I not? Why am I still alive?” I asked.

  “Your mother, Sophia was the most
powerful sorceress in all of Oakland. Her reputation was very far reaching, even up to the icy plains of the North. The vampires didn’t like the control she had over them... and so they revolted against the humans. It was a bloody war, one that lasted only a few days before the humans finally acknowledged the truth. There was no way they could win against us. They had so much more to lose. Their women and children remained unprotected and unable to fight back while our army charged on. They were the greatest casualties, and our biggest targets. The death of child always had more effect on the human leaders, especially when some of those children were theirs... and that effect metamorphosed into them meeting our demands. They knew a peace treaty had to be reached, and quickly too - for their own sake. We demanded something very precious. Something to ensure that the sorceress would never interfere in our activities. Her only child was to be given over to the vampires to keep the peace. The deal was simple. If she interfered, her precious baby would die or worse, get turned into one of us. She couldn’t let that happen and it was enough to keep her away from our activities. Since the Serafino clan was the biggest vampire clan at the time, you were given over to its leader, Ros. Something changed when he met you. You hated him – as you did all vampires. But he on the other hand, he fell for your beauty. The innocence of your smile drew him to you like a magnet. To you, your engagement was for the safety of your people but Ros was enchanted by your presence. The engagement took place but it was the start of something forbidden. His brother got to meet you and felt the same enchantment. A fire sparked between you two somewhere along the line and the affair began. Ros found out and things got ugly. You fled with your lover - straight to the one person you knew could help you. Your mother, Sophia knew the implications of your actions and cast a reincarnation spell which sent you off to a different lifetime. The consequences were dire. She paid with her life but that was not enough to pacify Ros. I don’t want to describe the events that followed but the humans learned a vital lesson.

  It was only a matter of time before Ros gave in to his broken heart. When he discovered what your mother had done, he sank further and further into his anger and made his decision to find you in every lifetime. When he did, he killed the mother figure in your life first, before he killed you. It was his way of making you pay for your crime, and that of your mother, Sophia.

  I usually got to you too late, something I desperately tried to change. The relationship between vampires and humans changed with time, thanks to civilization. They got better at hunting us, killing a good number of us with their advanced tools. As resilient as the humans became, the vampires remained the smarter race. Of course, we had centuries of experience which the humans lacked. Our new survival strategy became our ability to blend in. Since humans do not hunt what they believe do not exist, we remained safe. However, a few human families transferred the ancient stories to their future generations. Thankfully, most other humans considered it folklore and never believed it. It was a good thing for the vampires because all we needed to survive was fuel their disbelief and stay hidden in plain sight. I don’t want to lose you to Ros and his anger anymore, Selena. I want to keep you safe until Halloween passes so that this time, we can be together longer. We can use the added time to figure out how to keep you safe for good.”