Chris watched as his son shot hoops. He had to face facts…..Luke was ill and he knew why. He was a good lad; kind thoughtful and studious, neither he nor Jen had any problems with him…..till now. Jen wanted to take him the Doctors, have them do tests. Impossible, if he was right and he was then the tests would reveal his secret, his family secret. Chris knew what it was, he had seen it before, had hoped with his new life he could escape the curse. He was wrong. Now he had to tell Jen, the love of his life - the reason for their son’s illness was because of him.
It took Chris a few days before he plucked up the courage to tell her, how do you start, how does one admit that their happy life was a sham. “Chris dear, whatever is the matter, you’ve been so quiet lately?” It was now or never “Jen, we need to talk” Chris sat “I know why Luke is ill” Jen looked at her husband “How, what is it?” He couldn’t look at her “He’s ill because of me” “Because of you, I don’t understand…?” He sighed “There are two types of blood in me, I was lucky…I wasn’t affected but Sayan...my Sister was”
“Sister, you told me you had no family!” He looked at her a weak smile crossing his face “As far as I was concerned I didn’t, I wanted to forget, pretend they never existed, and for a while I succeeded”
Jen watched as her husband aged in front of her, the fine lines on his face normally unnoticeable now seemed to be deep furrows. The strange thing was she didn’t want to demand, scream for him to tell her what was wrong with their son, no she was intrigued by his secrecy, well, maybe a little angry, what else was he hiding, was he the man she thought she had married “Why?”
“My parents are not your average Mother and Father, my childhood was not like yours oh I was happy as a kid, loved my Mum and Dad but as I got older, realised the curse we had to endure I became angry, at life, at them” Chris paused for a moment, having to reveal his past was not easy.
“As kids we had a great life. We rarely fought and were happy with our own company” Chris gave a weak laugh “I was the joker, always up to mischief and normally getting hurt, Sayan was different, quiet and serious she had a habit of appearing without warning, her movements so quiet that you only knew she was there when she spoke. The castle we lived in was our play ground; no room was out of bounds, except one”
“Our parents would come at night, spend time with us, play” He turned to Jen “Do you know what it’s like to have your parent’s attention like that, to be their all?” Jen shook her head, her parents worked hard and rarely had time for their children not that she was jealous it was just that, well, she and her siblings grew up fast. Chris continued. “It started with small things, not able to attend parents meetings, picnics, the Christmas play but as time wore on I resented them more and more. I loved them, still do, the nights we spent playing on the parapet will always make me smile”
Jen wanted to reach out, to hold him but something stopped her, a chill run down her spine. “What happened” Taking a seat he leaned back and closed his eyes, frowning at what he was to say next. “Sayan was affected hard, the nights of sleeplessness, nightmares, the desire for something unknown - like Luke” he leaned forward; his eyes met hers. “But my parents knew what it was, knew it was the start. The Awakening” Jen stared at her husband, the Awakening? “It can’t be common, I’ve never heard of it” Chris smiled, at least the corners of his mouth lifted but it seemed hollow. “You wouldn’t have heard of it, the Awakening isn't heard of in humans – it affects Vampires”
Ok, he’s cracked, the strain of their son’s illness has sent him over the edge but before she could speak Chris continued. “As kids we wanted for nothing, our parents were no fools but they sensed how hard it was for us. We looked like every other kid but deep down, inside here” he touched his chest. “Inside we were different, our blood a mix of our father who is a full Vampire and our mother who at the time was what you would call a half breed. We never went to Doctors, hospital, school was difficult but essential, our birth certificates and records are forged , if anyone got the slightest idea we were not as we seemed it could have been a disaster” Falling silent he remembered his early teens, him and Sayan in the den shooting pool or chilling out to music. Jen touched his arm “Chris dear, you can’t expect me to believe this”
He patted her hand “Sayan had always been affected by cravings or as my parents called it the Thirst, we accepted what they told us, accepted our life till the Awakening hit Sayan. She would suddenly become like a wild animal when the cravings hit but it’s her eyes, the change from her own to Younglings that I’ll never forget” he shuddered. Jen listened to him quietly as he explained although not knowing all of it he tried to reassure his wife that it would be ok, that Luke would be fine – he hoped. “Is that why you’ve never allowed Luke to see a doctor?” He nodded “If they took blood it would show up abnormal and…..” he dreaded to think what could happen.
Jen smiled “Well it can’t be that bad, I took Luke to the Doctor last week and he never mentioned anything was wrong with his blood” Chris leapt to his feet “You did what?” he paced the floor. “We need to get out of town, disappear for a while….” Jen touched his arm. “Darling there is nothing to fear, the doctor informed me his blood was normal” Chris groaned, normal his arse just looking at the boy during his ‘episodes’ told you something was up. Grabbing her shoulders he shook Jen gently “We need to go, pack now” “Where too?” Chris ran his hand through his hair. “Campbell Castle” he smiled sheepishly “It’s time you met the family”
Jen did as her husband asked. Packing the bare minimum she silently laughed at herself, here she was getting ready to go on holiday, to finally meet her inlaws – which she didn’t know she had – and the poor old dears were going to find their son cracked, this should be one hell of a trip. Luke took the news with a yell and air punch, he didn’t care where or way, he was getting out of school, who gave a shit about the reason.
Looking at the house one last time Chris felt his body tensing, twenty years is a hell of a long time, no letters or calls, Christ what would they say; he looked at Jen, a mortal about to have her nice little world blown to pieces.
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