Page 25 of Losing The Vampire King

Initially, I want to just turn around and go back the way I came from. I didn’t know I would end up here. I don’t belong here, with her. Yet, something is preventing me from leaving.

I stay by the entrance, not daring to go inside. I don’t know what I would do. After everything that Gala has told me, it would be natural of me to want to attack her. But again, I feel like I don’t know the whole story. I feel like I’m missing an integral part of not only the story, but of my life. And without it, I can’t act. I dare not act, because I might make a terrible mistake.

“Eddie?” I hear her call out to me. Her voice is real this time, not only in my mind.

I swallow heavily. I know she wants me to come closer, but I stay put. I choose to stay in the darkness, where she can’t see me, although she obviously knows that I have come here.

“Please, talk to me,” she says again, in a pleading tone of voice.

I don’t know what we would talk about. Yet, suddenly, my lips part. There is a desire to speak to her. There is curiosity about her, about myself, about who we are to each other.

Enemies. That is Gala’s word. I have no reason to distrust her. She has saved me and took good care of me. She wants what’s best for me… doesn’t she?

“We are all waiting for you to come back,” her voice reaches me once more. “All of us.”

Us. That word does something to me, it pops open a part of my mind that has been closed until now. Yet, I don’t know what it is I am seeing. A little boy, with the sweetest smile, he is outstretching his arms, wanting to be picked up. Is it me as a little boy? Is it someone close to me?

Trying to remember has actually started to cause me physical pain. The emergence of this little boy inside my mind has made my headache even worse, and the pain in my temples twice as hard.

I close my eyes and try to make the pain go away, but it’s impossible. I turn around, forcing myself to tear away from her beckoning voice. Staying here is not good for me. It’s not good for either of us. It is difficult to leave, when my body refuses to listen. It wants to stay. My lips want to talk to her. My body wants to approach her even closer.

It takes all my conscious effort to pull myself away from her voice, which is like a siren song, calling out to me so lovingly. Just when I’m finally able to do that, I turn around and stumble onto Gala. I stare at her, trying to figure out if she is angry that I have come here, but her face is expressionless. She is waiting for me to say something, but there is nothing to say. So, she starts talking first.

“I knew it was just a matter of time before she tries to reach out to you,” Gala tells me. “Enough time has passed already, anyway. We need to bring this to an end, finally.”

“Bring what to an end?” I ask.

“You’ll see,” she tells me, walking past me and approaching the locked door to the cage. Before she does anything to it, she stares at me one more time. “This will be your chance to prove your loyalty, Eddie.”

I frown, not understanding what she is referring to. “You know where my loyalty stands, Gala. It is with my clan.”

She smiles mysteriously. “Ah, yes. Your clan. That is the million dollar question, isn’t it? Who is your clan? Who do you vow allegiance to?”

She slowly proceeds to walk over to me, taking me by the hand, then she unlocks the door. I look at the two women. They are both silent now, expectant, although I have no idea what either of them is expecting of me. One has been telling me things, the other has been whispering to me silently.

Somehow, I have been in touch with both of them, and I still can’t be completely sure which one of the two is my enemy and which one is my lover. I should know this. My mind may not, but my heart should know this, without any room for error. Then, I remember that I have been poisoned, maybe by both of them. Or maybe, one poisoned me, and the other tried to heal me… but which one?

Pain shot through my temples again, horrible and unapologetic. I grab my head aggressively, pressing at it, but no amount of pressure can diminish the pain.

Gala leads me inside, and now, the three of us are standing face to face. I expect the other woman to say something, to come clean, to accuse Gala of something, but the woman is silent. She isn’t saying anything. Just like me, she is waiting.

“I know you still don’t remember much,” Gala continues, looking at both of us, standing in the middle, at a safe distance from us both. “But I can’t wait any longer. We need to go back to town. We need to help our clan, the ones that are left, anyway. However, in order for me to take you back, I need to know that you are truly loyal to us, despite the fact that she has tried to poison you against us, your own clan.”

“That isn’t true!” the woman finally speaks up, loudly and determinedly.

“Shut up!” Gala shrieks at her aggressively. Something inside of me roars. I want to protect her, but Gala’s order is loud and clear. “You will prove your loyalty to me, Eddie, by killing her. It is as simple as that. If you do not kill her, I will take it as your betrayal, and I will kill both of you myself.”

Her words are too harsh. I can’t believe she actually means it. Would she really kill us both?

The look in her eyes assures me she really means every single word of it.

I look at the woman. She has taken a step back, but there is nowhere to go. Behind her, there is only the cave wall. The only way out is behind Gala, and I know she won’t let either of us leave, until she gets what she wants.

Gala looks at us intently, waiting. She seems impatient. There is a wicked gleam in her eyes. She wants to see bloodshed. She wants to see someone die.

I turn to the woman. She is trembling. I know she feels like she is outnumbered here. She thinks I will attack her. That is my first instinct, but there is something else. The voice of a little boy inside of my head is urging me not to, it is telling me to stop and look at her, to truly look at her and recognize her for who she is.

“I’m waiting.” Gala shouts and her voice echoes all around us. She is growing more and more impatient with each passing moment.

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