Chapter 20
1235 Words
"I'm not going to do it. You need to ask someone else." Blue hopped from the metal stool he was seated and tried to walk away. I brought him in my room and told him my plan but he looked like he had no plans of helping me.
"Blue, come on! You look like you're the only person I can trust here. You need to help me escape this place."
"Peter, I can't! If Hannah and Jared finds out that you're gone and with my help, I'm doomed."
"Blue, you don't understand!" I pressed. "My mom have no one else but me. If she finds out I'm missing, she'll freak out. I don't want her to worry about me."
I sat frustrated on the stool Blue just used, feeling hopeless of escaping this prison. I can't say for sure but I know I've been gone long enough for my mom to start freaking out about my long absence. She might have called the police already. I also didn't feel like staying here. If these people are in a war against a legion of vampires, I don't want to get caught up in the middle of it.
"I understand, Pete! Believe me, I really do. But don't you see? You going back to your house would mean risking your mom's life and your own!"
"Blue please, I'll be careful. I promise."
But Blue couldn't answer me anymore. He froze. His hands went still halfway in the air. His eyes slightly open, his mouth forming a small "O" as if saying "No". I tried to shake him but he didn't move. What happened to him? Fear and panic enveloped me. I didn't know what to do. I called out his name, I shook him, slap him, tickled him but nothing happened. He remained frozen. I thought he was already dead if not for his breathing and the air going in and out of his nose.
"Blue?" I squeaked.
"He's not going to hear you."
Hannah emerged from the dark near the door. She's wearing her black leather over-all outfit again, a black trench coat draped behind her back. Her black hair was in her usual high-ponytail, strands of her bangs covering one side of her face.
"What did you do to him?" I yelled at her. How did she got in here in the first place?
"He's time-frozen."
"Time what?"
"Time-frozen." She repeated as she approached me. "Don't worry he's fine. I had to do it so we can talk." She grabbed the stool behind me. "Do you really think I wouldn't know that you'd want to leave?"
"Fine. So you're Miss All-Knowing now?" I rolled my eyes and slammed my butt on the bed. I heard Hannah's deep breath.
"Peter, you have no idea what we are up againts. The Valerious coven is not like the vampires you read in fairytales. They're powerful immortal beings with no souls and no mercy. If you think I'm doing this just to pick at you, you're wrong. I've spent my entire life risking myself to get halfbloods like you to safety. You don't know what those vampires can do. They have connections in the mortal world. It's only a matter of time before they can wipe us all out."
"I still need to talk to my mom."
"If you talk to her, you'll risk her safety. I know you love your mom and if you do, the more you should stay away from her. Sometimes it's better to keep our distance from those we love if it means protecting them." She fell silent for a moment. "I. . . I learned that the hard way."
I can sense a hint of pain in her voice. For a few minutes, the room steered clear of any noise. None of us dared to break the silence. Hannah stayed staring at the lamp, me staring at her and Blue frozen as a statue between us.
I noticed the wall clock behind Hannah. It wasn't ticking. Did she really do it? stopped time? She must've heard my thoughts. She snapped her fingers and Blue dropped on the floor, slamming himself on the cold ground near Hannah's boots.
"Jeez! What was tha-Hannah? W-what are you doing here?" Blue giggled nervously and turned to me, silently questioning me how Hannah got inside the room. I gave him a shrug.
"Don't bother asking Peter about what happened. I know what you guys are planning."
"Eh?" Blue cracked up then fell silent. "You time-froze me, did you?"
"You got a problem with that?"
"No, of course not." Blue laughed again. "Peter was just kidding. He wasn't serious about running away, right Pete?"
"I told you I know what you guys talked about."
"Fine." Blue's shoulder dropped. His stare traveled to me, to Hannah and back and forth. "Alright," he decided. "I'll leave you to it, then." He exited the room like a gust of chilly winter breeze.
"So you can freeze time?" I told Hannah the moment Blue disappeared from sight. I remembered the hospital staff frozen on the hospital hallways. I remember my new watch not working during our ride home the other night. She must have caused all of those.
"Yes." She nodded. "It's my special ability. I can stop time from running. I can see the past or reveal the things that happened in it. But I cannot travel to the future nor foresee it. My power has limitations too."
"Yet enough to stone people to death, I think." I gave her a smile. She remained nonchalant. "If I'm one of you, then that means I too have powers, right? Except that I don't have ice spikes shooting out of my body or electricity traveling through my veins. . .or fingers that could snap the movement of time."
"Your powers will reveal themselves soon. That depends on who your ancestors are and what powers do they have."
I fell silent. I didn't knew who my real parents were. I was adopted. I didn't know where the frick did I come from. When my mom brought me home from the subway station she had no idea that I was a half human, half blood-sucking twig. I wonder if my she knew what I was. Would she still keep me? Would she still raised me if she knew I was a vampire baby?
"Peter, where did you get that necklace?" Hannah's voice brought me back from the wilderness of my thoughts. She sat beside me and fixed her eyes on the necklace on my neck. I don't know what's so special about it that got her attention.
"I don't know," I said. "I was already wearing it when my mom found me in the subway station. It must've been from my real parents. Maybe my mom or my dad. Why?"
She traced the letter V on the pendant. I didn't know if she was amazed, confused or scared. I'm pretty sure I didn't steal it. Hannah's face contorted. Her brows met. Her face screamed something I couldn't quite read.
"Oh my god," she exclaimed, eyes widening.
"What's wrong?"
She stared at me eye to eye. "You're no ordinary halfblood. You're a Valerious."
I felt a snowflake melting on the back of my neck. "What does that mean?"
"It means that you are in a much bigger trouble than the rest of us."
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To be continued...
- Writer
