CHAPTER 1
The Dark Secret.
I have moved about a lot, not due to being an army brat, or being a bad ass, I guess I have found that I have not really fitted in well no matter where I am living. I have tried to make friends in school and other places I have lived, but for some reason people have always found me strange. Bullying is not new to me with all the name calling, notes stuck to my back and not to say the physical violence from the jocks and people that are always tough in groups. I think that due to this I have night mares nearly every night and find it difficult to sleep most of the times. Personally, I think it my mind continuously playing over what has happened with the bullying and it manifests itself in the way of scary dreams.
I am going to tell you a little about my dreams for now, they might not seem too bad to you but when you are living the dreams it is a nightmare and waking up in sweats is never a good thing. I sweat that much it’s like I have wet the bed or someone has poured water over me. The amount of washing I have to do for the laundry is getting to be expensive, so I have taken to washing it in a bath tub and saving money at laundrettes. Let me tell you, it takes me bloody ages to wash in the tub and to get them dry, some nights I do not have dry bedding to lay on so it is just a mattress with my jacket to cover me. Surprising what you can get used to at a young age isn’t it. Well let’s get back to me telling you about my night mares as I have wondered off track a little. One example is I woke up to a horrible stench wafting into my room from the open window which is at the end of my bed. The cool breeze blew a stench of stale, decaying wet dog, I wake up to this smell coming through my window and throw back the sheets and wonder over to the window. The next thing I know is that I am out in the garden of the house I am staying in and I have no idea how I got down here.
Looking around I can see a yellow thin mist on the ground like a pathway leading off into the forest, the weird thing is the mist is moving like a wave, swaying on the ground. This yellow mist is the stench of decaying wet dog I can smell, it’s that bad it nearly makes me gag and heave. I walk the way the path is heading and look down at myself, I am wearing black knee length shorts and a grey vest but no shoes and for some reason I have a tattoo on my right forearm of a circle with a triangle in side and three dots inside the triangle. Weird I think to myself, I don’t remember getting that. As I follow the mist into the woods the smell is getting stronger, I feel a warm burning sensation on my right forearm and look down, the tattoo is starting to shine brighter as I walk further into the woods. Suddenly I find myself running through the forest, I think as I run what the hell is going on, where am I going? I am running fast, faster than I should be able to run, I am not hitting any trees or low hanging branches plus my feet are bare but I don’t feel any pain from running. I am still following the mist at such a high pace but I don’t feel tired from running at such a high pace. In front of me the mist has disappeared but the is a huge tree in front of me, but I am heading straight for it and I am finding I cannot stop running at the tree. As I get closer I find myself screaming and holding my hands up as if to protect me, like that’s really going to protect me from me hitting the tree. As I am about to hit the tree I see to the left of me a man standing there looking straight at me smiling, the weird thing is that he has blood around his mouth. And he is holding what appears to be an animal leg.
As I hit the tree I am, somehow kneeling on the floor with no pain from hitting the tree, it’s like it never happened. What I am doing now is kneeling on the forest floor with a dead deer in front of me with its guts ripped out. I can feel that my face is wet so I wipe my face with my hands and look down at my hands are soaked in blood. Oh my god have I just started to eat that deer? What the hell is going on with me? The only thing I am feeling right now is excitement, energy rushing through my body like a huge caffeine rush but I am also feeling scared. The stench of the decaying wet dog has disappeared, but I look down at the deer and then burry my head in the deer. I suddenly wake up in a cold sweat in my bed, sitting up looking at the window. I jump up and walk over to the window and peer out of the window. I is dark and just as I look over to the forest I see someone disappear into the trees but hear what sounds like a distorted wolf howl.
Shutting the window, I head off to the bathroom and turn on the shower, as I am covered in sweat. Turning on the shower on My mind goes back to seeing that figure disappear into the forest and hearing the weird wolf howl. I actually didn’t think that wolves lived in this area for quite some time. It’s not that I know this area as I have only just moved here and I don’t even know this town very well. Jumping in the shower I begin to wash myself down and sing badly in the shower. All of a sudden, I can hear a noise from my bedroom, leaving the shower running I gently pull the shower curtain back a little and pop my head out calling “hello”, but no answer. I continue to carry on showering and hearing a noise again, turning the shower off and grabbing my towel I wrap it around my waist, stepping out of the shower I quietly walk to my room. Opening the bathroom door, I enter my bedroom and see that my window has been opened, darting over to my window I look out then turn back into my room. On my mirror a message has been written ‘you’re not alone’, getting dressed I run down stairs and call out for my foster parents, this is why I have moved around a lot, my parents died when I was little. I’ll get into that later. My foster parents call out we are in the kitchen, heading off into the kitchen and ask them did any of you come into my room and write on my mirror. Looking confused at each other they both said “No”, I tell them that someone has been in my room and written ‘you’re not alone’ on my mirror. Well we have been in the kitchen cooking food, look we are cooking stew and my foster mum lifts up the pot lid and I look in the pot and to my horror I see my own head in the pot. I scream and jump back, looking at my parents they suddenly have wolf faces and they both jump at me.
I am sitting up in bed, sweating and yet again it feels so real but at least that was just a dream. I had fallen asleep after coming home from school. It wasn’t dark outside it was still daylight and it is about 17:07 on my bedside clock. Thinking to myself this was a standard nightmare and it either ends with people turning into werewolves or vampires. It may not seem like a lot but live this a lot and you start to think what is real and what isn’t. I head of to the shower and jump in to wash the sweat off and change my clothes. Getting dressed I head down stairs and head to the kitchen and in there are my foster parents are cooking dinner. My foster mum looks at me and asks if I am ok as I look bothered and confused, I tell her that I am having nightmares again and it involves werewolves. With that they both laugh but it sounds like it is an uncomfortable laugh and I catch a troubled look that they both give each other. Or am I just being paranoid due to that nightmare? Who knows. I sit down to dinner with my foster parents and see that they have made spag bol with garlic bread and loaded cheese garlic bread, my favourite as it also has red wine in the spag bol. My foster dad pours me a tall glass of wine and smiles, I look at him and say what you doing? He responds don’t be a light wait its Friday night, there is no school tomorrow. I laugh and take the glass of wine from him, taking a swig, holding up my glass I look at them both and say thank you and cheers. They return the gesture and we all swig the wine, digging into the spag bol and the first spoon is spilt down my top and into my lap, bloody hell I think, just my luck. My foster parents look at each other and start to laugh.
Whilst eating dinner my foster mum tells me that she wants to tell me about my parents, or what they have found out about them, as the time I have lived with them they have looked into my parent’s death and plus they knew my parents. This why I have moved around a lot as I have found it difficult to bond or trust new people but my foster parents have stuck by me no matter what I threw at them, I am now thinking that I am actually getting close to them. They are the only ones that have truly helped me at difficult times and never given up on me even when I have thrown abuse and bad behaviour at them. Their tolerance is second to none, real life angels and care more about others more than themselves. No with all their love they have thrown at me I am now beginning to have feelings for them now, and this does scare me as when I had parents who I loved they left me, well in a manner of speaking. They we in fact killed, I know this as I too have been looking into my parent’s death, the only thing I have found out is that they were both killed by a wild animal while out in the forest.
I must tell you that my foster parents are called Paul and Gabriela and they have looked after me for about a year now and I have spent all my spare time looking into my parent’s death. My foster parents have known my parents since I was little and I know they know a lot more about my parents. There is something Paul and Gabriela are not telling me about my parents and I ask the, “what do you know about my parent’s death and don’t lie to me please”, Paul asks me to sit down and “have some more wine as it will help you accept or understand what we are going to tell you”. I sit down and hold up my glass to gest to Paul to pour some more wine, this time he fills my wine glass to the top. Gabriela asks me if my dreams or night mares appear to feel like they are real or that they actually happened, I look at her and think should I tell her or not? I try to look at her in a confused manor and ask her “what do you mean”?” OK I’ll tell you about your parent’s and then about how we know them”. While she sits there talking she holds her glass out to Paul and he fills her glass up. Taking a sip or I should say a gulp she starts to explain and tells me that I may find this hard to believe or accept at first but it will explain the night mares. With her saying that I sit there looking at her with anticipation and excitement at the same time. She starts to explain that the stories about werewolves and vampires are true but not how it is explained in the books and films, even though some of the stories are kind of true but they have been fabricated a little. As the old stories go Vampires and werewolves are long-time enemies and have always been at war with each other, this is a lie even though there are some that do hunt each other for the fight, mostly we live in peace with each other. I sit there listening in amazement and say in a little laughing voice vampires and werewolves, really.
In ancient times the two families of vampires and werewolves did fight to kill each other but then one vampire and a werewolf tried to change this and started getting to know one another and soon enough they both developed feelings for each other. They were both children on the pack leaders and much to the werewolves disgust the two packs decided to meet and talk as the leaders loved their children very much. Once the leaders met along with the two children, well I say children they looked about late teenage years, they talked for hours about the possible future of the two packs. It was finally decided that the two tribes will stop fighting and become allies, not every werewolf and vampire liked this decision and decided to leave their tribes and start their own tribes. This is how the families changed and more families turned up and some believed in werewolves and vampires are sworn enemies and set out to hunt and kill each other. The only law is that if a vampire strays onto a werewolf ground then it is fair game if there has been no invite, same as if a werewolf strays onto a vampires ground. As time went by it seemed that more and more vampires and werewolves mixed and had half wolf and half vampire but on a rare occasion there is a child born that stays human but in time he has the powers of a wolf and a vampire as well. This rare half breed as they are known can remain human form but also change into a wolf or vampire. Next Gabriela tells me that the way to kill a werewolf is simple, it is just like shooting a dog but it has to be with a silver bullet or chop off its head and to kill a vampire it’s to remove the vampires head and burn the body or to inject pure garlic into their body. But the only way they can produce off spring is if the mother is a werewolf and the father is a vampire, it will not happen if it is the other way around and that’s how it has always been.
I jump up with a start and laugh, saying “vampires and werewolves, really” then suddenly it hits me. I stop and turn looking at Gabriela and Paul saying “what do you mean we live in peace with each other, what you mean you’re a vampire and werewolf as well”. Laughing as I say this. Paul stands up and looks straight at me and asks me to sit down as he has something to show me, I start to become very nervous and it shows with great detail as if reading a book, Paul tells me to remember that “we are your parents and we love you ok”, I sit myself down and tell them “I know you love me as do I, what’s going on”? Paul turns around and then asks “are you ready for reason you have night mares and strange dreams”? “ok now I’m scare” Paul turns around and I jump backwards out of the chair and fall behind the chair, Paul’s face is all distorted with a huge wrinkly fore head, squashed nose and huge fang like teeth. Screaming in fear I shout “you’re a bloody vampire “Paul tells me to relax “I’m not going to hurt you”. Turning to Gabriela for support she stands and tells me it is ok and shakes her head and turns into a bloody wolf, again I run backwards to the end of the lounge “what the hell”, speaking in a rough voice Gabriela tells me all the stories or werewolves and vampires are true, well kind of, the only thing is most of but they mostly live together in peace and it’s only a few that don’t.
Heading out of the house I run through the garden and into the forest at the end of our garden, Gabriela and Paul follow me into the garden calling me but they don’t seem to follow, well so it appears. As I run through the forest scared like a fox being hunted by a pack of hounds I run all over the place, the branches ripping through my clothes and into my skin. I eventually stop and trying to get my breath I start to feel the pain of the cuts on my face, arms and body, looking down at them as they sting like a bugger I notice that one by one they start to heal and disappear slowly. I think to myself ‘what the hell’ and now I have my breath back. “Am I dreaming”? I think to myself. While I try and gather my thoughts and understand what the hell is going on with me now I hear noises coming out of the forest, unusual noises that sound like animals. Paul did tell me that there are no wolves in this forest, or was he lying about this too? I try to get my bearings and start walking ahead still looking were the scratches had been, no marks what so ever. I hear the noises coming closer and closer and can hear growling with the noises and this starts to worry me, is there and wolf hunting me, as it gets closer I start to run faster and faster but this noise is getting closer.
As I see in the distance a break in the forest I am set upon from behind by what I thought was a wolf or dog, as I hit the ground I can see a hand on my shoulder with long bony fingers and long dirty nails. As adrenalin starts to pump through my body and this hand turns me over and to my horror it looks like a man that kind of has the same features as Paul, dam it, it’s a vampire. With him on top of me and not being able to move as he is a lot bigger and freakishly stronger than me, this vampire raises his left hand and tells me “you are a freak of nature you cannot live to change”, his hand comes down and I raise my hands to protect me, I hear a growl and a voice shouting “NO” and this vampire disappears off me. I scramble to my feet and see two figures fighting with the vampire and taking him to the ground. I rush backwards and trip hitting the floor and my head knocking me out. The two figures were Gabriela and Paul who had followed me and saw that this vampire stalking me and followed. Paul has the vampire pinned to a tree and Gabriela slices her long claws across his face and neck killing him as the vampire falls to the floor it turns into ash and blows into the wind. Paul realises they have won and saved me they both turn back to human form again and walk over to me and see if I am ok, carrying me back Paul has me in his arms while Gabriela checks for anything else that could attack as vampires usually hunt in packs as well as wolves. I gently open my eyes and my vision is blurry and I see Paul looking down at me as he carries me telling me that “everything will be ok, you are safe for now” and smiles. Then I am out like a light again.
When I wake I find myself in my bed and in my room, thinking what was going on. At the end of my bed was Gabriela sitting there smiling as she sees wake, I edge backwards with a little fear and she tells me to relax and that I am safe now. “what’s going on what was that”, Gabriela tells me that the thing that attacked me was a vampire and unfortunately, he was one of the ones that did not believe vampires and werewolves should mix. Every so often there is one child born of a mixed breed that can have the powers of the wolf and the vampire but remains in human form and that the child will develop a power that can make him stronger and more powerful. Gabriela tells me it looks like I am the chosen one, that’s why the vampire wanted to kill me and that in time I will develop powers that only some chosen few will have and it could end the war between the good mixed clans and the old wolves and vampires that don’t think mixing is a good thing. It seems that the clans have found out that you are one of the few that can develop these powers. I tell Gabriela that when I ran through the woods I was covered in scratches from the trees and then they disappeared. She asked me if I had had any dreams about a man that appears in my dreams and is watching me, I look away and she said “so you have then”, he is known as Marcus and he is the clan leader of the vampires and it is believed that he vanished and has not been seen or heard of for centuries. If you have seen him in your dreams you must be very important to him or he is afraid of you and is sending his clan members out to kill you. We believe Marcus is the reason why your parents were killed when you were a baby, they were protecting you. I ask Gabriela “so what the hell am I then, am I werewolf or a vampire”? “You are both, you have the strength and speed of a vampire but the senses and cunning of the werewolf”. Paul walks in and smiles asking if I am ok, “not really, I just found out what all my dreams mean and who I am kind of life altering don’t you think”. “sorry we didn’t tell you sooner but we needed to find out if you were who your parents thought you may be and that’s happening now”. Gabriela then turned to me and told me that it means you will have to have time off school and learn to adjust to my new life ad learn to fight and learn more skills like hunting and when the time comes , how to use my powers of the wolf and vampire.
