I'M NO ORDINARY MAN

Chapter 2

The stone wall in my room seemed to shift away. I took one last, quick – brief – glance at my room. I had second thoughts, but I lost them as soon as I was walking down the dark passageway.

The stone steps were rather old, I concluded. The champagne was wearing off again. s**t! He wanted to blame it all on the alcohol if the police found him. The walls were filled with strange carvings. I walked on until I found a black door blocking my way. I tried the handle but found it stuck. I slammed my body against the door.

The door broke away and fell down, dragging the hinges along with it. I lifted the door and put the door back in its place. Though I knew how useless it was, I didn't really care much. Now, what will I do? I thought as I looked around.

It was dark now. The buildings looked old and really dilapidated. The surrounding was peaceful and silent. So much that I had to admit it was a rather creepy there. The Outer London would not be a good place to hang out at night.

I quickened my pace and my instinct went wild, and my blood pressure went up like crazy. I sensed that someone was following me. Not only that, but the fact that someone was really following me actually freaked me out. The last thing I needed was for some unknown murderer to come and kill me. Paranoid?

Delusional? I don’t think so.

The strangest thing was there was no fear that overwhelmed me. Next, someone or something flew at me and had me pinned against the nearest and very filthy wall. I couldn't understand myself at that time because despite the fact that someone might want to kill me, I wasn't the slightest bit worried.

The man who held me by my collar looked kind of French. His skin glowed with the moonlight that shone in the sky. He held his hand, in a claw – like motion at a perfect aim for my neck. His eyes were red, bright red as though an LED was placed inside.

‘Dinner is served,’ a female voice intruded. ‘The last time we had an English dinner was when it was 1809, I presume?’ asked the man holding me.

‘Was it that guy who was the British diplomatic envoy, Benjamin Bathurst?’ the woman snooped in.

‘I have to admit I did enjoy that female woman MORE,’ the man stated and started to laugh.

I did not find anything that seemed funny enough to laugh about. But the woman glared at the man with her scarlet eyes. Her gaze seemed to bore right through me.

‘Sweden, 4th of May, 1923. The cops were rather keen on the body of the prostitute you left. They named the case, 'Vampire Murder Case' since you left the body of your bloodless victim behind. Very stupid of you, Jacque. Don't you think so, my dear Rose?’ a new voice spoke.

The only answer was hushed silence. I could hear the faint whisper of the wind, blowing about us calmly. The moon was in its complete form. My brain felt slow that night.

Then, after a few thoughts, ideas or mostly possibilities that I might have just walked into a pack of cannibals burst into me. I stood rather still. Perhaps if I stayed silent enough they might just forget about me and I might just be able to escape. But, it wasn't as easy as I thought.

‘So... Are we allowed to use our names now, Jack?’ the female, Rose spoke.

‘Yes, you may. And what do we have here, mademoiselle?’ the stranger with the black cloak, Jack sighed.

‘A human, what else,’ Rose added in a placid tone.

There was a hint of annoyance in her tone.

And, I also noticed the way she spoke the word human, as though she wasn't one. That's when Jacque burst out laughing. Rose and Jack turned to look at him.

‘He thinks we are humans. His poor incompetent mind, accusing us of being a fragile, weak human. That's the funniest joke I had ever heard of in an entire century,’ Jacque spoke aloud.

The others remained silent. It looked like they were mocking Jacque now. Rose was upset, I realized after Jacque had brought about the subject about his victims being a prostitute.

‘Enough of your silly jokes. Let us continue feeding and best be on our way. The Elders granted us one last chance to get rid of the werewolves. The First h*******t is nearly here and we must be prepared. We don't know how Andrade will end us, yet,’ Rose muttered and three pairs of raving eyes focused on me.

Jacque let go of me and I dropped to the ground. My elbow was grazed a little. I lifted my hand and found a cut, and blood oozed out from the open wound. Jacque flexed his muscles uneasily and Jack's eyes opened wide. Rose stood calmly at my side, hand raised, ready to strike me dead.

'Wait!' Jack ordered. ‘His blood has a familiar touch to it. A scent I recognise, the scent of the blood of the Boy of the Destiny. He is our boy. After our weary and long search, the Boy is finally revealed,’ Jack exclaimed, happily.

'What about the you – know – what, the gift of the End Gods to a man as legend says. Does he have it?’ Jacque sighed. 'Come here, boy!' shouted Jack.

I walked over to him. He snatched my bag and searched it for something. My thoughts flew to the gold diamond, my most priceless treasure.

Just as I thought of that, Jacque grinned.

'He thinks it’s just a diamond,' Jacque said. Jack pulled out the white handkerchief I had used to wrap my treasure in. He shook it and the diamond fell on the palm of his hand. He passed it over to me.

It was warm, and this was strange. I remembered taking it from an old house and it wasn't warm at that time. It seemed to emit a rather feverish glow and then died out. A wind seemed to settle itself around me.

'Maybe, he can't-

But Jack stopped right there. The diamond was starting to glow again. It began as a flush of yellow light and gradually increased in brightness. Surprisingly, a golden ray of light erupted and propelled itself into the sky. More beams shot into the sky and I noticed something strange happening to the moon. White, circular – shaped rings were forming around the moon. It swirled like mist around it and for a moment, it looked breath-taking.

Suddenly, I stumbled on the uneven road and lost grip of the golden diamond. It slipped and clattered on the road. Immediately, everything vanished. Even the moon vanished beyond the thick clouds.

'You are the One,' Jack said in a matter–of– fact way.

'We need him to control the diamond. The diamond is the only Gift from the Gods that can help us now. He has to come with us but I fear our journey is not fit for a mere human.

Therefore, he has to become one of us,'

'He? One of us? This little boy as a vampire? You know as well as I do that the Elders will not agree to the idea of creating a kid vampire, Jack…’' spoke Rose.

‘He’s old enough for a transformation. Aren’t you, my boy?’ Jack asked, turning to me. ‘I… d-d-do-don’t know what you’re talking about….’ I muttered, fear tensing inside me. 'So, who's going to do it?' Jacque asked, intruding my response.

'I'll do it...

'Why are you the one who is supposed to transform him?'

'I guess because I can resist the temptation of blood...' 'So?'

'So...Shut up!' Jack growled at Jacque angrily. Jacque backed away slowly as Jack made his way towards me. My legs felt like jelly. My mind was screaming in terror, telling me to run. But I knew that fate couldn't be changed. So, I did the bravest and most probably the foolish thing I had ever done. I stepped forward to meet him. Jack threw a curious glance at me. 'This is for your own good,' whispered Jack in my ear.

I felt his lips touching my throat for a second. There was a soft bite, like a sting and then, Jack lifted his lips clear off my neck. A pain buzzed through my neck, my body shrieked in protest as the venom started to flow.

I fell down on the road and my head began to spin. My surrounding was all blurring. Out of the blue, I felt a similar pain in my legs and hands. The pain spread faster and it grew deadlier by the minute.

‘I told you to stay off him...’growled a voice that might've belonged to Jack.

‘I wanted to prove it to you! Prove that I could resist blood,’ Jacque argued back.

‘What did you think, that we’ll bite another kid like this?’ Jack growled again. ‘Rose, I thought you had some sense in yourself, unlike Jacque here…’

‘I follow what the boys do, and please take note that I never get left out!’ screeched Rose. ‘Fools! Do you know what you've done? You've passed on your powers to him,’ roared Jack in anger.

‘To think the Gods favoured him enough. With this power transfer of not one – but three vampires whom were all gifted...’

‘But...I can still hear your minds,’ replied Jacque in horror.

How could he not know about this fact? He had lived for almost three centuries on Earth. It seemed outrageous that he had missed out a really vital piece of information about the venom of a vampire.

‘Of course you still have your powers. The power that resides within you now is a somewhat copy of your powers. You've passed on your matured power over to him...’ continued Jack.

‘Can't we extract the venom back?’ questioned Rose.

‘No, it's too late. I'm afraid that cannot be done,' sighed Jack.’ The vampire transformation has already begun.'

‘I doubt that sucking out the venom will do any harm to us?’ pondered Jacque loudly.

‘Why do I end up with the thick–headed vampires of the End of Time?' Jack groaned angrily.

‘There are certain vampire transformation rules that comply with this. Once a vampire bites a human, the human's mortal life is over. What the human shall face will and must only be immortality or death. If the vampire that bit the human acts on withdrawing or extracting the venom, the vampire itself will suffer a fate worse than death. The vampire will succumb first and later on die the way all immortals die...’ Jack explained.

‘And what is that?’ Rose asked.

‘The death of an immortal person is not like a mortal. A mortal endures pain before he releases his last breath. That is the end of a mortal person. But for an immortal, the last breath released is the beginning of a new life. Therefore, in the end the immortal will simply fade away. Dissolve into nothingness, that'll be the fate that you'll face if you even try...’

There was a long moment of silence. I lay in the background, writhing in pain at the fiery sensation that was spreading throughout my body. I screamed as I felt more pain bursting into my head. I grabbed my head, wanting to smash it against something.

The pain was driving me nuts. And even worse, killing me from the inside.

‘So what will happen to him?’ I heard Rose speak, her voice becoming faint and it sounded so far away.

I couldn't hear anything else because I had already passed out into a world of pain and eternal darkness...