Chapter 14 - Gen 2 - Tapestry

I have been tossing and turning restlessly for hours because I'm really struggling to sleep.

I've now completely given up on the idea of getting any sleep at all, my mind is working overtime and I can't switch it off. Trying to lie here completely still so that I'm not disturbing Honey, isn't helping either, she was getting really ratty with me earlier because of my constant fidgeting I kept waking her up.

I pull the photograph out of my inside pocket, the photo of my family that River stole for me off my Dad's office wall at the hospital, why would he even do that? It seems a strange thing for him to have done. I lie here and just stare at the photograph for ages, until my eyes start to sting with the tears that are threatening to start rolling down my face, the tears that are starting to blur my vision so I can't see their faces clearly anymore.  As much as they irritate me, I never thought I would miss them this much, especially my Dad.

I push the photo angrily back into my pocket, I don't know why I keep looking at it, it just upsets me and I'm not very good at controlling my emotions at the best of times, my chest has gone tight with the pain, there is a lump in my throat and all I want to do now is cry.

I can't stop thinking about that new vampberry that has appeared.  Even though I feel quite safe now with Maizie and Jazz ... the new vampberry ... she looks quite frightening and mean, even Jazz seemed to be a little scared of her when she arrived.  Just her presence here scares and really worries me, I suddenly don't feel so comfortable about still being in this place anymore ... and am beginning to worry again that we might not make it home.

I listen to the long eerie silence, it's been far too many hours since we've seen anyone or heard anything, even River who is generally always down here checking on us, has been no where near us for too many hours.  I wander if he's become bored of us already?!  I also wander for a moment if River is actually okay and safe here now that the new vampberry has appeared, I wander if she has done something to him, he is mortal like us after all, but she did seem to know him, I heard her call him by his name a few times.

We haven't been fed either, which is really unlike River, this worries and nark's me, not because I'm hungry but I know that Honey is ... she is always hungry and she says she needs extra food because of the babies, and she thinks that is why she is sleeping a lot too, much more than she normally would, since they gave us the bed she has done nothing but sleep!!  I really don't know how all this baby stuff works!!

Babies!!  I still don't think it has completely sunk into my stupid head yet, exactly what have we done? ME!! I am going to be a Dad ... this has to be a joke!?  I think about my little baby sister at home for a moment ... I don't know the first thing about babies ... I just hope they don't turn out like me!!  I start thinking about what they might look like and how useless I'm going to be ... I won't be able to teach them how to read or write, I won't be able to read to them, teach them their colours, I won't be able to help them with their homework,  and what about my other problems, I'll probably forget to feed them, or put them down somewhere and wander off and forget about them ... I am going to be totally useless ... Honey must have been mad to even think this was a good idea!!  I must have been mad letting her talk me into this!!  I know one thing .... both of our Dad's are going to go totally ballistic!!  Berry help us if they ever found out we did this on purpose!!

I glance over towards Manderine who I can now hear quietly snoring.  Earlier I had been lying watching Manderine, more out of boredom than for any other reason, she has now moved herself from off the uncomfortable cold stone floor and is lying on the old, just as uncomfortable, wooden bench.  I think she might even be ill, I've noticed she's been coughing, sneezing and sniffing a lot today, but I'm really not surprised she has spent the past week sitting and sleeping on that cold stone floor, without so much as a blanket.  That combined with her swollen, cut and bruised face ... she looks quite a state!!

I had actually started to feel really sorry for her as I watched her constantly fidgeting trying to get herself comfortable on the wooden bench unsuccessfully, she had also looked like she was very cold, her arms were tightly wrapped around herself and she was dithering, she's only wearing quite a thin sleeveless dress, I could actually see her shaking from the cold.  While we are lying in a nice warm comfortable bed because we have sheets and a pile of blankets, she is freezing to death on the bench.

I had a moment of madness and got up and gave her a couple of the blankets off the bed, we didn't really need them all.   She had glanced up at me just staring with wide eyes and an expression of surprise flashed across her face as she took the blankets off me silently and almost nervously.  When I was climbing back into bed she actually said  "Thank you" which surprised me, she said it really quietly, I'm not even sure if she meant for me to hear it but I did.

I guess she must have been wandering why I was being nice to her ... I wandered myself at the time, but, even though I hate her, I think I still feel a little guilty for what I've done to her face, even though River and Cosmic have both told me not to worry about it, she'd asked for it ... she was told to shut up but she didn't she kept on taunting me.  Not that I'm making excuses for what I've done to her, but it worries me, what about if that had been Mom or Dad, Honey even .... I really hate being me sometimes.

Honey and Manderine are both now fast asleep and I know I'm not going to be getting any.  I feel exactly like I felt the first few days we spent here, scared and on edge lying in wait for the new vampberry to come down here and do something to us.  I wander if she is one of those original vampires that I have heard them talk about .... if she is I think we might be in trouble.

I'm bored, I hate the long hours of silence while everyone else is sleeping and I'm here going out of my mind, it irritates me, it's not even like I can amuse myself by reading one of the books that River has left down here for Honey to read.  River has really helped cure the boredom with his usual constant presence down here, I wander why he is not here now?!   I start humming a tune that I play on the piano, it's all I can do without sitting here talking to myself like an idiot, I start moving my fingers around pretending I've got a piano keyboard in front of me.

I suddenly hear the metal door open quietly at the top of the stone steps.  I stop humming and listen, at first I don't hear anything, then as whoever it is gets closer, I start to hear soft footsteps and what sounds like a dragging sound.  I look over towards the steps and catch my breath as I can see that new vampberry woman coming alone, the dragging sound is her long dress dragging on the floor behind her.

How ridiculous are her clothes?!  She is dressed in the weirdest long dress that I've ever seen, like something I've seen in a picture in History from 100's of years ago.  While I can't read, when a book is placed in front of me I can at least pay attention to the pictures, even if I don't see them in colour.  She's dressed like one of those woman from centuries ago, she really needs to get out and get with the latest fashion!!

She walks quite slowly and silently towards the cage, she stands there peering through the bars at me as she stops right in front of them, resting her hand on one of the bars for a moment. I have closed my eyes and am pretending to be asleep, but I don't close them completely, I'm squinting at her so that I can still keep an eye on what she does, I don't trust her ... I really hope she doesn't plan to come inside the cage, I feel a lot safer with her standing out there.

"Come here boy."  she says quietly, I just carry on lying there completely still, trying to keep up the pretense of being asleep.  "I know you are not asleep I heard you humming."  Fudge!!

I get us very slowly, I wander for a moment if she CAN actually read my mind.  I have no choice but to do what she says, if I ignore her she might come in here and I'm scared of what she might do if she does have to enter the cage. I walk slowly towards the bars but stop quite a distance away from them where I know she can't reach me through the bars.

"Closer!!"  she says.  I don't want to get any closer to her but I take just one more step forward and stop, hoping that she doesn't ask me again to move any closer to her where I know she will be able to reach me.

She stands quietly studying me, she doesn't actually look angry now, I notice her face is actually quite pretty even if she looks strange to me with her really dark hair and her really pale skin, and those strange eyes that don't even look real. I wander why her eyes don't shine like the vampberrys, I would love to know what colour she is, she doesn't look like anybody I've ever seen before..  She just continues to stand there silently studying me.

"Why are your eyes colourless?" she asks me suddenly.  I tell her because my Mom is completely colourless and I inherited her eyes.  "Look at me boy!"  she says and points to her eyes ... Oh here we go!! She wants to play that game now.  So I look into her eyes, I feel that strange sensation in my eyes quite quickly, so I think angrily  "You are wasting your time, you are not getting in my head!!" I can see her eyes getting brighter like Jazz's do and she pulls a face for a moment.

"Celeste?!"  I hear Cosmic speak so I glance in the direction of his voice.  She ignores him and carries on staring at me.  I'm relieved that he is down here because he makes me feel a lot safer.

"You okay Tap?"  he asks me as he glances quickly at Celeste like he's worried she might have been up to something which makes me laugh for a moment, he's started to make me feel like I've got my own personal body guard.

"Yeah peachy, being locked up by a load of blood suckers who keep trying to poke about in my head is so much fun!!"  I say sarcastically, he starts laughing at me while he nervously glances at Celeste.

"Look on the bright side ... at least you're skipping school."  we both start laughing, he must know how much I hate school I know he's been in the room many a time when I've sat in my bedroom moaning or shouting out loud about it, because I've had another telling off from Dad over not even trying to do my homework, which to me is ridiculous when most of the time I can't even write my own name.

"Cosmic, why haven't we been fed Honey is hungry ... and where is River?"  he smiles at me

"He'll be down shortly, he's cooking you some Stew."  I pull a face at the mention of stew because I hate it!!  The new vampberry is just silently watching us talking to each other.

"Extraordinary!!"  she mumbles  "How long have you been seeing and talking to spirits boy?"  she asks me.  I tell her since I was a small child.  She turns to Cosmic  "How did you know this boy could see you?"  she asks him, which I thought is a strange question to ask him.   Cosmic tells her that he didn't realize that I could see him at first until he heard me trying to tell my parents about him when I was a small child.  "Can he compel you?"  he just shrugs his shoulders and tells her we have never tried.  I stand there thinking if she hadn't rudely interrupted us earlier we would have found that out!!

Jazz comes running down the steps quite noisily and distracts everybody, he walks straight up to the vampberry woman and puts his arms round her waist and she smiles at him.

"Come back upstairs"  he says to her and she turns slightly to look up at his face for a moment before she takes his hand and pulls him gently away from the cage.  They walk together still holding hands across the room until they are nearly by the wall before they stop and start talking.  They are talking in whispers, I can not hear what they are saying but can't help noticing that they keep touching each other in THAT way.

"Who is she?"  I ask Cosmic who is now sat down in his usual place, cross legged on the floor, so I sit down by him, glad that I've got someone to talk to.

"That's his wife ... Celeste."  he laughs  "She's an original vampire, she's not a berry."  I ask him what he meant by not a berry and he says she has jet black hair, white skin and red eyes like all originals do. White?  I know there are no black berries but white? isn't white the same as colourless?  I remember Mom telling me once that she thinks her parents must have thought it funny to call her Lilly White Orchid because she is colourless.

He starts to explain to me that her kind were the original vampires and most of them are thousands of years old like Celeste, berry vampires only exist because the originals have made them and they only do that because vampires can't have children.  The originals are like the 'government' of the vampire world, they rule it because they are stronger have extra abilities that the vampberry's don't have and are virtually impossible to dispose of, unlike vampberry's who are a lot easier to dispose of.

"Would you rather be a vampberry than faded?"  I'm not even sure why I asked him that, but looking at both of their 'lives' I'm glad I'm mortal I would hate to be either Cosmic or Jazz.

"HELL NO!!!  I'm glad no vampire sunk their teeth into me when I faded!!  You know the only reason Jazz carries on with his existence is because he doesn't have a choice ... he HATES what he is ... he would join me tomorrow and become a spirit but we are not sure that would happen for him now ... I've never seen a vampire spirit ... and they don't fade like mortals who's body and sole separate ... they disintegrate they turn into a pile of ash, I'm not even sure if vampires have a sole ... when Jazz's time is over we don't know what will happen to him ... whereas I can just pass over when I want to." 

"Why didn't you just pass straight over?"  he looks at me nervously for a moment

"There are too many reasons why I stayed ... that I might tell you about when you are back home ... now is definitely not the right time to go telling you stuff that will upset you ... especially with Celeste being here!!"  Why does EVERYONE have to hide everything from me all the time ... am I really that bad?! or do they think I'm too stupid to understand?

"Why did Jazz look so scared of her when she arrived if she's his wife?"  I ask him as I keep watching them together and he definitely does not look scared of her now and she doesn't look angry with him anymore, in fact quite the opposite with the way they are messing about now.  "They need to get a room!!"  Cosmic started laughing quietly for a moment as he glances over towards them and can see what I am watching.

"She is an original, she is the authority in their world, Jazz has done something here that is breaking every rule in their book ... he was hoping you would be out of here before she returned and that she never finds out about you ... he wasn't scared of her exactly just her authority and how she's was going to react to this."  he smiles at me   "You Tapestry are very unusual for a mortal, you see and speak to me for a start, I faded over 20 years ago and you are the first mortal who I've come across that can see or hear me, then you can control a vampberry mind, something that only an original can do, and none of them can get into your head, not even Celeste." he laughs  "I dread to think what else you might be capable of!!"

"She's been trying to get into my head hasn't she!!"  I ask him and he nods with a smile  "and she can't get in can she?"

"No and she really doesn't like it ... you got into hers though didn't you ..." he smirks at me " You told her to get out of your head and go away didn't you!!"  he chuckles for a moment  "She's never had anyone get into her head before!!"  then he leans towards me and says quietly  "Do me and yourself a favour Tap, do whatever she tells you to do ... don't wind her up or lose it with her ... she's not like us ... she will fade you without a second thought if you upset her!!  Even though I try, I can't always be here to protect you!!"  he looks at me for a moment  "You know when it's your time, you never have to be scared of fading, because it's not the end if you don't want it to be ... just look at me ... I know my existance now is not perfect, I would rather still be mortal, but what I am now, it's better than a lot of the alternatives ...." Cosmic glances in the direction of the steps like I do when we hear the metal door at the top of the steps, it annoyed me a little because it stopped him from finishing what he was telling me.  

"GREAT!! That is all we need!!"  he mumbles as we watch another two male vampberrys coming down the stone steps together.

"Who are they?"  I ask him getting very nervous that there are now even more of them.

 I notice they are both heading towards Jazz and the female vampire, they too also look a little weird as they are dressed strangely like she is, but unlike Celeste, they both have shining eyes.  I wander if they are berry's or originals ... I really hate being colourblind sometimes!!

"They are her guards .... she usually has two or four of them travelling with her, but I thought she had come back alone this time, she does sometimes."  Cosmic gets up then and goes over towards Jazz and the others, I presume to find out what's going on.  As he floats away from me I hear him mumbling to himself, "I hope to berry she hasn't called them in!"

The five of them stand there talking for ages and I keep noticing them looking over in my direction ... I really wish I could hear what they are saying.  One of the guards is continuously looking at me and grinning, what is his problem!?  Guards?  Why would anyone need guards?

After a while Jazz tells me River will be down with food and my medication soon then they all go off upstairs, including Cosmic, leaving me a lone with my boredom again.

~~~~~~~~~

"Where has Celeste and her guard dogs gone?"  Maizie asks Jazz, I look up from my book quickly, not even realizing that she had gone out, I'm sitting here reading a few pages while I'm waiting for the stew to finish cooking, I'd got a little lost in my book.  I'm now kicking myself for not paying better attention, worrying that she might have gone downstairs to the cage.

"Her guards recon there are some rogue vampberrys in the area so they've gone out hunting them ... but I just get a really nasty feeling about this!!"  Jazz says to her as he gets up and starts pacing around the room looking stressed out.

"Why haven't you gone with them, you usually do?"  Maizie asks Jazz

"Exactly ... that's why I have a nasty feeling about this ... she wouldn't let me go with them!!  and one of those idiot guards even had the nerve to snigger at me before he went out, you know normally they wouldn't dare!! ... I just know she's up to something!!!"

"Where's your shadow gone?"  Maizie asks him and I know she's talking about the spirit, I've heard her say that before and never quite got it, now I know he exists, I get it.

"He's gone to see someone, he won't be long."   Jazz carries on pacing around for a while before he throws himself down on the other couch and puts his head in his hands.  He stays like that for ages just staring down at the floor like he is deep in thought.

"I think she is planning to do something downstairs behind my back!!"  he says suddenly as he glances up at Maizie "She's really angry with me for letting my mortal emotions rule my head!!  I really don't think I'm getting through to her, she wants Tapestry faded.  She thinks he's too dangerous because she can't get into his head either, but he managed to get into hers just like with us.  She won't even consider turning him because she says if he's this powerful in mortal form ... he will end up being more powerful then them ... if he wanted to he could actually be the one who ends up controlling them!!"

I jump up of the sofa and let the book fall off my lap crashing to the floor in a mess.  Jazz looks up at me and can see I'm now starting to panic, he can hear the thoughts running through my head ... he seems to stop and listen for a moment then stands up suddenly and stares at me because he can hear exactly what I'm thinking ... and I shouldn't imagine that he likes it very much.  He laughs at me sarcastically.

"I don't care what you say ... I am getting him out of here NOW!!"

"Slow down River, that is exactly what we are going to have to do ... we have no choice now ... but don't think you can just march the pair of them out of the front door and that's an end to it  ... it's not going to be that easy ... "

"It would have been that easy if you had done what I begged you to do in the first place ... now SHE'S back ... you and Maizie have gone and made a right mess of this!!!"

"Don't make me get angry with you River ... you know damn well I've broken ever rule in the book to keep that brother of yours alive as well as putting my own neck on the line, which I might add is now swinging in a noose, she might be my wife, but she's an original, she can control her emotions unlike me ... she won't give any more thought to disposing of me than she would to fading you!!  Which is now what I think is coming to all of us"  he snaps at me  "We are on the same side here River ... I want Tapestry out of here as much as you do ... so you need to get off my back for five minutes while I think about how we are going to do this!!"

I'm angry, if he'd listened to me in the first place none of this would be happening now ... he could have let Tapestry out of here and trusted him, convinced him to keep their existence silent ... he would have been no different to me ... and that spirit spends a lot of time with Tapestry at home anyway, he could have watched over him, so would it have really been that big a risk ... with Tapestry's medical condition, he probably would have forgotten all about them after a while anyway as long as he didn't keep being reminded of them.  Nobody ever believed his ghost stories, so after a while he gave up even telling anyone about Cosmic ... so why would they believe his vampire stories and I will be there to do my part in keeping him quiet.

He said he couldn't take that risk, he had to sort it out properly, now he's left himself with no choice, he's going to have to trust the three of us to go out into the world knowing what we know and that is not the worst part ... now because she has come back early, she knows about Tapestry and the other originals could possibly also know about him by now if she's told them, which has turned this into a total nightmare and probably sealed all of our fates.

"We can not do anything until daybreak, because we are at a disadvantage for once because it's dark!!!"  Jazz says suddenly and I frown at him not quite understanding that, wondering if he is just trying to blag or stall me, wandering if he realises this is now a disaster and is just going to let Celeste do what she wants ... fade Tapestry.  He glares at me.

"Did you not just hear what I said to you ... ?!"  he snaps at me quite nastily  "YOU River are going to have to be the one to get Tapestry and Honey out of here while me Maizie and Cosmic distract Celeste and her guards.  If you go out with them in the dark, if they spot he's gone before the morning, they can come straight after you, you don't stand a chance .... we need to wait until daybreak to give you a good days head start on them, you need to use every minute of the sunlight to keep travelling and get as far from here as you can ... Celeste's only weakness is the sunlight."

"Ive still got that dagger!!"  he bursts out laughing, almost hysterically

"Oh please!!  River not that again!!  You've been watching too many vampire movies on sci-fi and that guy robbed you in the antique shop ... he saw you coming!!" he carries on laughing  "Sometimes you are just like your Dad ... I don't know how I never spotted it before ... that's just the sort of thing Mango would do, he was never happy unless he was researching something or making some great discovery!!"

"Suit yourself ... but you'll never know until you try it ... she didn't fob me off stabbing you in the side with it ... it needs to go through the heart ... she got way too hysterical over that dagger being here ... she made me believe it even more - I just know I'm right about this!!!"  he rolls his eyes at me  "I'll give it you anyway, the least you can do is try it, and if it doesn't work - THEN you can laugh at me!!"  he carries on laughing

"Okay ... Okay ... Mr Persistent - like I said you are just like your Dad ... I'll try your damn dagger, but I'm not holding my breath Junior!!"

"What about Manderine?"  Maizie asks him, he says she can stay here it doesn't matter if she lives or fades and he knows she would definitely never keep her mouth shut, he might as well put a billboard up on this place advertising their existence if he let's her free, which he wouldn't anyway because his friends would never be safe and she'd probably only cause us problems.

Jazz didn't feel comfortable about telling me what I had to do because if I think about it once after Celeste gets back they will be straight onto us and it could ruin everything.   But I think he knows how good I've become at hiding my thoughts, reading books and singing tunes in my head so as he hardly hears anything I think anymore, which is now what I have to do until dawn after Celeste gets back.  I'm not worried because I know I can do it!!

While they are occupying Celeste and the guards, I have to get Tapestry and Honey out of here, not Manderine, and I have to take them on the run and keep on running, I'm to head for Rainbow Valley, he thinks that's probably where we will be safest, there are no vampberrys based in that town or the surrounding area for quite a distance because of the hotter weather, vampire don't like venturing into that area because of the heat and hours of sunlight.  I laugh to myself, Winter lives in Rainbow Valley!!  Jazz frowns at me when I think about Winter but he doesn't ask me anything he just carries on talking ... once they have tidied up the mess and it's safe for us to come home, the spirits will come out and find us.  Spirits? Are there more than one here that they haven't told me about?

This is dangerous, I know it is, everyone could fade here and if Celeste gets her way, which she usually does, we all probably will.  If they didn't have Cosmic here they wouldn't stand a chance, especially against Celeste who is an original, but this is all going to be pointless if she has told the other originals about Tapestry, this is never going to stop and Jazz, Maizie and Cosmic can't fight a world full of vampires ... how did it get to this?!

I ask Jazz how he thinks he can clean up the mess, because Celeste is not just going to change her mind about fading Tapestry because he's got away, ALL of the originals will hunt us down until they have faded Tapestry and the rest of us.  I can't see how we are ever going to survive this!!

Jazz says we will have to attack first, her guards will not be a problem to dispose of and he's got no choice but to dispose of Celeste before she gets us first ... which Cosmic and some of his spirit friends will have to do, there is only one way to dispose of an original, so he thinks, and that's the sunlight ... only the spirits collectively are strong enough to hold her out there for long enough ... it will take quite a few days of sunlight exposure to completely finish her off.  At first the sun will just weaken her, when she becomes really weak, she will lose all of her abilities and her skin will start to blister slowly, then burn until the sunlight completely consumes her - this could take anything up to four days to achieve, that is not going to be easy!!

I seriously can't believe that he would consider disposing of his own wife, who I know he loves, it's not just the bond they have because she turned him ... he does actually love her!!  but I guess none of that matters anymore because he is trying to save his own neck now not just Tapestry's ... she will dispose of him if he doesn't get her first.  If she hasn't told any of the other originals yet and everything goes to plan then we might just get away with this, if she has already told them then we are all in serious trouble ... all except for Cosmic, he is immortal and nothing can touch him ... only he can decide when his time is over.

Jazz starts laughing suddenly as Maizie says  "Who the fudge is that Cosmic?  Celeste is going to hit the roof, especially at the moment, if she sees you have brought one of your spirit mates to hang out!!!"   Now I'm getting aggravated because both Maizie and Jazz seem to be stood there listening to something.   I cant hear what the spirit is saying, I can't even see him but I can guess where he is with Maizie and Jazz both staring in the same direction.

"Storm!!  Fudge ..... that's Manderines and Preludes kid!!"  Maizie says after a while and looks shocked.  They both continue to stand there staring in the same direction like they are still listening to the spirit.  All I can hear is silence, I really wish I had Tapestry's ability of seeing and hearing spirits right now. I'm confused, Storm isn't that Parsley's brother, so I ask what's going on.

"Cosmic has brought reinforcements ... another spirit ... Tapestry's cousin."  he tells me  "With another spirit on our side we should have no problem taking them out!!"  he starts laughing "and Storm apparently is always up for a good fight!!"  

"You said it's Manderines kid, so what if he helps her break out?"  I ask confused as to why he would be here .... surely it would only be to help his Mother?

"Don't worry about Storm, Cosmic has been sizing him up for a few days now, SHE is his least favourite person at the moment, he hopes she rots in here after everything she's done!!"  He started to tell me that Cosmic has filled Storm in on everything they've been hiding from all the kids ... the truth about what Manderine has done to everyone in the past ...  she's never really been a Mother to him with her always having been in prison, Lilly and Ice have been more of a Mother to him, and Storm has been hanging around Tapestry's house because that's where his Brother and Dad are ... he can see what she's done to everyone in his family taking Tapestry and Honey ... they are all suffering.  Storm, Honey and Tapestry were very close when he was alive  "... he's here for them ... not Manderine!!"  Jazz tells me ...

I just hope he is right ... about Storm and the rest of it ... or we have all had it!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

River had looked very nervous and agitated when he brought us some food down.

I refused to eat again, I don't like stew anyway!!  Honey and Manderine didn't complain, they got stuck right into their food.  River lost his temper with me after quite a few attempts at trying to make me eat, pulling me quite roughly away from the other two and started to talk to me quietly.

First he told me to eat that food because it might be a while before we get fed again.  That worried me.  He told me not to go to sleep, and if Celeste or either of her two guards come into the cage I'm to shout and scream and make as much noise as possible, and Jazz, Maizie and both of the spirits will be straight down here.  Both of the spirits? Is there more than one hanging around this place?  I haven't seen another one here?!  I asked him if something is going on, and all he would tell me is that we will definitely be out of here in the morning and I am to get me and Honey ready to run .... but not to tell Honey anything because the originals will be able to read her mind.  Manderine apparently is staying where she is.

He went to leave and I asked him why he wasn't hanging around, he said Celeste won't allow him to hang out down here, and he has no choice but to do what she says.  He smiled at me then left.  I watched him walking off up the steps, he looked back at me again before he disappeared out of sight.

The metal door closes behind him quietly and I suddenly got a horrible knot in my stomach.

Now I'm worried ... the way he mentioned Celeste or her guards coming into the cage ... is that a possibility, I get the feeling he was trying to tell me they are coming to do something to us and Jazz Maize and Cosmic are ready and waiting for it .... or am I reading too much into what he said and letting my imagination run away with itself?

I sit down on the bench next to Honey who has finished eating and is sat just looking at me.  I give her my bowl of stew which she takes off me and starts eating.  I sit quietly watching her eating while my mind replays over and over what River had said to me.  It didn't take her long to eat the second bowl of stew.  I don't know where she is putting all this food she is eating!!

"What were you two whispering about just then?" she asks me as I put my arm around her  "You look troubled, Tap is something wrong?"

"Oh nothing, he was just giving me a lecture over not eat properly, he sounds just like my Dad keeping on, like I haven't already been told a hundred times before!!"  this makes her giggle for a moment.  I couldn't tell her about the other stuff that River had said, but what is really worrying me now is how am I ever going to keep her awake for the rest of the night without telling her, she'll want to be going to sleep in a minute and I have to stop her somehow.

I look over at Manderine who is sat back on the cold floor because we are sitting on the bench.  I wander why River said she has to stay here.  Is Jazz planning on keeping her locked up here forever?  I still really don't know why everyone hates her so much.

"Honey, what has she done?"  I ask pointing at Manderine, Honey frowns at me  "I know she pushed my Mom down the stairs ... what else has she done?"  she shakes her head and refuses to tell me, I lose my temper  "JUST TELL ME .... I am SICK of being kept in the dark about everything!!! and when you've told me that you can tell me what that was all about with River, what did River really give you to read - that was no list of none hypo food?!"  she looks away for a moment ... I know that was something dodgy that went on between them, and she's just proved it.  "Tell me Honey before I lose my temper!!"

"Please Tap ... you really don't want to know what she's done, you'll just lose it .... I promise I'll tell you when we get home!!"  she looks really worried "Please .... you won't like it and you will lose it."  I can see tears welling up in her eyes ... is it really that bad?!  I think about what Cosmic had said about Celeste, then what River had said, I'm sure there is something about to go on here ... maybe now is not a good time for me to start kicking off!!

"Okay, Okay, but the minute we get home, you better tell me!"  she smiles at me then and promised she would, she looks relieved, I think she knows I would probably have lost it if she'd told me.

She starts kissing me and I can hear Manderine muttering something almost straight away under her breath - she does this every time we try to kiss each other which makes me laugh in my head, because I know any minute now she will start shouting at us to stop it.  Like she's a right prude and she's never kissed anyone with an audience before, but she chooses to watch us!!

Honey's hands starts creeping up the inside of my leg, which makes my pulse start racing and makes me think a really naughty thought, I know the perfect way to keep Honey awake ... but we can't ... Manderine is in here!!  I laugh in my head wandering how she would react if we did!!  I suddenly hear the metal door open at the top of the steps which makes me pull away immediately from kissing Honey.

Looking quickly towards the steps I see the two guards walking down the steps together, they look like they are causally talking.  I frown at them because I'm sure they don't look like the two that were down here earlier on ... are these ANOTHER two new ones?  This place is slowly filling up with vampberrys.

I start to get very nervous, as I watch them, they don't even look in our direction but I just know it's this way they are headed.  They reach the bottom of the steps and start walking towards the cage door.  As they get closer to us I know these two are not the same guards that were down here earlier with Celeste.

I'm just frozen there for a moment ... River was trying to warn me ... he knew they would be coming at some point. I start backing towards the bed pulling Honey with me.  The one guard looks at me and smiles.

"We thought you might be bored down here all alone so we thought we'd come and keep you company."  he says as he starts laughing, and so does the other vampberry who is unlocking the cage door. I'm not sure how to take that ... but I'm not sure I like it.

The cage door is open and they both walk through it.

Suddenly everything is a blur, they move at speed, it takes me a while to work out what is happening.  I grab for Honey but she's not there anymore she's being pulled away by one of the guards.

The vampberry has a hold of Honey, he lifts her up off her feet and without any warning he opens his mouth wide and sinks his teeth into her neck.  She screams and so do I, I start shouting Jazz's name as loud as I can while I frantically look around for something to hit him with.  I can't see anything, I grab for a fork, the only thing I can do is try stabbing him with it as I launch myself at the vampberry, who is sucking the life out of Honey, in an attempt to get him to stop.

He stops for a moment and laughs as he pulls the fork out of his side, which doesn't even appear to have hurt him in anyway, he's not even bleeding which confuses me.   He throws the fork with force across the cage as he sinks his teeth back into Honey's neck who screams again, a lot more weakly this time.  The fork hit the bars of the cage and made quite a loud clanking noise because of the speed the fork had been traveling at.

Berry please let them hear that upstairs!!!

I start screaming for Jazz and Cosmic again as I throw myself at the vampberry, but he just brushes me aside with hardly any effort like he's swatting a fly away, I hit the stone floor pretty hard ... he is too strong for me I can't do this alone!!  All the time the other vampberry is stood leaning against the door with his arms crossed and keeps laughing like he's highly amused with my feeble attempt to save Honey from his mate.

As I scramble to my feet I look around for Manderine, she needs to help me, I see her crawling on all fours quietly slipping into the bathroom trying to hide ... Bitch!!!  This is hopeless, what can I do on my own?!

I try to fly at the vampberry again, I have to stop him, but the second pair of ice cold hands take hold of me and I am dragged away, I start frantically kicking and screaming needing desperately to get to Honey, to stop him from draining her blood dry, but the vampberry holding me is too strong, there is no way I can get out of his grasp.  I wander where Jazz, Maizie and Cosmic are ... River said they would come ... why aren't they coming to help us?!

The vampberry's iron grip tightens painfully around my arm as his other cold hand takes a hold of my face turning my head and holding it still angled in Honeys direction so I have no choice but to watch, the vampberrys are way too strong to fight.

"Watch boy, your little girlfriend there has gone limp it will soon be your turn!!"  he says as he's laughing.  Honey's body is just hanging there in his arms lifeless, limp and quiet, she is no longer making any noise, I close my eyes, I can't bare to watch anymore.

"She's done .... pass me the boy"  my eyes spring open just in time for me to see him loose his hold of Honey,  her limp lifeless body hits the ground with a thud.  She doesn't make the slightest noise and doesn't move .. an unbearable pain tears through my chest as the realization hits me ... she has gone, he has faded her.  I just catch sight of the nasty marks and the streaks of blood that have ran down her neck when I'm propelled towards her and the vampberry who has just sucked the life out of her.

Now I know it's my turn.  The two vampberry are now laughing, I close my eyes as he grabs hold of me roughly with his ice cold hands and pulls me towards him.  I don't fight him, there is no point, I know there is no escaping this, with Honey gone I'm not sure I really care that I am on the verge of joining her.

I suddenly remember something that Cosmic said to me early about me not having to be scared of fading because it's not the end if I don't want it to be ... I can be like him ... this makes me feel a little better ... I just wish I'd told Honey.

I can't help but scream out from the initial pain of his teeth sinking deep into my neck, it only takes seconds for my head to start swimming fuzzily as I can feel the horrible pain of him sucking on my neck, I keep my eyes closed and wait for it to be over.

Through the pain and the haze I suddenly hear loud shouting, someone is shouting at the vampberry to let me go ... I hear a very familiar voice shout my name, the voice stuns me for a moment ... Storm?! No it can't be!! My head is swimming ... I must be confused.

The vampberry teeth tear out of my neck making me scream out in pain as he lets go of me suddenly.  I catch a glimpse of a blur that I recognize flash past me, the transparent figure of a ghost starts fighting with the vampberry.

I'm thinking 'I knew Cosmic would come to help us!!'  as I fall quickly from the vampberrys arms landing quite heavily onto the cold floor, a sharp pain ripping through my cheek as my face smashes into the stone floor quite hard.

My head is spinning, almost like I've been drinking and I'm wasted, all I can do is lie there on the cold floor trying to fight the darkness that is creeping up on me and trying to suck me in.  I don't have the strength to get to my feet as I can hardly keep my eyes open, I can feel myself going and there is nothing I can do to stop it.

I can hear Jazz and Maizie shouting now, it sounds like there is a huge fight going on around me ... they've come to help us ... but it's too late.

I lie there listening to all the shouting as I start drifting off  into the darkness ... that familiar voice suddenly drifts into the haze again which jolts me back for a second ... Storm ... I swear I can hear Storm's voice again shouting along with all the others!!!  I think I'm imagining it again ... I must be hallucinating!!

Honey is lying only inches away from me, I reach out and touch her face that is staring blankly back at me, her eyes are closed and her face is surprisingly peaceful, I can still feel a terrible pain throbbing in my neck, she must have felt exactly what I did so I'm surprised she doesn't have a pained expression on her face .

I try to concentrate on her face but my vision keeps blurring in and out of focus , I touch her arm, she feels really cold ... she's gone and so have the babies ... the pain creeping through my chest and shooting through my head is becoming unbearable, I can feel my head starting to go but I just don't have the strength to kick off right now, the emotional pain running through me is choking me, I can hardly breath thinking about Honey not being here anymore.

My heart is breaking and the tears start rolling down my face as I take one last look at her face then let my eyes close ... I know she's gone and I'm now hoping I'm not too far behind her ... I want to go ... I'm not sure I could cope without her being here.

Storm now Honey, they have both faded because of me!!

I really do not care what happens to me any more ... I just want to go with them now ... so all this horrible physical and emotional pain will stop.

I can still hear noise going on around me, but it is starting to fade away to just a quiet hum in the back of my mind as I stop fighting it and let myself start slipping into the darkness.

I hear River say my name just before the darkness closes around me.

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Song: I will Stay ~ We are fallen