Vanilla Lace

The room was silent, and Lucas felt an urge that kept him awake. It was like he anticipated a phone call. Surely enough, his business phone made a light buzzing sound atop his bedside drawer.

Stealthily, he grabbed it and made his way to the balcony. He pressed the button and pressed it to his ear, and in a most subtle voice, he answered, “What is it?”

“I’m sorry to bother you this late, Your Highness, but we have just captured Bill Kaulitz.”

Lucas’ eyebrows raised. “Where is he?” He asked, his hand gripping the cold marble railing tightly.

“We are in Berlin, Your Highness, at the Austrian Embassy.”

“Very well,” the sienna-haired royalty answered. “Updates on him?”

There was a bit of a pause on the other line, but the reply came soon after the absence. “He’s 75% through, but we’re confining him to total darkness to slow down his evolution.”

Lucas shook his head, pinching his nose bridge. “What about the girl?”

“The vampire, sir?”

“Yes, the vampire.”

“He wasn’t at the scene with her. Bill Kaulitz refuses to tell us anything about her. He isn’t talking at the moment, ever since after the experiment.”

The Austrian royalty sighed. “He’s merely a quarter human, and yet we’re risking so much for him. I need you to speed up research. Double the budget on that, and I want the cure within seven days.”

The receiver’s voice stifled his reply. “Yes, Your Highness.”

“Do whatever it takes, even if you have to resort to inhumane means to get it out of the vampires. I know there is a cure, but I don’t know what.”

“We will. What about Bill?”

“Do not harm him. Keep him confined and curb his growth, but observe him. Put him on more tests. He’s very useful at this point in time. All right, I’ll . . . leave it at here for now.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

The call ended, and Lucas sat in his outdoor armchair, contemplating on the security of his people, and the safety of the centuries-old secret.

* * *

Fabian and Karl trudge along the wet and rocky soil up some slippery slopes. “Keep up,” Fabian said to his companion. Karl simply nodded, pulling himself up easily with a few roots loose in the ground.

The two had received news of Bill being captured, and they made their way to the Austrian Embassy in Berlin late into the night. It was their mission, newly appointed by Engel, to bring back Bill Kaulitz to Nachtschatten. Fabian was not one to fail this.

“Is there a secret passageway, Fabian?” Karl asked, grabbing onto the trunk of a tree before leaping further up against another. “You seem to know your way very well.”

“This embassy has been here for decades, and I know the way in the building. I used to work here,” Fabian revealed.

Karl’s eyes widened. “Really?”

The silver-haired didn’t falter despite the slopes getting steeper and more unreliably slippery. “That was at least fourteen years back, Karl, not get moving. They are changing guards in two minutes, and it is an approximate interval of about thirty-five seconds. We can’t miss a single second.”

“If we do?”

“We’ll have to overeat,” Fabian smirked slightly as his face was illuminated by the glow of the yellow moon that night. “Get rid of those who saw us.”

“How do we know where Bill is?” Karl questioned, his brown hair slightly messy from the strong gust of the early October wind.

“We ask,” Fabian snarled, his eyes directed at the soft, orange illumination coming from behind the door that he spotted through the front entrance.

* * *

Analiese takes her phone and turned it on. Leaving it on the whole time could risk her being tracked down, so she always made sure to have it on only when she needed to contact anyone if she couldn’t find a nearby phone.

She quickly dialed Oliver’s number, but Oliver didn’t pick up. Again, and he did not answer.

“Third time’s the charm,” she muttered under her breath as she pressed the dial button again. Oliver was nowhere to be found.

She had spent the whole night thinking, and the image of Bill being shot down was replayed over and over in her head again like a broken video player. She tried, but she couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Day and night, she tried to feel him. She wanted to know how he was, and if he was hurt, but all she felt were obstructed communication. It was clear to her that he was confined somehow, somewhere, denied contact. One thing for sure that she knew was that the humans would not hurt him. At least, they wouldn’t hurt him again. They should be protecting him from the vampires that want his head.

Contemplating, she finally concluded that she would not go and meet Oliver. Obviously, Oliver knew no way of turning a sired vampire back to human, so Analiese was going to take matters into her own hand. Only with a cure will she be able to look for Tom and redeem Bill. She knew he was waiting for her.

Turning round the bend, Analiese made her way to the city’s bus terminal. She paid for a ticket with what money she had left, and bought herself a ride to Halle. There was only one person she hoped to find, who hopefully knew about the way to save the love of her life.

* * *

Bill huddled in a corner, not knowing what was awaiting him behind these walls. He had not washed himself since the incident with the lamb, and so he detested the state he was in. He hated being dirty, and he wished he could get rid of the traces that led him to being named a monster once again.

His hair was slightly greasy, and he scratched at his scalp, annoyed. The thoughts around him were blocked out rather successfully. He was only able to read the minds of the people that entered the room.

In the dark, he waited for someone. He waited for something to come take him away. The isolation that denied him contact to the outside world made him so lifeless, but he was silent in plotting, conspiring a way to get out of this place. All he needed was a phone, which he didn’t have.

From nowhere came a voice, “Bill Kaulitz,” the man said. “Forty-eight hours since you last saw light. Do you want to know what your data shows?”

Bill gritted his teeth, forcing himself up and making his way to the middle of the room. He was accustomed to the emptiness and vast space, and his eyes adapted to the surroundings, and he was safely walking.

He made no reply, and the person continued, “Your other-wordly acceleration has decreased by thirty-four percent, and we expect your growth to be down to sixty-five, at least, within the next forty-eight hours.”

The part vampire growled, “Does it kill you to say the word out loud, or are you really a coward?”

“What?” The voice asked.

“I am a vampire, am I not? Why are you so afraid to say it? Is it a taboo? We do exist. Vampires exist, and I’ve seen them. I was only ten when I saw one, and I never forgot that day. I know it’s in me to be involved with them somehow, but why are you humans such villains?”

Bill noticed that the voice was annoyed, and yet it continued, “You’ve seen them when you were ten? Wait, Bill, tell us more.”

“I’m not telling you anything more!” He exclaimed, his fists clenched tightly, leaning forward as he shouted at no one in particular. “I am a monster, and you don’t want to hear anything from me!”

There was a long pause, and no one spoke. Two days alone in the dark made him feel so lonesome, and it didn’t help that his connection with Analiese was fading.

“Bill?” another person’s voice said. It was smooth and soothing, and a woman’s, and Bill immediately pictured his mother.

The teenager’s eyes watered heavily upon that voice calling out his name. “Mama?”

There was a bit of a silence, and the woman continued in voice laced with doubt. “Are you okay?”

“Mama? Is that really you?” Bill’s voice quivered, his body weakening as he collapsed on his knees. He turned around and around in hopes of locating a single heartbeat, his hands pressing against the padded walls.

“Billa? I can't hear you,” The woman said again. “I hope the people are treating you nice. I miss you.”

“Mama!” Bill let his tears fall like heavy rain droplets. His mother was the one who coined that term of endearment. In disbelief, Bill started banging his fists on the cushioned enclosure, feeling like a caged savage animal. “Let me out, please! Mama, please!”

“Bill? Tom, are you there?” she said, and soon, Tom’s voice overtook the speakers, but Bill managed to speak first.

“Tom?” Bill's eyes widened. “TOM! Let me out!”

“Bill!” Tom exclaimed in a shaky voice. Bill was sure that Tom had been weeping due to his throaty voice. In a rushed tone, he carried on, “Promise you’ll behave and do whatever they tell you. They won’t hurt you again. They’re just going to help you. Please, Bill! Please!”

Bill stared into the darkness, his nails scratching at the soft walls. His tears ceased to stop forming in his eyes.

“What is going on, Tom? What is mama doing here? I don’t understand, Tom. I don’t understand!”

Tom choked on his words slightly. “Bill, just assure them!”

“If you co-operate with us, Bill, we’ll let you out and you don’t have to stay in there the whole time,” the man’s voice resumed its rightful place.

The raven-haired teenager covered his face in his arms, knees folded in as he tried to make sense of everything.
From the middle of the room, Bill could hear something stirring under the floor. The ground leveled in and gave way to a passage of stairs, and Bill watched as the stairway illuminated.

“Don’t keep us waiting,” the voice said.

* * *

Bill appeared at the end of the staircase, and was received by two men armed with guns. “These are silver bullets, so don’t you try anything funny,” one said.

“You didn’t have to say that,” the other laughed. “He would have read your mind.”

“Ooh,” the first laughed with him. “Scary.”

The teenager made no effort to retaliate in anyway physically or verbally, and kept to himself until he was escorted to a large function room. Once again, the room was dark, but Bill could smell the familiar presence of people he knew.

There were two scents he was so familiarized with. One was unmistakably Tom, and he could hear his brother’s panicked breathing.

Bill could sense someone approaching him. The other scent he picked up was coming nearer, among a few others he didn’t recognize. The lights went on, and it was a very light blue glow. His eyes adjusted to the images.

“Bill!”

The boy stared in confusion at the people before him.