Chapter 16 - Gen 2 - Tapestry

I am being shook gently and I can hear my name being whispered quietly ... someone is trying to shake me awake.  When my mind finally registers what's happening I wake with a start and try to sit up but River holds me down telling me to be quiet and lie still.

River is hovering over me as he leans into the car, he smiles at me then takes a quick look around to make sure there is nobody around.

"I've checked us into a motel for the night, I am getting too tired, I can't drive anymore!!  I need to get some sleep"  he tells me quietly.  I roll over onto my back and look through the open car door and am really surprised to see it is now dark out, I must have been asleep all afternoon. My head is aching, I think maybe I must have had too much sleep.  "I need you to pretend you are asleep, I'm going to carry you up to our room, keep your eyes closed okay"  I nod and close my eyes.

I feel him lift me out of the car, he closes the door then I hear the lock making a whiring noise on the car as he starts walking away with me in his arms.  I've already noticed he has one of those key fob things that lock the car automatically from a distance.

That key fob thing has always fascinated me, trying to work out how it works locking and unlocking the car from a distance.  When I was a small child I used to steal Dad's keys from where he always used to leave them on the table in the hall.  I used to sit for hours on the front door step repetitively locking and unlocking his car doors with that key fob usually until someone had to take the keys off me.  He once went mental at me because I played with them so much I either broke it or wore out the battery and he had an emergency at the hospital and he couldn't use his car.  It had messed up the alarm system and the car wouldn't start not even with the key, so he had to call for a taxi.  He wasn't impressed!!  After it cost him quite heavily to get the car fixed from then on he always used to keep his car keys in his pocket ... a good job really because when I became a teenager, those keys would have been easy picking laying around on the hall table.  I could quiet imagine that me and Storm would have picked up his keys and gone for a joy ride in his car, that is the sort of thing we would do and did, Prelude was the one stupid enough to leave his keys lying around so it was his car we took instead.

I wander where Storm is, I hadn't seen or heard him when I opened my eyes.

River is still carrying me and I'm itching to open my eyes to see where we are going, but I dare not, not after what I did in McBerry's car park.  I hear gravel crunching under Rivers feet then the sound stops and it feels like we are walking up steps, he grunts a little because I think he's struggling to carry me.  Suddenly he swings me down onto my feet but keeps his arm around my shoulder, he tells me to open my eyes but keep looking right.  We are on a second floor balcony and we walk across it until he stops me at a door quite near to the top of the steps.  I stand facing the door while he is unlocking it.  He opens the door and I quickly walk through it.  It's dark for a moment until he flicks the light on as he closes the door behind us and locks it, then moves quickly to close the curtains on the one large window in the room.

I instantly start laughing as I can see Storm stretched out sitting up on one of the single beds legs crossed, arms behind his head grinning at me.  "Storm you're an idiot!!"  I laugh at him  "Are you going to tell me about everything that Manderine has done tonight?"  I say to him suddenly remembering our conversation back at River's house in Apple Hill.

"No he's NOT going to tell you about what Manderine has done, not until I say he can ... you are not up to it at the moment!!!  Besides, he'll be outside on vampberry watch all night ... you can only hang out with Storm during the daytime, he'll be busy at nights."  River asks me where he is and what he's doing so I tell him. He tuts then tells Storm to keep a look out.  I laugh again as Storm salutes him then floats through the door, I presume to sit outside ... he is going to be bored out there alone!!

River worried me a little by saying if the vampberry's are going to get us it is going to be at night when they are out and about, we are virtually safe during the sunlight hours in the daytime.  He knows there is a vampberry den in this town, like there is in most of the towns in this area. Great!! and here was me hoping there was only going to be the one in Sugar Valley!!

"Take a shower ... I've got you some clean clothes."  he says as he starts throwing clothes that aren't mine, but they look like they might fit me, onto the bed in front of me.

"I like my own clothes I don't need new ones!!"  I say to him staring down at the pile of new clothes that are now lying on the bed, I wander where they came from, I really don't like the look of those clothes.

"Number one you stink and so do those clothes, you've been living and sleeping in them for well over a week remember!!   I wouldn't be surprised if we don't have to peel them off you!!"  he picks the clothes up off the bed and throws them at me  "Number two, we need to change your appearance, just in case there are photo's of you in the newspaper, and Number three, we need to get rid of that white hat and jacket of yours anyway, because we are advertising the fact that you are a mixed berry!!"  he also hands me a toothbrush and toothpaste and tells me not to forget my teeth ... he's such an adult, I am standing here half expecting him to tell me not to forget to wash behind my ears!!

Fudge I never even gave a thought to the colourless parts of my clothes ... I bet when I ran across that McBerry's car park everyone could see my clothes, they didn't really need to see my eyes to know I'm a mixed berry did they!!  It's no wander River was angry with me.  But my hat!!??  I can't live without my hat!!

I look down at the clothes in my hands with the toothbrush perched on top of them, I start looking through the clothes, there are quite a few sets of pants and tops, but I notice there is no hat.  I throw them back on the bed and told him that I didn't like them and I'm not wearing them.

"You can give me that jacket and hat I need to bin them!!" he smiles at me, ignoring what I said about not wearing the clothes.

"OH NO!!!  My hat is going NO WHERE!!!"  he just stands there laughing at me for a moment

"You can throw your paddy fits as much as you want ... I'm telling you now ... your tantrums are not going to wash with me!!  I know Dad spoils you and lets you get away with murder giving into your tantrums ... but just because I might look like him doesn't mean I'm going to do the same!!!  You are wearing those clothes and that hat is going ... end off!!"  he says quite calmly as he roots around in the bag again and pulls out a hat pretty similar to the one he's wearing.

He had floored and confused me for a moment ... how did he know I was going to throw a tantrum to keep my hat ... how does he know Dad spoils me and lets me get away with murder when I start throwing tantrums.

"You'll have to borrow one of mine, the shop didn't have any that looked remotely like yours!  Tapestry it would actually be better if you lost the hat completely, nobody is used to seeing you without a hat, we could do with changing your appearance remember."  I frown, I'm not listening to what he's saying about my hat, all I can think is  ... what shop?

He's rooting around in the smaller bag now and starts pulling stuff out  "Here you can eat this before you take a shower, you've had nothing all day and you need to take your medication." he says as he throws a boxed sandwich at me and hands me a milkshake carton.

Where did he get all this stuff from?  I look down at the sandwich, I can't tell what it is by looking at it so I sniff the packet  "It's tuna and sweetcorn."  he tells me, I pull a face and throw it on the bed ... I don't like fish or vegetables which I tell him and he rolls his eyes at me.  I do actually feel hungry for a change.  He holds out the sandwich he has in his hand that he was just about to take a bite out of.  "Cheese and Egg Mayo?"  he asks and I take it off him and grin at him  "You are a strange child!!"  he says laughing as I sit down on the bed to eat his sandwich, while he starts eating the tuna one.  While he's eating he starts sorting out my medication which he hands to me ... I frown down at it for a moment before I take it, thinking I could have sworn I've taken this today.

I start thinking while I'm eating because a few things that he has said really don't make any sense.  I ate McBerry's earlier didn't I, so why am I hungry and why did he say I had not had anything to eat today, and where did those clothes come from?  He said the shop didn't have a hat like mine?!  How and when did he go shopping for clothes?!  And I'm sure he's given me two lots of medication today.

"What shop?"  I mumble through a mouthful of sandwich and he frowns at me  "You said the shop didn't have a hat like mine ... what shop? ... when did you go shopping?"  I'm quite confused.  He rolls his eyes and looks at me sheepishly.

"You are not stupid are you!!  I hoped you wouldn't notice or ask questions, but I should have known better!!"  he scratches his head  "Okay, I'm sorry, I have a confession ... after we left McBerry's, I waited for you to start snoring then I ... I sedated you!"  I jumped up to face him and threw the sandwich box on the bed in temper, the second half of my sandwich flying out of the package and all over the bed.  That's why my head was hurting when I woke up, he sedated me and I just thought I'd had too much sleep.  "I'M SORRY!!! I had to ... I couldn't risk you doing that again so close to Sugar Valley ... your eyes and clothes are going to get us hung Tapestry, I really don't think you understand just how serious this is!!"

"Actually I do understand!!  So what did you do with me while you went SHOPPING and just how long have you had me sedated for?"  I snap at him quite angrily.

"You've been out for about 24 hours.  I parked the car in an underground car park, close to a security booth, and covered you over with the blanket and told Storm to watch you ... you was perfectly safe and I wasn't away long."  he sat down on the bed  "I'm sorry but I had to get you some new clothes, stuff for us to eat and things we'll need ... and I couldn't trust you not to go walk abouts again so soon after you got upset!!"  he tried to touch my arm but I shrugged him off me and gave him a dirty look  "I'm sorry okay, I won't do it again!!!"

"So what else did you get while you was SHOPPING?!"  I snap at him

 "Just toiletry's and a new sim card for my phone and I was trying to figure out a way to do your eyes ... are your contacts not hurting you you've had them in for over a week now?"

"They could do with cleaning, but I have monthly ones, because I can't be trusted to remember to change them everyday.  How are you going to sort my eyes out?"  he's scratching his head again he's not too sure, but he has a few things to try, but not now he's too tired and he has other stuff to do before he goes to sleep.

I'm a little angry with him for sedating me ... I snatch just the clean boxer shorts and toothbrush up off the bed, leaving all the rest of the clothes behind, give him a dirty look, I tell him again that my hat is going nowhere and stomp off into the bathroom.  I heard him laughing when I slammed the door.

I strip off my clothes and jump straight into the shower, I am actually glad to be getting out of them because they are really starting to make me itch.  I've never enjoyed a shower so much, I stood there for ages just letting the hot water constantly wash over my body before I even started to wash myself or my hair.  I felt like I was a stone lighter after I'd washed off over a weeks worth of grime.  I washed my contacts and brushed my teeth twice then put on the new boxers and my hat over my wet hair and walked out of the bathroom.

River is siting on the bed cross legged, I stop because he's doing the strangest thing, he's surrounded by a pile of wooden sticks, that look suspiciously like chair legs, and he's got a pen knife and seems to be carving one end of the stick into a point, the wood he's shaving off is falling into a plastic bag that is sat on his lap.   I just stand there watching him, frowning ... has he lost the plot.

"What the fudging hell are you doing?"  I ask him

"Language!!"  he snaps  "Wooden stakes for the vampberry's just in case they come."  he says without looking up as he carries on carving away at the wood he has in his hand  "My dining table chairs no longer have any legs"  he chuckles to himself.  The guys off his head!!  I've seen them staking vampires in films but didn't think it was for real.

"Staking a vampire does that even work?"

"Yes, it does on vampberry's as long as it goes straight through the heart ... it's wood for vampberrys and silver for originals."  he laughs to himself  " Ive seen Jazz do it a few times, they are always fighting among themselves, they are horrible creatures ... well most of them."

He carries on nattering away while he's working on the wood without looking up.  He says that for a vampberry Jazz has always been okay, and Kali is not too bad, he's another one who lives in Sugar Valley, because they have kept their mortal emotions which a lot of them don't keep, they turn into horrible cold hearted callous creatures most of them. Surprisingly he thinks even Maizie has managed to keep hers, not that she ever had many in the first place, he says she's always been a cold hearted bitch!!  He really doesn't think much of his own Mother does he, I could never imagine talking about my Mother like that.

"These are for us, Storm doesn't need them he can just rip their hearts out ... it's the originals we need to worry about most, but Jazz doubts they will come, they always get their vampberry army to do their dirty work for them, originals have a harder job to hide themselves because of the way they look ... black hair, white skin, red eyes, they stand out like a sore thumb."  He didn't stop until the second piece of wood had a pointed end and he had two stakes in his hand.

He looks up then, he takes one look at me and starts howling with laughter.  I see Storms head poke through the door ... he starts laughing too before he disappeared again.

"You can take that hat off!!"  he scooted across the bed and grabbed the hat I'd left on the other bed with one hand as he whips my hat off my head.  "Leave it OFF until your hair is dry you are going to catch a cold!!"   He hands me his hat and runs across the bedroom to where he's piled the bags - he pulls out a plastic bag puts my hat in, then my jacket and ties the bag up saying they are going in the garbage shoot in the morning.  My hat!!  I put his hat on my head and throw myself on the bed in a sulk, noticing that he'd cleaned up the sandwich I'd thrown over the bed in temper.  He hands me another boxed sandwich and a packet of crisps and told me to eat then whips off the hat putting it on the bedside table, telling me to leave it there, then he went off into the bathroom.

I lay on the bed eating the crisps and ignored the sandwich, staring at the wooden stakes that were sitting on his bed, I hope to Berry we don't have to use those!!!  Straight through the heart he said, knowing me I'll miss the target.

Neither of us have really mentioned the brother thing, I'm still struggling to take it in that he's actually my brother, even though now I do know and I look at him I can see it, he looks and acts a lot like Dad.  I'm not sure how I never noticed before, because now I do know it is very obvious.  I'm too scared to bring it up in case he tells me something that I don't want to hear about Mazie, Mom and Dad.

River comes out of the bathroom after only a short time just wearing boxers but I looked at his face and had to do a double take ... I notice his hair looks strange, he's cut it all off.  Fudge he looks even more like Dad now!!

"Why have you cut all your hair off!!"

"I hated it anyway, only kept it that long so nobody could see my face properly, besides I think I need to lose my hat and probably my glasses, change my appearance a little, luckily I've got my contacts" he says as he starts rooting through the bag and pulls out a dressing gown.  I burst out laughing when I notice he has a hand print on his backside when he bent over.  He frowns at me and I hold up my hand as I carry on laughing and slap my own backside.  He laughs when he realizes what I'm laughing at.

"Oh that's Winter, she thinks it's funny, she's always buying me stupid pants its now become quite a joke between us!!"  he says as he puts his dressing gown on then lies down on the bed propping his head up on his hand and just lies there looking at me, I ask who Winter is and he says she's his girlfriend.

"You have a girlfriend?!"  I ask and he must have heard the surprise in my voice, he's never mentioned her before so I didn't think he has one and I wander when he gets to see her, he has been with us in the vampberry den constantly for over a week.

"Yes ... don't sound so surprised!!" he says laughing at me

"Who is she? Where is she? Why have you never mentioned her before?  Is she orange? She's not a vampberry is she?"  I ask and he rolls his eyes at me

"I'm getting another 101 questions again now aren't I!?"  I grin at him and he laughs, one thing about River he does answer most of my questions properly, so I'm always asking him questions, he doesn't keep saying 'I'll tell you later' like most people do, especially the adults, hoping I'll forget, that usually means they don't want me to know or are hiding something.  He took out his phone and showed me a few pictures of her, I thought she looks really pretty which kind of surprised me but I don't know why.

His girlfriends name is Winter, they are actually engaged, and at the moment she is living in the town where she was born, Rainbow Valley.  She came to Apple Hill because she started working at the hospital where he worked, she's also a doctor, a trauma surgeon.  They became good friends which went a little too far because she's blue and he's orange so they shouldn't have been together, even though they were behind closed doors and nobody knew.  Before he even found out about Dad, they had been talking about moving to Sugar Valley but then Winters Mother became very ill, she suffered a serious stroke which had permanently paralyzed her and there was nobody else to look after her so Winter had to move back home to take care of her Mother.

His Grandmother told River about Dad, just before she faded, because he was talking about moving to Sugar Valley with Winter and his Grandmother knew that's where his Dad lived. Up until then he hadn't even known his Dad's name, he didn't realize he'd been carrying Dad's name around with him all the time because it was the same as his.  So River moved to Sugar Valley for two reasons, Dad and Winter.

He only gets to see Winter when they have holidays, she comes to Sugar Valley and stays for a while and he's only been to Rainbow Valley once before because they don't like it, they have to hide their relationship, not like in Sugar Valley.  She does actually know about the vampberrys, he had to tell her because it was making things awkward and they nearly fell out over it, but she's told him as soon as she moves to Sugar Valley its all got to stop ... she's okay about keeping the secret and I'm not to tell Jazz that she knows or he'll go ballistic!!  Winter's mother faded about a month ago and she's just waiting for a transfer to Sugar Valley so when she does finally get there they plan to get married.

"So does that satisfy your curiousity?"  he looks up at me and smiles. We went quiet for a while, so I ask him a question that has been bugging me.

"What am I supposed to call you now?"  I ask him, he frowns and asks me what I mean  "What do I call you River or Mango?"

"River still I suppose ... everyone already knows me and calls me River, it will be hard for them to call me Mango now they know the truth I should imagine."  I frown at him and he laughs, "It's confession time again ... Mosaic and Mulberry are probably my best mates at the moment, Coral, Slate, Parsley, Strawberry Ice, Blueberry, Juni, Cherry, Affair, I could go on I know most of them already, they just never knew who I was ... but I steered well clear of your Dad and Grandparents, although I have spoken to your Granddad at work a few times, that was awkward for me!!"  I sit there staring at him with my eyes and mouth wide open "Pretty ironic really, I could never get close to you and Storm, you don't hang out with the others, and now look at us!!" 

River is laughing while I'm frowning because he is really confusing me, I can't believe he knows everyone already and I've never seen him before the vampberry den.  I can't say I've even heard anyone talking about him before either, but I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised they never talk to me about anything, I don't have a clue about what is going on in their lives, they exclude me from everything, they avoid me like the plague most of the time.  My own brother and sister know River already and I never even knew!!  That must be how he knows Dad spoils me and gives into my tantrums, I bet they have been telling tales ... I bet they've been telling him what a horrible person I am!!!

I lie there stewing it all over in my head,  while he moves off the bed getting a pad and pen out of one of the bags and I watching him scribble down I presumed numbers out of his phone.  I ask him what he's doing and he says he's got to get rid of his sim card, he's brought a new one, as he needs to keep in touch with Jazz, so we all know what is happening with the vampberry situation.

He starts explaining that we can't leave any trail at all that the police can follow, he can't use his old phone number, he can't use his bank cards, he's withdrawn a load of cash, we are not even using his car, it was his Grandmothers and its still registered as being his Grandmothers car that he uses when he's in Apple Hill ... he hopes the police will see he's left his own car at home and think they are traveling by bus and train if they even think they are travelling at all, and wont pick up on the fact he's insured to drive his deceased Grandmothers car.  He thinks the car could be the thing that gets us caught especially if I attract attention to us ... but he really doesn't have a choice, it was the best he could do at short notice.  We can't leave anything in any of the places we stay that might lead them back to us.  Jazz is going to do a few things back home using Manderines and Rivers identity to make it look like we are still around Sugar Valley somewhere, so hopefully they wont even think we are travelling away so they won't be looking for us anywhere other than around Sugar Valley.   He looks up at me suddenly  "Do the police have your fingerprints?"  I smile and tell him yes  He tuts and rolls his eyes probably because I'm grinning at him "That's nothing to be proud of you idiot!!"

I carry on watching him as he starts taking his phone apart, he removes the sim card and snaps it up, then puts a new one into his phone.  After he puts the phone back together he looks like he's sending a text to someone.  He folds the paper up and puts it into the small bag then places his phone under the elastic waist band of his boxers which I thought was a very strange thing to do.  He picked up one of the stakes and handed it to me, he told me to put it under my pillow,  I watched him put his under his pillow then he starts getting into bed saying he's really tired and needs to get some sleep and suggests I do the same.

I lay there for a while trying to work out why he would put his phone where he has, I wandered for a moment if it was to stop me from getting to it and phoning home ... this makes me laugh a little because I couldn't phone home even if I wanted to ... I don't know anyone's number off by heart not even my own, and even if he had phone numbers in his phone I wouldn't be able to read the names.  I hear River start snoring quite quickly, I'm wide awake and doubt I'll get any sleep.

I'm just wandering what Storm is doing when Rivers phone starts ringing.  He starts mumbling under his breath, because it's just woken him up, as he sits up to pull it out and answers it.

He doesn't even look at the screen he just answers it "Hey Jazz"  he says while he's sits on the edge of the bed.  Suddenly he jumps up a look of shock on his face.  He stands up quickly like he's flapping and doesn't know what to do.  "Hello ... errr ... sorry I expected it to be Jazz ...  err ... can you just hold for one sec."  he says as he walks quickly off into the bathroom, giving me a quick glance, as he closes the door.

He thought it was Jazz, but it wasn't ... he looked shocked ... so who has just phoned him?

Storm pokes his head through the wall  "This town is boring man ... all I've seen so far are lovebirds and drunks!!"  he says grinning at me then disappears again.  I lie there for ages twiddling my thumbs, I'm far from tired and there isn't even a TV in this room which is pretty boring!!  I wander what Storms doing out there I wish he could be in here talking to me, I bet he must be bored too but I'm really glad that he's here watching out for the vampberrys, I dread to think how we might be feeling if he wasn't.  I wander over to the window and pull the curtains back a little, but I can't really see too much other than parts of the building we are in, bits of the car park and lots of trees.  The balcony railing outside which looks quite high helps block a lot of the view.  I can see Storm sitting on the balcony railing leaning against the wall just looking around, he looks as bored as I feel!!

River seemed to be in the bathroom forever, when he finally came out he looks like he's crying and I wander why, he walks up to me and pulls me away from the window and straightens the curtains up so they are tightly closed.

"Tap you need to keep away from the window ... your eyes remember!!"  I keep forgetting.  He points for me to sit on my bed and hands me the phone, I frown at him as I take it off him.

"Hello?"  there is silence for a second then I hear my Dads voice flapping for a moment on the other end of the phone which makes me jump back off the bed.

"D-A-D!!"  I watch River who lies down on his bed and carries on crying.

Once Dad has finished flapping he started to talk to me normally.

"Tapestry are you okay?" he asks which I think is stupid, obviously I'm not okay!!

"No, I want to come home!!"

"Son I want you to come home too but you have to go with River, it's not safe for you to be here right now. Listen to me Tapestry this is really important ... you need to stay with River and you have to do everything that he tells you to do okay, you know he's your brother and he's going to look after you but you have to help him Tapestry by not playing up ... I need you to be my special little soldier!!  Jazz will tell you when it's safe to come home."

He makes me laugh when he calls me his special little soldier ... he's used it so many times over the years, especially when I was younger and hated going into hospital for loads of tests ... he's telling me I have to put a brave face on, I have to do something I don't want to do, but its for my own good and if I grit my teeth it will all be over before I know it.  I'm confused for a moment by him mentioning Jazz.

"Has Jazz got you too?"  he laughs at me  "Why is River crying are you angry with him?"

"No son, Jazz is my friend, it's okay, I know everything that happened and I'm helping him sort everything out so you can come home ...  and I'm not angry with River, he's just a little upset ... he ... he wants to come home too."  I wander how Dad can help Jazz to sort this mess out but didn't ask him because no doubt he wouldn't tell me anyway, like he didn't tell me why River is really crying, he never does, he hides everything from me.

"How did you get Rivers number?"  I ask him wandering how he could have been the one who phoned him.  He said that he was with Jazz when River sent the text through, and he can only speak to us from Jazz's phone, just in case the police look at his phone records.

We talked for quite a while about things happening back home, how only Dad and Sunny know the truth about what's really going on and everyone else including the police think that Manderine and Maizie still have me ... they doen't know about the vampberrys and that I have had to run away with River.  I noticed he avoided all talk of Honey, as soon as I mentioned her he said he had to go because he needs to speak to River again, he said he'd speak to me again next week and reminded me again to behave for River.

I hand River the phone back because Dad wants to talk to him again, he took it off me and he went back off into the bathroom again.  I can't help but think they are treating me like the idiot child again, the way Dad talks to me like I'm three years old and River is off having hidden conversations in the bathroom with him which now doubt is so I can't hear what they are plotting or planning.

Just hearing Dad's voice makes me want to go home even more, I panic for a moment, remembering the photo that was inside my jacket pocket.  I scurry over to the bag and rip it open, pull out the jacket and take the photo out of the inside pocket, really glad I remembered it before it went into the rubbish shoot.  I look down at the photograph and can't help but burst into tears.

I'm lying on the bed and still crying when River comes out of the bathroom, he's still crying too but not like I am, I'm sobbing like an idiot.  He sits down on the bed and starts stroking my arm

"Why are you crying?"  I ask him and he says nothing at first  "Did Dad shout at you?"  he lies down on the bed beside me and puts his arm round me.  I'm not sure if it's because he thinks I need a hug or he needs one himself.  Once we were settled into a comfortable position he starts talking.

"No he didn't shout at me ... quite the opposite, which surprised me!!  He's not very happy with me for not going to him the minute I found out he was my Dad and for sitting in Sugar Valley for two years and hiding away from him, but otherwise he's okay!!"  I asked him again so why is he crying?

He starts to try and explain to me that it's him himself, its hard for him to take in, especially how Dad has reacted to his existence, in a good way not badly like he'd always imagined he would.   He's grown up without any parents or family just a Grandmother and her sister.  He hated how Maizie just dumped him and didn't want him and never knew anything about his Dad, Maizie always used to say she couldn't remember, which he thought was ridiculous, but he always imagined that his Dad whoever he was would not want him either.  So when he did find out about Dad he's always been too scared to tell him, he imagined he'd send him away, reject him and not want to know. He was never really sure if his Grandmother had told him his Dad didn't know he existed just to make him feel better, or if his Dad did know about him and really didn't want to know him and that's why he'd never seen him.

He's crying more from relief that Dad does want to know him and how angry he is with Mazie for not telling him she was pregnant with his child.  Everyone at home knows who he is now and after they got over the initial shock, they are quite happy about it, River thought everyone would hate him for hiding the truth from them for the past two years.  He's also crying because of all the wasted years when he had no parents and he felt unloved and unwanted, and if Dad had only known about him, he would have been with Dad instead of his Grandmother. It was only then that I realized he probably feels a lot like I do all the time, especially unwanted.

"Dad and Maizie ... what about my Mom, I bet she isn't happy about you!! she's going to be very upset when she finds out Dad has been cheating?"  He props himself up a little and asks me why I would even say or think that, so I tell him Mom and Dad have been together since school so Dad has to have been cheating.  He laughs for a moment.  

"Tapestry I'm not sure what they have been telling you because you've got it all wrong"  I roll over a little so I can look at him and I frown  "Maizie finally told me recently what happened and it's definitely not what you are thinking!! Yes they did meet at school, but they were best friends, they weren't dating even though that's what Dad wanted ... your Mom was engaged to Cosmic ... Dad was dating Maizie, they lived together for three years before they split up.  When Cosmic faded Dad dumped Maizie for your Mother, Maizie had just found out she was pregnant with me and just to spite Dad for dumping her she left and never told him she was pregnant ... Dad wasn't cheating Tap!!"  he laughed at me  "Come on we need some sleep or I won't be able to drive anywhere tomorrow!!"  he says as he puts his head on the pillow and goes quiet, all but his sniffing because I think he's still crying.

I'm a little surprised he didn't go back to his own bed, he just carries on lying there holding me.  It didn't take long before I can hear his sniffing stop and he starts snoring quietly behind me, I lay there for ages with my eyes closed chewing over what he'd said while I carry on crying because I just want to go home.

I don't know when I drifted off to sleep.

Suddenly I'm being shook quite violently awake, I'm a little confused at first because I can feel someone's arm over me and I think it's Honey for a moment.  As I'm stirring I realize its actually Rivers arm that is draped across me, and then I remembered that we had both cried ourselves to sleep on the same bed.   River is also starting to stir as Storm is shaking the both of us.

"Get up man, there are four vampberry's on the carpark!!"  Storm is shouting at me as River sits up rubbing his eyes  "I don't think they are looking for you, they are hunting, but you need to get up just in case!!"

"Storm says there are four vampberry on the car park"  River dives off the bed and grabs his glasses and the stake from under his pillow.  I then have to become an interpreter for Storm and River, while we are both quickly getting dressed.

Storm tells me that he heard someone screaming a while back but didn't think too much of it because there are a lot of drunks wandering out of the public house close by, shortly after the scream he said the vampberrys came onto the car park, one of them wiping blood off his face, and they are now lurking about looking for their next meal.  River asks if they are definitely vampberrys which Storms says they are, two red ones a pink one and a green one.  I notice he looks a little relieved at them being vampberrys and not originals, as he tells Storm to go back outside and not to take his eyes off them for a second.

River then starts running round the room like an idiot repacking all the bags, I help him by grabbing everything from out of the bathroom.  When all the bags are packed and piled up and we are both fully dressed, we sit on the bed together in the dark scared and holding a stake each and just listening to the eerie silence ... there is nothing else we can do.

I can't help but worry that this is how we are going to spend the rest of our lives, sitting scared knowing there are vampberrys around and that they could be looking for me.  This is just  mental, up until we were snatched I never had a clue vampberrys were even real, now it seems they run riot everywhere at night feeding off people.  River starts talking very quietly, he says he worried about this, in larger towns and cities there are large dens of vampberrys and they do tend to run a little riot, a lot of vampberrys feed off animals instead of people to help keep their existance a secret, but in built up towns there are no animals, so they don't have much choice.

In Sugar Valley they are pretty controlled because it is a small town with a small den, helped by him getting the blood that they need so they never have to go out on the streets. Unfortunately, we can't escape stopping in towns where there are vampberrys because every town inland has them, he hoped we wouldn't come across any hunting vampberrys at all, we have enough to worry about with the ones that might be out looking for me.  We can't start relaxing until we get closer to the coast where the weather is a lot hotter and the vampberry dens thin out until there aren't any at all.  That is why we are heading for Rainbow Valley there are no vampberry dens around that area for a good 300 miles.

"It's only 3am we are gonna have to sit here till dawn if they don't clear off before then."  River grunts quietly as he's looking at his watch.  This is just great. As I'm sitting hear listening to the silence, I keep getting visions in my head of that night in the vampberry den, I can't stop them from coming It's like my mind is replaying it and I'm having to go through it all over again, I can hear Honey screaming in my head as the vampberry sinks his teeth into her neck, I can see Honey be drained, the way her body was just hanging their lifeless towards the end, I can see the pain on her face, I can see her lifeless body on the floor, then it's my turn, the feel of the cold fingers digging into me, the pain when his teeth sunk into my neck, the way that it all felt and the emotions running through me then are running through me again like its actually happening right now ... just knowing there are vampberrys outside and it COULD be about to happen all over again ... is really starting to freak me out.

We grab for each other suddenly as we see a silhouette of a figure appear in front of the window on the curtains in front of us, after we hear the familiar sound of a vampire moving at speed, its like a wush of wind, he starts speaking and we can clearly hear his loud voice outside the window.

"Hey restless spirit why are you hanging around here like a spare part ... got nowhere better to haunt kid?"  a deep voice says, I think straight away both me and River know its one of the vampberrys as he is obviously talking to Storm, and nobody else can see him other than me and vampberrys.  Thankfully the lights are off in our room, but I can see the silhouette of the vampberry moving around outside our window. It scares me knowing he is so close to us, he could burst through that wooden door and fly across the room in seconds and there is nothing we can do to stop it.

"I'm minding my own business mate, what are you doing?  Fading for fun?  I heard that blokes scream not long back ... put up a good fight did he?"  Storm says quite calmly to the vampberry who is now laughing

"Yeah, we're hungry kid it seems the wolves have cleaned up tonight, are there any body's in these rooms that we can drain?"  he asks Storm, I look at River and his eyes widen as he starts holding me tighter, he can only hear half of the conversation.  Wolves, what the hell is he on about?  Please don't tell me there are also werewolves out there and they are real too!!  I am really glad River is here right now I can feel myself starting to shake with fear, I need someone to hold me tight right now.  I can't get the feeling of how those teeth feel sinking into my neck or all of the other flashbacks that I keep having out of my head.  I am also really glad Storm is here too because I get the feeling he was going to look in these motel rooms for food!!!

"No mate these top rooms are all empty, they are pretty quiet tonight, not a lot of guests at the moment ... only a few of the rooms on the first floor are occupied."  Storm says and the vampberry stays quiet, I hope he believes what Storm is saying!! "You know if you want easy pickings, I saw a group of about six drunk blokes stumbling in that direction about 10 minutes ago ..." 

"That direction you say?"  the vampberry says

"Yeah, follow the footpath onto the road, they were pretty smashed so I doubt they will have got very far by the amount of times I watched them falling over ... here I'll show you."  Storm replies laughing

"Thanks mate!!"  the vampberry says  "I owe you one!"  he says then it goes quiet after we watch his silhouette move away from the window.

We both look at each other in relief that the vampberry appears to have gone but I worry for a moment that Storm is moving with the vampberry away from the room and leaving us unprotected.

We both sit holding each other for ages just listening to the eerie silence now coming from outside. Even though the vampberry hopefully is now long gone I can feel myself really shaking and it seems to be getting worse, I can't stop it, my head is panicking, my chest is getting tight and I can hardly breath while River seems to be sat there quite calmly.   He holds me tighter and starts rubbing my back and whispers to me to take deep breaths.  I try but it doesn't help it just seems to be getting worse.  He suddenly moves away from me, rooting in the bag, i see him tipping my medication out all over the bed, I think he's giving me tablets but he doesn't he screws up the top of the brown paper bag and gives it to me and tells me to breath into it ... long deep breaths.

I do what he says as I can feel myself going dizzy.  After a while it does actually help I can feel myself calming down a little, all the time he's rubbing my back and talking to me quietly. When I had virtually calmed down he takes the bag off me and tells me to carry on taking deep breaths while he just sits looking at me. He told me I have just had a panic attack as we carried on sitting there in the dark listening to the silence.

"You can relax now ... they've all gone!!"  Storm says as he comes through the wall suddenly which makes me jump, of course River can't hear or see him so I have to tell River the vampberrys are gone.  

"They've been well fed, they wont be bothering anyone else tonight."  Storm says and starts laughing

"Tell me there were not really six drunk blokes that you sent him after?!  he nodded with a smile  "Storm that was cruel ... I thought you was just making that up to get rid of him!!"

"Sorry cuz ... I had no choice, I wasn't going to lie to them or they would have come back, I had to send them after those six blokes ... it was either them or you two ... I'm not stopping all four of them at once am I, and his mates were waiting for him at the bottom of the steps!!"

River wanted to know what we were talking about so I had to tell him about the conversation between Storm and the vampberry. River said he was actually surprised that the vampberry didn't hear his thoughts and heartbeat or smell his blood and fear from where he was standing, he knew the vampberry wouldn't detect me, but River he should have picked up on.

River told Storm to carry on keeping a look out while we get a few more hours sleep before we set off again as soon as it gets light.  I really don't know how he can be so calm or even think about getting any more sleep after what just happened.  I know I'm not getting any now, worrying that there might be more vampberrys around.  Okay so those ones weren't looking for me, but the next ones might be.

I get onto my bed and face the window, watching out for any slight movement, I suddenly feel again like I did in the vampberry den lying in wait for the vampberrys to come and do something to us.  I realize now I really am scared, more scared than I've ever been about anything before in my life, even more scared than I was in all my time in the vampberry den ... I feel like a bag of nerves.

I couldn't lie here on my own anymore watching the window, it feels like the window is moving closer to me and I'm starting to feel suffocated, I can feel myself starting to panic again..

I look over at River who is lying on the top of his bed fully clothes, he hasn't even taken his glasses off. He has his eyes closes and is lying on his side facing in my direction.  I quickly jump out of my bed scurrying like a frightened child and sit on his bed and start shaking again.  He opens his eye and frowns at me.

He shuffles over and lifts up his arm for me to get underneath.

He puts his arm round me pulling me close to him and tells me to go to sleep.

I'm not scared about the monsters under the bed like when I was a child, its the monsters that could be coming through that window any minute that are freaking me out!!  Knowing that Storm is out there keeping watch and River is holding me is the only real comfort that I've got right now.

I roll over onto my back and just stare at the window.
.
I know I'm not sleeping.

I'm still going to be watching that window until there is daylight behind those curtains.

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Song: Get Me Through - Daughtry
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