Risen (Book #6 of the Vampire Legends) (8 page)

Rachel walked up the front
walkway towards her grandmothers front door. It was breaking dawn and the sun
was peaking up over the tall stalks or corn on the neighbors farm. She looked
down at her watch and it was nearing five in the morning. She remembered her
grandmother was an early riser, but she didn’t know if she’d be up this early.

As she approached the large front
door her heart began to beat faster and faster. She didn’t know why she felt so
nervous to see her grandmother, but she did. She couldn’t explain all the
emotions that were running through her head, but she knew she was here for a
purpose and that was to find out answers about her family. She had to get to
the bottom of what was happening to her and to her family and her grandmother
was the only person in the whole world who could help her now.

She lifted her shaking fist up to
the large door and was about to knock when the door swung open and her
grandmother appeared.

She looked different than what
she’d remembered. She stood there, tall and lean, in a silk bathrobe with
images of Andy Warhol’s Marilyn painting on it. She looked as glamorous as
ever. Her makeup was perfectly done and her lipstick was a beautiful shade of
red that really made her lips pop.

“Grandma!” Rachel yelled as she
stood there in the doorway.

“Excuse me, child?” the woman
replied.

“Grandma?” She asked. “What’s
wrong?”

“Who are you calling grandma?”

Rachel let out a laugh. “You’re
joking! That was funny!”

“Please leave my property, NOW!”
the woman yelled.

“What?” Rachel said. “Are you
serious?”

The woman took a step towards
Rachel which made her back up in fear. She could tell the woman was getting
really upset as she approached her.

“Back up!” Rachel said.

“Get off of my property!” she
said again.

“Grandma! Have you lost your
mind? It’s me, Rachel!”

“I don’t have any grandchildren!
No get lost, kid!”

“Yes you do! C’mon Grandma, it’s
me. You’re favorite granddaughter!”

“I’m going to call the police on
you!”

Rachel couldn’t understand what
was going on. It was as if her grandmother had completely lost her mind. She
didn’t look like a senile old woman-in fact, she looked quite the opposite. She
was well dressed, groomed, and put together for so early in the morning and
from what she could tell, she was quite lucid. She just couldn’t figure would
why her grandmother didn’t recognize her.

She saw the woman begin to shake
and her eyes turn red. She knew something was wrong, but she couldn’t pin point
what was happening. She noticed small hairs growing all over her body as she
stood there, eyes opening wider and wider focusing in on Rachel’s body. She
began to get scared, really scared.

It looked to Rachel as if this
woman was going to kill her. She started to back away as the woman’s eyes
started to light up red and zero in on her neck. She knew this was going to be
trouble as she started to move away quicker.

“You asked for this,” the woman
said, as she began to move quicker towards Rachel.

“What are you doing? Go away!”
Rachel yelled.

“I can’t now. You’re under my
spell,” the woman said, fixated on Rachel’s eyes.

“Stop staring at me! This is
creepy!” Rachel said, as she began to run away.

She turned to look over her
shoulder but the woman had vanished. As she turned to face forward she felt a
hand stopping her and pushing her back by her gut.

“Not so fast!” the woman said,
now miraculously standing in front of her holding her back. “You didn’t think I’d
let you get away did you?”

“Please! Let me go!” Rachel
yelled as she tried to pull her body away from her tight grasp. “LET GO!”

“You’re strength will not get you
far, child. You should give in now,” the woman said, in a hypnotic tone. “Give
in to me. Let your fears fade away into the darkness.”

“NO! STOP IT!”

“Let go of wanting to control
this situation. Let go of your desires. Let go of wanting to live,” the woman
continued.

Rachel started screaming in hopes
of drowning out what the woman was saying to her. She didn’t want to come under
her spell and she knew if she listened to the words she might.

“Please! Grandma! It’s me,
Rachel. Remember me?” she tried to convince her one more time.

The woman lifted Rachel into the
air and looked at her right in the eyes. Rachel’s body shook as she hovered in
the air. The woman started spinning her upside down over and over again.

“Stop! I’m sick! Please!” Rachel
yelled. “Put me down!”

Then, all of a sudden, the woman
put her down on the ground, and grabbed her ear.

“What’s this?” she said, snapping
out of her trance.

“What’s what?” Rachel asked.

“You have the snakes triangle
behind your ear, child.”

“Snakes triangle?” Rachel asked.

“Yes! My gosh, I’m sorry, child.
You are one of us. I’m sorry for the mix up, I had no idea you were coming to
visit,” she said, completely changing her tone.

Rachel now stood there, in
complete shock. One minute this woman was about to kill her the next, she was a
happy old grandma, waiting to welcome her with open arms.

“Rachel, my dear. How have you
been?” she asked.

“Excuse me?” Rachel asked. “I’m sorry,
but you just tried to kill me, do you remember that?”

“Oh please! That was nothing. Don’t
mind me. I get a little crazy with unexpected guests.”

“Unexpected guests? Grandma? Did
you not recognize me?” Rachel asked again.

“You know what, child. At my age,
it’s a miracle I can even see a thing!” her grandmother said. “Come inside and
have a cup of tea, Darling. Let’s clean you up.”

Rachel didn’t know if she should
stay or go after what had just happened. A huge part of her wanted to run from
the scene, but she knew she had to stay to find out what the letter was all
about. She had to find out who she really was and get to the bottom of her
family secret.

“Ok,” Rachel said, accepting her
offer. “Promise me you won’t scare me like that again.”

“It comes in waves after the
accident. I can’t control it, but I will try my best. Now that I know you are
one of us, I can promise you I won’t hurt you. The snakes triangle will prevail
and you will never get hurt by one of your kind.”

“What are you talking about, Grandma?”
she asked.

“You don’t know?”

“No?”

“You’re mother never told you?”

“Um, nope! But it sure would be
nice to know what it was that just saved my life.”

“The snakes triangle is our
families crest and it is etched in behind your ear.”

“What are you talking about?”
Rachel asked, trying to think if she’d ever noticed it before.

“You haven’t seen it?”

“Never!”

“It is very subtle but when you
were just four days old we had the traditional carving ceremony done and etched
the snakes triangle behind your ear so that you would have the official stamp
of our people,” her grandmother started to say.

“What?” Rachel asked.

“You were just a baby, so you
probably don’t remember such things. It was a beautiful ceremony, that I can
assure you,” her grandmother continued.

“This is getting weird,” Rachel
said.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t begin our
visit this way. I’ll stop,” her grandmother said.

“No, please. By all means. Keep
going. I just didn’t know any of this and now I’m wondering why it was kept
from me all these years.

“Come sit down, Rachel,” her
grandmother said, as they entered the kitchen. “You can put your bags right
there on that chair.”

Rachel put her things down and
plopped herself down in the chair. She felt a bit more at ease now, but still
knew her grandmother could go off like a loose cannon. She didn’t want to get
too comfortable since she knew she still had to keep her guard up.

“This is quite the pleasant
surprise visit,” her grandmother said.

“Well, yes, I guess it is,”
Rachel said.

“Was there something you needed?
I haven’t seen you in years!”

“I know. I haven’t seen you
since-well, I can’t even remember.”

“It’s been a while, I know. I’m
sad about that, but after the accident, your mother asked if I would stay away
for a
 
while.”

“What do you mean? She told us
that you didn’t want to come see us anymore and that’s why you didn’t visit.”
Rachel said, trying to recall the story. “She said you’d gotten too busy with
your life that you didn’t have time to visit.”

“Well, my dear, we all say crazy
things something. And we even say things that are not true. I’m sure she was
only trying to protect you,” her grandmother said.

“Protect me? From what?”

“Well, never mind,” her
grandmother said. “What type of tea do you like, Dear. Is peppermint alright?”

“Yes, that’s fine,” Rachel said. “What
were you saying thought? Protect me from what?”

She hoped that her grandmother
would tell her what was going on. She needed to know the truth about the family
and didn’t want to be shielded from it anymore. She was old enough to know.

“Listen, Rachel. I really don’t
know if now is the appropriate time. I have not seen or discussed this with
your mother, and I don’t know if she would want you to know.”

“Grandma. I have to know. Strange
things have been happening to me, and I can’t explain it. I do not feel like my
old self and I don’t know why. I don’t know what has happened to me.”

“What sort of strange things, my
dear?”

“I don’t know. All kinds of
things.”

Rachel didn’t want to get into
specifics with her grandmother. She didn’t feel comfortable to do that so
quickly into their visit. Especially since the woman she thought she could
trust tried to hurt her just minutes ago. Now, she was acting as if nothing had
happened and she wanted to know all the details of her life.

“If you don’t tell me, I can’t
help you,” her grandmother said.

“Listen, that is not what really
matters right now. What I’m most concerned about is
THIS,”
Rachel said, as she reached into the pocket of her jacket.

“What?” her grandmother asked as
she watched her intently.

Rachel fumbled around in her
pocket reaching for the letter she had brought with her. She knew she had to
take it out and read it.

“THIS!” she said, holding up the
old letter in its original envelope with the name Betsy on the front.

Instantly, she watched as her
grandmother’s demeanor changed. Rachel knew she knew exactly what she was
holding. She looked at the letter closely and then looked away as if ashamed or
embarrassed by it.

“Where did you find that, young
lady?”

“I found it in our attic at home,”
Rachel replied nervously.

“Attic?”

“Yes, I found it up there when I
was looking for something,” Rachel said.

“Here, let me read it to you,”
Rachel said as she cleared her throat to begin.

Dear
Betsy,

Now
that you are older, I can tell you who you really are and who we really come
from. I can tell you the secrets of our family past and let you in on our
secret life. This information is confidential and must strictly remain within
our side of the family. You are never to tell your children or your husband.
You have to promise me that you will not share our family’s history with anyone
and you will take it to your grave. For I am the only remaining survivor from
the time and the only one who holds the secrets. Meet me in the cemetery at the
tomb of your grandfather, and I will share with you what I know.

Love,
your mother.

As she finished reading the
letter she looked up at her grandmother who was sitting there tearing up.

“I can’t believe you found this,”
she said.

“Well, what does it all mean?”
Rachel asked.

“I shouldn’t tell you,” she
replied.

“Why not?”

“You’re too young to understand.”

“TOO YOUNG?” Rachel yelled. “I’m
not too young. I’m almost eighteen years old, Grandmother. I have a right to
know who my family is and who I really am. Don’t you see I’m desperate. I came
here to learn who I am. You can’t hold this information secret anymore. I must
know!”

“I’m sorry, Rachel. It is just
too long of a story to share with you at this time.”

“What do you mean? I’m not going
anywhere. I have all the time in the world!”