Dark Secret

We’d best get going,’ Leanna said.

Tyler walked towards me, reaching out his hand. I hesitated, which I regretted immediately as I saw the pain and disappointment in his eyes. I grabbed his stone-cold hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. He returned a smile, though I could tell it was forced.

‘I’m sorry I’ve scared you,’ he muttered.

‘No, don’t be. It wasn’t your fault.’ I smiled at him, knowing no matter what did he looked like back then, he was still Tyler. The Tyler I had a crush on.

Face it, you’re scared of him,she commented with a smirk.

I’m not!

I picked up my fully-packed bag, and slung it over my shoulder. Staring at the black lone feather on the floor, I wondered what had caused Kenneth to do those things to me. And I was sure it was definitely not for my now transformed body.

There were two protective vampires around me, yet he still attempted to come close to me, and do those…disturbing stuffs to me. First, he gave me the sight and the transformation. Then, he came into my room suddenly after an ambush in my school, telling me that my friends weren’t really my friends, bit my ear, and left a black feather like as if it was a souvenir for me.

…Was he on high or something? Nothing made any sense.

‘So, we’re finally leaving, huh?’

‘Yes,’ Leanna stopped to look at me. ‘I know that you don’t want to leave here, but we really have to go. It is, after all, the king’s order.’ Her expression was close to pity, which I felt bad about. I shouldn’t make their job harder than it was.

‘Yeah, it’s just that…’ I searched for the right words to describe what I wanted to tell her without put it bluntly, though it appeared I failed to do so. ‘I don’t want to meet the king.’
I felt both Leanna and Tyler tensed beside me. I ignored their reactions; every single thing seemed to put them into alert mode. I was getting used to it. They were sharing too many secrets for my liking. It wasn’t that I was jealous or anything---no, honestly---I understand that they had this master-and-servant relationship, and the fact that they were vampires, which was a huge difference to being a human like me, but it was as if they were keeping those things particularly from me. I didn’t like being left in the dark; I never liked it.

‘Why?’

I sighed. Was I supposed to tell them it was a merely gut feeling, or the little voice in my head disagree with the idea? ‘No…there isn’t any specific reason.’

‘I see,’ Leanna nodded, satisfied with my answer. I nearly sigh in relief. Thank god she bought it.

She muttered words that were unclear to me, and raised her hand above her head. Faint crimson light glowed from it, tainting the room in similar shades. I watched in silent as she moved her hand gently, and drew a circle that was as large as herself. Then, when the circle was completed, she placed her hand on the bottom, and drew straight lines, from the bottom to the upper-left, next, the right, and to the left and upper-right, finally linking the burning threads to the bottom. It didn’t need an expert to recognize the symbol.

The evil eye.

The lines shone brighter, until it reached the point where I had to close my eyes to shield away from it. When I could no longer see the lights behind my eyelids, I dared to open them. In front of me was a circular vortex, masked by red and black. It reminded me of a black hole. Not only its appearance bothered me, it gave off an impression that once you’d entered, there would be no return.

‘Come on, Char.’ Leanna held out her hand to me.

‘You have got to be kidding me,’ I said, words came out of my mouth without being processed by my brain. ‘I am not stepping into that vortex, black hole like thingy, or whatever it is. Nuh uh. No way on earth.’

‘This is not happening,’ Leanna moaned. ‘Out of all the things: bugs, fire, knives, skulls, coffin…you’re afraid of a portal?’

‘What’s wrong with that?’ I pouted. I knew I was freak, but I’d bet any sane person would be afraid of that…thingy. I meant, look at it. It was like it’d suck you in and drained you soul, like how the horror stories spoke of---she reached the hole and was never seen again.

‘We’re going to see a lot of this when we reach Downland, Char,’ Tyler added, which had the reverse effect of scaring me more.

‘Gee, Tyler, thanks for scaring me,’ sarcasm dripped from my words.

‘Don’t mention it,’ he beamed.

Sometimes, I wondered what I saw in him. This was so not the time to screw around.

‘Stop wasting time, Char. Look, I’ll go first,’ Leanna jumped into the portal swiftly, with the grace of a panther. I waited on the other side, my feet glued to the ground.

‘It’s safe in here. Just come down, Char.’

You’re not jumping in there, Charlotte. Seriously, are you nuts?

Yeah, I guess I lost my brain quite a while ago,I joked. Well, here goes nothing.

You crazy.

I held my breath, and readied myself to jump inside. However, I must have been to slow for Tyler for he gave me a push on the back. Hard.

‘Woah!’ I landed on my front. A bruise would appear on my chin soon. Ow.

‘Are you okay, Char?’ Leanna helped me to stand just as Tyler walked into the portal casually with his hands in the pockets. ‘Did you push her?’ Leanna questioned Tyler, though the answer was obvious. Tyler grinned sheepishly, earning a groan from Leanna.