THE VAMPIRE AND I

TWO

“I can see why you won’t shut up about her, she’s gorgeous.”

“Most beautiful of the bunch, I’ll say.”

“I wouldn’t say she is the most beautiful, the redhead is the most beautiful of the bunch.”

“You’ve always had a thing for redheads.”

“And you, a thing for brunettes.”

Mike smiled. He had first met her three days ago but he doubts she’d remember. He had been captivated by her eyes, those two pools of emerald shining eyes. Tall, brunette, green eyes all in one woman, add sharp witted to that and of course he’d be interested.

“The one with the black and blonde hair though,” Mark said wistfully.

“You are so greedy, she’s taken already.”

They exited the classroom into an open field, “Even some married women still have boyfriends,” Mark argued.

“Well, I won’t be there to save you when her boyfriend tears your head off.”

“Tear not bite?” came a voice from behind them.

They turned, “Alicia, what a pleasant surprise!” Mike said.

“Is it?” she asked with a hard voice. Alicia’s features are like that of a man excluding the fact that she is a short one. Her black hair was cut short and her brown eyes devoid of emotion. She was a good friend though, a very good friend.

“Come on. Mark may not be happy to see you but I am.”

“That is not what you are, what you are is a fool. Both of you are fools.”

“Here it goes. What did we do this time? We’ve been minding our business a great deal.”

“Those girls. The ones you are going on about, only one of them is human, you know that?”

“What? How?” Mark asked plainly confused. “They are perfectly normal beings. Mike and I felt their energy, it was pure.”

“Apparently, your reading meter is damaged because they are far from pure.”

They stood looking confused in the cold but they didn’t even feel it. They didn’t feel the whistling of the wind or the sharps jaws of cold biting into their flesh. Students hurried by them wondering if they were crazy, the temperature had dropped since morning, it seemed like ice cold rain was hanging in the sky by a loose thread.

“Which one of them is human?” Mike asked breaking the silence.

Alicia sighed and started to walk with them following behind, “That’s the problem.”

“What is the-? You don’t know which one of them is human?”

“Yes, Mike. We don’t know which one is human.”

Mark scoffed, “Then how did you know three of them isn’t human?”

Alicia looked ashamed and uncomfortable for a minute, “It was the Sage.”

Mark and Mike’s facial expressions became hardened, their gray eyes shone as bright and hard as granite marbles for a minute then went back to normal.

“I told Father to kill him.”

“He wanted to. He really wanted to, Mark, the Sage sweettalked himself out of it.”

“Loads of bullshit, Alicia. If it is coming from the Sage then I don’t want to hear it. He is an opportunist and I will be damned if I listen to one word he says,” Mike said angrily and stomped off.

“You know what? I thought Father at least respected us to not do this. I don’t want to hear anything about the Sage.”

“Mark, you need to-”

“Bullshit,” he cut her off angrily. “I won’t hear anything else either,” and went after Mike.

Alicia stood there and watched him go, there was nothing she could do. She had promised their father that she would try her best and she had, for today. She turned to go back to the hotel she was staying, she’d try again tomorrow.

Mark found his brother in an empty classroom biting his nails off. He was angry, they were both angry. They had kicked the Sage out of their lives, killing him shouldn’t even be a debate.

“Hey.”

Mike turned and shook his head, “Where is she?”

“Alicia? I don’t know. I left her outside, she’d have gone back.”

“No, not like that. She’ll be around, waiting to convince us that she is right.”

“What if she is?”

Mike looked at his twin bewilderedly, “You can’t be serious. There is no truth there, its just the Sage trying to remain relevant.”

“Yeah, I don’t believe that,” he put his palms out, “Hear me out. How did he know about them? We had our first contact with the four of them today. In fact, only two of them talked to us. How on earth did he know about them?”

Mike sighed and rested his head against a chair, “Prolly still has those visions cos that’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“Yeah,” he sighed. They kept quiet, each in their own thoughts thinking of how the Sage knew what he knew.

“Unless-” They both said at the same time. Neither of them finished the thought as they ran to their dorm. They flew past the matron and up to their room.

“Hey, take it easy-” Their friend, Walter was saying as they burst into the room. They didn’t allow him finish, Mike grabbed his throat and put enough pressure to have him gasping for breath.

“Why?!” he shouted as the guy continued to struggle out of the grip.

“Mike? Let me handle this, drop him.” Mark was the calmer of the two, he could control his anger better.

Mike flung Walter across the room. He sat up wheezing, he coughed and tried to get his breath back as they waited for him.

“Why were you informing on us to Sage?”

“What the hell are you talking about? I didn’t do shit.”

“Don’t lie now, Walter,” Mike warned.

He looked at the both of them and sighed heavily, “I was not informing on you. I was protecting you.”

Mark laughed sarcastically, “By documenting our lives to the Sage? You are the reason he won back our father’s trust, he must have made the man believe he could still get visions."

“Look, its true but I did it to protect you. He said something bad could happen to you and we should try to avoid it if we can."

“Yeah, yeah. What was so special about the girls then? I can’t imagine you and the old man sitting around discussing girls.”

“He told me something would take all of your attention and truth be told? Those girls are the only thing both of you think about now.”

Mike sat down on one of the beds, he couldn’t believe it. None of this s**t makes sense, “How then did he know about their beings? You sent their energy to him?”

“No, I still don’t know how to do that. I sent pictures,” Walter stood up, dusted himself and righted the table he was thrown into. “If it’s worth it, I am sorry. But if something happened to you and I could have stopped it? I won’t forgive myself. Besides, the Sage isn’t really as bad as you say.”

“It’s the fact that none of you has eyes to see what we see that vexes me,” Mark said and left the room angrily. Mike laid his back on the bed and ignored Walter. Executing the Sage shouldn’t even be an option, he was a worthless man.

Father had gone soft. Five years ago, he’d have had the Sage burnt at the stake for what he did without battling an eyelid. He wondered what his mother was doing, she’d be knitting and cooking or a million of other things to relieve her stress. No doubt she’s stressed, his father would have complained to her and told her everything.

He closed his eyes and went into his private world of bliss. No matter. If the girls were supernatural beings, he’d deal with it. He got that brunette and he’s not letting go.

Mark had gone to the picnic field. He sat watching the insects doing their thing, the cold had thawed. The birds were singing their hearts out and the butterflies were fling their wings out. He wondered how much fun it was not to worry about anything, must be a lot of fun.

“Mike?” asked a voice from his back.

He turned to see the redhead, “The brother, Mark.”

“Oh, sorry. I saw the back of your head, looked like him.”

“It’s all right, I get that a lot.”

“Irene,” she put her hand forward, he took it reading her energy once again. He looked into her golden-brown eyes but all it gave him back were human’s feels.

He cleared his throat, “Want to join me?”

“I won’t be interrupting? You look like you want to be alone.”

“Why would I want to do that when there is a beautiful woman that could join me.”

She smiled and sat down, “You know the right words.”

“I do, don’t I?” They sat in silence watching people walking around. The weather change was abnormal, the sun had come out suddenly.

“Where are your friends?”

Irene looked at him curiously, “My friends? I thought we just met, how do you know about my friends?”

“Well, you see,” he said smiling, “My brother had seen you guys at a restaurant or something three days ago and since he won’t shut up about the four beauties he saw.”

“Didn’t take Mike for a tattletale.”

“He is. Is your friend thinking about dinner yet?”

“Now it’s dinner? I thought it was lunch?” she asked raising one of her brows up.

“A man can hope, can’t he?”

“And what are you hoping for?”

She was flirting with him and he didn’t mind, “To take you out to lunch.”

“Pretty bold. Let me make it better for you,” she said as she stood up. “Let’s do dinner, I have this gown sitting in my wardrobe. Bye,” and she sashayed away.

Mark sat there grinning like a fool even after she was far gone. He better starts shopping.