Don't Look in the Basement

Chapter 8

 "Jacob hated our uncle as much as our uncle hated him. Our uncle was a priest you see, he was a very devout and religious man and he clashed with Jacob's rebellious nature. I never completely understood why he tormented Jacob so much, Jacob knows why, but he won't tell me and I'm sure he never will. But like I said earlier, things would have been different that night if he had never left Whitby."

   I was now sitting on the floor with my back against the chair seated directly across from Dominic, staring up at him listening intently to his story. I don't know why, but I wanted to learn everything I could about their past. I must have had a confused look on my face after Dominic had mentioned Whitby again because he stopped again.

 "Whitby is a town located in Northern England," he explained, "Jacob and I both grew up there outside of the town on a small estate in the late seventeen hundreds."

  Seventeen hundreds? I felt my eyes widen, that meant that they were both over two hundred years old. Which then again explained why they both talked as if they were from a different era, but it had never really dawned on me until now.

       He smiled quickly for a moment at my surprise. "Yes over two hundred years ago on Christmas, was the night that Jacob was turned. He never told me exactly what had happened, but I know that the vampire that turned him was far more cruel than Jacob could ever be and taught him everything that made him what he is today."

  Anyone crueler then Jacob? I almost laughed out loud. Jacob is a psychopath.

     "Twelve years later Jacob found me again. This time I was living in London with a cousin. Already at only eighteen years old I thought my life was over. In the last year I had gambled everything away that I had owned, my own father had disinherited me,telling me that I had become a disgrace to the family and my uncle had personally thrown me off of the estate telling me that if I was going to live a sinner's life I'd better do it in somewhere else."

     I watched his knuckles tighten as he gripped the comforter on the bed. I didn't know if he was angry or terrified of what he was going to tell me.

    "Imagine my surprise the night that Jacob walked into that filthy tavern on Fleet Street and sat down next to me by the bar. I thought my brother had been dead for over twelve years and here he was sitting next to me and looking like he had the night he had left. He later showed me his secret by killing some drunk man in the back alley. As you can imagine I was terrified at what he had become and ran away. But the next night he found me again just before I had the chance to put a bullet in my head. I had truly thought I had gone insane and I would rather be dead then be put into an asylum. Jacob saved my life that night believe it or not. That was the night he changed me. I hated him for it at first and more then anything I wanted to die. I came to realize though eventually, that this curse, can actually be at times a blessing in disguise. For that I owe Jacob everything he gave me a second chance. He gave me immortality."

    "Is that why my parents captured Jacob? To see if he really cannot be killed,I mean?" I finally asked the one question I needed an answer for.

   "Yes and no. We can be killed and the ways to do it have been told in stories for centuries. A wooden stake through the heart,being beheaded and being thrown into fire, all of those things will kill us. Crosses, holy water, garlic, those things can hurt us while protecting you." he answered.

 "What about sunlight?"I continued, now more curious then ever.

   "We can actually go out in sunlight, but only for a few hours at a time or it will make us very weak but it won't kill us. Most of us sleep during the day even though we don't need to, it just replenishes our energy faster instead of waiting for the next kill."

 That explained why I had never heard any noise from the basement during the day. He was probably asleep.

"Now back to your original question. Have you ever heard of a corporation by the name of V.E.O.?"he asked.

I shook my head. The name drew a blank but at the same time sounded slightly familiar.

        "Well for as long as there have been vampires there have been vampire hunters. The V.E.O. stands for Vampire Exterminating Organization. Its a very secretive company that to this day continues to hunt and kill us whenever possible. But thats not all they do now. Whenever they can they hire top doctors and scientists alike to experiment on us and develop new ways to kill us faster and more efficiently. Your parents were recently admitted into the V.E.O. Alice."

    "S-so you're saying that my parents are part of a secret society of v-vampire hunters?" Even after all that I had been through everything still sounded so unreal and insane. But then again it explained why my dad had the crossbow and was going for the Van Helsing look.

   "As far as I know yes. They had been hired along with a Dr. Zedler to track down a vampire and capture it for what they call the good of science. They found Jacob and for about the past month have been experimenting on him. I looked for him whenever I could, but he had disappeared without a trace,until he showed up late last night with you." he gestured towards me.

There was a moment of silence before either of us spoke. "He said he was going to kill me you know." I told him,feeling an icy chill creep down my spine and wrap around me like a blanket.

For a moment he didn't answer me and stared for the longest time at the cuffs on that fancy suit he wore.

    "You're a smart girl Alice, I can tell." he finally spoke. " Look, I know something happened back there, I know you saw something you should not have seen even though I still don't have an explanation for how you did . Thats why I told you about our past so you could understand who we were and what made us the way we are now. Jacob likes to play games, you have to play along and use whatever you can to your advantage."He stood up suddenly and walked over to where I was sitting and knelt down so that his eyes met mine. 

   "Thats what can keep you alive the longest more than I can. Jacob has always been stronger than me both mentally and physically. He's lost inside of  his own madness and I don't know if anything can bring him back. He's beyond the point of caring whether or not he kills me or anyone else for that matter. He is still my brother whether I want to accept that fact or not, and I still owe him. If I leave he will hunt me down and destroy me." He paused and for a moment he started laughing almost to himself. "You see even after centuries of cheating death, I still don't have enough courage to face it."

   That was the moment I felt sorry for him. He was about as trapped as I was and even if he didn't show it, he was scared too. But for different reasons. I was scared for my parents and losing my life while he was scared of losing his brother. For a second I forgot about everything, but the mutual fear that we both shared and I reached out and touched the top of his hand that rested on the carpet close to mine. He jerked back instantly and in a flash was back up on his feet. He looked bewildered as he stared down at me with wide eyes.

    "You shouldn't do that." His voice was slightly shaky and confused.  His eyes started to focus on me as if he was studying something. Then I realized that he was staring at my neck,as if he had noticed it for the first time. Dried blood was most likely still smeared around it from where Jacob had bitten me. Without hesitating I pulled my hair around and covered the puncture wounds. He was starting to lose whatever composure he had and I must have made the right choice because his eyes started to lose the predatory look they had held seconds earlier.

   "Don't ever do that again." His voice had gone back to normal now and had regained whatever composure he had temporarily lost. "Go to bed and get some rest," he walked to the door, "From now on...never mind."And with that he left, the click of the lock turning behind him.

      You're on your own. The words rang through my mind. I had a feeling that's what he would have said. Maybe he didn't because he didn't want to sound too cruel. Or maybe he thought you were smart enough to know already. Those thoughts kept running through my mind over and over.  When I was in the bathroom cleaning the dried blood off of my neck. You're on your own. As I tore off the dress that I hated. You should be smart enough to know that you're on your own. It kept replaying in my head like lyrics to a song. When I finally started to drift off into sleep that was the last thing that I thought of. You're on your own Alice. On your own.