Sacrifice Helle

Chapter 6

I braked down the fastest I could, tripped and fell towards the ground, but before I could hit it I was caught, and someone lifted me up on my feet. I struggled to break free from the grip when the person holding me suddenly said, "Helle, easy, its me!" In panic I looked up and realized that it was Darien holding me. "...huh? heh?.. Darien?!" "What the fuck, Helle, you kicked my leg! And whats up with the running? Should think you had the devil on your heels!" I looked at him confused, because I really didnt know myself what I had been running away from. He stopped the questions and looked at me like he was holding a lost puppy in his arms. "Okey, Im walking you home young lady." I didnt say a word, I was so surprised with the way the evening had turned out. And I was also out of breath after that run through the park. "Where do you live?" "Eh.. Down there... " I led the way. "So what were you doing in the park this late?", he asked me. "What time is it?" "About 10." 'Jesus Christ, I've been gone for about 5 hours!' "I was visiting the cathedral there, I wanted to check it out, I had no idea it was so late." "The cathedral?! What, did you break in? I never expected an innocent girl like you to do anything like that..." "No..! I didnt break in! And Im not innocent by the way, if I wanted to see the inside that badly, which I didnt, I would have no problem getting in. I've snuck into places and buildings before." "Then..how did you get in?" "It was open when I got there, and the guy who was supposed to close it showed me around, so I stayed there with him." "Hmpf! Suck up!" I kicked his leg once more for that comment. "Auch! Okey okey, I forgot who I was talking to." He backed off a little.

"What were YOU doing in the park so late?", I questioned back. "Nothing." "You lie." He looked at me teasingly, "I guess you'll never know then." We continued walking for about 5 minutes without talking. Then I broke the silence. "I looked for you at school today." "Really?" "I hate to say this, but you are the only friend I got so far, so I guess I did get a little dependant on you after all." But then I rephrased myself, "No, thats not true, I do have another friend now, Raphael from the cathedral..." Darien suddenly stopped. I turned around and saw that his face had gotten a weird, kind of angry looking expression. "Whats wrong?" Then, like if he suddenly woke up from sleeping, he looked me into the eyes and said, "No, nothing, I was just thinking... About who this Raphael might be, I havent seen anyone named Raphael here." "Well, you cant know everyone." "Obviously not." He raised his shoulders and we continued walking. Soon we were standing outside of my house. "Good night then!" I said to Darien. "Yeah, night! Dont get into any more trouble now, I cant come to your rescue all the time, I have a life too you know." I showed him my tongue and he smiled as he walked away. I reached for the keys in my pocket when I felt a piece of paper in there too. I got both of the items out, and as I unlocked the door and walked in I opened the little piece of folded paper. 'The poem'.

It was Friday at school, people seemed happy to be done with this week, and so was I. I hadn't seen Darien more than once since last time though, and then I didnt even speak to him. He had been standing at the far end of the yard in one of the breaks earlier today, talking to some other guys. I wondered who they were, because I couldnt remember having seen any of them before, and such characters like them really stood out from the crowd. One was a girl, her grey hair straight up on top and down in the neck, floating to her waist, 'wonder how much hair wax had gone in it?', with baggy jeans and chains and about at least 10 rings in her left ear. The other one all in black like Darien, he had a black tight sweater with long sleeves and a black pair of loose pants with a type of scarf around the waist, down one of his hips and attached in a knot on his other side. He also had one of these scarf’s on his head, like a bandana, and some of his black hair hang down in his eyes. The third one was a good looking guy with brow/redish short messed up hair. He seemed to be the most ordinary one out of them, I didn't notice anything, except he was the tallest, and he also looked like he thought it was hot outside; he had no jacket, just a tight shirt showing of his muscular arms and shoulders (Hey! What do you think?! Im a 16 year old daydreamer, the guy had arms like a fucking Greek god, how could I NOT look?!). He had looked at me once, held the eye contact for 2 seconds, then returned his attention to the conversation. I didnt want to interrupt anything, so I didnt go there. It occurred me that they all would look good with a smoke in their hands, but none seemed to be smoking... I didnt know if it was that, or something else, but something about them, about Darien too, didn't seem right. Something was misplaced.

Anyway, now it was Friday, school had just ended, I hadnt made any new friends, but was still happy to be able to do whatever I wanted in the weekend. Asami had been invited to a slumber party, mom and dad were going to be away for the entire weekend on a trip paid for by moms work (some conference or something), so I had the house to myself Friday-Saturday. Though, I had to 'deliver' and 'pick up' Asami from her slumber party. She wasnt supposed to be there until 8 pm, so I had to actually cook dinner for us, something that wasnt my specialty. Spaghetti and meatballs with ketchup. Asami complained about the burned meatballs, but I refused to listen, "Its just well fried!".

At 7 we packed up Asamis toothbrush and pyjamas and left the house. Thanks to all my trips around the neighbourhood I knew that the slumber party was within moderate walking distance, but thanks to all my unpleasant experiences when walking around at night time I decided it was best for us to take the bus there. I dropped her of with all her happy little friends and went back to the bus stop. 'Great! It just went!' The next bus wasnt supposed to come until 20 minutes, about the same time it would take me to walk back. I stood there for a moment, considering walking back, or staying at the bus stop for 20 minutes. And before I knew it, there it was again. The eyes on my back. 'Okey. This is seriously freaking me out!' The street was empty, I didnt see anyone around me! I started to breath heavily, soon I was going to panic. 'Am I driving myself crazy? Am I just afraid of being alone? Ive never been afraid of the dark, Ive been alone in it so many times before, hell, I even feel more comfortable in it than I do in the middle of the day!' I decided to start walking, not running, just walking down the road. When the bus came, it would have to pass me, so I could just stop it when it came. I didnt want to take any shortcuts between houses now, and especially not through any parks.

Suddenly the uncomfortable feeling of being watched disappeared. I froze, as if I was listening to where it had gone. Then, to my fear, I saw someone walking around the corner, towards me. As the person came closer I saw that it was a young man, he didnt look like a madman at all, and I started to relax a little. The guy was looking past me as he came closer, then suddenly, when he was about 2 meters away from me, he looked me right into my eyes and smiled, which would have been a very charming smile if it wasn't for the fact that the guy had extra long corner teeth. His eyes glowed in the dark and first now I saw how pale he was. I stumbled backwards, but it was no way I could get away, he grabbed hold of my arm and whispered in my ear. "Hello, Helle, will you walk with me for a little?" "...N ..nno... rather not..!" He snapped his teeth teasingly, then took my face in his hands and looked me deep into my eyes. "Ah, I love the color of blue..." His fingers started running down my cheek and then slowly down my neck. His touch was so cold. "Such lovely skin, it would feel so nice to break it..."

I forced off my paralysing fear and kicked the guy as hard as I could. He got surprised and let go of me, and I ran the fastest I could remember, even faster than I had in the park. Unfortunately, running out a vampire proved to be a terrible hard task. He suddenly popped up right in front of me, I changed direction, but he popped up everywhere, I didnt even see him move! 'Okey, Helle, dont panic, think of something! Think think think!' "Ah, I could play this game all night, but unfortunately, my sire wants you right now.." Then he grabbed me from behind, lifted me up like I was a piece of paper and walked of with me.

I kicked and hit him, but he didnt take any damage. He moved fast, I didnt see where we were going. Then he suddenly stopped and threw me of his shoulders, I landed on the wet and hard ground. 'We are in a forest...? Or..' I looked up at the stars between the trees.. 'In the park?' I then looked up at the vampire, he was staring into the air. Then his eyes suddenly widened up. "OH SHIT!", he shouted.