Moonlight Lovers

Twenty-nine

EVERYBODY decided it would be best to go back. Caleb agreed, feeling sorry that the trip was cut short. He’s not even sure if what he saw was actually there or if it was just his eyes tricking him. He feels bad for even going out with them today.

At the car, Amelia called their mom to tell her what happened. Patricia Ludresh was silent during the entire conversation, Caleb knew because Ames put the call on loudspeaker. Their mom just said they should hurry because it’s going to get dark soon.

As soon as they reached their house, though, the drama started to unfold between the family members. Their Aunt Yolanda was crying hysterically, taking the child that was sleeping on Ames’s shoulder. His dad was shaking his shoulder, asking if he was sure he saw someone with crimson eyes in the crevice between the boulders on the beach. Their mom looked nervous and afraid.

Max and Sue looked at each other and decided they should leave. They grabbed Alisha who was very worried about Caleb. Ames touched her forehead and silently grumbling towards their family’s weirdness that turned away her friends.

“This always happens,” she complains, climbing up the stairs with heavy feet.

None of his parents seemed to care about it, however, his dad was still nudging him about what he saw.

“I don’t know, dad! I thought I saw something. But when I looked it wasn’t there,” he explained.

“I told you, Martin! They’re here! They’ve found us!” Aunt Yolanda cried, still hugging her child to her chest.

“Who’s here? Who found us?” He asked, confused.

“The ones following us,” his dad simply said. “The reason we’ve been running away every time.”

Caleb was shocked to hear that. So, he was right. Something was going on that’s why his parents want him back. Someone was following them all these years. But who was it? Or what was it?

“Should we leave again?” He asked, panicking. “Now?”

His dad spoke softly but sternly. “We need to prepare you. As soon as possible.”

What he said, put an even deeper crease on Caleb’s forehead. “Prepare me? For what? Can you tell what is happening?”

His dad gently shoved his shoulders. “Get inside. You need to rest. When you’re ready, you’ll begin.”

A FEW days passed and Caleb was still waiting for his dad to tell him more about the vague conversation they had the night they went to the beach. Things were starting to return to their normal boring manner. But instead of trying to do something about it, Caleb decided not to bother anyone’s time this time. What happened at Hilena Beach probably would decrease his chances of going out with new friends again. He’s probably got it, too—the craziness that people said runs in their family.

This morning, however, Caleb was called by his dad to his workshop in their backyard. He found him working on an unusual project. He could not remember his dad working on something like it before. It looks like a type of weapon.

“Everything alright, dad?” He asked when he got inside his father’s workshop. He had not gone inside the cabin since he was a kid when his father would allow him to watch him quietly in exchange for a few hours of playing basketball together.

“Yeah. How are you?”

He shrugged. “A little bored. I miss Clairhill.”

Martin Ludresh was going through his huge toolbox, he paused at his response. “You’re not going back to Clairhill, are you?”

“I have no reason to return.”

His dad nodded. “You can’t. Especially, not now.”

“Does this have something to do with what I thought I saw on the beach?”

“You’re not sure?”

He shook his head. “It was probably just my imagination.”

“What makes you think so?’

“Because—” he scoffed, annoyed at himself. “How can anyone be so pale? Like a dead guy. With red eyes? And no one can fit through that crevice, no one! Not even Aunt Yolanda’s daughter and she’s a child.”

His dad put down his tools and rested both hands on the table, looking seriously at him. “What if I tell you that you’re not mistaken? That I saw it, too?”

Caleb fought the urge to roll his eyes. His dad just didn’t want him to think that he’s losing it, but he knows he’s clearly losing it.

“You don’t believe me?”

“Dad—”

His dad pulled the long sleeve of his shirt to reveal a deep scar on his forearm just below his elbows. “April, twenty-five years ago, I met someone like the one you saw on Hilena Beach last week. He gave me this scar.” He removed his shoes and pulled the hem of his pants up. An ugly scar covered half of his leg. “December, twenty years ago. You were just one year old. Your mother didn’t even want me to go, but I had to. I could not almost walk. Took me months of therapy before I could feel my leg again.” Finally, his dad took off the cap that he was always wearing ever since he could remember. The embroidery on the front had loosened up over time, and what was written on it could no longer be read. “September, nineteen years ago. Your mom was pregnant with your sister. They followed us again when we’re in Wobrium. I thought I was going to die, but I wanted to return to my family. So, I stayed strong and I did.”

Caleb stared in horror as he stared at the slightly deformed balding head of his dad. The huge scar on the right side of his head was too prominent and no hair has ever around the area where the scar formed.

“What happened to you, dad?” He asked, his voice full of agony.

“Can’t you tell?” His dad put his cap back on. “A monster did this.”

Caleb furrowed his brows. “Wait—a monster? What do you mean? Like a wild animal?”

“It’s worse than that, son. This monster feeds on the blood of our kind, and has enormous strength in them.”

He tried to piece things up together. A monster. Someone who drinks human blood? With super-strength. He wanted to laugh at the conclusion he came to. His dad couldn’t possibly be talking about that right?

“What, like a vampire?” He suggested humorously.

“Exactly like a vampire!” His dad angrily agreed.

Martin Ludresh’s reaction startled his son. Caleb’s mouth was agape, yet nothing was coming out of his mouth. Then shortly, a short small chuckle left his lips, then the laugh became longer and louder until he was cackling helplessly like he had just been told the funniest thing in the world.

“Are you pranking me, dad?” He asked.

Caleb’s dad pointed to his face. “Look at me, Caleb Anthony Ludresh! Do I look like I’m pulling a prank?”

His laughter slowly died down. An awkward silence stretched between them. His dad resumed looking through his toolbox, he attached a driller on the machine and drilled a small hole on the piece of wood on the table.

Caleb exhaled. His skepticism probably offended his dad. But it’s just hard to believe what he’s saying. Since when have vampires truly existed? “I just don’t understand, dad. Vampires are as real as fairy tales,” he explained.

“Well, I’m telling you now you’re wrong.”

He sighed again. “Supposing they are real, are you saying they are the ones who have you those scars? Why?”

“Because we’re their mortal enemy.”

“I still don’t understand,” he insisted.

Martin Ludresh turned off his machine, looked into his son’s eyes with fiery determination. “We are a family of vampire hunters, Caleb. And this time, it’s your turn to become one.”