Book One Chapter Thirty Two: Once and Therefore Always

Nick puts his final plan into action; blow up Hemlon and get out. It is easier said than done... Especially when the entire plan blows up (quite literally) in Nick's face.

Chapter thirty Two Once and Therefore Always: I opened the door and saw black squares n the room out of the corner of my vision. I managed to hit the button that was on top of the pedestal right before the black boxes exploded. My body went limp with pain as the boxes exploded. The explosions threw shrapnel at my body and pain appeared in all areas of my being. My body was blown through the glass window from the force of the explosions and tossed into Saja's view.

"I didn’t think that you would press the button, but just in case you did, I had explosives planted in that room!" Saja said as she laughed manically.

My body twitched, and then the room began to shake. The explosion was imminent. Fear filled me at the thought that I may not escape from Hemlon alive.

"... Are you still alive!? You are joking! You have got to be joking!" Saja yelled very loudly.

I gathered what very little energy I had and turned to Saja’s voice. My body felt like it had been stabbed about a hundred times with sharp metal… Oh wait, it had.

“It’s going to take more than a little explosion… To keep me down…” I said to Saja.

She was extremely angry. I could also feel he room temperature rise, and the metal beams from above started to collapse and the ceiling fell down around us in chunks of metal and rock. I was losing blood quickly due to the multiple wounds from the shrapnel that I received. Pain flared all over my body. I was becoming weak from blood loss. My bones seared with pain. I heard footsteps approaching me. Dread overtook my thoughts as I took a wild guess at who it could be. I looked up despite the pain in my body. I saw Saja standing over me. She laughed.

"You are not going to escape this with death... I will not let you." Saja said.

Fear raced through me, I knew what she meant. She kneeled down and smiled, showing her fangs, she was tipping me off about what was in store for me. I knew what she was hinting at; she was going to turn me. She wasn't going to let me die here, she was going to make sure that I hated the rest of my eternal life.

"How fitting. I turned Kaleen, now I am turning you." Saja said.

“I… Hate you… Saja!” I shouted through pain clenched teeth.

I tried to get away from her, but it was just too painful to move! Saja pinned me down, leaned down and placed her mouth just centimeters from my neck, and with lightning speed she bit in to my neck. Twin needle points of pain that represented Saja’s two fangs became apparent on my neck. Then came the weakness, and an intricate pull as Saja drew my blood to the surface. I didn't have the energy to scream or even resist. I was forced to give in. I took in the scene around me, desperate for an escape plan. The room temperature was dramatically rising. In the background, I could hear an air raid siren going off. Its long note dragged up and down in pitch very slowly. The entire place was collapsing, metal and rock rained from the ceiling as well as metal beams. I was quickly becoming weaker and weaker from Saja’s bite. Before I passed out from the bite, I had one final thought: How were my friends going to get out of Hemlon alive? Had I sentenced them to their deaths atop this floating city? The last emotions that I felt before completely blacking out were dread, sadness and hatred.

***

I woke up in a stone room that was cold. I saw torches on the walls. I felt cold, very cold. I could not get up just yet. There was an unseen force holding me in place. I struggled against the unseen force, but it held firm. What was going on? Was I dead? Forcing myself to keep calm and evaluate the situation made me focus on the things around me. I felt… good. It was as if all of my senses were heightened. I marveled at this thought. What happened to me? What happened before I blacked out? I tried to remember. I could not. Why? Noticing that my senses felt heightened, I found that I could smell the ashes of the torches that burned on the stone walls around me. I could see all the way up to the high ceiling, and make out every feature of it. I could taste some people's scents in the air.

"Let him up Hans. Slowly." I heard a woman say.

Wonder made my mind wander. Who was the woman? Where was I? I felt the unseen force that was holding me down unhand me, and I could now move. I stood up and walked toward the voice that told Hans to let me up. I looked around. I was in a huge stone room, there were torches on the walls. There was a door across the room from me. I walked over and opened it. I walked through the door and I saw a few people in a room. They were all sitting on ornate chairs. The room was adorned with lavish red silk banners, ornate blue carpets with gold trim, and torches hung all over the walls, illuminating every part of the room, leaving no shadows. I wondered where I was. I tried to piece together the events that brought me here, but it was all fuzzy. It was as if there was a block in my memory. How did I end up here? I decided to ask the people that were in the room with me.

“Who are you? Where am I? What is this place?” I asked, thoroughly confused.

I noticed that I could hear myself extremely well.

“We are the vampire council. You are in a secret room hidden in a sewer on Earth.” One of the men explained to me.

"Am I... dead?" I asked them.

I heard a girl behind me chuckle.

"No, but you gave it your best shot." I heard a familiar voice say.

I turned around and faced the girl who had spoken. I saw Kaleen running towards me.

"Nick! You’re back!" She cried.

"I never thought I would see you again!" She shouted in happiness.

We embraced.

"We thought you might want to see her when you woke up." Said a woman.

I looked over to where I heard the voice. I saw a man and a woman and a bunch of others. They all had crimson eyes. I saw a girl that I recognized. My mind began to piece together her name.

"An...ara?" I asked.

Seeing her sparked a few memories. I then remembered everything. The explosion at Hemlon, how my friends and I were there to defeat Saja. Something else happened, something important. I could not quite place my finger on it…

"This is the only one of your friends that survived the blast." Said the woman, gesturing to Anara.

"The others?" I asked.

"All dead." She somberly responded.

"What of Saja?" I asked.

"Our representatives confirmed her death two weeks ago." One of the other men said.

"I have been unconscious for two weeks?!" I shouted.

I was shocked, two weeks was a lot of time missed.

"Yes, your transformation was an unstable one, full of uncertainties." said Anara bitterly.

Why was Anara so bitter? What transformation was she talking about?

"What transformation?" I asked.

"You don't know yet?" asked Kaleen.

I shrugged and shook my head, confused.

"You're a vampire." Kaleen whispered in my ear.

My brain did not accept this at first, it took a few seconds to register. I was shocked, yet it made some kind of sense. Like a piece of a puzzle fitting in.

"And are they really...?" I started to ask.

"The vampire council. They are the executive rulers of the vampire race." Kaleen confirmed.

“Who are the primary rulers of the vampire race?” I asked her.

“The vampire royal family.” Kaleen said.

I heard one of the men clear his throat. I turned to look at him.

"You have done our race a great honor." Said the man, placing his hand on his chest.

"Future generations of vampires will be reminded of your courage, and sacrifice. For it was you, Nick, chosen one by our father, Tigiti, who defeated the feared Saja, who had evaded capture for so long." He finished.

"Now as for the rules." said the woman who was next to the man.

"You are not to make a nuisance of yourself, if you do so, it will result in your second death. You will not, under any circumstances, be allowed to tell humans of our kind, the consequence will be the same as almost any crime you commit as a vampire: Your second death. You are also not allowed to hunt on other land claimed by other vampires, doing so will result in a turf war, which could result in humans finding out about us." The woman said.

I was horrified at the idea of killing humans.

"You will only kill other vampires in defense, it is frowned upon to kill one of your own. That is all." The woman finished.

She waved us off. Kaleen walked me to a metal door at the edge of the room and brought us to the surface through a tunnel in the sewer.

"Are we really on Earth?" I asked.

Kaleen opened a manhole cover and I found that I was back home. Kaleen and I were on a familiar street. It was dark out, the moon was well past its apex in the starry sky.

"We have to hunt." Kaleen said. A thought then hit me.

"We?" I asked, confused.

"You don't know yet?" Kaleen asked.

I shook my head, frustrated.

“What do I not know?” I asked, irritated.

"I have been a vampire ever since I started wearing those sunglasses at school! I started to look for you ever since your date with Saja! When the council informed me of your appearance on Artemis, they collected you and brought you to their chamber." Kaleen said frantically.

I understood what she said, it surprised me that Kaleen was a vampire, I was tired of being surprised and confused, I wanted to go home, but what Kaleen had said about hunting registered with me.

I recoiled away from her, disgusted.

"I will not kill other humans." I said firmly.

"Sh sh sh," Kaleen hushed, pressing a finger to my lips.

"It's not as bad as it sounds." She said.

"I thought that you would be different from the others." I told her.

"I was… for a while. It's impossible to withhold killing for very long, trust me, I had about the same enthusiasm as you do right now when I first turned, I tried not to kill humans, eventually I had to, the lack of blood almost drove me mad. Animals are simply not satisfying." Kaleen said.

I decided to trust her. She knew what she was doing, right? She had been a vampire ever since that day when she started wearing those sunglasses, and to think I thought it was a fashion trend! I laughed at myself and at my own ignorance. Kaleen led me up to a window of a house. She opened it silently and we crept in. She smashed the window and bolted inside. I did the same and found myself in a small apartment with a mini fridge, a table, a stove, an oven and a micro wave. A T.V flashed in the corner and the lights in the room were off. I heard a man and a woman collectively scream.

“Who the devil are you two?” Shouted the man angrily.

“Call the police, Jerry!” The woman in the room yelled.

Kaleen bolted across the room and grabbed the short woman by the hair and bit her neck. I did the same to Jerry. When I sank my fangs into his neck, I heard a slight wet crunch! It felt terrible, but the blood made it all worth it. It felt so good and was so delicious. The blood tasted like the richest, darkest, most expensive chocolate that money could buy. Kaleen and I hid the bodies in a nearby river.

Kaleen saw the thirst in my eyes.

"I know, the first time is always the best." She said with a fanged smile.

She led me back to my house. It was not far. It had crime scene tape all around it.

"What is this stuff for?" I asked, holding the tape.

"Everyone thinks you are dead. Ever since you disappeared, and since you were the police's only lead on the strange murders with the cloth you found in your house, they decided to investigate your house to see if they could find anything useful."

“Did they ever catch the culprit?” I asked.

“Well, no. However, the murders stopped around the time you disappeared. This led the police to think that you murdered all those people and then left town.” Kaleen said.

“What do you think?” I asked.

“I think that it was Saja. I know that you did not murder all those people. Saja left town along with you, so it had to have been her.” Kaleen said.

I knew that Kaleen could not clear my name. How would she explain the fact that a vampire murdered all of those people? All of the evidence was there; the fang marks on the victim’s necks, the fact that they are off of the crime scene by morning, the red eyes, the fangs, however no one would believe it. I hardly believed it when I first saw it. The fact that everyone thought I was dead made me very depressed. The thought left a whole the size of a fist in my heart. It made me feel very alone, despite Kaleen's company. She led me inside my house, jumping over the crime scene tape. The place looked untouched. I caught the scent of my former self, there was even the revolver that the police officer gave on the day of the vampire sighting. It was even on the mantelpiece, right where I had left it.

"I’m going to go, alright? I’ll leave you to sort things out, I'll come back for you tomorrow night."

Kaleen said. I nodded and thought about my life. Kaleen exited the house, she cast one last wistful glance back towards me. It was almost sunrise, Kaleen had to get home before her parents started to worry about her. Did her parents know what she was? I didn't think so. I certainly had some questions to ask the next time that I saw her...

 

To Be Continued In Book Two: Soldier Of Destiny...

Author's Note

this is the final chapter in Book One: A Hero's Journey. Book Two is out now, if you liked this book, check out the sequel!

Reviews

[Cool Girl]

Nice job, Ryan! You are a very talented guy:) please continue to write because you are amazing at it. I hope you had a wonderful holiday, and I wish you th best of luck in life. Thanks for being my friend! Talk to u soon.

Sincerely,

C.G.

[Ryan Henderson]

Thank you for the kind a gracious review!

[Cool Girl]

You are very welcome, Ryan!