Sacrifice Helle Season Two

“Nearly killed him?”, I asked curiously while my brain was searching my mental hard drive for ‘boyfriend’. She continued laughing. “It’s a shame you weren’t here last week, everyone were so surprised by the affect it had on him. I could barely stand him myself before, but now …” “Hey!”, Kim shouted at us, “I can actually hear you quite well!” “Well, you were an ass!”, Nina shouted back. “Agreed!” I looked up to see Anna from my class stand by the table laughing at Kim. “Thanks.”, he grunted. Anna sat down and smiled at me.

‘Why is everyone being so nice?!’

“Uhm, “, I tried again, “What did you mean by ‘nearly killed’?” Nina waved it away with her hand, “Nah, okay, a little exaggeration, but still. So who is he?” “Who?” “Your boyfriend!” “I don’t have a boyfriend.” Anna and Nina stopped eating at once widening their eyes in shock.

‘Okay, so they are nice to me because they think I have a handsome boyfriend.. THOUGHT I had a handsome boyfriend.’

“Really?”, Nina gave me a good look. “I was so sure…Uhm, sorry then! It’s just.. He was kinda.. Nice.” Another giggle and Anna joined in. Great, I was about to leave this girly, giggly group right now!

Just as I got up to leave another group came to join us and I nearly crashed into a guy then bumped back down in my seat. “I hope you’re not leaving already! We were just about to join you girls..” A guy from the senior classes sat down close to Anna and laid his arm around her grinning widely. He was dressed nicely, like one of those cool types, with black short hair and probably lots of gel in it. I could even smell some perfume from him. Another one of his buddies threw himself down next to me.

“Hi, I’m Joshua.”, he gave me a short smile. Joshua had messy brown hair and gorgeous sensitive lips that just screamed for you to kiss them. I swallowed and started to panic. I wasn’t capable of living under such circumstances; I had no idea how to deal with it. I was never gonna get away from here! Lunch break would go on and I would starve to death if I didn’t die from airhead overdoses first. “Hey guys, meet Vaan!”, Joshua introduced.

I looked up not believing what I just heard. There he was, at the end of the table, smiling his most charming smile to Anna and Nina, then when he looked at me a more secretly smile formed. “Yeah, he’s new here, so be /nice/ to him.”, the first guy who I didn’t know the name of yet commented and his sleazy smile made Anna push him in the side, “Shut up Nathan!” Then she smiled back at Vaan, “Nice to meet you, I’m Anna, this is Nina, /that/ is Kim, and this is Helle!” “Oh, me and Helle already know each other.”, Vaan told her without reflecting over what he was giving out of information. Nina and Anna stopped chewing again like they had had when I informed them that I had no boyfriend and everyone at the table turned to Vaan, probably thinking “What is a hot guy like him doing with a nobody like me?!“ To my great fear Vaan continued. “Yeah, we live together.”

I was dumbfounded. Anna, Nina, Kim, Nathan and Joshua all sent looks in my direction and then back at Vaan.

“He’s my cousin.”, I mumbled while staring at my hands twitching underneath the table. Another rumble from my belly focused my attention onto how long it was to dinnertime and I began thinking of excuses to get away from the cafeteria and to the safety of a toilet. “Here!” Vaan threw a package over to me. It was a lunch pack. “I noticed it on the bench at home and brought it with me. Thought you might want it.” Nina and Anna smiled secretly to one another and I started to feel how my cheeks burned. Why did I have to blush so easily?

The group started talking normally again, the girls asking Vaan about what he thought of school here, and where he used to live before and of course: did he have a girlfriend? I decided to shut my ears and just eat. If this was the people Vaan attracted I didn’t know if I wanted to get dragged into it with him. For too long I had been on my own, I had no idea of how to act towards these people, and the whole situation made me uncomfortable.

When school finally ended Vaan was nowhere to be seen. I waited outside the school gates, but he never showed up.

“Sheeez, he probably finished early and went home already…”, I thought, “How nice of him to leave me here waiting. Wait a minute, why am I waiting? It’s not like he’s 9 or anything, he can go home by himself! Probably just what he did!” I made up my mind, Vaan was I don’t know how old, but old enough to find his way home alone, I was too used to waiting for Asami. Still, I thought he could have told me not to wait for him. A small stone on the ground became the innocent victim for my frustration and got kicked a few meters in the air. “This sucks!”

“Hey, why so angry?”, a gentle voice asked me. I looked around me and fretted because there was no one in sight! “Don’t shit around with me, I’m not in the mood right now.”, I hissed, tired of being put through pranks and games of other beings, feeling pressed up in a corner. “Oh, sorry..” I closed my eyes and let out a sigh of relief when a little light ball came to vision and the blonde wavy hair of an angel revealed who was talking to me.

“Just you, you scared me Raphael!” He smiled carefully, “I’m sorry, I forgot that.. You don’t see me unless I.. .. Kinda make you see me.. I guess I got too used to you being different from the rest.” His words didn’t make any real meaning to me right then, but I didn’t care. “It’s been a while, how are you?”, I asked him. He laughed in return, “Helle, it’s been merely the time it takes you to draw your breath, and I will never change. I am the way I always will be. But how are you?” “Not too good.”

He came over to me and laid his arms around me. The warmth of his body heated me up, poor me that had no jacket... It felt relaxing to rest there in his arms. Like he for a few moments took away all my concerns and I didn’t have to worry about anything. “I’m sorry about Asami, Helle, but I am very thankful that you are alive. I must admit, I was in doubt. When leaving this world, no angel can protect you, and we could not even see you or know what happened to you. I was worried.” I looked up at him and into those magical eyes. “You were worried? For me?” He nodded. “Why?”, I asked. “Silly.”, he laughed, “Because I care of course.”

In a situation like this I would have blushed instantly, but not this time. In his voice I heard that when he said he cared for me, that was just what he did, he cared for me. And with this honesty of his I also heard that he meant nothing but the care anyone would have for another human being. And knowing this I found it safe to admit, “I care for you too.” “I know.” I hugged him back.

Raphael walked with me home, and we talked about meaningless things, about how people were dealing with every day life within the cathedral, about the weather, about all my crappy homework. He didn’t ask me about Asami, about my journey or anything concerning that matter. It was refreshing this atmosphere he brought with him, so careless and calm. Even at home, we didn’t discuss things, but there was this heavy mood in the house that suffocated me and although we had usual talks and fights, like this Tuesday morning, I felt that they had everything to do with Asami.

Upon reaching my house I had to stop talking to Raphael because I was afraid people would see me talking to myself. Suddenly I stopped in my track and looked at our porch. ‘There that little…‘ A certain cute boy with eyes that had seen centuries pass was chilling out on our porch with a smoke nonchalantly resting in his hand. That was just the excuse I needed to let out my fume at him.

“YOU!”, I hissed at him as I stomped my way up the stairs. Vaan hardly moved, but rose an eyebrow at me. I glared at his smoke. “Don’t worry, I won’t smoke inside.”, he replied. I snatched the cigarette out of his hand almost burning myself on it and stomped it on the ground. “You got some nerve...” “Hey! That was my first smoke in at least a millennia!”

“Don’t exaggerate, you’re not THAT old, besides, I don’t give a shit! If my parents see you smoking they’ll… “ But before I was able to finish (or start for that matter) Vaan suddenly rose up and pushed me aside against the wall getting up in front of me, “Watch out!”. he shouted. I blinked in confusion, “What?”, and turned to the direction Vaan glared at. Raphael was still standing there, I had nearly forgotten about him because I got so pissed off by seeing Vaan smoke. But I saw nothing else. Vaan’s eyes searched the area, slowly his eyes focused on the spot where Raphael stood. “There’s something here..”, he whispered to me.

I had crossed my arms and now I pushed Vaan out of my way. “There’s nothing here to worry about, stop exaggerating everything now will you? And I don’t wanna see you smoke ever again!” He stayed intense and didn’t drop his arm that was holding me back behind him. “Someone’s watching us!” I looked to Raphael, then back at Vaan again, rolling my eyes. “For crying out loud Raphael, if you aren’t gonna leave then why don’t you just let him see you? Poor Vaan is getting freaked out..”, the last part I said with a teasing grin towards Vaan. “Raphael?”, Vaan whispered. Raphael’s eyes widened as it all dawned upon him and he gave me a wild look, “This is Vaan?!”, he asked with a stern voice. “Well.. Yeah?” “Why didn’t you tell me!?!”

I got dumbfounded. I should have told Raphael of course, why hadn’t I? Maybe I just hoped it wasn’t of importance, to have to tell Raphael, or anyone for that matter, about how this mighty vampire became human. The thought of it alone colored my cheeks red and caused my heart to raze. Maybe I had hoped he already knew, angels knew all sorts of things and so to speak everything. But that didn’t matter now. And suddenly I felt that there was an ocean of things I should know, that I wished someone would tell me. For example this: how did Vaan and Raphael know each other? And how come this meeting had this atmosphere of reunion surrounding it? I felt this had nothing do to with me and I wanted to leave.

To my surprise I wasn’t the one who left first. Raphael didn’t show himself to Vaan, instead he turned back to those little stars of light that made you think there was something wrong with your eyes and caused even me to blink several times to verify that the angel had indeed left our presence. “He’s gone, isn’t he?”, Vaan asked me in a low voice. “Yeah“, I whispered back. “He left.”