An Echo of Royalty

1

    You know the feeling of self-hate that you get after you did something wrong… or didn't do something…

    I gasped, and woke in a cold sweat. The tank top I wore to bed stuck to my skin. The nightmare faded, but would not go away completely. My blanket lay crumpled on the floor beside my cot and I reached for it. Pulling it onto my body, I looked around my tent. 

    The nightmare crossed my vision again as it had so many times. 

    Two years ago, when I was eighteen and home for the summer before college, the vampires came. They attacked and killed so many people. They ripped the city apart. We saw this on the news, and my father knew we had to leave. He grabbed his hunting gear and gun from his closet, coats for all of us, and food to last a couple days. Dad didn't have an exact location planned. He just knew that we were getting out of the city.

    It was early morning, we were pulling out of the garage when they came out of nowhere. My dad's window shattered, and he disappeared from view after being pulled from the car. He shrieked. The sound became garbled.

    My mom reached for me. Her door was flung open, and she was yanked from the car too. I stayed sitting in the back seat, too scared and shocked to try and save them. I didn't do anything at all, except stare at where my mother had vanished. 

    The strange thing was the vampires never came for me.

    I sat in the back of the car, waiting for my turn to come, but it didn't. When I finally got the nerve to move, I scrambled into the front seat, peering out the window, I saw both my parents lying together in a heap. Their clothes were torn and bloody. There was so much blood…so much… 

    I shook my head, trying to force the memory away. I couldn't sleep anymore. Climbing off my cot, I glanced at the watch on my wrist, six twenty three. I’ll probably be the first one to the kitchen. I put on my clothes and pushed through the flap of the tent into the dim morning, hints of sun rays darting across the tops of the trees. 

    No one else seemed to be up this early, so I had the breakfast table all to myself. The kitchen area was an interesting set up, with shelves and tables brought from the town just over the mountain. It worked for us. The bins that held cereal were on the ground. I pried one open, Bingo, Cheerios. Now if I only had some milk, but that’s out of the question. I certainly didn't have a cow to milk, so water worked. I filled a bowl and added water and took a bite. Stale.

    "Morning." Joe came to the kitchen area and grabbed a bowl off the make-shift shelf and sat down on the creaking stool. He grabbed the Cheerios and made himself breakfast and took a bite. "Wow, these are awesome." He smiled up at me. "We need to find some different food the next time we go out." He took another bite.

     He wasn’t wearing a shirt again and I peered at his abs. Would they be warm if I leaned over and touched them?

     I forced my eyes back to my Cheerios, nodding in agreement.

    We ate our breakfast in silence as the sun rose for the day. People slowly stirred in their beds and made their way to us. It was now time for me to leave. The less contact with everyone, the better. They weren’t mean, I just didn’t want any friendships.

    I got my toothbrush and paste and headed to the wash tent. I still enjoyed having a clean mouth, even though hardly anyone else bothered. Washing my face and brushing my teeth, gave me a normal feeling, something I missed.

     When I finished, people began to gather in the clearing. The small open space was the perfect size for soccer. They were dividing teams as I walked by. Richard had challenged Rico yesterday for this tournament and I guess they were going through with it.

    With the sun now up, the dark grey clouds above me were more visible so I sat under one of my favorite trees. It overlooked the play ground and there was enough room to lounge under it without getting tree sap on me, plus I stayed dry when it rained. Just then, it started to sprinkle. 

    I watched the game, wanting to join them, but knowing I shouldn't. Bonds were not something I was looking for because I wanted to leave soon, when I found the right moment. I'd told myself that for so long, I didn't know if it would happen anymore.

     "Echo, what are you doing?" I jumped at Joe's voice. He slid soundlessly under the tree. "Why don't you come and play with us? I think you'll like it." He reached over to touch my shoulder. 

     I scooted away. "I don't want to. I'm fine righ' here." I pushed a pebble on the ground with my foot.

"I don't understand you. You always keep to yourself. It's like you don't like us, or you’re trying hard not to." He sat against the tree, closer to me. 

      "You don't have to understand me." I slid away from him again. So go away, so I don't have to feel your amazing warmth.

     "Well, it would be nice to know why I can't merely sit down next to you. Why you won't do anything with the people here, except Trina.” He closed the gap between us by sliding the same way I did. He touched my shoulder. "We’re not bad people, you know. Nobody here hates you. They've just given up trying to get you to like them."

    I turned to him, flicking his hand at the same time. We now faced each other, close enough to hold one another. I wiped that idea out of my mind. "First of all, I don't hate anyone here. You're good people. Second, I don't care if they hate me. And third, stop tryin' to get close to me." His brilliant blue eyes searched mine. My stomach tightened. Dropping my gaze to catch my breath, I crawled out from under the tree and stared at the ground as I headed across the clearing. 

     He was right about me; I have tried to stay away from them when possible. At least if I'm mean, they’ll leave me alone. Trina was an elderly woman in the group, almost like a shaman. She was a doctor before all this crap happened.

     Joe was the leader. His father died a couple months ago and that put Joe in charge. He's real nice, and attractive too. He's been nice to me ever since I got here. I've always liked him, until lately when he's tried to get to close to me. 

     Something smacked the back of my head and I stumbled forward. Turning to see what had got me, I rubbed my skull. The soccer ball rolled away as Joe jogged up.

     "You okay?" He reached to the back of my head.

    I pushed his hand away. "I'm fine. Light concussion." I walked away from him to the edge of the clearing, still massaging.

    I chose a tree that was within sight of the main part of camp. Joe had a tendency to follow me when I went out of visual sight. Supposedly making sure I didn't get hurt. "There are a lot of dangers out here in the forest," he'd said when I asked him about it. I always got the feeling he liked me. That's not ego, but why would someone follow me around out here, saying that I could get hurt by an animal, when we fight the monsters of the night and survive?

     I rubbed my head and squeezed my eyes shut. It really does hurt. I glanced back at the group and scowled.

     The rain had stopped so I didn't have a problem leaning up against a tree. I pulled out my knife, grabbed a stick from the ground, and carved at it. We had another patrol tomorrow morning, so I wanted to prepare. You can never have too many stakes around. 

     Trina came up to me with a bowl in her hand. She sat against the tree across from me, her brown-grey hair in a soft bun, her large pale shirt and pants rustling as she moved. "Try this." She held a spoon out for me.

     It had a brown paste on the end of it. I stuck the tip in my mouth. The flavor was slightly bitter but sweet at the same time. "Honey?"

     "Honey bark. I thought we should try to see if it works. It might help people tide over their stomachs whenever we run out of food."

     I grinned. "They won't try it once they find out what it's made from." I held up the spoon to examine the remainder of the brown contents.

     "Who said I had to tell them? They will eat what I give them or they will learn to starve, it's that simple." She smiled back at me.

      I chuckled to myself and went back to the stake.

     "What did Joe want this morning?" she asked.

     I glanced up at her. "He wanted to know why I wouldn't play soccer with 'em. I told him I didn't want to.” She stared at me with gentle eyes. 

      "What?" I asked her.

     "That boy has been trying to get your attention for quite a few months now," she set the bowl down.

      Not sure what to say, I shrugged my shoulders. I know we like each other, or at least I like him. I concentrated on my project, to help my eyes from wandering to Joe, like they wanted to.

     She picked up a piece of pale green grass and stuck it in her mouth to chew on it. It moved lazily in the air as she spoke. "Are you really hoping that he'll just stop having feelings for you, after all this time?"

     "Yes, you know I do. I can't let him in."

     "I don't know if you've thought of this, but maybe you should let him. It might make things easier on you having someone your same age. You might not feel so alone, Hon." She patted my leg.

     "I push 'em away for their own good, not mine." 

     "One day you'll get into a pickle, and you’ll be alone because you won't let anyone into your life to help you." Slowly, she stood, arching her back and hunching over. "I need to start on lunch." She walked away, back to the kitchen. 

    I watched her as she passed the players, my eyes shifted from her to them.

    Joe smiled as he played. I loved that smile. The pure enjoyment that lit up his face, giving his already handsome looks an even better reason to just say yes. 

    He caught me watching and waved. 

     My hand lifted. I stopped it before I could signal back, moving my hand to pull a strand of hair behind my ear. I nodded instead, and then let my eyes roam across the crowd. He didn't need to know I had been staring. For all he knew, I had been watching them all.

   The soccer game ended just before lunch and now lounged around camp, eating what Trina had prepared for them. James and Carter played cards so I went to their table to join them. I sat down by them and watched the current game come to an end.

    "How's it goin' love bird?" Carter asked.

    "You need to get your eyes checked, Carter. You're seein' things again," I said.

   "Hey, we saw the whole scene, we knaw you like to play hard to get," James said in his Aussie accent.

I shook my head. "Deal me in." 

    "What? And cause all of us to miss out on important information about tomorrah? We love ya doll, but not enough to get intah trouble with lovah boy." James put the deck in a pile in the middle of the table, and he and Carter stood up.

    "Am I missin' somethin'?" I asked, putting my hands out.

     "While you were off polishin' your stakes, Joe said aftaw lunch to come to the kitchen table to talk about the patrol tomorrah. He's there, let's go." James pointed.

    I peeked around them at Joe. He and Nick were already talking as they laid pieces of paper out. We had drawn a map of the town just over the mountain that we patrolled in. It was a good hunting ground for us to get our frustrations out on the monsters. Plus we thought about moving in there one day. But what if that made us an easier target? We weren’t sure.

    I sighed and stood to join them. I followed James and Carter, our military buffs. They were in the army before and helped to teach us combat and how to use a gun. The hand signals they showed us were very helpful on the hunts.

    I leaned against the counter, across from Joe. He glanced at me, his lips curving. I dropped my gaze and looked at our map. Fluttery feelings in the stomach were not the most important things just now. I needed to get my head in the game.