Scarlett Nights - Part Two

Chapter Thirteen

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

   “Scarlett you need to understand that they are humans.” Elijah spat the last word out in disgust, “stupid humans who aren’t even comparable to us. It doesn’t matter how you look at them they are stupid animals not even capable of doing anything worthy.”

   “That’s what I tried telling her but she was adamant that killing a child is wrong even it is a human one.” Lewis was smirking at me from the fire place, he was leaning on it with his hip to the side and his arms folded, at any other time I would have thought how gorgeous he was but now all I saw was a killer.

   “Scarlett you’re a truly powerful vampire and you need to detach yourself from humans now, you need to see them as dirt.” Elijah was sat on the arm of the armchair and I was slouched on the sofa. Lewis decided to tell Elijah why I was blatantly ignoring him for hours, he said it was for my own good and I needed sense talked into me but he needed sense talked into him not me.

   “I don’t care how you think I need to see it, I saw it like this. Lewis took a baby from its mother’s arms and killed it before her eyes.”  Ever since that happened I’ve been haunted by the memory of Simon another child killer like Lewis.

   “Scarlett come outside with me we need some one on one training to get your adrenaline pumping help you forget this situation.” Elijah sounded calm but started to look angry at me for once I didn’t care how angry anyone was with me I just kept seeing Ethan’s cold dead body in my mind.

   So reluctantly I went out with Elijah to train, the hunt had finished only a few hours ago and as the sun was rising and we were all on a blood high it was another long day of training. We ran past everyone else training, they were learning how to use throwing knives I would normally do it with them but Elijah said I could catch up later.

   “What are we doing today?” I asked Elijah once we had reached a clearing, “There doesn’t seem like much we can do here?”

   “Well we need to make you the strongest point of battle and for that you need nothing to hold you back.” Elijah got closer to me with an unreadable expression which confused me.

   “Like?”

   “Well this is certainly holding you back.” And with that Elijah did the unexpected, he leaned over and grabbed my hair with one hand and with the other used a throwing knife and sliced my long flowing red hair. He did it all with such speed any human wouldn’t have seen him, yet he was going so fast that I could see him yet there was no time for me to stop him.

   “What!?” I fell to the floor and scooped up what was left of my hair, I had to admit that I felt strange without it, it had been growing for ten years and my new spiky bob felt so light and I could feel the breeze on my neck.

   “C’mon Scarlett it’s just hair right?” An evil smile danced on Elijah’s face making me realize that this was not the Elijah I had first met, “You need to be on the top of your game and not distracted by petty little things like that. I want no distractions you hear me? We all need to be focused!”

   I watched as he slowly left the clearing, putting his throwing knife back in his belt. I felt really quite sad, I didn’t know why I mean it was only hair right? But yet there I was kneeling on the grass with my red hair all around me. I looked up to the cloudless sky and felt the sun gently kissing my pale skin. The gentle wind whipped hair around my ears and I took a deep breath, the air was crisp and new as was the day that was unfolding before me. I stood up and held my head high, if Elijah wanted me to be strong and a perfect warrior then I was going to push my limits and be even better than him. I saw Ethan in my mind and grit my teeth to stop the tears from falling, I had to be strong and live for the both of us now.

   I rejoined the others everyone was shocked to see my new pixie cut but quickly got over it when Elijah refocused us. He had changed, his eyes seemed distant yet angry, everyone had noticed. Thomas seemed more serious but no this bad. They seemed to be talking more about the war but it seemed everyone apart from Elijah and Thomas didn’t actually know anything about the ‘war’.

   “Okay, keep it up Amy!” Emily was supervising us all; we had to focus on the farthest away tree and aim to throw our knives at it. Apparently Emily was really good at this but I missed her example so I just had to go by what people told me when I arrived. The whole point of this training was we had to stand stationary but we could use any technique to hit the tree as long as we hit it. I was still confused though, killing humans is easy why do we need to learn such complex killing methods? But I kept my mouth shut and got on with it. I lined up on the end next to Clover and picked a tree in the far distance it would probably take half an hour to walk there but picking my tree carefully I could pick a gaps in the nearer trees and send my knife through them all to its target. I looked down at the belt I had been given to wear, it was leather and brown with lots of loops and pockets in five loops were five knives. I pulled out a knife and studied it carefully, it looked really sharp yet it was ragged like it was really old and it had the shape of a shark tooth, it wasn’t very aerodynamic  but looking at everyone else they seemed to be getting on just fine. The handle was firm and a leathery texture much like the belt I was wearing. I looked along the line of trainee vampires and saw that Lewis had joined us my blood boiled and I furrowed my brow, I was really coming to dislike him. I returned my gaze to the tree I had picked out and raising my right hand above and behind my head I threw. I was pleasantly surprised at it flew through the air and landed right on my tree of choosing.

   “You could be better you know.” April had appeared next to me and was looking towards my knife I had thrown.

   “...How?” This was the first time April had actually spoken to me so I was a little taken aback but I did want to know how I could improve.

   “Use your legs to get power in your throw.” She didn’t smile as she spoke but she made eye contact with me before nodding and leaving.

   “Wait I thought we had to remain stationary?” I called after her.

   “I never said move, silly child.” She rolled her eyes and walked towards Thomas who was leaning on a tree sharpening his knives.

   I thought about what April had said and went back to my training. I guessed it was true what Emily had said about April she was smart but not very nice. I did realise what April was saying and I knew what to do now. I leaned back on my left leg and bounced onto my right leg as I threw the knife, the knife buried into the tree with just the handle sticking out. If I had tried harder I’m pretty sure I could have buried the knife into the heart of the tree.

   We weren’t much longer throwing knives it was rather easy stuff, once we were all gathered around in a semi circle the adult vampires started telling us how vampires fought with their hands and the only hand weapons were knives, to which Amy asked why our belts had so many pockets in. Apparently it was for first aid for minor injuries, I was confused why would we get minor injuries? Humans can’t fight back, I’m pretty sure our skin is bulletproof. Maybe there’s more we’re not being told?