All an Illusion

“You look beautiful,” her Grandmother smiled as she stood behind Emma who was sitting on the stool in front of the dressing table. Emma didn’t normally take to compliments, especially ones that she knew weren’t true, but for once she thought she did look quite pretty. Her grandmother had combed and combed her knotty brown hair until it shone. Emma was wearing her mother’s favourite knee length black skirt and one of her simple black blouses and matching pair of heels. For once she was without make up and wore only the diamond heart shaped necklace her mother had given her. “So, beautiful, you look just like your mother.”

Emma’s smile vanished at the mention of her name but she could see her Grandmother was clearly kicking herself for mentioning it. “It’s okay Nana, I’m done with tears. I’ve decided to stop crying, she’s gone now and there’s nothing we can do,” and with that Emma stepped away from the mirror, grabbing her black long winter coat as she went. Her Grandmother was quick to follow, her eyes full of tears for her dead daughter and her strong grand daughter who was also just as stubborn and strong like her mother.

Together they strolled from the house to the Church which was only a five minutes’ walk away. Inside, Emma immediately felt calm and cool. There was something about being inside a church that always made her feel safe at home. It was definitely her ideal sanctuary. The feeling of security was enough to warm her heart for but a moment, as she then remembered why they were there and all feelings of peace disappeared.

*

The waiting had been pure agony for Jade. If she hadn’t been smart enough to stop on the way to get some money then she did not know how she could have survived at all. If she had been human it would have been easy just to sleep throughout the day at the small cheap motel she was staying at. Instead being a vampire, had changed the whole order of events. Instead she had walked a couple houses down from Emma’s, to one that looked just as posh but mostly deserted. It had been so easy to break in, it was almost scary. She hadn’t needed to break a window as with one satisfying yank she broke through the lock on the back door. Jade had been lucky that the house was empty and that the owners kept enough money lying around. They even had a safe behind a portrait which was just perfect. There had been credit cards too, but Jade had no idea how easy those things were to trace and did not want to push her luck. From there she had hastily checked herself into some hotel preparing herself to wait until dusk. Only it was taking forever for the sun to set, the boredom was suffocating her. Now that she was leaving all she wanted was to get out of the city as soon as possible. Even then she didn’t know how long she would last to the nearest airport, her undeniable thirst was back, she had starved herself long enough. It took all her power not to make a rush at the desk clerk when it was time to pay up. When she thought about how much she had taken from the house, it suddenly did not seem enough. She didn’t even know how much airplane tickets cost. So, only feeling slightly guilty, she stood as tall and she could and simply took the employee that she had already paid and was ready to leave now. It was a miracle when he only smiled back and turned to his papers, completely under her spell.

Jade regretted having to waste time by going off to hunt. She had already quickly decided that she would only feed off of animals. While she was alive, she saw no other reason why anybody else should give up their lives for her. In the end it was searching for a decent area and forests that took up most of her time. The takings weren’t much, not enough to really feel Jade, and not nearly as satisfying and drinking human’s blood…

Jade mentally slapped herself for even thinking such a thought. She had to keep moving, that way there was last time for thinking. Meanwhile the sun had finally fully set and the sky was beginning to darken. Jade just made it to the shops before they closed to get an extra set of clothes, a backpack, toiletries and a book to read for the flight. It was all about keeping occupied. It was another hurry to catch the last ferry to Port Angeles airport. Jade had thought the airport itself was pretty empty but got a shock at how deserted the airport was. Feeling lucky, she took a deep breath and strode confidently up to the ticket desk, her fingers crossed behind her back.

Ten minutes later Jade was on her way up and through customs a big full smile plastered across her face. She had been very lucky that a flight was leaving in only a hour from now to Rome, which was close enough to where she was going. The ticket seller had first almost laughed out right in Jade’s face when she saw how old she was, but Jade’s power had quickly taken care of that. She breezed through customs, taking her last risk when Emma’s stolen passport was looked over. She had giggled, and made some comment about dying her hair, but he wasn’t even interested. Within an hour Jade found herself boarding the plane. She hadn’t even given herself time to think over what she was doing, she Jade Stone was taking the first plane flight of her life, and she felt… scared? She tried to shrug it off, tell herself not to be so stupid as she strapped herself in to a seat next to the window, hesitantly biting her lip. Nerves were not going to be better of her, not now when she’d come so far…

“Erm, excuse me is this seat taken?” came a rough voice next to her.

Jade jumped before turning away from the window to stare annoyedly at the tall, muscular guy standing in the aisle. He was pretty good looking, with thick curly blonde hair and… dull red looking eyes. Before Jade could consider the crazy possibility that she was about to encounter another vampire, she found herself holding her head in her hands as a sudden wave of nausea swept over her. She felt sick like any second she was about to throw up.

“Sorry!” Jade could hear the guy cursing under his breath as weirdly the pain suddenly disappeared. She whipped up her head to stare again at him racking her brains to work out what had just happened.

She said nothing as she heard him sitting down beside her and fastening his seat belt. Jade didn’t know what to say or if she should say anything at all. Maybe it was just her imagining things, but then the guy bent down to tie his shoelaces and his knee brushed hers and Jade felt the ice cold, marble touch a vampire.

“What are…” she began but halted as they both started speaking at the same time. She watched nervously as he scratched his head and began to laugh. “What is so funny?” she demanded angrily, scared he was laughing at her.

“Nothing,” he smiled palms up, as if to say ‘chill’, “It’s just what are the odds, that in the same place, at the same airport, on the same flight in the same freaking seat two vampires run into each other?” Jade only stared as he ran his hand through his hair. She did not get what was so funny. Who’s to say it wasn’t a coincidence, just because they were both vampires did not mean they weren’t strangers. He could be anyone, he could have planned this… then Jade remembered her resolution to not be so hostile and tried to smile back. “I’m Fred,” he said reaching for her hand as if this were the most normal thing in the world.

“Jade,” she smiled back uneasily as the pilot announced to fasten seat belts as they were now taking off.