Chapter 4

Terra’s point of view

I sat up, screaming my heart out. “Hey calm down there Terra, its okay, yours safe.” James was sitting next to me. His tasseled blond hair stuck up in all directions giving him a very windblown look, his light blue eyes and perfect angular features gave him a look that was otherworldly. His thin lips curved up at the corners. “It’s good to see you awake.” He smiled at me. His black dress shirt showed a little bit of the white that was underneath it when he leaned forward.

I jumped up and hugged him, I missed him so much, not only was he my cousin, he was one of my best friends. “I had a horrible dream James, horrible, I’m so scared.” It wasn’t until just then that I realized that his heart didn’t beat either, I couldn’t hear it, and it was so strange.

He chuckled. “I’m sorry you had such a bad dream,” He hugged me back; his arms around my upper back were cold as ice. He pulled me away slightly. His light brown almost golden eyes smiled down at me. I noticed he was paler than last time I saw him.

“Are you sick? Your pale almost rivals my pale.” I pulled up his sleeve, rolling it up to his elbow and then laid my arm next to his. I realized that I was even paler than normal.

James just laughed. “Ya I guess my pale is starting to get too pale huh?” he said when he could control his laughter. “If I’m getting sick then you must be too your just a pale as I am.” He looked down at our arms just as I was. He rested his forehead against mine, James and I have always shared a close bond with each other, not as lovers but as good, good friends, we were more comfortable with each other than we were with anybody else most of the time. “So, what happened this time?” He asked me. I always told him what happened when I was randomly brought to Uncle Sammy’s house, he knew about more incidents than anybody did.

I took a deep breath, my stomach ached I could feel new stitches stretching as I breathed. “She tried to kill me again, she stabbed me with a piece of glass, and I’m not even sure where she got it.” I whispered. James whispered he was sorry and pulled me into a tight, comforting hug. “Where is everybody?” I asked as I started noticing that I couldn’t hear anything downstairs.

“Uncle Sammy, Mom and Dad went to the store.” James answered. “Aunt Keda and Lilly have yet to show up here,” That surprised me; I raised my eyebrow in question. ‘They heard from Uncle Sammy that you were here and decided she needed to come and visit.” He explained, and then continued on with his answer to my previous question. “Derek is down stairs, along with Maggan, they thought you were dead.” He said the last bit quietly I could tell he was hoping that I hadn’t heard it.

“What? They thought I was dead?” I asked him, I didn’t understand, I had been asleep not dead.

James nodded slowly at me. “You were there for a little while, Uncle Sammy was freaking out for a while. Mom pumped you full of pain killers and antibiotics and a few transfusions and you were active again.” I blinked, I had died, and my grandmother had actually managed to kill me. “Well, at least now that you were able to attack back she won’t be able to get her way all the time anymore.” James said, as he let me go, getting up and moving towards the door. “Now get up, Derek was going to bring his new Girlfriend home for dinner, and with Mom and Dad gone we need to get started, and Maggan would enjoy seeing you up and moving around.” He smiled at me. “I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”

He left me be for a while, I looked down at myself, I was wrapped up in ace bandages just like in my dreams, my vision was still higher than normal, so was my sense of smell, I could smell Maggan’s perfume all the way up here, on the second floor. I moved the blanket from over me. I suddenly heard James’s voice. “I hope she gets to live with us now, Terra is so cool.” It was like he was talking in my head!

Derek’s voice popped in responding to his twin’s comment. “You just have a crush on her.” Derek was always making fun of poor James, James was the nicer one; he was gentle and sweet, while his twin wasn’t mean but he was rougher around the edges.

“No I don’t she’s family that would be sick!”

“You wouldn’t care, besides I know you like her!” Derek stated in a sneering voice in my head.

I rolled my eyes; I wasn’t sure how I was listening to their conversation, especially because they weren’t in the room and nowhere near me. “Geez Derek you can be a real dick at times, why can’t just shut up and leave James alone, so what if he has a crush, at least he can focus on one girl at a time.” I thought as I walked towards the set of drawers to get my clothes that had been neatly stacked on top of it.

There was a pause. “Was that her?” I heard Derek whisper.

“I think so,” James answered just as lowly

“Oh Shit!” Derek squealed.

I paused, had they heard me? How? I hadn’t said anything. “Yes you did.” Derek answered to my thoughts of confusion.

“Shut up doofus! She doesn’t know yet!!” James yelled, making me wince. I was starting to panic now, how did they know my thoughts? How could they hear them? Was I going crazy? “No you’re not crazy at all.” James tried to reassure me.

“Dude, I don’t want to tell her, you tell her.” Derek stated bluntly.

“No Sam will do it, he is her-“Derek overrode James’s comment.

“Uncle, Yes, he is in fact her uncle, thanks for stating the obvious James, your once again are very good at it and deserve an Olympic medal for it.” Derek teased; I turned and tried to ignore them. I pulled my tank top over my ace bandaged body, and then slipped on some yellow sweats, taking off the patients’ gown that I was sure that Melissa –Derek and James’s mother- leant me.

I walked down the stairs slowly, I didn’t understand what the hell was going on, and if I got down the stairs and heard them talking without their lips moving I was going to freak! I got down the stairs and they were staring at me. Derek with his dark brown hair, looking almost red in the light. His light green eyes looking almost as if they were olives.

I hated it when the twins looked at me like that. Their faces were exactly the same; the only difference between them was their hair, and their eyes. Their skin color use to be on the list as well, Derek use to be the paler of the two, but now he and James looked identical in the ways of skin.

For once Derek was dressed nicely, probably trying to impress his new girl. I shook my head at the two of them. “Did, the three of us….just?” both boys shook their heads at the same time. James looked a little guilty, Derek always had his face straight as a board, and there was no way to tell if he was lying to me or not.

Derek took a few steps forward. “In fact Terra, dear dear cousin, you don’t look so good, how about you go back to bed, get some more beauty sleep, -not that you really need anymore, you’re as beautiful as ever- We’ll send Mom up to see if you are really okay when she gets home.” He turned me around and was starting to lead me towards the stairs.

I glared at him and stopped. “Stop it!” I turned and looked James in the eye, he wouldn’t lie to me, and I could almost expect it out of Derek to lie to me. “James what is going on, I’m scared, I don’t understand what’s going on.” James got an almost hurt facial expression.

James just looked away from me, mumbling something about how he was sorry. Derek once again tried to sweep me towards the stairs. “come on beautiful Terra, just go back to bed, you don’t look well, not well at all, we’ll make sure that Mom gives you another transfusion when she gets home.” He started to continue but I cut him off.

“Derek I swear you keep trying to lead me out of the room and I will make sure that your arm never moves again!” I yelled. “Now tell me what the hell is going on here! And don’t give me that you don’t look well crap I look just the same as you two do!”

They looked at each other. “Do you think?”

“Its possible, but we better leave this to Sam.” That was James’s voice but his lips weren’t moving. My eyes went wide.

Derek watched me, the look on his face showed that he was either worried or zoned out. “Damn she can still hear us.” He stated.

James shared the same look. “Yup, damn, this sucks.” I slowly grabbed the ends of my hair, scaling up to my scalp.

“Dude, she’s having a mental breakdown, she looks like how Mom did when we broke the ceiling fan that time.” Derek stated

“Derek shut up, us talking is what is freaking her out you dumbass!” James yelled as he raised his hands towards the ceiling, taking a step closer to me. My eyes went wider, my heart rate suddenly was active again, very active, causing my breathing to become very short and shallow. “Terra, everything will be explained to you soon enough, but you have to try and understand that we can’t tell you anything.”

I glared at him angrily. “And why the hell not!! You have never kept secrets form me James please just tell me!” I begged I was starting to cry now. I bent down my head and ran my hands back to the back of my neck fear pulsing through my body.

“James this isn’t working.” Derek stated lowly. I shot my head up and screamed, turning, running up the stairs, I barricaded myself in my room, going into the most visually apt corner of the room and sat down, holding my knees and shaking.

Time had passed, I didn’t know how much, there wasn’t a clock in the house, and even if there was I wasn’t going to leave my corner, James and Derek had stopped talking at least, the house was silent, there was some movement downstairs but I wasn’t interested in figuring out what it was.

I heard a car pull up to the house. I heard the front door open, there were muffled words of a conversation, and I didn’t want to hear I knew they were talking about me. I continued to sit in my corner. There was a light knock on the door. I stared at the door as it opened, Uncle Sammy stood there, watching me. “Hey there kido, its good to see you up, we were worried about you for quite a while.” He said lightly. I just stared. “Terra, I know you’re scared, don’t be, this is natural for our kind.” What the hell was he talking about hearing people’s thoughts wasn’t normal! “For our kind it is, we hear everybody’s thoughts.”

What the hell did he mean by our kind? “I mean that we aren’t exactly normal dear,” he tried to explain, great!! Not only did I live in an abusive home but I wasn’t normal either great!! “Terra would you just let me explain!” he was starting to get cross with me. He handed me a smoothie. “Here, drink this, you’ll feel better.”

I had to test it; maybe it was just me and the twins. “I feel fine.”

“No you don’t your brain patterns say you’re freaking out, now drink the smoothie and listen.” My eyes went wide. “Yes Terra, I can do it too, the only person in this family that you know that can’t do it is Uncle John, and he is fully human with no physic abilities.

I wanted to cry, things were getting a little too weird for me. “Go away I want Maggan!”

“Right here honey.” I hadn’t heard her come in, she was just standing at the door, she dyed her hair again, this time it was a dark purple, dark enough to almost look black. She must have gotten contacts too her eyes were red except for a small light blue right around the outside. I found that she was another person that I matched skin tones with; I could tell she was wearing lipstick, the bright pink was not her natural color, and her lips had always been very faded pink, almost white. Uncle Sammy turned to her, and then nodded leaving the room and closing the door.

Maggan took a few steps forward; she seemed to not even take steps but glide, her perfect features shined dully in the dull light of the room. “Can I sit with you?” She asked finally looking at me. I nodded but kept my head down. She sat down letting her black Aurora ballet skirt touch the floor; she sat straight from her corset pulling against her ribs. “You look really good Terra.” She stated as she looked me over.

I nodded. “You too.” It had been several months’ sense I was allowed out of my grandmother’s house to visit. Maggan’s style had changed greatly sense I had last seen her, we were both jean girls last time we spoke.

Maggan smiled at me as she leaned to the side as her black and white stocking-covered legs slid out from under her. “Remember when we were little, and we would sit up on the roof at night and play how we could be any mythical creature we wanted?” I nodded. “And we always played the vampires.” I nodded again, I remembered very well how we use to play that we were vampires and would pretend to fly. “Well Terra, our games, were always true, for the both of us, and everybody here, accept for John and Melissa.” I shook my head at her, getting ready to tune her out. “Terra, you can’t stop it, your changing has begun.” Her voice was still as smooth and gentle as normal. She reached out to me. “Don’t worry we’re your family now”

I didn’t want to believe it but I didn’t think I had much of a choice. I sipped on my smoothie. “I wasn’t bitten how the hell did I turn into a vampire?” I asked her mentally, this talking mentally thing was sort of fun.

“You were born that way, you’re a half-breed, and your mother was human.” I nearly choked on the smoothie.

“You know about my mother?!” She nodded. “Did you know her?”

“I was very young when she died, I was only five, and then I was blooded.” I raised my eyebrow. “I was born human but an evil woman changed me.” She craned her neck to the side showing me two faint puncture wounds. I reached out to touch them, Maggan turned her head and hissed at me, her fangs stuck out from her open mouth, her eyes went wide, and then she stopped, the whole incident was maybe two seconds long. She looked away from me she touched her face with her fingerless-gloved palm made of a black and white stocking. “Excuse me, you didn’t know, a vampire’s mark, is very sensitive, touching it when not asked to could end up deadly.” She whispered.

“Maggan, are you and the others, like the classic vampires, have to drink human blood, can’t go out into the sun, can’t go into churches and stuff?” I asked her quietly.

She smiled and shook her head. “We have a choice, we can feed on human blood, but we don’t have to, we can feed on transfusions, and animal blood, it doesn’t hurt them, not really.” Maggan whispered. “I think you will like being a vampire, there are some bad things about it, but there are also lots of really good things too.” She looked like she was going to explain them to me. “Like, we can’t go in the sun, it burns us, but we get special gifts, mine, I can control shadows, I think you can control glass, that’s what it looked like in your dream.”

“Dream? Now I think you’re crazy.” I told her, she just gave a small little delicate laugh. “No really, I mean I have a taste of one small drop of blood and suddenly, I’m strong enough to rip through thick ropes, and I could see every little thing on everything, and my sense of smell was amazing, I could smell the dog that was down the street, I could hear heartbeats and stuff. “ I paused, I realized that maybe I was the crazy one. “And then this morning; I laid there, and I didn’t hear anything, no heartbeats. I could only smell Derek’s cologne though, I thought maybe he had just walked in and left, leaving a cloud of it and then when James left, it sounded like they were talking and I thought of a comment, and then they sounded as if they had heard me, like I spoke it.”I paused. “And then I went down stairs and they were talking without moving their lips, and James wouldn’t tell me anything and I’m so scared Maggan, I don’t understand any of this, I have been a normal human all my life and now things start to get weird!” Maggan got a little bit of a look on her face. “What?”

Maggan sort of looked away from me; now I could see it in the dull light, she had changed physically. There was more elegance in her face, more angular, making her look more angelic, she always looked beautiful but now she was a goddess. “Well Terra, to be honest with you, you have always been a vampire, your growth was natural for a vampire.” I didn’t understand so she explained further. “You were born vampire, you looked human, but you had vampire skin, you always have had it, the rest were dormant like every other vampire child, they should have become active during puberty, but I guess with your grandma constantly on your tail, they remain dormant. Sam kept bringing you those smoothies; he would slave over them for hours trying to get the right consistency to them.”

I blinked. “What was in the smoothies?” I asked as the pieces of the puzzle started to come together.

“Blood, just a little bit, he wanted to force your traits to come out, the traits are usual activated by blood, tasting it, it doesn’t matter if it’s your own blood, or the blood of another. When you grandmother attacked you, you tasted her blood, so now your transformation is beginning.” I blinked in shock, transformation? I wasn’t going to turn into a bat was I? Maggan laughed. “No you’re not going to turn into a bat, that’s a rumor, hardly true, you will physically change, become more beautiful, your body will change on the inside, rearrange itself, so to function with the brain but not the heart, and then, well, your heart will slow down, then stop beating all together. “ She looked almost sad at that.

“Why?” Maggan shrugged. “Maggan, who’s my father, you knew my mom; you must have known my dad.”

She gave me a sad smile. “You will have to find out yourself.” There was a sudden presence in the house that was dark and screamed evil, Maggan must have sensed it too because she suddenly got up, her skirt stuck out all the way around her, the black and white stockings on her legs and the ones on her arms were pulled tight. “come on, we have a visitor, you don’t know her, but we sure as hell do, don’t talk out of turn, keep your head down don’t look at her, don’t think about her, let us take care of it okay?” I nodded, she took a strong hold of my hand, and her fingers were cold on my wrist. “Come on,” she pulled me out the door and down the stairs; even with her soft ballerina flats she didn’t make any noise on the hardwood floored stairs.

We took a step onto the living room carpet and Maggan stopped me. There standing by the front door was a very beautiful woman, she was tall and pale, almost bone white her eyes were a fiery red, along with her hair that was in a high ponytail on her hair but still hung down to about mid thigh. She turned at our entrance. “Maggan, how good it is to see you, I see you have finally begun your physical transformation.” Maggan didn’t say a word to her. The woman’s eyes turned to me. “Terra, you look so much like your mother, except for your father’s blond hair, but you even have your mother’s curls, so beautiful.” She whispered to me in her thoughts.

Uncle Sammy snarled at her, “Don’t you speak to her, she is none of your business, would you leave now sister?”

Sister? Uncle Sammy had more family? “Why, I just got here, and I have yet to get a hug from my youngest sister.” She made a pouting face at Maggan, who reluctantly walked gracefully up to her and gave her a small hug. This woman moved out of the doorway and sat on the couch, I felt so much warmer in here, I didn’t like it, and it was like heated radiated off the walls. “So tell me, what has happened in my time away from the Wethers Clan?” Uncle John and Aunt Melissa came from the kitchen; this looked like it was a stand off like in old westerns.

“You should be in jail.” Aunt Melissa stated. Her voice was cold and very distrusting.

This woman turned her eyes on Aunt Melissa. “I got out for good behavior.” She stated plainly, yet her voice seemed to say that she was teasing or taunting them. “So have you told Terra yet Samuel? Or have you continued to let her sit in the dark?” She asked quietly. Uncle Sammy glared at her.

“Left me in the dark about what?” I asked taking a step forward around Maggan who grabbed my hand; I pulled away from her and continued my small steps towards this woman.

The lady looked up at me, her eyes burning into my soul. “About who your parents are,” She stood up, she wasn’t much taller than me, and she was tall enough so that I had to look up at her very slightly. “Its apparent they haven’t told you anything, come with me, I’ll show you, I know, I know very well.” I glared at her and took a step back. “Child, I see how you,” She paused as if choosing her words carefully. “Thirst, for information about your mother, you want to find out who she really was, I have

that information, and unlike these people I’m willing to tell you.” She looked me in the eyes; I saw the same red tint that I had seen in my grandmother’s eyes. A trail of fear ran up my spine, this was not my ally, not my ally at all.

Thanks so much to XxMyxBloodyxValintinexX for editing this chapter, readers please enjoy...

The Teller of Stories

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