Page 36 of Beasts

“I'm not gonna do anything.” He hisses back.

“If you don't do anything Oliver, he might do the worst.”

“You don't think I know that?”

“We have to think of something.” Nolan comments as he starts pacing up and down the room.

“Maybe you should just grab a plane ticket now and get out while you still can.” Niles adds nodding his head up and down, as if he just thought of the greatest plan ever.

“That's not going to make a difference.” Hendrik sighs, “Even if he moved to Antarctica, I'm pretty sure his dad could find him.”

“Well, I don't hear you coming up with any plans.”

“I'd rather think of a plan where everything turns out okay. At the moment your plan is for Oliver to run away and hope that he somehow forgets all about Amelia.”

“What the fuck is going on?” I exclaim catching everybody's attention. I'm starting to get really sick of people having conversations around me and not telling me what's actually going on. The triplets look over to Nolan, who simply responds by pointing upstairs, gesturing for them to go back to bed. They do so without any argument. He looks towards Hugh as well, who gives him a nod goodnight and disappears. Oliver is just standing there looking at the floor, refusing to acknowledge Nolan.

“Do you want to tell her?” He whispers. Oliver exhales and shakes his head. Whatever it is must be pretty bad. Nolan ushers me to take a seat on the couch in the living room, so I do. “We told you a while ago that humans that know about us need to either be turned into a demon or killed. That's the only way the elders can know for a fact that no one is going to tell anyone else about demons living in their cities.”

“I remember.” I say to him.

“Right, so Oliver’s father has just given him an ultimatum. Either he does what he's supposed to and turn or kill you. Or he has to suffer the consequence of that same fate.”

“Oliver can't be turned to a vampire. He already is one.”

“Exactly, which leaves only one other option.” I can feel my face drop. In fact, I'm pretty sure I can feel my brain stop functioning altogether.

“But that's his son.”

“Trust me.” Oliver interjects, “The second he found out that I could walk in the sun, he treated me like I was a leper. I'm no more his son than the guinea pigs he eats for breakfast.” I'm thoroughly grossed out with the mental image that I'm receiving right now. I'm surprised that in front of Nolan he decides to sit down next to me, “I'm not going to turn or kill you.” He states firmly.

Nolan grunts, catching our attention. “If you don't think of something Oliver, he is going to kill you. Do you understand that? Why did you tell him it was you? We should tell him that it was me that she saw first. He might be a bit more lenient with me because I haven't been in trouble before.”

“I don't think it matters which one of us it was. But at least this way, he gets to feel extra guilty about it.”

“Guilty about what? Can't we just convince him I'm not going to tell anybody?” I can hear that my voice is starting to waver, but I must try hard not to cry.

“He's not that easy to convince. But we have an extra day. I'll think of something.”

“Why didn't Seth see this coming? Surely if he knew that your father was going to pick him up, then he would have warned one of us, right?”

“Mr Pierce also has a psychic working for him.” Nolan adds. “Unfortunately, psychics can't see each other or their next actions. Seth would have just been a sitting duck.”

“Your world is really confusing. But ages ago you tried to erase my memory. Can't you just try again?”

“Why would you want to forget?” Oliver looks directly at me and I know exactly why he's asking.

“I don't think in my heart I could ever forget what's happened here, but I know that if I didn't suggest something that was at least reasonable and something happened to you…I would never forgive myself.”

“Regardless, our powers don't work on you anyway.”

“Do they work normally because I'm not particularly special. There shouldn't be some particular reason they're not working on me.”

“The fact is we don't have to make any decisions right now. Why don't you just go back to bed?”

“Do you seriously think I can sleep after this? All I’m going to think about is some random vampire jumping through my window.” There is another suggestion I can make, but I'm not sure if anyone is going to go for it. I'm not even sure if I really want to go for it. “Out of curiosity is being a vampire that bad?”

“Yes.” Both boys exclaim in unison. I guess they knew what I was thinking.

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