The male vampberry is still rooted to the spot, staring silently, not taking his eyes off me once.
He doesn't bat an eyelid, there is not the slightest reaction from him when Honey starts moving, or when she lets out a really loud terrified scream. He acts like he hasn't even noticed, his gaze is firmly fixed on me, he's looking me straight in the eye and stands there like a statue, the only movement I can see are the muscles in his face which keep moving as his expression keeps changing.
I thought for a moment I noticed his eye's glow a lot brighter and the cracks on his face seem to be growing larger, it only seemed to last for a short time before his face went back to normal, now I'm not even sure if I'd actually seen this happen ... I could quite easily have just imagined it.
I start to wander if he has a problem with my eyes, as he's constantly staring into them ... my colourless eyes. I wander if he originates from this town .... maybe he's never seen a colourless berry before ... a lot of people from colour coded towns haven't and react badly to colourless berrys ... my eyes have always been my downfall and I'm now thinking that my eye colour, or should I say lack of it, might be getting me into even more trouble than I'm in already.
Honey had been woken up by the vampberry's loud shouting and she has now joined me, we have both nervously backed ourselves as far away from him as we can possibly get and our backs are now up against the cold wall behind us, there is nowhere else for us to go, we are just standing there holding onto each other terrified.
I am willing him NOT to open the cage door.
Maizie is stood there not saying anything either, the uncomfortable silence is horrible.
"Well Maizie I'm waiting!!" he growls at her quite nastily, but he doesn't turn to face her, his gaze is still very firmly fix on me.
"Jazz!! What are you doing here?" the astonishment on her face says she obviously wasn't expecting to see him here "I didn't expect you back for another week yet!!" Maizie seems suddenly very nervous of the male vampberry, like he has some sort of authority over her, but then I don't blame her for being scared staring at the evil look on his face ..... I'm terrified.
"OBVIOUSLY!!" he roars at her as he turns suddenly in a flash to face her "So ... you thought you'd play games while my back is turned ... you are fast becoming too much of a Liability Maizie!!" he yells at her quite fiercely and she tries to back away from him but he holds onto her so she can't move anywhere. "You know the rules, strictly no mortals, I can smell them upstairs ... this place stinks!!"
"DON'T YOU MOVE ANOTHER INCH!!" the vampberry growls really loudly pointing at Manderine, but he doesn't look in her direction because he's still glaring at Maizie. Manderine just stands there now looking very troubled and I don't notice her taking any more steps backwards.
"It's bad enough that we have to smell that mortal kid of yours around the place all the time!! Now this, you bring in three more!!" he leans towards her so there faces are now only inches apart "Maizie how stupid are you really?!"
The vampberry turns round to glance at me and Honey again for a moment, his glaze always seems to be focused on me more than Honey and I don't understand why, he's making me feel really uncomfortable and I'm too scared to even blink while I stare back at him, my mind is racing all the time wandering what he is going to do to us. He suddenly flys at Maizie they both move in a blur across the room as he pins her up against the wall.
"You know we can NEVER let these mortals leave here alive now don't you!!!!" he roars at her he seems to be extremely angry with Maizie.
Oh Fudge!!! We are seriously done for!!
Me and Honey look at each other in terror, she starts to hold onto me really tightly and I watch the tears silently starting to roll down her face, which I try to wipe away while I'm biting my lip really hard to try and stop myself from crying with her.
"You KNOW the lengths we go to to keep our existence and whereabouts a secret ... and you go and do this!!" he steps back a few paces pulling Maizie with him and he's suddenly back in her face, they hiss at each other for a moment, I'm half expecting it to kick off any minute. "I'm sick of cleaning your mess up Maizie!!" she just looks back down at the floor again saying nothing and trying not to meet his gaze "These kids ..... you've put me personally in a VERY VERY difficult situation!!!!" she looks up at him quickly
"How? It's not like this is the first time we've ever had any stray mortal kids in here ... they have never cause you any problem in the past , so why should these?" he's turned towards us and doesn't answer Maizies question. "Why are you back early anyway? ... Where is your original ... has she had enough of you already?" she says sarcastically
He goes at her quite hard smashing her into the wall again. This time dust starts flying and small pieces of the wall fall to the floor, he walks back towards the cage and Maizie just stands there like she never even felt a thing. That is scarey!!!
"No!! She not happy I've had to come back early!! I'm back early because of YOU and THIS!!" he roars as he points towards me and Honey "Also THAT!!" he points at Manderine without looking at her, as he spins round to face Maizie again, "THAT!! The VERY bad company that you have started keeping lately!!" he points at Manderine again.
"And what?" she snaps at him looking a little confused as she glances quickly over towards Manderine.
"GET UPSTAIRS .... and bring your green mortal PET with you!!!!"
They both stand glaring at each other for a moment before either of them move.
The male vampberry turns and takes another quick troubled glance at me before he flies up the steps so fast that he vanishes in a blur, I'm amazed at how quickly they move. Me and Honey just stand there watching as Maizie and Manderine follow him slowly up the steps. Once they see that the male vampberry is out of sight they start to talk to each quietly.
Me and Honey don't move a muscle or start to relax until we hear the metal door close shut behind them and we are left completely alone again.
"Oh boy we are so in trouble!!" I say to Honey but I can't bring myself to look at her face. I put my arms around her and she collapses into my arms and starts to cry really hard again.
I hope there aren't any more vampberry's to come, but I'm not confident because of something Jazz said, I would bank on us being in some kind of hidden vampberry den, we are never getting out of here alive!!
We sit back down on the bench together, we are both very quiet. I really don't know what to say to Honey to make her feel any better, I don't think there is anything I can say, she heard Jazz's words as well as I did 'You know we can Never let these mortals leave here alive now don't you' so what are we suppose to do now sit here and talk about our impending fading ... and how they might do it ... I know I can't and I don't want to upset Honey any more than she already is. I'm scared if I think and talk about it too much I'm going to lose it and that is probably when they will get me ... so we both just sit in silence saying nothing for a while.
Honey ran off to the toilet and I could hear her throwing up for ages. When she came back she is smiling at me, I'm wandering if she'd actually heard what the male vampire had said ... how can she be smiling at a time like this?! "You know it must be daytime!" she says casually as she sits down.
"How do you work that out?" I asked her really not thinking. She's being sick again ... morning sickness, which apparently she only gets until dinnertime. Maybe she's right but I don't really care what time of the day or night it is at the moment, its not going to make our life any better is it!! She starts to yawn again and moans about how tired she is all the time, she says she feels different as she starts rubbing her stomach and smirking at me, she's convinced she is pregnant. I laugh to myself thinking about how stupid we've been ... especially now ... that baby is never going to have a life!!
I told her to get some more sleep while I keep watch.
I'm starting to get really tired myself, I haven't had any sleep at all since I woke up on the cold floor, but I doubt I will be able to get any sleep even if I tried. I'm now scared that any minute they will be coming back to finish us off, and I personally would rather be awake to see it coming. I'm wandering just how much time we have left and start thinking about all the things I'll never do again the people I will never see again .... Oh Berry!!
The sound of someone singing suddenly fills my ears, I look towards Honey who is already soundly asleep, I don't understand how she can even sleep after what she heard the male vampberry say. The person who is singing has a male voice ... singing is the very last thing I expected to hear in this place.
The singing with the sound of his shoes on the concrete get louder as he makes his way slowly down the stone steps. Suddenly a man jumps into view, he's jumping down the last few steps like a child would, like something I would do, he stops singing and laughs at himself. He looks like a fairly young man and he's carrying a book in his hand, he doesn't notice us at first as he starts making his way to the chair sat in the middle of the room.
The man stops suddenly when he spots us, he looks as shocked to see us as I am to see him. He is human, I'm almost certain he isn't a vampberry, even though I can only see half of his face which is hidden by his long hair, the one eye that I can see is not shining. His mouth drops open as he just stares at me, I can see he has no fangs only normal teeth. I wander why a human would be wandering around with the vampires, he was happily singing so he obviously isn't in any distress over being in this place, and he definately wasn't trying to hide his existence from them with the noise he was making. He puts his hand over his mouth for a moment and I can see some sort of emotion in his eyes as his face takes on a pained expression.
"What the .... what .... what are you doing here?" he asks finally and it kind of makes me laugh, what exactly is he expecting me to say to him? He walks towards the bars and I do the same, I doubt somehow that I have anything to fear from him, he looks pretty harmless.
"Tapestry that isn't even funny!!" he snaps back with a destressed look on his face. He knows my name, who the hell is he? he puts one hand on the bars and just stands there looking at me again. I am beginning to think I now know what the animals must feel like in the zoo, I'm sick of people keep standing there peering at us through these bars, like we are only here for their amusement. "Seriously Tapestry, how did you even end up in this place?"
" We are not here by choice, we've been kidnapped by two crazy women." he frowns at me "Say, why are you just wandering around, you are not one of them, do the vampberrys even know you're here?" I ask him curious to know why he's human and allowed to wander around quite freely while we are locked up in this cage, Manderine too for that matter I notice the male vampberry was not quick to lock her up either.
"Yeah, for my sins, I kind of work for them, you know run their errands and do stuff for them out there that they can't do themselves, my Mother unfortunately is one of them." he looks down and starts kicking the bars "I'm .... River by the way."
"Well River, I don't suppose there is any chance of some food because we are starving down here and these vampberrys don't seem to think that we need feeding!!"
"Yeah, I'll sort something out for you as soon as I can, but there is a huge fight going on up there that's why I came down here to get out of the way." he started to rub his neck nervously "They get pretty violent as you can imagine and I never get involved in their fights, its not safe for me!!" he sat down then on the floor cross legged, puts the book down carefully beside him and looks up at me and smiles, I'm beginning to think he's a little strange.
"Is Maize your Mother by any chance?" I suddenly remembered something that Jazz had said about it being bad enough them having to smell her mortal kid around the place, I bet he was talking about River. He nodded and looked down, he definately didn't look too happy about it, I laughed "Yeah it was Maizie who brought us here with the help of my crazy Aunt who has escaped from prison." He looks up quickly and I can see the shock and confusion on his face but he didn't ask me any questions about it. "So if your Mother is a vampberry why aren't you one? Is there a cure?"
"No!! there is no cure." he laughs at me for a moment "She's not always been a vampberry, Berry know's how she became one she won't tell me!!" he pulls a face "I would rather fade than ever become one of them, they are disgusting creatures!!" He seems to be quite comfortable sitting there talking to me quite freely, "You know Tapestry you need to be very careful with what you are thinking about when they are around, the vampberry's they read your thoughts!!" he also seems really friendly and obviously doesn't like the whole vampire thing, so I though I'd try and see if I can get anything out of him, maybe he might even be able to help us get out of here. I join him on the floor and sit down opposite him.
"Yeah you're still in Sugar Valley, can't you see I'm a mixed berry like my Mother." My mind starts racing trying to think of places in this town where they might be able to hide a vampberry den, but I seriously can't think of any. How can they be wandering around Sugar Valley and nobody knows that they exist? I bet Manderine knows exactly where we are, I bet Maizie didn't sedate her to bring her here!!
"No, I didn't even know she was, I'm colourblind, everyone is grey to me." he starts smiling at me again then laughs to himself "So where are we exactly in Sugar Valley?"
"Tapestry please don't ask me, I really can't tell you, its more than my life is worth!!" he mumbles looking down at the floor like he can't look at me. We are quiet for a moment then he looks up "So is that your girlfriend .... what's her name?" I frown at him, he knows my name so why doesn't he know Honey's.
"Yeah, that's Honey, she's my girlfriend." I quickly glance over my shoulder at her to see she is still asleep and smile at River "How do you know my name and not know hers?"
"Oh .. I've ... seen you around, you know like at the hospital with your Dad a few times .... I work there." he starts fidgeting uncomfortably. That still doesn't explain how he knows my name, most people know my Dad, but not my name, so I ask him. "You triplets are quite famous at the hospital, you especially, they still have your baby pictures in maternity, the miracle baby that was never expected to make it, your Mom being a coma and you being so tiny ... I think everyone who works in the hospital gets to hear that story!" he starts to really laugh "Especially the part about your Dad running around the hospital in just boxer shorts and a dressing gowned because he was in such a tizzy when he found out your Mother was pregnant and in a coma, he ran out the house without getting dressed." I started laughing with him, I hadn't heard that part of the story myself but could just imagine Dad doing it.
Now he's confusing me, he works at the hospital and for the vampires? So I asked him if he knows and works with my Dad, I'm hoping he might be able to help us get out of here somehow. "No, I don't know him, I know who he is obviously, who doesn't, he's head of Neurology, I just work in the pathology lab, it's not often our paths cross, I've never actually spoken to him." he starts fidgeting again and picks up the book randomly like he's trying to change the subject "I guess you are bored in there, do you want to borrow my book?" I laugh as he pushes it through the bars towards me, I take it off him for Honey, I can't read it but maybe she will. I look at him and start laughing because something he's just said amuses me, he frowns at me.
"Do you have a thing about blood or something .. you work in the blood department at the hospital and for the blood suckers!!" he rolls his eyes and tells me that he actually hates blood, he's stayed in the path lab at work because of the vampberry's, he gets the blood that they need from the hospital which stops them from going out on the streets and draining people. He says that they would have to go out hunting to feed and would be fading innocent people all the time, so he steals blood bags from the hospital, he's not comfortable doing it but its better than the vampberry's fading half the town.
River suddenly scrambles to his feet quickly as we both hear the metal door opening at the top of the steps and he starts to look nervously at me. I hold my breath again ... knowing the vampberrys are coming.
I see Maizie coming first, closely followed by the male vamperry. He looks very angry and is dragging Manderine by the arm down the steps ... she looks like a rag doll in his hands ... he's going a little too fast for her and she's struggling to keep herself on her feet, but he is just dragging her along like she's weightless. When he reaches the bottom of the steps he throws Manderine quite forcefully onto the floor and she lands in a heap in front of the cage door. She just curls herself up into a ball and lies there like she's hurt and scared. It looks like she's just had a good kicking and I can hear her snivelling.
River stands there looking down at Manderine and glances briefly in the male vampberry's direction, quite crossly, which surprizes me, how can he not be scared of them?! River looks pretty disturbed at the sight of Manderine lying on the floor, he watches her for a moment then starts to crouch down over her like he wants to and is trying to help her.
"Leave her River, she doesn't need a doctor." the male vampberry snaps at him. "She is not worth your sympathy so don't waste even a second of your time worrying over her!!"
River straightens himself up and steps backwards away from her, but I can see he isn't happy, while he's staring over at Maizie who is exchanging some kind of unpleasant look with him.
"What are you doing down here River?" Maizie snaps at him.
"I'm trying to work out what the hell you're playing at ... HOW COULD YOU!!??" he shouts at her quite angrily "and don't give me any of your pathetic excuses ... because I KNOW!!!"
The male vampberry stops to watch River and Maizie, he suddenly seems amused.
River starts looking angrily at Maizie who suddenly gets a shocked look on her face. The vampbery smirks as he looks at River then he suddenly glances over at me with an expression of surprize on his face, then he looks back to River and starts to laugh quite loudly. I don't know why but I imagine River is saying something in his head that both of the vampberrys can hear, while it has shocked Maizie it has amused Jazz. "It seems you have got a lot more explaining to do Maizie" he starts roaring with laughter. I really would love to know what's going on between them. I would love to read minds like the vampberrys can.
I see something bright moving in the corner of my eye. I look towards the movement and see Cosmic, he suddenly floats into my view, I rub my eyes thinking I'm imagining it for a moment. At first I'm really surprised to see him here, but I suppose I shouldn't be because one thing I have learnt about that ghost over the years, he does usually tend to appear especially when there is trouble. I wander how he's found us.
I watch him float in front of Maizie, he waves and smiles at her then stands next to Jazz throwing his arm around him like they are the best of mates. This makes me laugh because I think he's messing about for my benefit, I've seen him do this loads of times at home, especially with Prelude, messing around with different members of my family who don't have a clue that he is even there, he does it trying to get a laugh out of me, he finds it amusing when I start laughing especially around my Dad who grills me for a reason for my laughter. I presume just like at home nobody here can see him only me.
I'm so relieved to see a friendly face, who I hope is going to help us get out of here, that I forget myself for a moment, I completely forget where I am and blurt out his name without even thinking "Cosmic!!"
The male vampberry's head spins round at speed to look at me with a shocked look on his face at first, then he frowns and quickly glances towards Cosmic "Cos, please tell me that boy can actually see you?!" I'm quite shocked knowing that the vampberry can also see the ghost, I thought I was the only one.
"Yes he can, he's been seeing me since he was a child, we play a lot of xbox together." Jazz suddenly starts to roar with laughter and Maizie mumbles something quite nastily under her breath that I didn't quite catch. "We've only started to talk to each other recently, I wasn't sure he could hear me, but he does!!" Cosmic replies.
"No I can't read him at all" I look at Maizie and she seems a little irritated as she's staring over at River who is just scowling at her "He isn't normal like his Mother!!" Maizie snaps which makes Jazz spin round to glare at her, Cosmic turned to scowl at her too "They are both freaks!!"
"Shut your face Maizie, or do you want a dose of what Lime just had!!" Cosmic snaps at Maize quite nastily and she surprises me by scowling at him, then she told him it was time he passed over and got lost. So I'm guessing that all vampberrys can see the ghost too, this is getting all too wierd for my head to take.
"Maizie put your green pet in the cage with your other guests, while I decide how I'm going to deal with this mess before any of the originals find out what's going on here!!" he snaps at Maizie and the human man catches his attention again. "River make yourself useful, make the kids something to eat!" I watch River scurry off without saying a word, but I saw him look down and smile at me as he went up the steps.
I'm just happy that the vampberry is allowing him to feed us, food has never really been my favourite subject but I could really do with some right now and Honey really needs to eat. I find it a little strange that he would smile at me and even think about feeding us if all he intends to do is fade us.
Maizie grabs Manderine by the arm pulling her up off the floor and onto her feet. She gives her an apologetic look as she opens the cage door and pushes Manderine in with us quite forcefully, she stumbles and falls onto her hands and knees in front of me and Honey as the door clanks shut behind her, she looks up at us for a moment with scared eyes.
I openly laugh at her quite loudly which she didn't seem very amused at, I couldn't help it, thinking about what she'd done to my Mother and and to me and Honey ... it's kind of nice to see her being the one that is suffering for a change.
"Change the record Lime, you've not done a very good job of it so far have you!!" he scoffed. "All nine of us are still here in one form or another" he starts laughing "Be warned Cosmic will be watching you - harm one hair on either of those kids heads and I will let him finish you just like he wants to!!" this really seems to have amused him.
Me and Honey exchange a confused look, I guess she would be confused not seeing Cosmic and I bet she remembers the name from the grave in the cemetery, that is probably why she's frowning, but me I'm confused because I don't understand why the vampberry just warned Manderine not to hurt us.
Maizie and Cosmic start going up the stone steps and I can see they are arguing with each other. I want to call after him, I can't believe he would just leave me and Honey here like this. I look at Jazz who hasn't left yet, he stands for a while just studying me with that troubled expression on his face again before he turns and follows everyone else upstairs.
I hear that metal door slam again and the room becomes eerily silent again. Manderine has crawled into the far corner of the cage, I pull Honey to the opposite corner of the cage away from her along with our bench and we both sit down facing Manderine.
Manderine is covered in bruises and you can see that she has been crying, her makeup has run all down her face. Occasionally her eyes dart around nervously and she appears to be really scared suddenly, I haven't known her for very long but she's definately acting out of character, she no longer looks like the evil witch, she's cowering on the floor like the terrified victim. I wander what they have subjected her to, how did she get all those bruises and who gave them to her? Jazz and Cosmic seem to know her too, but why does everyone keep calling her Lime?
I get the feeling there is a lot more going on here than I could even imagine.
I really don't know what to say to her, not really trusting myself to hold my tongue or my temper especially if she starts to wind me up again.
This is going to be very uncomfortable.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oh it's Jazz! Okay. LOL, and Cosmic was here too. Yay! Haha. O_O Did Maizie... River... *zips lip* LOL. It's cool the vampires can see Cosmic too, I like their powers. I'm happy that Jazz told Lime not to touch Tapestry haha.
ReplyDeleteLol - yeah I guessed you'd like Cosmic being around - you'll be seeing quite a bit of him this generation :D I've never forgiven myself for killing him off :( Zipped lips?! maybe you get it but we'll see!
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