Demon in Ruins

Chapter 6

One may smile, and smile, and be a villain.”-William Shakespeare.

Chapter 6

Forgetting the fact he was the one having all the powers to kill me with a snap of my neck or draining my blood out, I glared at him. I wasn’t afraid that he would start shooting lasers from his eyes. Vampires don’t shoot laser beams, duh! I was well aware.

Four days have passed since Jon and I got here through the mysterious portal. We haven’t seen each other over these days. Not even once had I heard from or about him. I was scared if he was still alive or not. There were loads of vampires roaming around in the mansion with their fangs showing and shinning. They walked in the sunlight that came through windows of the mansion.

Not to mention, my phone and my camera were still not working. Nate explained it was because of the different dimension effect. I did not understand it fully but I pretended to be brainy in front of Nate who was trying so hard to make me get it. The more questions I asked, seemed to make him confused and forget his own facts. He wasn’t much of a teacher when it came to technology. I couldn’t blame him for he was sleeping for years.

Somehow I knew it was Victor who was giving him whatever information Nate was passing on to me. Anyways I understood one thing and that was Victor and Nate had some bad blood between them. Also, Lady Escoffier was planning to resolve the history. She was desperate to bring the brothers together.

I was standing with Nate and glaring at him as I stated already.

“Why are you looking at me like that, Karen?” He asked in his deep voice.

I didn’t answer and kept glaring. Was he really so oblivious?

“Are you missing home?” He asked.

“What, can you read my mind now?” I scowled at the poor vampire.

He smiled and shook his head sideways.

“It is not I can read your mind or something,” He said. “I don’t have that ability.”

“How do you know then?”

“You have the look on your face which says you miss your world,” he said.

World. My world. His world. His mother needed to realize the difference and send me back. By the situation I was in I knew Lady had no intentions of sending me back. Whenever I tried talking to her, she avoided me like I was contagious. A part of me was scared of her. The other wanted to expose her to real sunlight.

“This war of yours included werewolves too?” I asked.

“There were werewolves who fought the war with us.”

“Against you?”

“No. With us.” He clarified. “They were in our…team.”

It was me who made him say words like ‘team’ instead of tribe or clan. He was a quick learner when it came to normal conversation. I wonder if quick learning is one of the vampire abilities.

“As far as I know from movies and books, werewolves are considered to be your archenemies,” I said raising my eyebrow. “How can they work with you?”

“We are not as we are depicted in the books, Karen.” He sighed. “The world of supernatural is different from how you read in the books. They don’t explain everything correctly.”

“Why?”

“Because they aren’t written by us.” He. “They are written by your kind.”

I wanted to know his past life but he refused to tell me anything. He said past was painful and he was expecting a different future for himself. He was expecting the ghosts of past to never catch up with him.

What had happened in the Devries/Escoffier family was a mystery to me. What would have made the brothers hate each other so much? The night when Nate had been awoken, Victor had looked so displeased.

“Where is Jon?” I asked out of blue.

I missed Jon. He was the only person who could make me feel home in this monstrous place. Nate was nice to me most of the times but I couldn’t trust a vampire stranger with his lust for blood. Jon was my best friend, and if we spent time in pair maybe we could find some way to get out of here.

“The boy with light brown hair who came here with you?” Nate asked in an unfriendly tone.

“Yeah,” I said.

“The boy has a strange behaviour.” Nate stroked his chin. “He talks extra sweetly to every woman in this mansion. I’m afraid he won’t survive very long.”

My heart thumped. Was he going to kill Jon?

“Please don’t kill him.” I pleaded.

Nate looked at me with surprise. With his lips drawn in a thin line, he inspected me.

“I’ll not hurt him. He is your friend and he will be as safe as you are here.” He assured. “Why would I kill him?”

“Then why did you say he won’t survive long?” I asked feeling a tad bit relieved.

“Victor is having some issues with him.”

Did he have issues with everyone on this planet?

“What issues?”

“I don’t what issues but he despises him greatly,” He replied. “Victor doesn’t like people much. I think Jon might have said something to make him hate him.”

“Victor is pretty gruesome, huh?” I commented. “Is he even your brother?”

Nate’s face went still, and I realised he had stopped breathing. His eyes were a darker shade of green now like he was recalling some past events from his life. Whatever he was reminiscing made him look brooding. I should have kept my mouth shut but what can you expect from me when I was tired of being here.

“You should go now,” He said softly at first.

“Go where?” I asked brightly. Maybe he was talking about home.

“To your room.”

“But—” I started.

“Get out now!” His anger scared me.

Days passed after this last conversation we had. Now, he avoided talking to me however he could. I saw him pass by my room several times but he never stopped to say hello to me. He moved so swiftly and soundlessly I could never react in time. Human reflexes were so slow compared to a vampire’s. He was becoming a shadow to me.

I had nothing to do in the room I was staying in. Lady Escoffier had given me some novels and permission to see Jon after she couldn’t take my whining. To my relief, the novels weren’t from the medieval period. They were brand new; most of them were first editions of the latest books in the market. I concluded from this that Victor or she travelled to another dimension a lot. Because they didn’t let anyone else leave the mansion.

My heart ached to go home. I decided to make a plan to get out of this place.

There were many windows in the mansion. I could simply jump and run from one of those when no one was watching over me. Jumping from my room’s window would be stupid and unsafe for it was on the second floor but the dining room where I had dinner was on the first floor. I could escape from there.

I had to inform Jon and make him agree with my plan.

I walked in the hallway, searching for my best friend. There he was standing, alone and looking out of the large window. His looked gloomier than I had ever seen him. The last time I had seen him being sad close to this was when his basketball team had not made it to the finals in the interstate championship last year.

“Jon,” I called.

His eyes lit up as he saw me, and a tranquil smile spread on his face. He quickly stepped towards me and hugged me close. He smelled of lemons. He definitely was enjoying the shower here.

“You’re suffocating me,” I joked.

He stepped back but held onto my shoulders. “Do you know how scared I was when I learned this wasn’t a dream? I mean, I knew this wasn’t a dream but I kept denying it because I wanted to be wrong. You know the feeling when you are in a bad situation and you know what’s going on, and you still hope it’s not happening,” He continued babbling. “I couldn’t understand anything when I went to sleep and got up again in the same place. It has been what, weeks?”

I placed my hand on his. “Jon,” I softly said. “I get it. It felt like a dream. Heck! Who would believe us if we ever told this to anyone?”

Calming down, his eyes stayed on me.

“Karen, I missed you.” He breathed.

That made me smile a little. “I missed you too.”

“That Victor guy is very creepy. Like creepier than when we met him first,” He said, raking his fingers through his hair. A nervous habit of his. “He keeps threatening to kill me for absolutely no reason. I have no idea what his problem is. Why does he have to look at me like I kicked his dog or something?”

“He is an asshole,” I said, “that’s what his problem is.”

Jon chuckled. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. The guy who calls himself his brother is way better than him. What’s his name? Nathan?” He suddenly looked down at his feet and looked back up at me. “I’m so sorry, Karen. This is all my fault.”

“Save it, Jon.” I punched him lightly on his arm. “You do know what we have got ourselves into, right?”

He nodded. “I’m well awake now.”

“They are vampires.” It still sounded weird saying it out loud.

“I had to believe this bullshit after Victor tortured me. He kept appearing and disappearing until I felt nauseous. And I saw one of the people here drink blood from a blood bag,” Jon closed his eyes. “I can’t get that image out of my head. Those fangs—”

“We need to get out of here,” I said getting straight to the point.

“I don’t want that psycho to tear me apart.” Shaking his head thoughtfully, he said. “Even though his brother doesn’t seem dangerous, he’s still a vampire.”

“Oh c’mon, we aren’t gonna spend our lives here. I’m sure Victor is planning some hideous revenge on Nate for something Nate is not interested in elaborating to me,” I said.

“I knew it!” Jon exclaimed. “I knew no one likes Victor!”

“I have a plan to escape this mansion.”

“You don’t.” He looked suspiciously.

“I do.” I grinned widely.

It was after dinner when Jon and I made our way to the window to escape. Jon had been out once and according to him, ten guards would be waiting for us at the entrance. We couldn’t fight them if they were all vampires but the good news was they were not. Jon said they were robot-like humans who were on the guard. Another good news; Jon and I had defence classes in our school.

“Where are you going?” A guard asked as we walked out of the mansion.

“Wherever I want to, dead man,” Jon said back.

Jon shouldn’t have said that. The guard’s face came into light, his eyes focused on us.

“I have to ask you to go back.” He drew out a wooden stick that resembled a baton. At least it wasn’t a sword. “You are not supposed to be out here.”

Jon punched him on his stomach which made him flinch. Stepping back, he dropped the baton. The guard charged towards him. Jon kicked him on his right leg making him fall down. The guard grabbed Jon’s right foot causing him to stay motionless.

“Dude hit him.”

I picked up the baton and started hitting him on the head with it. Not too hard because I didn’t want to give him a concussion. The baton really did miracles. He was unconscious in a few seconds.

“I have a strong feeling this thing is magical,” I said raising the baton like a wand in my hand.

Nate had told me stories of witches and wizards in this place. There were chances that the guards had magical batons for safety.

“Keep it with you,” Jon said breathing heavily. “We’ll need it.”

We dropped down numerous guards. We ran like hunting dogs were chasing us. There was no one chasing us now. I was happy that the guards were humans. We had no chance of getting out of here if there had been vampire guards.

“Stop!”

When I heard the shout I thought it was Nate who was behind us. But it wasn’t Nate who had shouted. It was some guard who was running towards us. He seemed worried instead of angry.

“Lady Karen, you cannot get out of here without the prince’s orders,” He said urgently. “The place outside the mansion is dangerous.”

“I’m ready for danger,” I said.

I had to hit him on the head when he refused to let us go.

“You love violence,” Jon commented.

“I had no other choice.”

We ran into the darkness.

-Nathaniel-

“I cannot take this responsibility,” I said to mother.

“I told you he will always be a coward,” Victor grinned. “He doesn’t have the guts to fill in the place that father wished him to.”

“Nathan, this is what your father always wanted,” Mother tried ignoring him. She spoke with such consideration in her voice. “This is what we all want.”

“Count me out.” Victor intervened again. “I would never ever opt for a sissy vampire king. And guess who made it to the Forbes list of top 10 sissy vampire king candidates for this year?” He glanced at me. “Someone who just woke up.”

“Remain silent, Victor.” Mother commanded.

“Do you think you are capable?” Victor asked me, not paying heed to mother’s warning.

I didn’t answer.

“Leave now.” Mother raised her voice. “I think we’re done listening to your suggestions, Victor.”

Victor rolled his eyes. He raised an eyebrow at me before walking away, whistling a tune.

“She requests me to send her back to her world. How can I deny her requests when her blood is what woke me up?” I asked mother. “I’m indebted to her.”

“I told you why we cannot send her back, Nathan.”

Mother was calling me Nathan now. It sounded so strange. She never called me Nathan before I was sent into the sleep. She had always called me Nathaniel. Everything has changed indeed.

“She is different, mother.”

“She is different and that’s why we have to keep her here,” she said. “She is a source of power to your veins.”

“I cannot feed on her forever.”

She is a friend to me. I wanted to add.

“Have you fed on anyone until now?”

It had been seven days after I had woken up. I wasn’t feeling the unbearable hunger as we had predicted. When a normal vampire was kept deprived of blood for too long, they essentially had more blood requirement than the daily feeders. Blood was essential for us to use our powers and more importantly; keep us sane.

I had just woken up. How was it possible for me to survive for so many days without feeding too much?

“Seven days and you’re standing here, Nathan.” Mother clasped her hands together. “This is the power in her blood I’m talking about. Her blood allows you to control your hunger. Imagine what it can do when you’re no longer weak. It will enhance your powers.”

“How is—”

“Prince.”

I was interrupted by a guard rushing into the room abruptly.

“How dare you to interrupt us?” I asked.

He shivered in response. Mother allowed him to talk with a nod of her head. I knew mother could hear his thoughts but she wanted him to speak nevertheless.

“Those humans have escaped.”

“What?”

“Karen has escaped with her friend,” Mother said to me.

Here I was, asking my mother to release her and let her go back to her world. I was convincing mother against her will. I had wanted Karen to trust me enough. I couldn’t stop feeling regretful for keeping her here so I was trying to help her.

But I lacked judgement in people. She wasn’t the innocent girl I had assumed her to be.

“Call the guards,” I ordered. “Commence the search.”

I was going with them.