Stephen gasped for air as he opened his eyes and pulled himself up. He rubbed his temples and brushed his face with his palms and sat down in horror and disbelief. His eyes clouded with tears but he fought so hard to hold it back and just swallowed the lump forming in his throat.
"I...I can't...unsee that", He looked up and around with heavy breath and sighs. He looked down at the unconscious Darwin and closed his eyes.
Few hours ago, Darwin lost consciousness after their battle with the Black Pentagram. His mind got the whole out of him and he couldn't fight the wave of flashback bad memories about his innocent and tragic past. Stephen carried him back home and lay him down the couch. He then asked Hubert about what just happened and Hubert keeps on explaining over and over again. So instead of verbally expressing the sequence of events in his life. He instead asked Stephen to lay down beside Darwin without touching his skin and casted a spell that bridged their minds together.
Hubert took Stephen inside Darwin's past back when he's still a human. There he'd seen how beautiful and quiet his gifted life is and with the love of his parents, how he grew up to be a kind, humble, courteous and innocent boy. But he'd also seen the doom of his sunshine and the fallout of his entire family. How his body and spirit was brutally killed and how he rose up into something he is right now.
"I'm sorry you have to see that Tep. It could be a way to understand my big brother", Hubert in his alter state pulled down the spell with his hands.
"Why'd you show me a very wonderful life and then a very tragic end? I can't remember to forget it", Stephen dug his face in his palms and rested his elbows on his legs.
"It wasn't suppose to feel that way", Hubert countered.
"But it broke my heart...Not just because of what happened to him but because people didn't get to see or understand what he had been through his life", Stephen's voice almost broke at the end of his sentence.
They both shared a look when Darwin let out a deep sigh and his breathing slowed down. Hubert then rushed to his side and lift his head.
"Brother...hey...you'll be fine", Hubert touched his face and leaned his forehead next to him. Stephen grabbed his hand and shook his shoulder.
"He's fighting...his alter self is killing him back again", Hubert looked at Stephen with a concerned look.
"How do we return him to his normal state?", Stephen tightened his grip with his hands.
"Hey, Vampire boy. We still need to fight and kill each other, remember? So please wake up...", Stephen locked Darwin's hands with his hands and looked straight into his face.
Darwin's breathing went back to normal and Hubert lay his head back to the soft pillow again. Stephen pulled back and crashed his back to the couch across Darwin and shut his eyes.
"You need to rest Tep", Hubert looked at with concerned.
"Hmmmm, yeah I guess I have to", He stood and took another glance at Darwin and then walked towards the stairs. He heard a glittering sound behind and saw Hubert in his real form sitting behind Darwin with a gloomy face. He held a stuffed toy that looked like a small bird with his hands and rested his chin on top of it.
"Uhhhh, you need a coffee? or milk? or chocolate?", Stephen smiled at his adorable sad face.
"No dada Tep, I'll just watch out for Dada here", Hubert gave him a pout and a small smile. Stephen just nodded and went upstairs. He broke into his room and took a shower and then met his slumber.
Morning came after a tragic night...
Stephen yawned at his hands as he walked out of the room and into the stairs. He took a glance at the couch and saw that Darwin is gone. Hubert sleeping soundly like a wasted baby bear on the floor with his stuffed toy away from him.
"Where is he? Where's Darwin?", Stephen's voice dragged Hubert back from his sleep.
"Hmmmmmmm", He yawned and stretched like a small cat and run his hands across the floor to look for his toy.
"Where is Dalmao?", He started pouting like a kid and frowned with his eyes still shut. Stephen grabbed his stuffed toy and put it next to him. Hubert shifted to his side and just let out a small mumble before falling asleep.
"Says the one who'll guard his brother, huh", Stephen just smiled at him and looked around. He went to the kitchen hoping he'll find Darwin somewhere in the room. But he's not there and he doesn't feel his presence at all.
He went back upstairs and checked on the empty rooms but no one was there. He even took a peak at the attic stairs but still he's no where to be found. He walked downstairs and sat next to Hubert sleeping soundly. He slowly shook his shoulders and even pinched his ears but he's in a deep slumber that no one can disturb.
"Hey kitten? Where is Darwin?", He whispered like a ghost.
"Dada I don't know...what?", Hubert snapped his eyes open and pulled himself in a flash. He playfully shook his head and grabbed his stuffed toy close to him. He looked at Stephen for a few seconds with his sleepy eyes and frowning face.
"Where is Dada? He's right over here a few minutes ago", Hubert gestured his hands. His mind still in haze upon dreaming so loud.
"You've been asleep overnight. I could have asked you the same question. Now he's gone. He's maybe on a rampage now and we can't do anything about it", Stephen went on jumping conclusions one at a time.
Hubert just gave him a weird look and a frown.
"Dada with his humanity on won't dare hurt anything", Hubert let out a big yawn in front of Stephen's face and crashed himself back to the soft pillow next to him.
"You know him better than I do. So you can track him, right?", Stephen tried to explain.
"You have stronger connections with him than I do. So maybe I could use you to track him", Hubert pulled himself up and snapped his finger. Magic circle appeared on top of him and he metamorphosed into his alter state once again.
He signaled Stephen to sit next to him.
Stephen sat down quietly beside him. Hubert murmured something with his eyes shut. The room started to warp in Stephen's vision. He shook the sight but it became more twisted as he fought the spinning room in his eyes.
"This might hurt a little...", Hubert suddenly locked his palms on Stephen's temples with his eyes in pitch black.
"A little too painful", he added as he infiltrated deep into his subconscious.
Hubert screamed as a shot of light explosion almost burned him from the inside. He pulled back, a hint of smoke spewing out of his mouth at the impact of explosion. His eyes turned blood red as he sat there shaking.
"Fuck!", Stephen yelled at his face.
"Do you really have to do that?", He added.
Hubert looked up in total shock at the backfire of his tracking spell. He gasped for air as he laid back on the couch.
"What kind of magic would...do that?", He lost consciousness at the moment.
Few hours passed and the sun has set. Another creep of a night crawled down upon the land. Hubert laid down on the couch in his base state. Sleeping soundly like a cat knocked out by a shots fired by a strong magic. The absence of Darwin and the unconscious Hubert gave bothered Stephen to his core.
Hubert moved a muscle and opened his eyes. He wore a frown as he looked up to Stephen.
"I can't do it. You have some kind of evil residing you", Hubert gave him a pout as he remembered the light that exploded inside him.
"But why? I did nothing. What do you mean evil by...", He was cut off by Hubert's words.
"Moonlight in a mirror, the eye of the world. Calm of the oceans, the waves at the shore", Hubert started reciting a poem.
"Is that a poem?", Stephen asked but was cut off again by a tremor coming from the outside. A bird squealed at its landing on his backyard. Hubert gave him a half smile.
"Dalmao!", he whispered and the bird, the size of a bus at the seems of Stephen roared like a dragon.
"The hell is that?!", Stephen screamed at the thunderous squeal of the bird behind his house.
"I know where we can find him. Come, let's take a flight", Hubert jumped and dragged Stephen outside with his little hands. Hubert's phoenix lowered its head giving them signal to ride on.
"No I don't think...", his face wack as a blue magic circle sucked him from his feet and mounted him at the bird's nape. Hubert then snapped in front of him with his alter state and he gave a reassuring smile at Stephen.
They took a flight over the town Abarett , cloaked like an air so no one could see or hear them.
Hubert let out a soft whistle as they landed in a rocky cliff by the sea.
The moonlight pouring down like a velvet sheet across the open sea. The sea, dancing softly to the touch of the eastern winds running across its body as the full moon peak upon the silent world in the midst of the night. Beaming like a ball of magic and the ocean singing a lullaby.
Hubert and Stephen walked silently towards the cliff and saw a figure standing at the end point, a silhouette.
"The wind whispered a silent lullaby, to make us feel human at least once and tonight", Hubert continued the poem as they get close to the figure standing in front of the full moon with his back against them.
"Humanity isn't bad at all", a hint of smile broke at Hubert's voice.
"Not unless I wanna die over and over again", Darwin's calm and genuine voice shot lighting of shock to Stephen. He always thought that hearing him talk like a normal person is just a myth away.
"You'll be fine vampire kid", Stephen added behind them.
Darwin turned his back to look at them. The soft brush of moonlight illuminated his gentle face and hazel eyes. His hair waving like silver ocean in the touch of the wind. Sadness, sorrow and pain marked his expressions as he looked at them.
"You could get use to that face. It suits you very well", Hubert commented on his face as Stephen joined him sitting side to side with Darwin. The world so quiet that almost only their heartbeats can be heard. Darwin looked up to the moon and then shut his eyes.
"I hate humanity, but it keeps coming back to me. I could run from any hunters but this is something I cannot escape", Darwin spoke to break the silence.
"You were always like this, weren't you?", Stephen looked at him from his side.
"Like what?", Darwin replied.
"Like this, like you know, warm and kind and genuine. Like you can always see the good in people", Stephen added.
"I wasn't born evil. I was consumed by great darkness of the bitter past. Then built from the ashes of pain and the winter of death", Darwin looked down to the clear waters as he gave a slight smile.
"It made me happy somehow, not because you got dragged down to the bottom of your twisted life from the pain brought by your humanity, your bitter past but because there are people or a person who got to see or understand a thing about your existence", Hubert turned to him from his side.
Darwin gave him a smile and put his arms across his shoulder. He looked at Stephen and nodded at him. He then spread his arms across his shoulder as he locked them together in a warm embrace. The clouds of his humanity gave an alley of open friendship towards the people around him. For atleast a short moment, Darwin felt human and love again.
"Hmmmmm, hey, don't give us memories that's so hard to forget. You'll return to your off-humanity state and you'll never feel the warmth of human embrace again", Hubert teased him.
"Can't you stay like this?", Stephen asked from his side.
"I'm already dead. I can't return to the way I was. It's just, as for the moment, I'm stuck in the memories of my humanity so I got to act like a human. Once I shut this off and forget about humanity then I can be that one person you truly hate the most" Darwin gave him a warm and genuine smile.
Stephen looked at him with awe. His face seemed like an angel smiling in front of him. His eyes beaming like a golden hazel in the small light brushing his face. The fear that he usually inflict has been replaced with a kind and heartfelt vibe. His laughs at Hubert's witty jokes at the moment gave him an ease of his heart and joyful feeling inside. Darwin looked at him once again with a glimpse of a human life that he once had.
He pulled his arm and brushed his hair falling down on his forehead. A smile curved on Stephen's face.