7My eyes burned, I struggled to keep them open as my legs were fumbling me around towards the stable boy at the edge of our property screaming me and my brother's names. I walked towards him, slowly mind you, not making any noise. I could hear my breath, a raspy sound, as if I was struggling for air. My ears pounded with my heartbeat, which was still unusually fast for me. But the thing that hurt most, was my neck.
The puncture marks were still engraved in my skin, and surly they would scar. I covered them with my left hand, they were on the right side of my neck. I called for the stable boy, but it came to only a whisper. I was yards away from him still, and the darkness around us was covering everything in mysterious shadows. He did not know what he was out there, what he could be luring to our home, and I could have lured to my home.
I called again, and this time my voice was slightly louder then a breath of air. I called again and again, growing in my furiousness at myself for being to weak to speak to him. He finally turned around and looked at me.
He was no older than 13 years old. He was indeed young, and very stupid as I saw it. He took care of our horses for close to nothing, so my father loved him. He had dark brown straight hair, that waved down to his shoulders and was tied back by a blue ribbon. His red waistcoat and red shiny pants where a matching style to wear when he worked with us. His eyes were the most impressionable brown I had ever seen. He was like a small deer, scared of almost anything. He was no where near my height, in fact he was shorter than most or all of my sisters, and smaller in ever regard. This made me laugh when I thought about it. He also had a little to much energy, if you talked to him you would notice.
"Oh! Monsieur! The horses, they...they just came running at me! I thought you were hurt! You.. and.. and.. Where is Christopher?" All of his words came out in shouts and jolts of words and mumbling. I could not comprehend what the boy was saying. After a moment of silence he addressed me again.
"Monsieur? Where is Christopher?" He said this to me slowly, and I could tear myself away from the image of my brother laying on the floor, his waves of hair circling his limps head, and the streaks of blood on his cloths and down his mouth.
"Devil." Was all I uttered.
"Excuse me Monsieur?" the boy stuttered.
I wanted to scream at him, I wanted to say something such as you stupid boy, you have no comprehension of what it is that has happened and I should tell you, but you will never understand because your just a mere child. Child? What was a child? When did a Man become a man? Was I just a child. I thought to myself about these words and the boys voice came back into my mind again and again, Where is Christopher? I did not know if he was still speaking, or if it was just my mind echoing everything.
"Christopher," I said finally, "Is.." and I stopped. The boy looked at me, his eyes were wide, he now saw the lace and the blood stains and everything in the gleams of moonlight shining down on us. He gasped, in horror as it would seem, his eyes were wide, his mouth was outstretched in a shrieking manner, and his skin was paper white.
"Monsieur! What has happened?" he said finally.
I looked at him, and nodded. He knew that we were attacked, by some animal he thought. I didn't even think for a second to tell him about the "vampire" that jumped from the trees and tried to kill me just as quickly as it killed Christopher. Surely he would set the whole house in alarm and we would move quickly and all of our servants would be scared off, thinking the family was cursed by "The Devil" and other nonsense of those times.
"We were attacked." I said softly. I didn't want to lie to him, in fact, I wanted to tell him everything, I wanted to shout that some demon had killed my brother and I wanted to get Timothy and my father and kill it. But, I couldn't.
"By what?" He said, more loudly then I wanted him to, without his actually yelling or shouting.
Then a lantern came towards us, there was someone walking outside. I looked and I couldn't see who was behind the blaze of the light. Then it came closer and the lantern moved. It was Falane. She looked at me in a panicked state. Her red curls were hidden by a shawl of velvet red she had place over herself, and her blue eyes all but glowed in the darkness. The nightdress she was wearing was red, to match her shawl, and it was laces with silver around the neckline and ankles. Her skin was white, and I longed to touch it, to feel its warmth and its smoothness. It seemed it would drive away the pain.
"What has happened?" She asked finally.
She stood next to me, her head only just about reaching my shoulders. I wanted to pick her up and give her a sense of what it was like to see the world from a taller place, and I wanted also to kneel next to her and see what the world was like from her height. Maybe it was different? But I doubted it.
"Christopher, where..." she said suddenly.
The stable boy did not move or speak. Rather, he backed away and nodded up to me. My sister walked in front of me and faced me, looking up into my eyes.
"Nicolas?" she asked softly.
"He is... he is no longer with us." I said softly.
She was silent, her head was bowed to the ground. Most people would be praying by then, but my sister had a disbelief In god that was rather intriguing. The rest of my family, including myself would go to mass every Sunday without her. My mother would force her to come, but she never did appear there. My mother and father always said she would go to the devil for it. I thought it was exquisite.
"We got attacked, by an alligator." I lied. It hurt me to lie to her, I could feel her looked up at me, as I was looking towards the sky.
It was dark, and I could feel the chill in the air. I looked down at her again, and her warmth filled in my as if a whole was being filed in my heart. I could fell her eyes, fall to my neck that I was still grasping. Her eyes burned like blue fire into my hand, it hurt worse than I could ever imagine. My heart pounded even faster, I was afraid that she would read my thoughts, discover my bite, and be afraid of me, as if I was going to turn into the vampire itself. But she looked back into my eyes and paid no further attention to the marks.
"We will go tell mother, and then you will eat and go to bed. You have had a long night, as we all have now." She said.
She turned around, the lace of her dress swung around her ankles and she walked towards the house and disappeared into the large wooden doors.
I sighed and turned back to the stable boy.
"Where are the horses then?" asked him quietly.
"In the stable, they ran right into there stalls. Such a wonderful animal." He said.
I looked at him, my eyes gleamed with the moonlight and bounced back into his. Wonderful animal? I thought silently. What a wonderful animal indeed to run from us as we were attacked, my mind was racking itself to find ways of killing the two horses.
"Indeed," I said suddenly, "Good Evening Jon Claude." I turned abruptly and left him to look after my footsteps, tracing them in the moonlight. Jon Claude, yes, that was his name. I had almost forgotten it in these long years that passed.
I walked back into my home and walked through the giant hall and past my family standing at the fiery hearth. Kristina, my youngest sister and the smallest of the family turned and starred at me. I met her gaze and narrowed my eyes to her. She looked at me in shock, as if for the first instant finally seeing me in the room.
"Look! Nicolas is back!" She screamed.
My whole family turned. I saw Timothy, anger wash over his face as he examined me. His dark brown hair and brown eyes were enthused with rage, then a shallow sense of sadness. His waves of hair went past his shoulders but where held back by a black tie. His face was hard, his cheek bones, though not as defined as myself or Christopher's had been, where still edged into his expression. He stood now, full height, as he was leaning on the back of Elizabeth's, my one year older sister's chair.
My mother came at me, rushing to hold me and to kiss me. Then my sisters came, all but one, and that one was Falane. I should have known she would not be in the room with the family. She was waiting in her room, for me to come to her. I gathered strength enough to push my family away from me. Timothy and my father remained next to the fire. There light burned off there faces.
My father was a large man, he was much bigger than all of his sons. His shoulders were broad and his stomach was chunky. His hair was a crisp deep brown, now with gray streaks to show his age. His eyes were brown as well.
My mother hugged me again, her red hair, once vibrant, also faded with grays. Her blue eyes had dulled over the years, and her weight had been gained. She was now a short little plump women where there used to be a beautiful slender figure of a model back, before Christopher was born.
My older sister Elizabeth, an oldest of all the girls, had light blond hair and brown eyes. She was the tallest of all of the sisters, and she was proud to show it. All the girls had ringlets of blonde hair, and again save Falane. I was born after Elizabeth, then came Falane, and then my sister Stephanie. Stephanie was a little plumper then the rest of the girls, and she was the shortest. She had brown eyes, and dirty blond hair. And last was the youngest sister Kristina. Her hair was short, up to her ears, and it fell in ringlets around her shining face. Her hair was the lightest of all the blondes. Her eyes were blue, but not half as bright as Falane's were.
All the girls were wearing night dresses, with gold lace around there necks. Elizabeth wore blue, and Stephanie matched her. Kristina wore a vibrant green. None of them had on any of their foolish jewelry tonight. My mother wore a pink dress, which gave out to the color in her cheeks. My father was dressed in a blue suit, and my brother Timothy was dressed in a blue jacket and red pants.
I pushed them away, they did not move. I tried harder and my sisters fell silently away, as if I hadn't pushed them, they had just moved of there own will. I looked at each of them in annoyance. My mother came between them and me for a moment, Timothy and my father stood quiet and still near the fire, staring at me, my mother, and my sisters.
My mother put her arms around me one last time, and curtsied low. I bowed to her slightly and tilted my head for each of my sisters. I did not even give my father and brother a last glance before I abandoned them for the stairs, and my room.