Chapter 54

  Vampire?

  Elijah crouched over, coughing to rid himself of the taste of bile. The immortal thing took a steady step closer.

  “Stay back!” Elijah exclaimed, raising a hand to fend off the vile monster, scuttling back, maintaining distance. The sixteen-year-old tried to sound fierce, but the quaver in his voice betrayed him.

  The creature sighed. All traces of levity left it, replaced by annoyance. The being took another step closer and mumbled under its breath, "Surprising, that usually cures anything.”

  “What?” yelled Elijah, his eyes darting about manically, his breathing rapid and shallow. It was all too much; panic rose from the pit of his stomach and attacked him in worsening waves.

  The black-clothed monster looked up to the sky in resignation, then disappeared. Before the teen could register what had happened, the thing reappeared in front of him, holding him so tight that he couldn’t even think of escape.

  Elijah's eyes were trapped within sinister red orbs. His mind tried to break free, to baulk, to run, but his body wouldn’t listen. It was frozen, caught like a muntjac in the lantern light.

  “Calm down.”

  Status Effect:

  You have been afflicted by the Status Effect: Compulsion. You feel compelled to do as you are told.

  Those two simple words, spoken with soft surety, had a profound effect. Elijah’s anger, his fear, his frustration, and his panic melted away as if it had never been there to begin with. A cold calm descended upon his thoughts, stripping away emotion and leaving only rationality.

  Releasing the suddenly placid man, the immortal took a step back and asked a question:

  “Could we perhaps talk civilly now?”

  The words were spoken as if to a toddler having a tantrum; the graceful raise of his perfectly manicured eyebrow practically dripped with condescension.

  Elijah stood up straight, took a tea towel off a rack, and wiped off his chin. The notification told the teen that, should this person choose to, they could make him do anything they wanted. It was best not to resist without some way to overcome that ability.

  “Can we talk elsewhere?” Elijah asked in a flat tone as he shot a deliberate glance towards the puddle of yuck on the floor. Despite his words, the teen no longer felt disgusted by the vomit; he no longer felt anything, this was just a play for time so that he might think of a way out of his predicament.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “Sure,” the tall, slender thing allowed. He snapped his fingers, and a feral man with fangs and claws appeared at his side with a whooshing sound. When the new monster, dressed in torn butler’s clothes, saw Elijah, he began salivating and crouched down on all fours, ready to pounce.

  The immortal stopped him with a word before directing the wild man to clean up the mess. To Elijah’s surprise, the snarling beast walked to a cupboard and took out a mop and bucket without so much as a word of complaint – assuming he could complain; for all Elijah knew, this beastly man couldn’t speak.

  “We can talk in the garden; the younglings hate the sunlight,” said the immortal, before turning on his heel and walking away. Not wanting to be forced, Elijah chose to follow along.

  While they walked, the teen tried to think. What did he know? What did he think he knew? Where did it all start?

  Elijah thought back to the face carved in the cave. The one he alone could see. The one that filled his mind with memories of this monster's hate-filled unlife. The one that had created an ineffable connection between the two of them.

  That creature in human skin who had drunk the blood of the innocent, who had torn apart those who opposed him, and who committed such atrocities that Elijah shivered at the very thought, even through the blanket of calm which swaddled his mind, juxtaposed against the stately, graceful man with a noble heir, living in a quaint country cottage, and helping young vampires ‘control their bloodlust’ gave Elijah pause.

  The teen wanted to ask questions; he needed to interrogate this thing! Then again, perhaps this snake wouldn’t take kindly to being enquired of. Elijah was not going to be forced into servitude like the ‘youngling’ whose horrible appearance had barely caused his calmed mind to feel slight unease.

  On second thought, this progenitor, as the notification had called him, said he wanted to have a conversation, so, logically, he was prepared to answer questions.

  The pair stepped through the kitchen door and out onto a well-manicured lawn surrounded on all sides by beech hedges and edged by flowerbeds filled with a range of different colours. Elijah decided to voice his thoughts aloud.

  “Wha–” The teen began but was cut off. The slender monster spun like quicksilver and, with one fluid movement, raised a pointy fingernail to the boy’s lips.

  “Shhh. There shall be time enough for questions. For now, I believe it best that you take a seat and listen quietly," the vampire instructed in his compelling tone of voice. Elijah complied instantly, sitting on the picnic table in the middle of the patch of green without saying a word.

  The lanky figure with willow-like limbs took the seat opposite and began staring into the young man’s eyes appeasingly. This continued for an uncomfortably long time. Crickets creaked and birds chirped; the man just continued staring.

  “I will tell you a story,” the vampire began matter-of-factly. “When I have finished, that look of defiance in your eyes will have melted, and you will see me in a new light; perhaps you may come to empathise with me.

  Then, you will ask why I have told you this, I will tell you, and your hatred of me will return, greater than ever. And you shall have good reason to be hateful.

  Finally, I shall offer you something. You will oppose vehemently, but I always get my way.”

  The words were not laced with that insidious imperativeness which robbed Elijah of his agency; however, the sixteen-year-old still felt they rang with the dreadful sound of truth. Defiantly, Elijah swore to himself that not a single thing this monster had said would come to pass, out of spite if nothing else. The teen hated having his questions forcefully restrained by this thing’s compulsion.

  “The story I am about to tell you happened long ago, when the torus was still whole, and the Gods had only just arrived. This is the story of my life…”