Broken Chains

#5 Dark Santa (Part 1)

Should I tell him or should I not? That was the question that ran through Skylar’s mind as she was eating her breakfast. When the time comes, it’ll come.

“Skylar, we’re going shopping afterwards, wanna tag along?” said Zaylee in an enthusiastic manner.

“Yeah, sure Mom. Mind if we tag along too?” Cody helped her answer while holding on to Tyler’s shoulder. Tyler immediately knew that something was off about him as the Cody he knew would never agree on going shopping with their mother before.

So, he leaned over and whispered while Zaylee was busy chatting with Skylar, “Cody, why have you been so weird lately? First you snuck out without telling Mom and now you are willing to go shopping with her? What is up with you man?”

“Because she was attacked by Shax demons just the other day. Now I am just worried that Nick would send another threat to get back at me for not going to his freaking coronation-” Cody whispered back in a tone of frustration.

“Isn’t it a little too soon to be pinpointing this problem to Nick? I mean like how he even knows about her?”

“He must have found out during the night of his coronation. He had access to the spell book as the newest member of the high court of hell. The worst thing was that he put a spell on her last night and almost got her killed.”

“Wait...What spell book? And did you just say an attack?”

“The Book of Frostbound. One of our family’s heirlooms that’s been passed down for generations. Of all the things he could ask for as the new king of hell he just had to ask for that book first. It may have been passed down for generations and though he had the right to use it, but he did not have the right to use one of the spells to bridge the gap between the differences of our minds and by being close to Skylar and consequently inflict harm on Skylar. She almost died last night because of him.”

“Almost died?” Tyler was more confused than ever.

“I went out to find him and when I felt his presence, it was like he had built a bridge that caused him to be able to read all of my thoughts,” Cody continued to walk to the living room.

Tyler sped up to keep up with his pace, “You went to find him? Why? You and I know that it is never a good idea to go and see our cousins, especially not him.”

“I needed to confront him about something and to get the ring from him.”

“Guys!” a voice came from a distance, “Sorry to break up your little brother-to-brother conversation but if you are still coming, come on.” They turned their heads to Skylar who was standing at the frame of the arch. Cody, turned as white as a piece of paper, only hoping that she had not heard a word about their conversation.

“How long have you been standing there?” Cody asked her in suspicion as he was worried that she had heard too much and knew something already.

“Long enough to know that you guys are keeping something from me,” she answered calmly. But before he could ask her anymore, their mom shouted from the car, “Kids, you ready to go yet?” Tyler began to speed up and go to the car, turning back to look at Cody who was still standing by Skylar.

Cody said to Tyler and Zaylee, “You guys go on, I’ll drive Skylar on my own.” He continued to push Skylar from behind and said, “Come on, we don’t want to keep mom waiting, do we?” Zaylee shrugged before starting the engine and pulling out of the driveway.

Skylar felt that Cody was acting a little suspicious and since she was also filled with curiosity, she began to ask him as they walked to his car, “About the other day, what were those creatures?” She was answered with silence as they entered the car. “I’m not blind and I know what I saw that evening. And don’t you tell me that it was nothing again as I have done my research and there has never been any sightings of those types of creatures before, I know that you know what they are.” Again, she was answered with silence. “Cody! You have to be honest with me, I’m your sister.”

He grumbled for a bit before replying, “Fine… they were Shax demons. Are you happy now?”

Skylar let out a little laugh at first because she was taught to believe that demons never existed, so she questioned, “There are no such things as demons, right?”

“There has always been. It’s just that you always paid little or no attention to the small details. But these demons can only be summoned by warlocks.”

“But why did they attack me and how do you know about all this? Don’t tell me that you are one of them too. They did listen to you after all.” Skylar had been in a dilemma since the moment she had that dream the night before the wedding. She had noticed little details about Cody, but she never would’ve thought that her brother could possibly be a demon.

“No... I ... I’m just an ordinary human just like you,” he lied hoping that she did not suspect that he was a demon as it was too soon for her to find out, but his expression gave him away.

“You’re lying,” Skylar’s voice was firm. Skylar had been reading up on some vampire stuff ever since she went into Cody’s room and found some notes on how to control his vampire side. Soon after reading the notes, she realized that her brother was no ordinary human being. “Do you seriously think that I have to figure it out that you’re a vampire, Cody?”

“How did...did you find out?” he stammered in fear of her finding out anything else.

“I found out when I was going through some of your stuff. Do you seriously think that I was stupid I would not find out sooner or later? You seriously think that I have not noticed your needle-like fangs?”

“Why did you go through my stuff though?” He only hoped that she had not looked through his notebook from the academy.

“One day while I was helping Tyler to look for something, I came across a notebook that was lying on your bedside table. I thought it was Tyler’s but then it wasn’t. And since you weren’t home, I decided to go through it - nice handwriting by the way - and when I got to the page with tons of spells, I realized that they were all linked to becoming a vampire. Why did you want to become a vampire or to be more precise why did you become a vampire in the first place?”

Cody let out a sigh of relief as she had not gone through the other books of his. “Long story, it was after my dad’s death and without a father-figure I soon fell into depression, and I was pulled into the dark hole of darkness. That was when I chose my own fate to become a vampire. I had my own other personal reasons why I wanted to be a vampire – countless deaths after another - especially with the fact that my father died a gruesome death that not even I would wish upon my worst enemy. There was also my auntie’s death which was also rather gruesome. But all in all, the only reason why I even want to be a vampire was because it was the only way to escape all possible ways of death.” he began to raise his voice a little.

“But despite being a vampire you can still walk under the sun which is rather surprising because all that I have read about vampires in books is that they turn to ash when they walk under the sun.”

“That’s exactly the point, the books are all just fake information and though the sunlight does burn a little but once I got used to it … To think that for all these years, I managed to hide it from my brother and mother but how is it so easy for you to find out about all this.”

Before Skylar could question him anymore, they had already arrived at the mall. Cody parked his car next to his mom’s car. While getting out of the car, Skylar whispered into Cody’s ear, “We’ll continue this conversation when we get home.” And just like that, sashayed her way to the mall’s entrance leaving Cody standing there stunned.

Never have I met a girl like her. So independent. Unlike all the other girls that fall for me and not the other way around.

Thoughts of Skylar getting attacked again made him snap back to reality. He ran to catch up with her.

The mall was beautifully decorated to a Christmassy theme as Christmas was just around the corner. It had actually been a while since Cody and Tyler had followed their mom to the mall. Cody had already come up with an idea on what he was going to get everyone this Christmas, so they all dispersed to go and find the gifts they were getting everyone for their Secret Santa.

While Skylar went to Forever 21 to pamper herself with the money, she had saved up this whole school year, Cody went all over the whole mall looking for the perfect gifts for everyone. By the time it was time to go, Skylar who thought that she had gotten the most stuff was shocked when she saw Cody carrying a pile of boxes of gifts, and that was when she realized the definition of a lot.

But then none of them were tagged so she did not know which gift was for whom. So, she tried to be a curious little spy. She saw how Cody had so many boxes to carry so she offered to help him but since he was highly capable of handling a couple of dozens of gift boxes on his own with his vampire strength, he refused to let her carry any of it. He also knew what Skylar was up to.

They all arrived home to find Daniel standing in front of a Christmas tree which was already set up with the help of some of the butlers. It was just like old times where Skylar would come home to find her dad standing in front of a beautifully lit up Christmas, but the only difference was that her mother was not there, but then she had a new family and this time she was not going to take anything for granted. She swore that after her mom she was not going to lose anyone anymore.

“You alright Skylar?” Cody came toward her and swung one of his arms around her shoulder as he thought it would comfort her but as he was a vampire, it did not really help.

But she still appreciated everything he had done for her ever since she had lost her mother. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just thinking about my mom. Every Christmas Eve was spent just like this one but just that the gifts under the tree would be more … moderate.”

“Look, I know you are still missing your mom Skylar but what has passed has passed and there is no way to turn back time. What could you have done if you knew what was coming? You couldn’t have done anything too.”

“I know but I could have gotten the paramedics to get her to the hospital faster, before she slipped away from my life forever,” tears started welling up in her eyes but this time she did not let it fall and just wiped it away. Once she pulled herself together, she said, “Don’t you have some explaining to do, Cody?”

He was really surprised she still remembered and answered her with a question, “Can we go somewhere private first because I don’t think that Tyler is ready to know about it yet.” Skylar nodded. Cody grabbed her by her wrist and took her to a room that no one would find them.

While being pulled, Skylar asked him, “Where are we going?”

“You’ll see. It’s somewhere that no one would find us.”

“Even Mom?”

“Well even though Mom may know about this place, but she would never expect any one of us up here,” he continued up the stairs to a secret room that he would usually go to when he was feeling down.  That room was no ordinary room; it was the room that his father would usually take him to hide away from his mom especially when she was not really herself. When Skylar entered the room there were all kinds of bookshelves in the study room. She was astonished by all the things that filled them; awards, plates of achievements and medals that hung on the walls of the room and of course some old pictures of Cody’s family while they were together on a holiday.

“Wow, this is -”

“Amazing? Yeah well, I promised my dad that I would preserve all this after his passing, his legacy - it almost sounded as if he was planning on making a comeback.”

He watched as Skylar went through all the stuff in the room and once, she got to a weird statue, she stopped and asked, “What is this?” when she saw a sword with some ancient language engraved on it.

Cody was quick to react and hurried over to block it, “It’s nothing... Just some precious item of my dad’s.”

“Cody, stop it you’re acting weird... Remember no more hiding anything from me, you know that I am going to find out sooner or later.”

“It’s just that my father always told me to never touch it as it had the capability to wipe out any memories if we touch it.”

“It’s just that I’ve seen this sword before in one of my dreams.”

“This sword has actually been passed down from one generation to another and it was supposed to be passed down to my cousin but seeing as how he is always incapable of keeping things safe, it was left to me.”

Cody felt he might have spoken too much but since she would have to find out sooner or later, he paused to reconsider.

Skylar was quick to notice that he had gone quiet, “So, this cousin of yours, is he really as you have said?”

“Well, he is different…”

“In what way?”

“He's just different. Like he is the total opposite of the way I am.”

“How so? You keep saying that he is different but in what way is he different?”

“Though the two of us used to be like brothers; inseparable at times, our relationship was even closer than my relationship with Tyler, he and I looked so identical that at times we used this to our advantage to fool our parents when we were younger. But one day we were asked to battle each other for something I did not want so I forfeited it to him, and he has to live the rest of his life keeping the world at balance-”

“Wait - what do you mean by keeping the world at balance?”

“It is actually much more complicated than you think as there has been no such thing as two cousins who were born years apart and look exactly the same. This is why after forfeiting the fight, he has been holding a grudge against me and this has led him to finding any way to make me feel miserable for betraying him by inflicting harm on the one thing I care about, you.”

“I get it that you care about me as I am now your sister after all but then why does your cousin need to do this?”

“I don’t know, Sky. But please forgive me for doing this”, he started leaning in to lock eyes with her so that he could hypnotize her to make her forget what he had told her. He wanted her to know but it was still too soon for her to find out about the truth of his family. He was afraid that if she did find out she would be in more danger than she already was. While she was under the spell, she fell into a trance that made her think that she was just dreaming. everything out. He carried her to her room to let her rest; one arm supporting her leg and the other supporting her head.