An Immortal in London: Corruption (24 page)

             
I wrapped my arms around her and rested her head on my chest. I held her close to me and we didn’t say anymore. It was too much for her to speak, to laugh, to smile. She was clinging on only to be with me, I was the only reason why she hadn’t let go, I was the only one that could free her from the suffering that she had endured just so that she had the chance to say goodbye. I stroked her hair and kissed her head, rocking her gently I sang songs of our past and kept her close to me. As I held her I felt her body tremble in my arms before it finally peacefully stopped.

             
I so often fought against my tears, but my defences crumbled around me and I let myself cry for Francis. I held my immortal sister in my arms and spluttered my denial as I sobbed with all of my heart, as the pieces of it scattered around us.

             
An old fashioned telephone rang out into the room and I stole myself from Francis.

             
I picked up the receiver and said nothing.

             
“How is our patient?”

             
“Where are you?”

             
“Outside.”

             
I dropped the phone and walked from my sister’s bedside.

             
As I reached the bottom of the stairs I lifted a marble statue of Mars and threw the Roman god through the locked front door sending splinters of oak through the frozen night air.

             
Stood in the driveway was the hideous creature that had taken so much from me.

             
“Tell me something,” she said, “How does it feel to lose everything?”

             
It felt like death. It felt like Hell. It felt like nothing.

             
“Not up to talking? Oh I’m sorry.”

             
I lifted my heavy eyes to meet hers and she laughed.

             
“The great Victoria Roseanna Jewels stands before me a pitiable wreck.”

             
I took my hands from behind my back and her eyes shifted down to them lazily. She was terrified of me, but the longer I stood in my solitary grief the more confident she became that she might in fact return to her
power
with my heart.

             
“This is going to be easier than I ever imagined.”

             
She slowly walked towards me, her dress seemingly floating behind her. I swallowed and stopped thinking. Thinking had gotten me to where I was, and that was no place good.

             
“I’m disappointed,” she whispered, her breath hot on my neck as she crept up to my side.

             
I closed my eyes and my lips trembled up into a smile as a single tear graced down my cheek. She stood back and as I opened my eyes and ran towards her she moved only slightly, kicking my legs as I flew and laughing as I landed face down in the gravel.

             
“Is that all you have?”

             
She stood over me and buried her monstrous black heel into my back. I screamed and my shouts pierced the frozen night as her shoe pierced through my skin. She walked around me and with her right foot bore down into me again as I tried to pull myself back up. I cursed her and scraped up a handful of gravel. I rolled onto my side and as she lifted her leg I threw the gravel up into her face. She jumped back and cursed my name.

             
I scrambled to my feet, warm blood pouring down my back.

             
I swayed, trying to keep my balance and ran once more towards her my arm held out. She took it swiftly in her cruel grasp and snapped it with ease. I collapsed at her side and she released my broken arm. I held it to my chest hopelessly as hot tears raced down my cheeks.

             
She lifted me by my neck and shook me, pushing me up against the front of the house.

             
“Goodbye Victoria.”

             
She tore the front of my dress and dragged her nails across my chest. She lifted her arm back and as she began to smile I closed my eyes.

             
Her hand would fall through the air and explode into my chest. Her fingers would search for my heart and when they found it they would tear it from me, not before she would look into my eyes and cackle, gloating over her prize. Still beating she would hold it above me and let my body collapse onto the rough gravel.

             
My eyes opened as her breath exploded onto my face. Her mouth and eyes were wide open. I dared to look down and where there should have been a gaping heartless hole there was my skin, perfect and flawless skin. Blood trickled down onto my bare feet, but it was not my own.

I looked up and the eyes that greeted me were those of my immortal child. He pushed her body away from me and she skittered across the gravelled driveway, he dropped her heart and took her place before me. Jesse looked down into my eyes and slowly lifted his hands, resting them first onto my arms before he pushed them up onto my shoulders. I let out the breath that I had been holding, keeping for my last, and he pulled me into the safety of his
dark arms.

TO BE CONTINUED…

By Melissa Condliffe