Chapter 6: Runaway

Serena finally escapes the mansion

    One year has gone by since Serena was turned. This day is practically hard for her, since all she thinks about is how she lost all that was dear to her and dragged to her hell.
    She hasn’t seen Ash since their spat almost two months ago, and that’s how she like it. It was quite relieving to her to not have him around. Armand has attempted to talk to her, he sends people ever now with messages to go to his office but each time she declines. The only person she talks to is Lyla, she’s a sweet girl and Serena enjoys her company. There have been a few times that Brock stops by to take her to see Thanlos and each time he shoots her a dirty look.
    Serena is alone at the moment when a knock came at the door. She crosses her bedroom and answers it only to see it was Armand. She feels her rage rise but holds it back and crosses her arms, not saying anything.
    “Hello.” He says, she doesn’t reply. “May I come in?”
    “What do you want?”
    “To explain a few things.”
    “There’s nothing to explain.”
    “Serena please…” he didn’t get a chance to finish as she closes the door on his face.
    A few minutes pass and she’s on her bed sulking as she stares at a photo of David and Colleen. She missed them so much; she felt like an empty shell without them. She couldn’t stand it any longer, it’s been a year and she just had to see them.
    She stands up and grabs her coat and begins to walk out of the room. Just then a female vampire walks in with her daily dose of blood. She doesn’t drink the blood and walks right by the woman.
    “Where are you going miss?” The vampire asks.
    “For a walk.”
    Serena quickly walks down the hall, to the stairs and out the door. She knows a tree in the garden that has grown over the gate. She would use it to sneak off the grounds and hopefully never return. As she casually reaches the garden she begins to wander aimlessly at first. She could feel the guards’ eyes on her. She never once had a chance to see what being a vampire had to offer. One false move and it would all be over very quick. A few minutes pass and she looks around and notices they have lost interest in her. She could see them looking around the grounds; she uses this chance and dodges behind the tree. She slightly bends her knees and takes a deep breath.
    Moment of truth, she thinks.
    She pushes off her feet and jumps gracefully up the tree, almost going over it entirely. She grabs a branch and lands gently on it; she was almost to the very top of the 25-foot tall tree.
    Using her newly found gracefulness, she walks to the end of the branch and jumps off landing lightly on her feet. She quickly finds solace behind a nearby bush and surveys the estate. Her escape all took but a minute to achieve and the guards noticed nothing.
    Serena celebrates her success in her head and runs with all her might away from the prison. She was amazed at how fast she could run and after a few miles she came to a rest stop along a highway. She went over to the board that held the state map and found her hometown; she was only 20 miles away; after 5 minutes of running, she finally arrives. She walks by the park she and David took Colleen to, the restaurant David proposed, and the garden where they had their wedding. Serena was tempted to go to her old house but she knew her time was limited before they noticed she is gone; she quickly runs over to the hospital.
    As soon as she arrives she quickly finds the employees locker room and steals a doctor’s coat. She walks around for a bit before finding an orderly and asks where the records room is. The orderly was so amazed at how beautiful she was and stuttered that the records room was on the third floor behind the nurse’s station.
    Serena goes into an elevator and hits the number three. She finds the nurse’s station and right behind it was a door with “records” on a wall plate next to it. Naturally it was locked, she took a firm grip on the handle and without much effort, pulls it down hard and breaks the lock; she smiles proudly and walks in.
    She browses through the files until she comes the “F” section and looks for Frank. She finds David and Colleen’s files and quickly scans the papers. They both died of heart failure due to the disease and feels a pain in her heart. She takes a deep breath and pushes back her sorrow. She finds the name of the funeral home their bodies were sent and quickly exits the hospital.
    One hour and another break in later, Serena finds herself at St. Paul’s Cemetery. She drops to her knees and presses her head against David’s tombstone and begins to cry. She brushes her hand on the grass in front of her as she pictures them in their coffin. She is so overwhelmed with her grief that she is barely noticing the extravagant design on their tombstones. Colleen’s had little angels holding a banner with her name engraved and decorated with pink jewels. David’s had a male angel flying to a bright light decorated with jewels as well. Both of David’s parents were dead and he was an only child like her, so who paid for such expensive tombstones?
    “Armand paid for them.”
    Serena turns around alarmed since she didn’t hear anyone approach her. Brock was standing behind her; she lets out a frustrating sigh.
    “Everyone is looking for you. Ash and Armand are going crazy.” He says as he slowly approaches her.
    “Wish they would leave me alone.”
    “Yea, me too. Last thing either of them need is a selfish b***h ruining their lives.”
    She stares at him in shock. “How dare you? You don’t even know me.”
    “I know enough to see that you are only making their lives a living hell.”
    She pulls her hand back to slap him but the 300-year-old vampire grabs her arm with such force that if he grabbed any hard her arm would shatter.
    “You have no idea what I’m going through.” She says through gritted teeth as she takes back her arm.
    “What I do know is that Ash is deeply in love with you. From the moment he laid eyes on you at your mother’s wedding, you were all he could think about.”
    “If that were true then he wouldn’t have made me this way. He would’ve let me die with my family instead of forcing me to live without them!”
    “He didn’t.”
    “Of course he did, look at me!”
    “Ash didn’t turn you! Armand did.” Serena stares at him confused. “Ash knew you weren’t ready to be like us, he knew that if he turned you, you would hate him forever for it. Armand was with him when they saw you laying in bed on the verge of death; he kept ordering him to do it before it was too late. When he saw that Ash wouldn’t, he sank his fangs into you and did it himself.” She stands in silence looking at Brock, her entire world taking another unexpected turn. “You are so self-involved to even realize what your cruelty is doing to him. He never thought he could love again until he met you.” Brocks words were like a rude awakening to her, she didn’t want to see how right he was but she couldn’t help it. “Here” He hands her a big wade of cash. “The nearest airport is 10 miles west of here. You can go anywhere you want, I won’t stop you.” When she takes the money he turns on his heels and walks away, leaving her with her guilt.
    She stands above the graves hating Armand for not telling her the truth but most of all hating herself. She has been self-involved and never once appreciated what Ash has been trying to do, which was help her get through all her grief. She looks at the money in her hand and knows how easy it would be to just leave and never come back. But instead of taking the coward’s way out, she pockets the money and begins heading back to the mansion.