The Return
After almost two weeks of not being home, and having to pretend as though I had not fallen for Duke, I dropped the bomb.
“I’m going home,” I said, my voice soft as I looked down. I was afraid of what Duke would say, what he would do. He hasn’t gone red on me recently, and neither had I. Somehow I knew that he wouldn’t take this information with glee though, and I was most definitely right.
“You are what?” Duke asked back, his voice like thunder pounding in my ears.
I felt tears gather in my eyes, and took I deep breath. “I want to go home. I need to go home Duke. My family, my friends they’re still alive. And I miss them! I need to be with them again!” My tears fell slowly and I wiped them away, hating myself for showing a sign of weakness.
“When you made the decision to become an Amatores Sanguinis, you made the decision to leave your family and friends behind too. I’m sorry if you did not know that, but you do now.” Duke’s eyes burned a light red, and I felt mine do the same.
“That’s just it Duke! I didn’t make this choice! You chose this lifestyle for me! I want to go home, so just let me! Is that so hard? I’m not Kallisto!” I screamed, and his eyes filled with pain.
I sagged against the wall, sliding to the floor. “I’m sorry Duke. I-I didn’t mean that.”
Duke turned away from me, his movements slow. “One does not say things they do not mean. Goodbye Tammy,” he whispered, then left the room.
I sat on the floor crying for hours, feeling Dukes pain as though it was mine. Was I too cruel bringing Kallisto into this? Maybe, but it was true. Kallisto left him because she’s a cold bitch, but I’m doing so to save myself. He’s in love with another girl! I’m not going to sit here and be miserable, so I need to go home.
When I finally calmed down, I gathered my small amount of things and left Dukes house. He was nowhere in sight, but I felt him watching me as I walked out his front door.
---
As I walked into school, I felt everyone staring at me. The girls eyebrows raised, and the boys mouths dropped. I knew I looked different then from when I was human, but it couldn’t be that bad... could it?
“Hey Tam!” Luke said, wrapping his arm around me. I forced a smile and looked up at him, the memories of biting him clutching at my heart.
“Um, hi Luke,” I answered back, my fangs itching to slip out. When was the last time I’d eaten? Two days ago? Three? I looked away from him, swallowing away the burning in my throat. Maybe coming to school wasn’t the best idea.
“You okay Tammy? You look kind of sick,” Luke said, confusion written on his face as he reached for my hand. I could tell he didn’t remember that night, or he would have been afraid of me. Instead of being afraid though, he was holding me as though I was his and his only. That made a small tear in the seams that made up my heart, because I wasn’t his anymore. I could never be his anymore.
Duke had stolen it from the moment he walked into my house and turned me. And it took me until just now, to really and truly understand that he hadn’t given it back. It took me just now, to notice that I would never want him to give it back. I just wanted to be back with him, in his arms. My family, my friends, they meant nothing to me anymore. We were too different.
My heart raced as I pushed Luke off of me, and ran out of the school and into the sun. I kept on running and running, until I stopped right at his house. Duke was never awake during the day, so knocking on the door would be futile. My nose wrinkled as the scent of something dead wafted towards me, an animal must be rotting somewhere, nothing else.
I shook the scent away, crouching on the steps, and getting comfortable as I waited for night to fall and Duke to wake.
Just as my eyes were closing though, a figure stepped out from the shadows, and then there was blackness.
---
I awoke in a daze, my head pounding. My eyes were covered with a bandanna, the fibers itching at my nose. I sniffed a little then gagged, my eyes rolling to the back of my head.
The stench was terrible. It was the smell of the corpse from outside Dukes house, though multiplied by thousands. It was almost as though the corpse was rotting from the inside-out. I stopped breathing, knowing that if I continued that I would pass out again.
There was no noise around me, not even the sound of ants paving their way through the ground. It was completely silent. I could feel a cold cement wall behind me, and cement flooring. My hands were behind my back, and I tried to move them.
A sharp burning pain, as though acid was being poured on my wrists, filled me and I screamed. I tried to move my wrists in my rush to stop the pain, but it just got worse and I soon began to hear the sound of sizzling and bubbling. It came from my skin.
I kept on screaming and screaming, the pain too much to bear, until my voice was raspy.
“No one except for me is around. So that screaming you are doing, well it will do you no good,” a girl’s voice said, and I whimpered.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked, my voice no louder than a mouse scampering through fields.
“Well, you tried to take my love. And so this is my revenge. Eternal pain.” The girls’ voice was sweet, and I felt my heart stop.
There was only one person this could be, unless Duke had other loves I did not know about.
“Kallisto.”