Greenwich, New York City suburbs.
..Sarai's safehouse..
His eyes opened. It closed back as his face crumpled, pain evident on it.
A groan escaped his lips as he grimaced. He felt his head splitting. It felt like a thousand ton hammer is pounding on it. He feared it would break. Yet it didn't. Every part of his body felt like a thousand needles are thrusted into it. It felt so painful that it's become numb.
Where am I?
His mind flashed as he gazed at the stone ceiling. Red like clay and somehow glinting with the dim light that a source he can't see right now gave the space. The stone is definitely not normal. He thought.
The place was warm, so unlikely of a room with stone ceiling but he heard no crackling of fireplace. This made him even more confused.
Where is this place?
"Hey, Kylian."
A voice called and his mind clicked. That's my name. His face turned and he saw the person.
Square face. Crimson eyes with a tinge of brown. And finally a beige cloak hung on the person back.
It's him. The one person he had been friends with in the last two hundred years.
It's him. The person that took him in after what happened in the Bahamas. It's him. The one who took him into the harbor of peace, the place he had been for two hundred years without looking over his shoulder for hunters or covens hunting for his live.
"Heald." His voice was low and weak.
"Hey, you have to stay calm now." Heald's hands waved down, his eyes slightly wide with worry.
Kylian payed no attention at all. The shockwave of pain shooting all over his body couldn't let him focus.
A grimace crossed his face. He propped his palms on the bed and tried to sit up, but the searing pain that ripped through him made him fall back on the bed.
It seemed as though the pain is everywhere. His chest, his arms, his entire body. It seemed as though they are all out of this world due to pain. The pain was so immense that it made them numb.
"Kylian, you have to sit back and rest for now." Another voice, feminine, said.
Kylian's face, still contorted horribly from the overwhelming pain, turned to the position from which the voice had came.
It's Sarai. She sat before a large table on which large books and scrolls overflowed. Her face was looking back at him over her shoulder.
Across the table was Benzo. His face was neutral as he met Kylian's gaze.
Sarai continued. "Your chest is almost destroyed, your arms and almost every other part of your body is a field of bullet holes and your arms are roasted. Yet none of it is healing. You have to stay put for now."
Kylian face began to soften as the pain began to recede. His eyes glistened with resignation as he seemed to plunge into his thoughts.
Heald stared at him from beside the bed, where he stood. He was like a falling citadel as he stared at his friend. The vampire with whom he had tread for two centuries. With a glance he knew what his friend is thinking, what he is going through.
Heald sighed. His lips twitched as he made to speak but Kylian's question interrupted him.
"What happened to me?"
Heald was quiet for a while. Probably for two minutes.
Then he replied. "Aro disappeared. You fainted."
Kylian's eyes twitched. A smile tugged the corner of his lips. The smile was unreadable. Almost meaningless.
"Then why didn't I die?" Kylian asked.
Heald raised a brow as took a step closer to bed. His eyes fell on Kylian's bedridden figure and lingered on the chest area. It was bandaged all over.
His eyes glistened with a strong emotion then his head went down. "Because I can't let you die."
"Why?" Kylian's voice still came low, and calm and taunting. This is making Heald mad but he gritted back the fury.
"Why?" Heald suddenly returned the question. His head still down.
Kylian's eyes turned to Heald. Confusion visible in it.
"Why didn't you tell me those things?" Heald finished.
Kylian's smile disappeared. His face turned neutral in a second. But he didn't reply.
Silence ensued for the next minutes. Both Sarai and Benzo watched from a distance as the friends wallowed in the silence.
Then Sarai turned back to the books on the table before her. But Benzo's eyes still remained on them.
The silence went on for about ten minutes. Heald still had his head hung downwards and Kylian still stared at the stone ceilings.
But then Kylian broke it. "You found the old ledger, right?"
"That ain't the right answer you know. A good one might save you from taking a hit to your almost damaged body right now," Heald said.
"You don't seem to get the point, do you?" Kylian said, his face turning to the other side.
"What the hell are you gonna say now!" Heald snapped as he lifted his head, his eyes were blazing.
"Once you know me, you lose your live."
"That isn't up to you, Ky. Why did you keep it all a secret from me."
"Because you're going to be lost as you're now if I tell you."
"Tsk, you have got nothing to justify yourself, man. Nothing." Heald paced the room.
Kylian kept silent for a while. Then he began. "You know, I had expected you to find it yourself. But I had thought I won't be alive when you'll see it. Reason I hadn't burn the old shit. Finding it while I'm still alive will do you no good."
"Your worries are pointless." Heald shook his head as he continued pacing the room.
"You know nothing, do you?"
"That's before. Now you have no idea how much I know, Clawe."
Kylian's eyes didn't even shake. Even though he felt somehow on the inside, he gave nothing away on the outside.
Heald noted it. His face crunched in disappointment and he looked away, pacing to the end of the room and he stopped before the stone wall.
"My life. My whole life has been so craggy from the day that bloodsucker turned me. Red. Deeper red. Crimson. Plenty. Overflowing." Kylaim paused. Then continued. "That's all I've seen all my life. Throughout my escapes around the world."
Everyone paused at this. They felt there's still more. But no one asked for a continuation.
Kylian turned his head towards Heald who had his back at the room. "You spilled something. The guilt is all over you. Am I right?"
"Adrian. He was insistent. And by insistent I mean there were his black bees flying all over my head."
"I know."
Sarai stood from her seat, in her hand was an old scroll on which her eyes roamed.
She walked towards the duo friend, her eyes flashing.
"Hey, guys. I found something."
Heald turned. "And what is that?"
"This ailment. There's a scroll recording it. It was recorded by the vampire-witch clan in the third century, in the Himalayas."
"How did it affected the person back then?"
"It's a vampire. When the ailment kicks in, the vampire goes rogue and attacks whatever is in sight. This made him a target of many parties. The vampire covens, the hunters. But the witches took him and took care of him."
"Attacks everything in sight? Then how come the witches took him in. Witches aren't that nice as much as I'm concerned."
"He had helped their high witch from danger years before. So to return the favor, they took him in."
"Any records about how they treated the vampire?" Heald asked.
"They weren't even alive to do so." Kylaim interrupted.
"Uh?!"
"Uh?!"
"Uh?!"
They all felt surprised. They couldn't process it.
"If I'm correct, the only record they were able to draft was the symptoms and power of the ailment." Kylian's eyes found Sarai's.
Sarai's eyes were wide with shock and surprise. But then she nodded. "Yes, it's true."
Kylian chuckled. "It was their last though. That was the last thing they did. Days later, they are all dead. Their heads were hung on the stone wall of their castle and their spine scattered across their backyard."
Jaws dropped around. Benzo stood up, his heart banging very hard.
Kylian heard it. Heald did too, but he's just too shocked to talk about it.
"H- how?" Sarai asked, utterly struck with shock.
"I was the vampire," Kylian stated simply. "The hunters arrived. Aro was their head. Yet the witches stood by me. They had pity on me and their lives were cancelled. They fought for me and their lives were forfeited. That's what happens to anyone who stands by my side."
Kylian's eyes flashed with cunning light as he looked towards Benzo. "Are you scared now?"
Benzo snapped out of his daze. He cleared his throat and moved closer to the wooden bed.
His lips parted as he began. "I know what's happening to you. You're depressed."
Kylaim snorted, "hmph, you know nothing of depression, kid."
"Of course I do, and I'm going to help you."
"I don't need your help."
"You don't get to decide who helps you or not."
"Of course. I know you'll be insistent. You remind me of a kid. He has fire abilities just like you. Saw him on the banks of Ganges while escaping the vampires. He helped me. I thanked him and told him to stay off my business. But he became all sentimental. He wanted to be my hero." Kylian's eyes flashed as he turned his gaze to the stone ceiling. "He died a horrible death. Had his limbs cut off as I watch from afar. Then he was beheaded. By a hunter."
Goosebumps grew over them. Even Heald was scared at this. Like what the hell is that. Death here, death there.
"By which hunter?" Benzo suddenly asked.
"Aro." Kylian said.
Heald's gaze snapped to Kylian. Confusion visible on his face. "Aro? You have seen him before?"
"Yes, Heald. I told you, you know little of my secrets. Aro and I have met, more than once, before. And I lost a friend to him. And my life was saved. The kid made the sacrifice."
"Oh God." Sarai grunted and palmed her forehead.
Heald's head was down again. Hung like that of a dead body. He was speechless. Utterly shock stricken. But then he shrugged. "Tell me. Who are you?"
Kylian turned his gaze to him, unsure. "You want to hear?"
"Yes. Tell me your past."
"Very well."
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