Chapter 1 One

I could hear myself breath but I couldn't open my eyes. Where I'm I? Who I'm I? Whatever I was lying on was very soft. I felt damp sweaty and I was sure sticky. The air around me was cool. Something was covering my body; I could only feel the cool air on my face. It sounded like it was raining. I could hear the splattering of raindrops rattling against something.

Wait! I can't move! My body was stiffer than a log. I tried opening my eyes again but to no avail, they felt too heavy to move. I tried shifting a finger, even a twitch but nothing. I mentally touched my toes, I wasn't wearing any shoes but whatever was covering me was covering my toes as well. Then I heard something, 'what was that?' It was a rattling sound. I stopped trying to move but my heart beat quicken. Next I heard a thump, then the sound of footsteps. The rattling sound the rain outside was making was subsiding and the sound of the footsteps became louder. Thump! thump! thump! It was getting closer, and then it stopped. I don't know how long I lay there, listening for another sound when I felt a finger brush against my cheek. Okay, that's when I started to panic…

With all the mental strength I had, I willed all the muscles in my body to contract, nothing. I felt it again, the light brush of someone's finger against my cheek. My mind was immediately thrown into a panicked frenzy and without even trying; I pushed myself from the bed. I drew in a long terrified breath, my heart was racing. There was darkness all around me, where I'm I? I rubbed the back of my hands against my eyes and then, I heard a short scratching sound and then light, a candle. I instinctively looked behind me, two blurry figures stood there, one way larger than the other. I rubbed the back of my hand against my eyes again and when I refocused my vision on the figures I discerned two pairs of glowing red pupils. I lost my grip on consciousness—and I think sanity. And then...

It was raining heavily, the window panes rattled against the drops of water that pounded against it from the outside. I was alone, I always was. Sometimes Leya would come and stay with me throughout the night while sometimes I'll be the one to comfort her while she'll sob her way to sleep.

She and I were the only ones who slept amongst the five of us, but she was also the only one who ever readily showed any actual emotion. She was thirteen yet I thought her naive, brittle characters could allow her pass for a ten year old.

I was the newest member in the clan, but I wasn't the youngest. I sat on my bed, looking at the stretch of darkness, behind the window, and the cloudy mist that grew from the sides of the glass. I was thinking about who I was before my impurification. I remembered some of it very vividly, the pain, the numbness, the pungent smell of unknown chemicals and medicines that was always in the air, the constant urge to vomit, the constant wish for death. Yet the doctors came every day to tell me that death wasn't coming soon, wearing a smile on their faces, as if that that was what I wanted.

My room was dark, the attic I was forced to stay locked in for two months. The air around me was cold and silent except for the frequent rumbling of thunder and the ticking of the small clock that hung above the window. All I could do in my solace was recalling the most recent memories I could remember before I woke up on this bed.

I remembered the stiff face of the emaciated boy that was very pale it was fair to call him stack white, as he breathed out his last and I couldn't help but feel envious of him; why would death pick him over me? My cancer had spread far beyond his own yet he died first. It was only till when the doctors rushed to his bed and picked up his drip cord that it all made sense. He had removed his drip cord and let himself die.

Dying was preferable than living in that condition anyway. After they took his body away and night fell I had decided to do just the same. The moment the lights in the ward went out, I had said my final prayers; begging God to forgive me for what I was about to do, pulled the needle out of my left hand and waited patiently for death to come.

I remember smiling, I had been happy that soon enough the pain would end. My heart had skipped a beat, then two, then three, and then I felt like I was suffocating. It was a rather torturous state and the thought that I had made a mistake crossed my chaotic mind. I had almost started to reach for the cord that was dangling at my side when I chastened myself with the thought of dying a noble death, rather than begging for life and regretting my mistake like a pathetic coward.

The feeling of suffocation came to a stop and then I had felt myself loosing grip on consciousness. If this is what death felt like, then I was more than glad to die. I had let a small smile creep its way onto my face. And as I was finally being pulled away into oblivion the image of my mother had crossed my mind and then just in that moment, I wanted to live again.

The door flung open with a thud. The sound startled me. A path of yellow light stretched across the ground. I turned my head around sharply, ripping my mind out of the reverie, to look at who ever it was. Jhan stood at the door frame. The boy, or should I say young man, could have been six feet five, for all I knew, with a lean build. He always wore big trousers and nothing more than a white singlet—or that was just all I had seen him in. In the past two months he and Leya had been the only ones to talk to me. Although I was certain the others had no idea there was a fifth vampire amongst them.

"Doing alright?" He asked, without hinting off the slightest emotion of care, Unlike Leya who always seemed concerned about I felt. I guess she didn't like the idea of my imprisonment.

"Err... Yeah, I'm good." I answered inscrutably.

He looked at me for a while, about five minutes which did not seem that long to me. In fact, since my impurification time had run faster. An hour felt like half and a minute felt like a second. I did not know how to handle this particular change but it did not bother me because I was sure that meant that ten years would feel like one and my mind and memories would always remain fresh and unaging.

"If you need anything just knock." He turned to leave but I wanted to ask him something. A question I had been unsure whether to ask him or not for the past two months but had been bugging my mind.

"Wait!" I said and he stopped on his tracks, turning around to face me. He raised his left brow higher than the other (something he likes doing but I thought was dumb for such a big guy).

"Can I meet the others?" I asked. "Can I meet them now?" I said, with my voice even louder. He didn't say anything and for about ten seconds we just stared at each other. That was not the only question on my mind, but it was the easiest or should I say; the one I had the most courage to ask. I wanted to know why I could only remember so little from before I woke up in this room two months ago. Who was I before my impurification, why I was impurified in the first place and why the hell was I forced to remain in this dark, gloomy and creepy attic?

"They are not at home—," He lied but I knew they were. I could hear them talk and laugh from the parlour below. The rough voice, I had identified to Jereum, had just made a joke about dumping Leya in the middle of a place called East valley and I could hear the lighter, feminine voice I had identified to be Tia, guffaw in response.

"How do you know that?" He asked perplexed, but I was sure he already knew the answer. We stared at each other for another ten minutes before I answered.

"Ever since my... Impurification,"—the word was meant to be glorified, said with honour, but to me it was rather demonic, — "it's like my hearing has dialled up." He looked at me expectantly as if wanting to hear more. And that wasn't all to it, I could hear ants crawl, the sound ofinsects buzzing through the air was as if I was standing next to an aircraft that was taking off. I even once heard the buzzing sound the wings of a tiny insect made as it flew across the room, and I was able to see the insect clearly. Even tracing it as it zigzagged about in the air.

I could not control when it happened but when it did; many other weird things would follow. I would be able to see people as yellowish-reddish figures through the walls and that was how I figured out that there were five of us in the house. I would also be able to see much more bluish-whitish figures of furniture like the sharp edges of the table downstairs and the vases that was set upon it. At first I had thought that my vision was adjusting to the changes my body had undergone, but as it kept on happening I was forced to believe that this was going to become a permanent part of me.

It wasn't all good though, sometimes I would hear a high pitched whistle. The whistle would disorient me and a migraine would erupt in my head. Sometimes it lasted just a few seconds, while other times it could last for up to a minute. Yes, that's one whole insufferable minute.

"Is that all?" He asked.

"No." I answered begrudgingly. "Sometimes I start to see figures and objects through—,"

"—the walls," He said, cutting me off.

"Yes," I said, betraying a hint of surprise. The rain outside was settling, but a few white flashes of lightning could still be seen, alongside the sound of rumbling thunder.

"Is that all?" He asked again, and I was sure that there was nothing more to it. I shook my head but that didn't quench his look of expectancy. For a brief moment I had wondered how we got to this conversation in the first place, and then remembered his pathetic attempt to lie to me.

"Why did you lie?" I asked him, eyeing him carefully as if I could detect another lie.

He seemed stunned by the question and even more nervous. He put his left hand into his black hair and brushed it a little, "I err... I didn't think you were ready." He wasn't looking at me, his eyes were rested on something just above my head and I was sure beyond the window. But his looks of surprise and expectancy did not make me feel I'm anyway better or proud. His reactions only told me that I was different.

"You can do it... Right?" I asked, "You all can do it?" I sounded more nervous but his expression did not change. I did not want to be the odd one by any chance. This was a mistake, I should never have told him about it.I should never have asked to meet the others, only if there was a way to erase the scene from his head.

"Jhan!!!"A female voice—Tia—cried from below. We both looked towards the ground then back at ourselves. If this is the part when he nods to me an closes the door again—as he had been doing for the past two months—then I wasn't going to be locked in here, at least without my voice being heard. But his next words surprised me.

Very slowly, a smile crept its way to his lips, and the edges curled upwards, the combo of the shadow on his face with the smile made him look almost sinister. "Come," He said at once. "I think it's time you meet—,"

"—Tia, Jereum and Leya." I said and I could clearly see that he was stung by my act of omniscience. He moved his lips as if to say something but I quickly added. "I can hear their voices and so—,"

"—you could hear them call each other's names."

If this had become a game of finishing each other's sentences, I was more than happy to play along.

I stood up from my bed, the white pillow I kept on my thighs falling and landing softly on the floor at my feet. I wasn't sure if he meant what he said but I wasn't going to take any chances so I started to walk towards the door, my footsteps muffled by the dark blue rug that was spread out entirely on the floor. I walked up to him and he stepped back, allowing me to slip through the little space between his large body and the door frame. I had already familiarized myself with the house and needed no guidance.

The first door to my attic-room was right next to Jhan's. Tia's, Jereum's and Leya's rooms were at the end of the corridor where a staircase led downstairs to the other parts of the house. I reached the end of the corridor—Jhan's loud steps against the floor boards thumping behind me—and started down the poorly lit stairwell. A bulb attached to the walls, behind yellow decorated glass, poorly illuminated my way but I had no problem seeing. I could perfectly at dark but I watched my steps so I do not miss a step and end up tumbling down all the way—what a memorable first impression that would make.

I could now see, to the left, the stretch of a room at the beginning of the stairs below. I suddenly felt uneasy and nervous. I could only see them in the form of lighted figures; I had never actually seen their faces. I reached the beginning of the stairs and looked into the parlour. Three people were standing behind a table a little distance in front of me. Leya, who had been secretly keeping me company in my room for the past months, did well to feign surprise. A low hanging chandelier was the only source of dim light for the room, and the red walls did well to add an occultic contrast to it all. Three black sofas, that could accommodate two people at once, were set adjacent each other. One sofa behind them and facing me, the other at their sides.

The girl at the left, who I immediately identified to be Tia, looked no more than eighteen. Straight long brown hair, blues eyes rosy cheeks... Just as I had imagined her to be, except for the white crop top and close-fitting grey leggings she wore—I had always imagined her in girlie dresses. Jereum, who was almost the height of Jhan, was now eyeing me carefully. His unkempt black hair looked as if it hadn't been combed for ages. I looked straight into his dark eyes; he was glaring so intensely that it was hard for me to look him in the eye without goose bumps rising on my skin, so I traced my gaze down to his scanty beard, then to the brown long-sleeved leather jacket he wore over a black sweat shirt. The combo did actually go very well with the blue denim trousers he had on.

Tia was smiling so brightly now and Leya was feign smiling as well. Jereum just continued his hate glower and I was sure of the fact that I was not going to get along with him in anyway. I looked towards the right end of the room where there was a plain wooden door. Back door, I thought.

Jhan, who was standing behind me, cleared his throat loudly. I wasn't expecting a whole introduction but I was fine if it meant I would no longer be locked up in that dark, creepy attic for another two months.

"Everyone, this is Kaldar. I'm sure you knew of his presence in the…err... attic."

Even he found it hard to accept the cruelty of containing someone in such a place.

"Nice to meet you Kaldar," said Leya in the most excited voice she could muster which still sounded very well fake to me.

"He's... Beautiful." Tia said, and I tried at that moment, as hard as I could, not to look at her, but failed. Nobody said anything else and apart from Tia's wide grin the only other thing that made me more uneasy was the continuous deathly glare Jereum was intensely focusing on my head.

Jhan continued, "He's the newest in our clan and so he doesn't know anything about our customs and way of life by the higher court."

"How old are you?" Sneered Jereum. I couldn't understand how someone could hate somebody they had just met.

"I'm nineteen." I could remember one of the doctors, a female, telling me that I may live up to two decades by the years end. But for the specific date of my birthday, I had no idea.

"I'm Jereum, chronologically I'm a hundred and three but I was impurified when I was twenty-two, and I'm your superior so you take orders from me. You understand!?"

I couldn't do anything but nod, if that was what it took to get some fair treatment from him then I was willing to do it.

"This is Tia," said Jereum, and she smiled even wider—it made me wonder just how far the corner of one girls mouth could stretch before reaching her eyes, "She's seventy seven and this one here," He roughly patted Leya on the head, "Is Leya, She's thirteen and she's an Abnormal." He said the word with a sneer so intense it was as if he wore talking about a dirty stray, rabid cat. But Leya just smiled nervously and I smiled back at her, she was swaying to either side slowly it made the rims if the yellow night dress she wore to brush against her thin ankles.

Tia, whose hands had been locked behind her back, was now brushing away stray strands of hair from her face with a finger. The girls gaze was alluring and I tried my best to avoid her eyes.

The sound of Jhan's voice startled me, "There's one more thing I need y'all to know about our new blood," And I knew what Jhan was about to say before he even said it, the excitement in his voice was so overwhelming it filled this grim and ghostly looking room with brightness, "Kaldar is a supreme."

I watched as their faces sank with fear—Tia even took a step back and Jereum's face was contorted with an entanglement of confusion and hate. The only people in the room that seemed excited about hearing this was Leya and Jhan, because I myself was actually getting scared of the unknown I had become.