Shades of Scarlet

Chapter Six

“Because you’re important,” Darien says, vaguely answering my question, “Carmen was assigned to take care of you so that you could live a normal life. She meets us once a month to update us on your well-being and get some living expenses for the both of you. That night, at our meeting spot, we were there too late. Lilith’s subjects already had her in her grasp, and we’re weakened due to… circumstances right now, so we weren’t strong enough to fight them.”

“So you just left her there?” I ask in disbelief. What if one of the demons comes here to take me away? Does that mean that Darien will just leave me be too?

He shakes his head. “No, it wasn’t just them. If it was, we would’ve lunged without thinking. But surrounding them were thirty, no maybe more, vampires. Rouges. I can smell how deteriorated they are. But they were tame and quiet, which is odd. We figured that the demons had some kind of control over them. It was just Linda and me then, it was impossible to take them all at once, together with the demons.”

I can’t imagine Carmen alone with so many of those monsters. My experience with the last one is enough to give me nightmares for the next ten years. I hold my tears back. Carmen doesn’t deserve this.

“We can save her can’t we?”

“I don’t know.” The truth stings. Darien told me during the first night that death was almost certain for her. “We can’t save her now, not like this.”

“What’s the plan?”

“The plan?”

“To get rid of Lilith and save Carmen.”

He looks at me with a sorry expression. I know that he thinks I’m naive for believing that Carmen is alive, but unless I see her dead body for myself, I won’t give up. “We hide for now,” he says.

“Hide?” That’s it? That was the grand plan to escape all of this?

“We can’t do anything, not with you being… different.”

I grow more curious about my previous self by each day. “Then give me back my memories.”

“When you’re ready.”

“Ready?”

“Yes.”

I don’t press him anymore, remembering that I’m the one who kept this all a secret from myself in the first place. Maybe the old me had something schemed, and my current state is part of it.

The sounds of the city quickly takes over our conversation. He doesn’t interrupt the quietness, letting the information sink in. So demons exist, and one is after my throat, and because of me, Carmen is gone. Considering that I’m not jumping off this balcony right now, I’m handling the situation relatively well.

There is more information he is hiding from me, but it’s best that he doesn’t tell it all at once. Like he said, I have to wait until I’m ready before soaking it all on. Just learning this much makes it difficult for me to breathe.

It’s funny how I don’t find it awkward when it’s quiet between Darien and me. At school, when somebody  y approaches, my shyness takes over and I end up becoming mute. What follows is the most uncomfortable silence anyone could ever experience, and then I’d say a quick bye and run away. Next to Darien, it’s comforting instead, and I don’t mind just having him stand there.

“I won’t let that happen to you again,” he says, “I swear upon my life.” He is talking to himself more than he is talking to me.

I try to find it in me to forgive him. Deep down I understand that he didn’t mean for it to happen, and I am the main reason why he abandoned his responsibilities anyway. I tempted him with my blood, and because of that he ran away. Still, my expectations for him were let down, which makes it more difficult to trust him.