Chapter 2 TIA'S REVENGE

TUESDAY.

It's been three weeks since Jhan had introduced me to my new family. Tia had told me everything I needed to know about the house; they had been living in it for forty years, but she was brought here fifty-three years ago. It had been just Jhan and Jereum before Tia's impurification fifty-three years ago and lastly Leya, who was impurified just nine months ago. She told me that vampires found it very hard to have emotions as love or affection except a minority which were called living vampires but they were been dubbed Abnormals. They were also visibly less pale than other vampires.

We could also recover from grave injuries and could grow back entire limbs. Today was a Tuesday, Jhan and Jereum were not at home when I woke up. It had been a very boring day up on till evening. Leya was at the back of the house-tending to a small garden she took pleasure in.

I was sitting on one of the sofas, waiting for Jhan to come back from wherever he went so I could bombard him with the mountain of questions I had mentally piled. I was still in pyjamas, the light blue colour of the material gave a nice contrast to my dark skin.

My mind had been wrapped about what Jhan said. 'I am a Supreme,' but I had no idea of what he could mean by that. The attic was officially my bedroom now, the house had run out of rooms, Tia had told me to stay in her room but I humbly declined the offer.

Something touched my shoulders, or someone, startling me. I jut my head and spotted Tia's brown hair. She walked from where she had mysteriously appeared behind me to the other side of the sofa and sat behind me. She was also still in pyjamas. I kept my gaze on the small table that was places in the middle of the three sofas. A white ornate vase was set upon it with bunch of fresh flowers I assumed Leya had put there.

"I don't sleep, these are just very comfy," Tia said, brushing her hands over the silky material of the pyjamas she wore and I completely ignored her.

"How are you doing?" Her voice was soft and caring. I didn't know how to answer the question; the fact that I could not remember anything from my past except that I was a cancer patient would trouble anyone. Nobody gave me any answers and when I had tried asking Leya, she said Jhan would be able to help me. Now someone asks how 'I'm doing'?

"I can take you to the playground later... It's this place where vampires meet to test our strength and other abilities."

I pretended not to hear her although I did like the idea.

She heaved out a breath. "You must have a lot of questions... I can help you." I turned to meet her blue orbs. She gave a small smile which I did not return.

But I did have some questions.

"So you-we cannot tolerate sunlight?" I asked, I remembered Leya had told me something like that. She did not answer instead she stood up and headed for the windows. 'What is she doing?' I asked myself.

On reaching the closed windows she turned around and looked at me. I looked at her, we just stared at each other for about five seconds-she was beautiful. I had almost gotten lost in her pretty blue eyes when she very suddenly pried apart the curtains. Rays of golden sunlight kissed her skin and for a second nothing happened. But suddenly she let out an ear defending shriek.

Her skin seemed to be blistering and evaporating off into the air as some kind of whitish steam. I stood pinned to spot, shell-shocked but on seeing get start to fall I easily skipped over the sofa, catching her before she hit the floor and closing back the blinds to prevent the dangerous rays from doing any more damage. The skin on her face and neck looked like it had been burned with fire. I watched the scorched skin start to heal, slowly the blisters faded until it was all gone. Her light skin vibrant again. 'Not a single drop of blood', I noticed.

"That's what happens when we go into sunlight," she mumbled while taking the seat I had previously occupied.

She had recovered so quickly from those burns and was already full of energy.

"Who was I?" I asked. Tia didn't answer, she just looked at me, allowing akward silence to seep in.

"You were dying of a cancer when Jhan found you," I was about to ask her how he found me when I was in a hospital but she continued, "It's how we keep up the population, we vampires don't just impurify anyone. You see, we give people a choice," her voice dropped lower than a whisper but I could still hear every word she said clearly.

"So he was there on purpose..." I reasoned to myself. "But I don't understand so you ask people before impurifying them?"

"Not just anyone, people who are dying-who want so desperately to live," she said.

"But how could you tell?" I asked her.

"The mind's-eye," she said it as if those three words had magically endowed me with all the knowledge I needed to know.

"Jhan is gifted, he has an ability only few vampires possess; the ability to read and manipulate someone's thoughts and memories," she said.

This sounded all too crazy to be true.

"But he says it's more complicated than that, truth is we without it can never really understand how it works."

"So what you are saying is that, 'I' decided to be impurified?"

She nodded stiffly.

"But why?" I muttered to myself, I knew I wanted to die before I pulled the drip cord, but of course no one knew that.

"You know..." She drew closer to me, "I can help you figure out what you want to know."

'Even if I wanted to leave this house to figure it out, Jhan will never let me, unless I sneak out,' The thought was tempting, I could sneak out and go to the hospital... 'I don't remember which hospital it was.'

My heart skipped a beat, and I remembered suffocating on that hospital bed again which made me wonder; how did I get to that hospital in the first place? 'Didn't I have a family? Parents? Siblings? A whole life probably? School, friends? Places I loved visiting, foods I loved eating, TV shows I loved watching. Or was my life was always hooked up to a life supporter, had I always had cancer throughout my life?' The thoughts came crashing into my head and I shrunk at the possibility. My mind was racing, I felt like an empty void had opened inside me

"If you want I could ask Jhan about-,"

"No, it's okay I'll ask him myself." I couldn't risk anyone figuring out that I wanted to know about my past life, because then, they'll keep a closer eye on me. I needed to gain their trust so I could sneak away and figure it out myself.

I glanced at her, clearly reluctant to ask the question but desperate for a change of topic, "So... Tell me about yourself?" She seemed stunned by the question.

"You want to know about me?" She asked, smiling brightly.

I nodded, ignoring her enthusiasm.

"Well, when Jhan found me I was a victim of a car crash, a trailer from the opposite direction hit our SUV"-okay, I was beginning to regret asking the question now-"and didn't stop, we were going on a family vacation... My family was killed. I had to watch my sister bleed to death." Her voice had dropped even lower and she didn't try to hide the sadness in it. "And I couldn't do anything because both my legs were crushed."

"I'm sorry..." Dread filled me up at the thought of young Tia watching her family die while slowly dying on her own. My imagination had already pictured everything out and for a moment I was the one watching my imaginary family die.

But she kept on going, "I was at the verge of death but then Jhan came. He told me that I was dying and that I had less than five minutes to choose between life as an impurified vampire or a peaceful death. He made it so clear that I choose life, I would become a demonic creature. A blood drinking vampire."

She paused and I saw the glistening light of tears at the corners of her eyes. The room was so quiet now it was like even the air around us listened in.

"I chose life of course. I knew I needed to get revenge for my family. And right after I made my choice I woke up in this house; in my room." She finished and there was a long pause. I wanted to apologize again but then I decided to ask her another question.

"Did you get your revenge?" I asked her slowly.

She straightened her back, frowning. "Of course I did, Jhan helped me locate him. It was an eye for an eye; he took away the ones I loved, I took away his family.

There was something to her aura. Some darkness that covered her features, made her look dangerous as she spoke about her revenge.

"I'm so sorry Tia," I said, feeling hurt for her.

I didn't know which surprised and shocked me more; her clear expression of deep pain and emotion for or the cruel dark nature of what she did to that trailer driver's family. They didn't deserve what came to them, although the trailers driver did. I dithered on the thought of to which side would her actions be justified; killing the trailers driver and putting his innocent family in pain, or killing his innocent family and enacting an eye for an eye justice on him.

The door opened and the stiff sound of boots against the floor could be heard. Tia abruptly made her way up the stairs, probably not wanting the Jhan and Jereum to her in that state.

At the same time Leya bustled in through the supposed back door holding a wet dripping shrub in left, yellow rubber gloved, hand. Her long blonde hair dropped with water and she was still in a light-blue night dress. She stopped short at the sight of us. I looked at Jereum, whose face was contorted with a mixture of anger and disgust. Seizing the distraction, I stood up quickly to make up the stairs.

"Kaldar."

'Hell!'

I stopped and turned around to face them. They were both dressed in brown leather jackets, black denim jeans and black boots.

"We need to introduce you to the higher court."

I raised an eyebrow, mimicking what he does, and saw the annoyance start to build up in Jereum's face as he contorted his face in the same way he did with Leya who was still standing at the spot she had been, her big brown eyes looked even bigger today.

Taking advantage of the distraction, (something I had failed in doing) she brushed past me, scurrying up the stairs with the dripping shrub still in her left hand.

"Now? Or..." I asked, hoping that he'd say 'No, tomorrow I was just informing you'.

"Of course now! Or do you have something better to do?" Jereum spat.

'I do you moron!' The thought was satisfying.

"Unfortunately we do, the higher court wants to meet you and their word is law," Jhan said, "Jereum would give the duds.

The air outside was chilly however the cold had no effect on me. Jereum had given me the same brown jacket and black boots he and Jhan had on from his minimalistic room and I wore an additional black long sleeve underneath the jacket. Everyone else was dressed similarly. Leya wore a yellow rain coat over her smaller jacket and long black socks, and Tia wore black joggers trousers. We had all gotten into a small black minivan. Tia had told me it was given to us by the higher court, but I was yet to grasp who or what the higher court actually was. Tia started a conversation with Jereum so I took the opportunity to exchange small talk with Leya who sat beside me and had her attention on a firefly that had somehow gotten into the car and landed on her nose.

"Leya..."

She turned her head-the firefly beep-flew out the window only to be swept by the wind the rushed by.

"So... How old is Jhan?" I asked her. He had to be the oldest amongst us.

She looked at me for about five seconds, each passing second only made me regret asking the question.

"He's a hundred and sixty," she said simply.

My mouth fell open, I had guessed a hundred at most.

Staring out of the window was the only thing I could do to keep my mind busy. Light from the street lamps flashed by, creating a rythmic pattern of brights and dims. We drove past a car that was moving in the opposite direction and I had only about a second to look at the driver but that was enough. I had got every detail of her face. Her bright blue eyes, golden blonde hair, smooth skin. I had seen it all in that second. It captivated me. She captivated me.

It was the stranger that waved at me. I stretched over Leya, staring after the girls red sedan, not even knowing why she caught my attention so much.

'Is she a vampire?' I asked myself the question.

"Kaldar?" It was Tia, I barely heard her the first few times-I was too engrossed in the thoughts of the mystery girl.

"Kaldar!" she said more persistently. That was enough to seize my attention.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I was just"-and the face of the girl settled on the front of my thoughts-"Never mind. Yeah, what is it? Tell me about the blood-that's what you wanted to tell me... Right?" Tia could read me like a book. I had to make something up.

"Yeah, sure. The blood," she said, eyes scanning the path down the glass I was gawking at.

"Okay, the blood are our higher court, they are among the oldest living vampires and also responsible for making our laws-"

With a sudden loud thump, the minivan spun shortly before screeching to an abrupt stop; throwing Leya forward, and Tia to the left, making her shoulder crash into mine. I heard Jereum curse angrily a few times and then I heard Jhan trying to calm him down.

"Is everyone okay?" Jhan asked. His voice surprisingly calm.

'Did we get hit or something? Did the brakes fail?'

"All good." Tia confirmed as she pulled herself from me. Leya just looked vaguely dazed by the whole accident.

I heard the front door open and in a flash, Jereum was out of the car, bellowing curses at some figures a distance away.

"What's going on?" I asked to no one in particular. My heart was pounding and I did all I could to suppress the fear in me but I was already finding it difficult to breath.

"Tia!? What's going on?" I asked in a controlled voice.

She hissed, "It's the dalaz boys." 'Or at least that's what I heard.'

I looked through the right side window-the car had swerved sideways. I easily spotted about seven figures and an angered Jereum drawing closer to them with every curse he threw. The street lamp that shun above, casted gloomy shadows around them. They stood beside each other, giving only about a meter of space between themselves. They hung their hooded heads low, their hands held at their sides wielding wooden stakes.

"They're an all males clan, their leader had a conflict with Jhan a while ago now they won't let us use their side of town to get to the higher court. And this is the shortest route."

Despite their weapons Jereum still closed in, as if they were unarmed.

"They're holding weapons, why won't he stop? Can't they hurt him?" But nobody seemed to pay any attention to what I was saying.

"They're young, Jereum can handle them," Tia said, but I wasn't convinced. The odds of the situation if it excavated into a fight did not seem to be in Jereum's favour. And this was not a friendly encounter.

I couldn't just sit by and let this happen. I pushed open the door towards Tia side and hopped onto the tarred road. I heard Tia call after me but I was already closing in on Jereum. The air was chilly-compared to the warmer air in the minivan. Jereum was very close to the tyrant in the middle now-only about a meter of space between him and the black dressed bandit.

"You tyrants better get you Abnormal asses off this road before I tear you to SHREADS!!!" His voice suddenly became inhumane.

He took a quick leap forward, launching the sole of his boot into the mid-section of the unfortunate that was front of him.

The hooded figure went tumbling back towards the ground and finally stopped after a few meters of painful rolling. It surprised me greatly. The attack-which looked like a simple kick-sent the person tumbling a great deal through the air before finally trashing himself and rolling over against the tar.

One of the tyrants-one to the left-tried in an attempt to stab Jereum with the wooden stake he held... But failed; Jereum caught his hand by the wrist, lifting the tyrant off the ground and threw him with an incredible force against the building to the right. The tyrant slammed into the concrete walls, breaking off parts of it on collision, and dropping to the ground.

I was amazed by his unexpected skills. Maybe this was the reason the others didn't even bother. Jereum should have been a master combatant.

The remaining five that were still on their feet hissed at him as they took cautionary steps back. All their pupils seemed to be giving off a reddish glint and I could see their prolonged canines.

What happened next all happened so fast; one of the tyrants conjured a small phial bottle. The tyrants threw the bottle at Jereum's face. The bottle shattered on Jereum's face and immediately the skin on his face started to burn. Jereum fell to his knees and let out an ear deafening shriek, clutching at his melting face.

One of the tyrants sent a big boot into Jereum's chest which sent his head slamming into the tar-cracking the solid ground. The tyrant swung the stake back and then brought his hands crashing through the air and towards Jereum's chest.

My heart raced as I watched in horror, I clenched my fists as angered filled my veins. In a crack I sped towards the assault it was like I had warped through space and just somehow teleported in front of the tyrant. I pushed him back with a strength I didn't even know I had. The tyrant was thrown into the air, soaring about fifty meters back.

"Woah!" I exclaimed.

I let out a grunt in agony as a sharp pain lanced through the spot between the base of my neck and my left shoulder.

"Argh!" I screamed. I looked at the area and I saw the latter of a stake that had pierced so deeply into my body. The skin around the stake started to burn. A beast-like power spawned in my chest and it was banging to be released on them.

I looked at the rest of them. The red glint in their eyes was gone and all I could see in place was... Fear.

"What are you?" One of them asked.

"Can he be a Su-supreme?"

At that point I was filled with so much rage my thinking seemed to be clouded.

"WHO DID IT???" I bellowed, sending my first to anothers face, and I heard his nose crush.

A loud cracking sound came from behind me and a sudden powerful force sent me tumbling backwards. I slid across tar, ripping and breaking a path as I scythed backwards.

I was almost dazed; it was a struggle to get back my on feet and now there was only one thing on my mind; to rip apart whoever had hit me. I saw the others; Tia, Leya and Jhan. They were out of the car and approaching my assailant; Jhan was mouthing something to me but the rage that filled me clouded my sense. My attacker was dressed in a red robe with golden embroidery designs and hood over his or her head.

I jumped at the hood, everything had paused all around me or was just moving too slow.

I was speeding through the air with my fist outstretched. I was only about an inch away from victory but then... The vampire turned around with an incomprehensible speed, getting below me and grabbing me by the jacket. Pulling, throwing and sending me with my own velocity head first into the hard cold tar. My head smashed into the ground, I heard the words, "insolent child," and I instantly lost my grip on consciousness.