Afterlife (6 page)

Chance encounter

There was something sinister and different about him. It wasn't just the way he tried to avoid me after that day it was something else and it bugged me tremendously. I started keeping a journal.

Day 1

He never showed.

Day 2

The day passed uneventful.

He didn’t show …again…

Day 3

I miss him …is that weird?

Day 4

Will I ever see him again? Why did he kiss me and then disappear? Maybe its because I sucked at kissing…

Day 5

Should I ask Martha why Oscar doesn’t like Daniel?  No, that would just complicate things.

Why would Louisa forget about me and say that I am dead? I need to stop overanalyzing things!

Day 6

Oscar asked me if I was feeling sick. I suppose I have been a bit withdrawn, but who can blame me?

 And then a month had passed.

I lay awake at night wondering if he was still alive, but nothing not even my dreams could ease a gnawing feeling in my stomach that something wasn't right. Martha and Oscar knew something was up with me, but had eventually described it as another teenage faze that they had to endure. The truth was this wasn't really just another teenage faze or rebellion it was what I had become.

I could hardly sleep or eat and when I slept his face was everywhere, in my dreams, in my work. Everytime a customer opened the door, every time I walked into town and saw someone vaguely resembling, I wished that it would be him. I had to see him and then I decided to plan it all out.

That night I dreamed that I was screaming and shouting at him letting him know how much his absence annoyed me. I woke up in a cold sweat from the nightmare.

The next morning I made some lame excuse that I had read all my books and needed to go to the library. Giving me a knowing look, Martha knew not to comment and allowed me to go after giving me a gentle hug and telling me to be careful on my own. I ran as fast as my legs would allow me, ducking away as I changed direction towards the foot hills and into the forest. I ran until I was lost again, hoping that he would save me the way he did before.

I could sense his smell, his heart beating.

“I know you’re out there” I screamed. “Daniel don't be a girl, come out here and face me!”

My voice echoed and I was starting to sound ridicules. He was never coming back. I stared at the world around me it, was empty as empty as my heart. How could he do this to me? I felt tears well up and collapsed on a log of wood. I felt like a little girl again, rejected, left alone, but the only difference was that I was now longing for someone I hardly knew.

Then out of nowhere I felt a hand on my shoulder and an excited shiver ran down my spine. There was only one person it could belong to - Daniel. I can't remember the amount of minutes or seconds that we sat there, but it seemed like an eternity, I broke the silence by turning around and locking my eyes into his golden eyes. I hated not being able to contain myself around him, everything was out of order and out of place. My hair, my clothes and I felt like all I wanted was to please him, to make sure that he never left again.

“Why did you leave me so abruptly?” I asked after an eternity of silence.

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“Why do you always say that?  Daniel you can't keep doing this. If you’re having trouble...”

 “I lied to you” he said numbly.

 “I don't fight vampires.”

“What does this have to do …?”

“Everything Fleur, everything.”  He grabbed me by both arms and his stare intensified. “If you knew the real me you wouldn't stay. You were right to chase me away the other night.”

A stubborn look came across my face.  A staring game developed between us, both of us wanted to say something but we couldn't find the words. He took my hand and pushed me down to the stump again. His hand touching my face, his eyes examining me. I could feel a rush of excitement and want welling up inside of me.

“If only you knew how much I want you, how ...” He pushed himself away from me. “Why did he always end up doing this to me?” Maybe it was fate that kept pushing us away and then pulling us in again like some sort of cosmic joke.

I picked up my bag fuming and started walking away, because I had suddenly had enough of his games. I was over it. 

He grabbed me around my waist and I could feel myself flying my head spinning. I had no idea what was happening. Daniel held me close and jumped onto a tree. “You can fly?” I asked worriedly feeling him closely. “No I'm just fast,” he said as if it was the most normal thing in the world. “So am I Daniel, but I don't fly up trees.” He pushed me against the tree stump “Shut up already,” he said belting out a small laugh. Then he kissed me. It felt like a million times better than anything I had ever experienced. His lips were soft and I put my hands in his hair and felt a jolt of electricity go through me.

“Who are you?” I said softly kissing him again.

“I'm a vampire,” he blurted out.

“A vampire?” I was still in the moment and then I realized the intensity of his words and I pushed him away, slightly. “How could you be a vampire?” I asked skeptically. “It's who I am.” I looked at him for a second and then without any hesitation or doubt in my mind said “I don't care, I know how I feel.” I tucked my hands into his jersey pockets and pulled him closer. I could feel him intensify as I traced my finger across his lips, beckoning for him to come closer.

 He kissed me softly at first and as the moments passed I could feel his kiss intensify. He was my hero and whatever he was or wasn’t I wanted to be with him and I never wanted the moment to end.  There were two things I was more than sure of, I was head over heels in love with a vampire and secondly not even death could keep me from being with him.

Daniel held me close and jumped to the ground.

“Time to go home young lady, let me make sure that you get home on time.”

“When choosing between two evils, I always like to try the one I've never tried before.”

 Mae West

The witch of Davenwater

“Daniel…”

A cold rush of frustration and anger swept over Aliana’s face. It had been the most disappointing day that she had survived in over 700 years. She walked towards the opening in the woods and saw Daniel with Fleur. She whispered his name over and over again. “Daniel … Daniel … Da-ni-el” like a curse she repeated every syllable of his name.  She hated every second. Daniel was supposed to love her not some mortal.

“How could you?” she shouted but there was no answer, clenching her fists into small little balls she glared at the scene in front of her.  A tree branch rattled above her head and she could feel herself, her body out of control wanting to attack.

 The truth was she had never been able to get him to express his feelings over her, but that barely stopped her from trying. She had been so close to getting exactly what she wanted and now within a split second it was all taken from her. She waited for Daniel as he flirted and played with his new mortal friend and the pain got worse by the second.

She had to confront him.

***

Daniel felt something deep and permanent for Fleur that he was certain off, what he would do about it was another thing. He also knew that if Aliana or his brother would find out, that there would be complications. He walked towards the vampire compound that had been erected two hundred years before in the hope that humans and vampires could life in peace.

He could feel a presence around him, a presence he knew extremely well.

“Aliana.”

Daniel could feel a cold rush go down his spine. The earth had suddenly turned to ice, he knew this was one of her specialties. He couldn’t see her, she always did this when she was mad and irritated with him. He had known her for a few centuries and her games were getting old.

 “Aliana , I know you’re out there!” his voice echoed in the wind.

There was no sound around him and if he didn’t know better, his mind would be playing tricks on him, but he knew never to trust the silence. “Come on Aliana, don’t do this.” Something irritated him about her games and made equally worried simultaneously.

He could feel something moving behind him. When he turned around there was nothing.

“Up here!” Aliana taunted him.

“Yea okay, well when you have the time to stop being a seven hundred year old child, let me know.” Daniel was annoyed and he knew if this type of attitude wouldn’t get her to stop, nothing would.

“Spoil sport.” She stuck her tongue out at Daniel and froze when she saw his stern look of disapproval.

“Cut to the chase Aliana. What is this really about?”

“About? Hmmm who says it’s about anything.” She said seductively.

Daniel could feel her close to him, so close that he could feel her body pressed strategically close to him. He jumped away from her. She chased him playfully through the woods and then caught him in what was similar to a spider’s web. She closed in and penned him onto a tree with her arms.

“Funny, Aliana but this isn’t funny anymore.”

“Do you feel something for me Daniel?” she said with an urgent voice

“Of course I do.”

“What do you feel?”

“I love you as a sister Aliana.”

Aliana became angry and her eyes turned a bright red. Daniel knew that this was not the answer she was looking for. He also knew that she felt something for him but he would never be able to return that feeling. You simply can’t choose who you fall in love with.

Aliana trashed her hand into the tree stump and tore out the massive tree from its stump. She was a half breed, meaning she was half wolf, half vampire. She was one of the only ones of her kind. Daniel knew never to mess with her.

“I do love you Aliana, but vampires shouldn’t fall in love.” He lied.

“What do you call your little rendezvous with Miss Mortal then? I saw you!”

‘It was nothing, it is nothing.”

“Liar!”

“It’s Zyochal business.”

“Don’t take me for a fool!” She tore his jersey off his back and scratched his chest with her paw. Daniel tried to control himself, he knew that he couldn’t attack her she was stronger and even if he won it would cause great division in the order.  Zach could hear the commotion a mile away. It was one of his traits, he was fast and he could read peoples minds. He had impressive agility and speed and he was closer to Daniel than he had expected to be. He stopped first and surveyed the situations he couldn’t risk getting Daniel killed. Aliana was a lunatic when it came to the likes of Daniel. Borderline obsessive wasn’t the word. He could hear her rambling on about Daniels mortal girl. “She’s was probably losing it,” he thought. He knew it was a bad idea to allow her to join their camp. A wolf should never be allowed in the presence of a vampire. Filthy creatures.

“Whose there?” Aliana screamed, she could feel someone was there.

Zach casually walked out of the bushes and tossed Daniel an apple that he had in his pocket.

“Just me Aliana, tell me what all of this fuss is about?”

Aliana knew that Zach was a force to be reckoned with and he knew exactly how to deal with her.

“Ask your brother he’s in love with a donor.”

Zach looked at his brother with a disapproving look.

“It’s not like it’s the first time…”

“Daniel go home, I’ve got this covered!”

Daniel jumped onto an adjacent tree and into the blazing sun. Zach and Aliana were left alone.

“Why can’t he love me Zach?”

Zach couldn’t answer this, he knew nothing about love, he never did and it did not interest him.

“I will stop him from seeing her. It’s against our rules anyway, that’s all I can do.” He said coldly and left.

Aliana sobbed tirelessly. She wanted him to feel something for her, she was certain he would’ve if only the donor hadn’t come around and changed his life around. She knew that there would only be one way to get Daniel to love her and that was to stop the human girl who had bewitched his heart.

***

Aliana knew there was only one person who could help her and it wasn’t anyone in the order. She had been living with them for centuries and what did they ever do for her? She was sick of having to live by their silly rules and idiotic ideologies. Now she had to do something to get revenge on the brothers Daniel and Zach. They had always been way to understanding of the humans and this was the last she had of that.

She walked up the stony path to the witch of Devonwaters house. The witch of Devonwater, Cedany was once one of England’s finest medieval countesses, she was suspected to be a witch by many and she was sent to be burned at the steak. Many believed her to be dead, but she had cheated death and won immortality in a sinister way. If anyone could cause Fleur’s destruction, it was Cedany . Aliana walked to the front of the door. The stony brick house looked sinister and dull. She knocked on the door, her white blonde hair blowing in the wind. Her violet eyes were calmer and the red had subsided but the artificial dark make-up lined her face. She touched her eyes and tilted her head to the side wondering if there was in anyone inside the cottage. A door opened only slightly.

“Whose there?” a creaking voice said.

“Ah…Aliana.”

“We don’t want any homeless people.” The person on the other side shut the door abruptly. Aliana knocked again.

“What!”

“Look lady I am not a homeless person and you know it, I need your help. Now are you going to give it to me or not?”

Cedany smiled, exposing her rotten teeth. “Well, why didn’t you say so in the first place.” Opening the door for Aliana to go inside.

“Crappy place you’ve got here.”

“We try.”

Inside there was a cauldron with green slime spewing over. It smelled rotten.

“That pot smells as bad as my love life.”

“Stop insulting ...”

Aliana knew instinctively that she needed to keep quiet.

“You want revenge.”

“How did you…”

“Know? I know everything.” 

“I don’t know, maybe we should kill her.”

“I don’t kill people, contrary to belief, but I do make them wish that they were dead.”

Cedany walked towards her stove and picked up an old rusted kettle. “Green tea?”

Aliana nodded. “There must be something you can think of doing; I mean you’re the expert here.”

“Yes I am and I have the perfect plan.”

Aliana smiled wickedly

“Good, then we have a deal.”

“Love me tender, love me right, love me until I die.”

Anonymous