Chapter Thirty- 'And I Need You Now,
Somehow'
Twenty Mortal Years Later...
There was a slight breeze that day. It was a casual autumn day, one just recovering from the heat of summer but already getting ready for winter. There was the distinct smell of leaves being burnt and there was a pleasant dampness in the air. The streets were lined with small trees, just planted through act of kindness by the government to give the town a more rural setting. Over-excavation and mindless planning permissions had caused many of the acres surrounding the town seem ruined, but now there was a revelation where new buildings were nearly impossible to build and all old ones were knocked down for the banishment of eyesores. The town made people smile, remind them of a time where raw materials weren't hard to find and people could relax more. A time when fossil fuels were carelessly burnt and the thought of them running out made people laugh. It seemed that that time had all but disappeared, small fragments of it reappearing now and then but mostly the future was set, and nobody looked back.
Admits the thousands of buildings in the town, there was a still small parts that owned their own acres, their own pieces of land that made them seem old fashioned, in a good way or a bad way. These houses were still standing after so many years, or had been built especially to look just like the good old days. A special type of person owned these houses, made them seem worthwhile to live in, like they had been broken in by so many owners, used again and again by people from the past, leaving their very own interpretation of their time with every new wallpaper design and furniture setting.
Isaac had woken up about half an hour earlier from the newspaper hitting the side of his house instead of the lawn. It was as good a time as any to get up anyhow, being that it was a Sunday and he made a special effort to actually get some work done that day. So, instead of sleeping in, he forced himself to get dressed and make breakfast that wasn't rushed or non-existent, actually cleaning up the kitchen as he did so and throwing away any food he always reassured himself would keep for 'just another day or two'. Yes sir, today he would actually make some calls and, despite it being a day of rest, force everybody to get together and put all of their ideas together instead of working separately which helped nobody. People didn't really mind working on a Sunday seeing as they were specialists at working at ungodly hours in the night until sunrise, ignoring the schedule until the very hour of the deadline. It was hard to imagine but it couldn't be any better for any of them.
The clock ticked five past ten and Isaac found himself tripping over a mess of a study to find the phone he had left somewhere. He always regretted not tidying up the room as it was now so messy he could only imagine what work he had lost in it. It was all stacked up into semi-organised piles marked with post-it notes that didn't really help. It was just his way of sorting out things that couldn't possibly be sorted out. With that he found the cord to the phone and followed it to somewhere he wouldn't even think of looking for a phone.
Dialling a number he knew so well he didn't have to look, he searched through the resent work for the relevant material he needed to start up conversation. He would start up the day with a vigorous argument over pointless matters as a sort of wake up call for himself. It always put him in the mood to go back to bed and stay there for a long time.
There was a knock at the door suddenly. He wanted to ignore it but something pushed him to answer the door. It seemed like such an urgent knock that he felt obliged to have the manners to give them the time of day. He placed the phone back on its receiver and walked down the hall to the front door. The door knocked again impatiently and again, making Isaac fasten up his pace. It wasn't a day for rush, it was a day for rest. Any religious people wanting him to convert- or at least establish a faith system -would really annoy him at that moment.
The door knocked again. "Okay, Okay!" Isaac yelled and opened the door and saw the person walking away. "Can I help you?"
The woman turned around again and smiled. "Yeah, I think you can Ike."
Twenty Years Ago, Somewhere In The Other Realm...
"Where do you think we are?" Taylor asked Zac suddenly, to break the silence between them. There was no silence in the truck, however, there being about thirty people all wanting to know what was happening now that they had, supposedly, been set free.
"I don't know Tay. Apparently it takes two days to reach the border if we're taking the back-roads." Zac replied, not sure himself if they were actually being taken home at all.
They both knew they were just making conversation. They were too worried about Isaac and Melissa to care about themselves. They knew their own sliver of hope was looking brighter, whereas their two best friend's looked bleak and fading. It was starting to sink in that they may never see them again and for that they kept their thoughts to themselves. There was no need to speak of what eachother was thinking, the time would come when they would know for certain and then they would accept it with heavy hearts. They knew Melissa was lying when she said she was fine and they knew the hunters were right behind them when they had split up. It was only obvious that the worst was to be expected.
Yet nobody would say of it, knowing how painful it would be to talk about.
"How long have we been in here?" Tay asked.
Zac shrugged. "I'm not sure. A day, at least. It has to be, it was sunrise when we set off and now it's morning again. Unless this world is really screwy."
"So are we going home?" A man asked Zac, a look of anger in his eyes.
Zac turned to him. "I think so, I mean..."
"You think so?" The man yelled. "Didn't you say we should trust that- that monster out there and follow you? Now you're not sure if we are going home!"
There was yelling from around them and Taylor yelled over them.
"It was either this or wait for the hunters to come!"
"They would have probably taken us home straight away!" A woman yelled and many murmured angrily in agreement.
"No they wouldn't! They care less for the humans than they do the vampires!" Taylor yelled. "It's not their job to help us and so they would have just left us there to die. It was either this or find our own way home and we don't even know where the hell we are!"
"I don't see why we even followed these kids!" The man yelled again. "Their brother was the one who tried to kill us!"
He had hit a nerve then. Taylor and Zac got up and clenched their fists as they faced the man.
"If it hadn't been for Ike, you'd be back there being eaten by demons!" Zac yelled.
"And we wouldn't be here in the first place either!" The man yelled back.
"You don't know anything!" Taylor yelled.
"I know that it's all because of you we are stuck here, waiting for those vampires to eat us!" The man yelled back even angrier.
"I believe them."
All faces turned to Kadijah, who was standing up next to the man. "If it hadn't been for Tay, I'd be dead by now, or worse. And they helped to free us all. This is the only chance we have, if you want to blow it for us all now then you can find your own way out of this hell."
"Better than staying here..." The man said in a lower voice this time.
"Then leave. Nobody is stopping you." She replied angrily, pointing at the back of the lorry where the doors were.
The man looked at it for a few seconds before he shook his head and sat back down again.
"This is the only chance we have!" Kadijah said to all of the people. "I know this has been hell, I can't imagine what you've all been through over the past three months, all I know is that we could all be dead if it wasn't for them two and their brother." She pointed at Taylor and Zac, who smiled slightly at her. "If we all just wait and pray then we will go home, soon forgetting about everything that has happened. It's up to us now to trust one another enough to not go crazy and start accusing eachother."
She sat down and there was only a few people murmuring now, still not sure. Taylor grinned at her, he himself feeling that they too could trust Spite to take them home.
"Thanks." Zac whispered.
"That's Okay, I just hope they don't get restless again." Kadijah replied.
The days wore on. They stopped every so often, in dark and deserted parts of forests and continued on slowly. People were losing hope as they seemed no closer to home after four long days and nights. Even Taylor was beginning to argue with himself and think that maybe they were just going to stay there forever. The silence within the truck was unbearable and so somebody started up a conversation, just to maintain the sanity. Zac made sure there was no silence, knowing how easy it would be for them all to crack and try to escape into a world of evil. More than once he had started an argument with Taylor over which Star Wars film was the best and many joined in. Some still stayed quiet, but most wanted to forget their memories and fears for the future. At some points Zac almost forgot that his brother and best friend were possibly dead, but only almost. He and Taylor were bringing up every subject apart from that one in order to stop them giving up hope.
Many of them prayed at night, some slept a lot more than the others and some were completely restless. Taylor barely slept, which was odd for him because he was known for sleeping in if there was nothing to get up for. The darkness didn't help his insomnia and at day time everybody was talking. On their last night in the Other Realm, Taylor was watching everybody else asleep when he heard Zac waking up with a jolt.
"What's wrong?" Taylor asked quietly, so that he didn't wake anybody else up.
"What if they are dead?" Zac asked bluntly, shaking slightly. It was obvious he had had a nightmare about the two people they had been worrying the most about for days now.
"They can't be Zac, don't worry." Taylor answered.
"But they could be, couldn't they?" He was asking questions he already knew the answers to, but he wanted Taylor to answer so it wouldn't just be his imagination. That there was a chance of never seeing them again and he would be able to start accepting it.
"Zac, I don't know.." Taylor answered, upset but also relieved they were finally talking about them. "I mean, Ike's already died to us before, I don't think I can take it again..."
"Me neither Tay." Zac answered.
"Then don't ask questions." Taylor snapped. He stammered. "Sorry, I mean, I just don't wanna know about it, not just yet. Not while we're still here."
"I know." Zac answered.
The truck stopped suddenly and they heard the front door open then slam shut again. The footsteps walking around the truck sounded like they were walking on stones. Taylor and Zac strained to hear the conversation.
"Just a delivery of humans to some vampires in human land, my friend." Spite's chirpy voice could be recognised easily.
"A delivery of humans from the Other Realm to the land of humans? Are you sure?" A gruff voice replied sceptically in an accent they couldn't recognise.
"Well, actually they were for some guy in this Realm but we got the wrong ones so we're taking them back."
"Wrong ones? They're humans, what more do they want?"
"Well..." There was a pause, Tay and Zac held their breaths. "They're partial to vegetarians only."
It sounded ridiculous to Taylor and Zac but it seemed to have worked. "You may enter."
"Uh, thanks. I must get going. They don't stay fresh forever, you know."
"Quite."
Zac and Taylor heard Spite getting back into the car and they looked at eachother. They were going home!
"Everybody!" Taylor suddenly yelled. "Everybody, we're going home! We're...!"
There as a great flash of light and both Taylor and Zac fell down from the impact. They felt weak and before they knew it they were unconscious from the blast of moving from one universe to another.
Taylor woke up slowly, feeling weak and sluggish, as if he had been asleep for years. He looked around suddenly and saw he was in a dark room. He struggled, but he couldn't move and he realised his whole body was tied up. Taylor moaned loudly, trying to scream through the gag but no real sounds would come out. He was trapped somewhere, before thinking he was going home but now he didn't know. Had it gone wrong? Had some demon caught them and was taking them back to the castle? Were they going to stay in that hell forever or were they just going to be killed? He didn't understand what had happened between the time he had fallen asleep and now. The room began to bump slightly and he realised he was in the back of a van, being too small to be the truck. He had to have been captured again, that was the only explanation.
Taylor tried to see anything amongst the darkness and his eyes finally focused on Zac, also tied up in the corner. Taylor tried to call out again, but Zac seemed asleep. Taylor tried to move towards him but he couldn't, he was tied down to something on the floor. Taylor sighed and just wanted to fall asleep again. It was another nightmare becoming a reality and he couldn't handle it again. Not after last time, not after all the suffering he had witnessed and experienced. He just wanted to wake up in another situation, one where he was finally in his own home.
Zac woke up slowly a few hours later, also confused about the changed atmosphere and the sudden realisation that they were in danger again. He cried out loudly, and Taylor saw he was badly beaten, just like their last night in that hell. Taylor suddenly realised he felt just as he had when he was tied down to that bed. His arm felt like it was fractured again and all the small cuts and bruises had emerged again. He didn't understand how that could happen. How can somebody bring back injuries...?
Taylor and Zac looked at eachother, both afraid that it was happening all over again. Were they going to be submit to more pains and tortures in another time and place, were they going to be killed instantly, or were they just on the worst string of luck anybody could encounter? Zac tried to struggle once more before crying out in pain and then giving up. He had seen it as the end so many times now he didn't know what to think. What can possibly happen now?
There was a sudden screech of the tires and they fell down from the van stopping suddenly. Taylor and Zac tried to prepare themselves for the worst but didn't know what to expect at all. They had seen enough demons and vampires in their lives to think anything from their wildest fantasies could be real now. There was little light from the outside as the door slid open but both of them recognised Spite instantly.
He stepped into the van and closed the door behind him, making no effort to be quiet. He kneeled next to Taylor first and removed the gag. Instantly he was showered with insults and demands to know what was going on.
"Taylor, shutup, I mean it..." He said loudly.
"Where the hell are we?" Taylor yelled. "What the hell are you doing? For God's sake just let us go home!"
"You wanna go home? That's what I'm doing! But do you want to go home perfectly fine after three weeks, or do you want to not be asked questions?" Spite yelled over him. "I could either drop you off as if nothing happened or I make it look like a bad kidnapping and you'll be left alone! All the others have agreed to it so shutup or I'll bring back even more injuries."
Spite walked over to Zac and pulled off of his gag. Zac was remarkably quiet, probably thinking it was not necessary to scream out questions he now knew the answers to. "Where are we then?"
"Tulsa forest. Make sure you scream a lot if you want the police to find us."
"What about you then?" Zac asked as Spite turned for the door.
"I'll be Okay, don't worry. They can shoot me if they like, if it will make them happy. Just don't ever mention vampires again, for as long as you live." He closed the door behind him.
"Don't worry, we wont." Taylor mumbled. "Are you all right Zac?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine. What I wouldn't give for Ike right now..." Zac trailed off. They still had no clue whether he was alive or not. "Wait, did he say three weeks?" Zac asked suddenly.
They waited for five minutes, not sure whether to just stay quiet or demand more answers. They weren't sure about Spite's plan but if that was their only way, they would have to go through with it. It wasn't as if they had a choice in the matter.
The door swung open and there stood Spite again, this time with another man. Taylor knew who it was immediately, it was one of the vampires who had taken them away three months ago. He suddenly knew it was a trick, Spite was leading them back to the vampires in the castle, wanting revenge for letting everybody escape and for killing their master.
"Who is he?" Zac asked, not remembering the man.
"Shutup." Spite said and the two men pulled Taylor and Zac out of the van, throwing them to the ground.
The vampire pulled Taylor up by his collar and stared at him, as if sizing him up somehow. "Your brother and friend are dead, I saw the hunters kill them."
"You're lying." Taylor whispered, as if waiting for somebody to dare tell him.
"It's true," Spite spoke up, "I saw them too. They didn't have a chance."
Before Zac could even speak a piece of rag was shoved in his mouth and he screamed loudly, trying to struggle against Spite as he was dragged along. The ropes were loosening as he struggled and soon he could free his legs. He kicked as hard as he could, feeling tears brim in his eyes as the truth was sinking in. Isaac and Melissa were dead from trying to save them. Now it looked as if they were going to die too.
There was the sound of a siren from far away and Zac tried to scream for help, begging the police to come save them before the vampires hurt him and his brother again. Melissa and Isaac were not dead yet, they had to be saved, be warned about what was going to happen to them.. He had to go find them and bring them back, before it was too late. Zac looked up to see a policeman holding a gun up to him. Zac fought against the vampire's grip but nothing happened, he couldn't move. He felt a grip on his neck and it tightened. Zac finally spat out the gag and began to choke loudly, not hearing the conversation between the human and the vampire. Zac tried to see Taylor but he was gone. They had killed him just as they had killed Ike and Melissa. It was too late, Zac wanted them to kill him too. He didn't care any more, he just wanted the nightmare to end, before he had to see more suffering. He would have to see Taylor dead, grieve his brothers and his best friend alone, he had nobody left in the world.
There was the sound of bullets around him and Zac was dropped to the floor. Beside him he saw Taylor unconscious, or dead. Zac wasn't sure but he did know it was all over for them. It was the end, he and Taylor would die in the forest after disappearing for three months and nothing could be done to stop it.
Zac felt a great pain suddenly swim through his head and he cried out in shock. He felt an urge to fall asleep and could hear somebody yelling at him to wake up but he ignored them. Zac closed his eyes and for the first time in what seemed like years, he felt like he was at peace.
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