The Truth

When she wakes up it’s late. There’s a momentary panic before Olivia remembers that it’s Saturday and she doesn’t need to be anywhere, although it doesn’t mean she’s going to stay at home. She gets ready quickly and grabs her coat before leaving, hastily pulling the door shut behind her and briskly walking without lending much thought to where her feet take her.

She’s made this journey so many times that at this point it’s muscle memory. She will keep her promise to Alaric and stay away from the graveyard, but she still needs to know if it is true. She walks to the old mining hill; walking around it she sees nothing. There is no-one there. Sitting on the ground she relaxes, waiting in the quiet morning air.

Someone must come soon, and then she’ll finally be able to prove that either vampires are real or that Alaric was lying. She hears the snapping of a branch, her head twisting to the direction of the noise as a figure moves too quickly for her to see. She tries to follow it but her eyes aren’t fast enough.

“You must be a stupid little girl.” The voice sends chills down her spine and she nods. The voice is right, she must be. “I thought the other night would have scared you away, but instead, you come back for more?”

She stands up, trying to see the person as they keep moving, just out of her vision’s reach every time.

“Who are you?” She steps forward, before a menacing laugh makes her stumble a few steps backwards.

“No-one. My name, who I am, that doesn’t matter. Such information is irrelevant and will be no comfort in your death.”

He’s right, it won’t be. She watches as the man steps out of the trees, her eyes this time able to see him. He looks- actually, he looks hot, but his silver eyes are scaring her. The other night she froze, there was no warning he was going to appear; tonight she was prepared, and she can’t stop her eyes raking over his body.

“You have questions? Ask away.” He steps closer slightly. Am I crazy? She has to be to still be stood there right now.

“I’m looking for someone. I need to know if he’s still alive.”

The man laughs, his body moving fast as he stops a distance behind her, she turns and looks at him.

“And who would this someone be? A friend? A parent, maybe?”

She shakes her head at him.

“My boyfriend. His name is Dan.” He laughs at her words, shaking his head.

“You’re merely a child. He wasn’t a partner, just something you were obsessed by. I did you a favour.”

“You killed him?”

He moves fast again, stopping right behind her, his breath oddly cold on her ear.

“And by God did he taste delicious.”

Her body shakes from the core with fright at his words.

“No, no, I don’t believe that.” She squeezes her eyes tight, shakes her head, but she still feels a hot tear fall. He can’t be dead. The man moves again, her body shivering involuntarily at the cold air whooshing around her from his speed. His face is now in front of hers.

“Either way, he is not the man you loved; that man is long gone. Maybe I should stop teasing and let you join him?” His hand wraps around her throat, his nails digging in as she whimpers. He smirks, his hand dropping away. Olivia gulps down the welcome air.

“You will taste fantastic, I can just tell. And yet there is something there, something telling me that spilling your blood would be a waste, that you would suit immortality rather well.” She swallows loudly; why did she come here? She was a fool for believing that she would get answers and be able to leave without getting hurt.

She hears a loud growl, the man being pulled back as a loud screeching sound from his lips pierces the silence, watching helplessly as his body falls to the floor, and the wolf drags him off into the trees. What just happened?

“What the hell did I say about staying away?”

She jumps and turns to see Alaric, stood there in nothing but a pair of worn jeans. Her breath catches as her eyes skim across his chest.

“Wh- what are you doing here?” She stutters. He isn’t meant to be here.

“I caught your scent; I should have known you’d do whatever you wanted.”

Olivia stares back at him, shocked.

“My scent? You’re one of them?” She steps back. She should have known he was one of them: why else was he always out at night, stopping her from coming to these places?

“No, Olivia, I’m not a vampire, come on. Do I look like I’m a vampire?” How is she even supposed to know? She’s only ever seen one vampire; they could all look different for all she knows. All the films she’s seen were different, most of them unbelievable, so how on earth does Alaric expect her to know?

“I’m a werewolf, Olivia. Why do you keep coming to these places? Are you actually trying to get yourself killed or are you just plain damn stupid?”

“Maybe I am just stupid, but you’re right, maybe I am hoping for death, so that I can find out if Dan is alive or not.” Her head falls before looking back up at him. “You’re a werewolf?” She stares at him. “Th-that was you?”

He nods silently.

“I-” She stops, unsure of what to say.

“Look, Olivia, you can’t keep doing this. You’ll either die, get hurt, or worse, be turned into one of them; is that what you want for yourself? Your family asking the same questions about you that you're asking about Dan?” He looks at her praying she listens, but he knows she won’t.

“My family wouldn’t even realise for months that I was missing. Actually, they haven’t.”

He looks at her, confused.

“What do you mean?” Of course her family would realise; all families notice when someone goes missing.

“I haven’t spoken to my mum in over three months, or my sister, or my friends. Since Dan disappeared I’ve hidden away; not one of them has tried asking if I’m alive.”

He nods. Maybe they’re just giving her space she needs to grieve, or whatever it is people do when someone they love disappears.

“Look, I’m sure if you disappeared they would be worried. By the way, I found this.” He holds out a hand with what looks like an extremely damaged phone swinging from his fingertips. “It must have gotten knocked onto the floor the other night and one of us obviously stood on it. I’m sorry; I knew I couldn’t fix it so I didn’t even try.”

She nods, taking the piece of warped metal from his hand.

“Let’s get you home.” She shakes her head, she doesn’t want to go back home. It feels too empty without Dan.

“Well, let’s get breakfast, then?” He would rather stay with her if she isn’t going home. At least that way he knows she isn’t wandering around looking for Dan and getting herself into fatal situations with vampires.

He walks ahead as she begins following him; they get to a small café and he turns, looking at her to check it’s okay before he pushes the door open and they both enter. They sit down and order, Alaric rolling his eyes as he looks at her. He knew that she was stubborn and wouldn’t listen to his warnings.

“So, you’re a werewolf?”

He nods, smiling at her.

“What happened to that man?”

“The vampire? Someone else sorted it while I checked you were okay.”

She’s satisfied with that. He gave her the answer she needed, he told her that he had killed Dan, but part of her still feels like he’s alive somewhere, somehow.

“So, vampires can’t come out during the day?”

“Yes and no. There are three types of vampires, Olivia: Ceprimora, Morgelantous, and Monventla.”

She nods. “What’s the difference?”

“Let’s start with Morgelantous. These vampires are born. If a mortal woman conceives with a vampire, the baby will always be a Morgelantous. They can go out in the light and they don’t need blood; so many live just like you.”

She nods, so the ones who do wander around during the day are not bad.

“Ceprimora are the ones created through being turned. They can only come out at night and again they don’t kill to feed; they just feed enough to stay strong and then let the victims go.”

Neither of the vampires Alaric described seemed like that guy she met, so she deduces he must be the other one; a Montalia? Monventous? Mon-something, she thinks.

“Then there’s Monventla, which is what that guy was. Monventla were once Morgelantous, only they’ve killed someone. Most vampires don’t kill, they just feed and let the victim go, but Monventla are the devil's work. They get pleasure from killing people. They’re full, they don’t need the extra blood to survive; they kill for fun. That’s what your friend was.”

“So, if a vampire is created by a Monventla, what do they become?” She looks at him, waiting.

“A vampire can only change a person into a Ceprimora, and then it’s up to that person whether they stay like that and feed without killing or whether they become Monventla. Most end up following the same path as whoever turned them, though, which means they kill eventually.”

“And you? What about you?” He nods; he knew she would have this question.

“I am what’s known as a Clasiayn: we are the ones who are born, we have werewolf blood running through us from our ancestors. Then there is Dralious, the ones who turned evil, didn’t stick to hunting vampires but started hunting humans as well.”

“Both can go out whenever and look normal like you?”

“No. Killing a human merely for pleasure means a lifetime being a werewolf and Dralious know that. The only way out of the werewolf form is death.”

Olivia nods to him. It’s a lot of information but she thinks she’s starting to understand.

“We can come out at day or night, sunlight doesn’t bother us. A vampire bite does not hurt us, however if we’re forced to drink vampire blood we would die.”

She doesn’t answer, just sits looking at the blank palette of her now-empty plate. She still wants to laugh and call him crazy, but how can she? She saw that man and how fast he moved, it was almost like he’d teleported. She saw where the wolf had bitten the vampire; there had been no blood, just a weird colour liquid seeping out.

“You need to stay away from those places, Olivia, and me as well. Both bring trouble and are too risky; I can’t protect you all the time, and I can’t protect you if you’re near me.”

She understands why she needs to stay away from the graveyard but not why she can’t be near Alaric. She wants to be near him, something about him is making her want to see him.

“Why are you so dangerous?” She can’t see him hurting her, especially because he’s tried to save her so many times.

“Vampires know me, Olivia; if they see us together they’ll target you. I’m not good company anyway; I’m far too old for you. You need to find people your own age.” He looks at her. Dan was too old for her too; he remembers Dan well.

“You’re like two years older than me at most,” she huffs, “and Dan was 25, he was a lot older than you and I was fine with him.”

“I may look young, but I’m not.”

She looks at him, confused.

“Look, I stopped aging at twenty. For me to start aging again I need to stop shifting; stop becoming a werewolf.”

Now she has questions: a lot of them.

“So exactly how old are you, Alaric? And how old was that vampire?”

“I was born in 1895,” he murmurs, his head bowed. Her fingers move as she works it out and he snickers slightly at the sight, causing her to lose count. She rolls her eyes and starts again, her head snapping up.

“You’re 123 years old?”

“I guess I am, technically. That guy, I don’t know, based on the colour of his eyes I’d say he’s older than me. Most vampires have normal-looking eyes but the older they get, the more their irises turn red, and then slowly silver. That guy’s whole eye was silver.”

She nods, trying to examine Alaric’s eyes; she can’t see any signs of him aging at all. She tries forcing herself to see something, even just one line spoiling his pale complexion, but there’s nothing.

“So when you stop shifting and stay like this, what then? Do you just age really quickly to your actual age? Like would you be an old man?”

He laughs, shaking his head.

“No, I’ll age just like normal humans, and probably a bit more gracefully at that.” He winks. “Promise me you’re going to leave the Dan thing alone? Forget about him, say goodbye and move on?”

She knows she should.

“I want to.”

He nods.

“I know, even the vampire telling you he killed him doesn’t seem real, but what do you need to believe it? His body?” Olivia’s mouth opens to answer but Alaric’s phone rings, interrupting her. He pulls it out of his pocket and pushes a button before pressing the phone to his ear.

“Lucas?” He says in a hushed tone, silent while listening to his friend’s response. “How the hell did that happen? You should have had it sorted.” He rubs his head in frustration with his free hand. He needs to get Olivia home now.

“Well, let me know as soon as you can. This shouldn’t have been possible.” He hangs up, a dark look taking over his face. Olivia needs to stay away from him.

“Look, you’d best get home, I have an issue to sort out. It was nice knowing you, Olivia. Stay away from me.”