An old friend

“Mother?”

Caitlin snapped out of her thoughts and turned her head to look at her daughter who sat up on the mat.

“You are awake,” Caitlin said and smiled before standing up with the cloth in her hand. She cut the thread and straightened the dress for Kyra to look at.

“Are we going somewhere?” Kyra asked, guessing what it meant.

“Yes,” Caitlin replied. “We are going to see an old friend.”

*

Kyra walked with her mother in the night and she felt safe. Night times are the times where she did not have to worry about what the people are saying about them because they would hardly see that they are the ones walking. Caitlin made sure not to walk in the path where the street torches burnt brightly and she made her way towards an old bookshop.

On getting there, she moved her eyes to look at the side before pushing the door open and as soon as they got in, the door came rushing back and it slammed itself shut.

“That was a good save.”

Caitlin heard a female voice and she pulled Kyra along with her as they walked past the candles that lit the narrow space. Walking to the center of the place, she saw a woman dressed in a black sleek dress and Caitlin could only see a part of her face as her body was turned towards a shelf where she was placing a book in it.

“You are grieving. Did something happen?”

“Hazel,” Caitlin called.

“At least you remember my name,” Hazel said and she looked at her only to offer a short smile and her eyes moved to fall on Kyra whose eyes stared sharply at her. Walking over to the other side, she said, “Your daughter is all grown up.”

“She is still a child,” Caitlin said and pushed her daughter behind her.

“Oh well she looks more than just a child to me,” Hazel said and turned her body to look at her. “It has been eighteen years, Caitlin, since you laid your hands on that book and started seeing Aiden. And now that I get to see you again, too bad your image has been tainted. They call you a whore here, said your husband only came once and disappeared forever. And they don’t know the father of your daughter, because well, of course they never saw him. And I don’t want to assume that you are Mary mother. You and Aiden would have been a great couple by the way.”

Caitlin lowered her gaze from Hazel’s piercing eyes and blinked her eyes. There were so much people did not know about her, even her family. But Caitlin knew that Aiden never came or followed her to Creeksville, instead, it was Baron, their house servant who had accompanied her on their mother’s request and she had hid Kyra inside her for more than two and a half years before finally giving birth to her when she could not hold it anymore.

When Kyra held her hand a little firmly, she raised her eyes and said, “You know, back then I always wondered what kind of a relationship a priest might have with a witch. Normally, they are bad omen, deceitful, corrupt. They mostly have those traits.”

“You do not know me very well.”

“Maybe not, but I do know that your family were victims of the witch trials and the people solely responsible for it were the Fathers of the church. You hated them, but mainly because they killed your human fiancé.”

The last words seem to fall on Hazel like a stone and she clenched her hands.

“He died in your stead, to save you, a witch at that. You must really mean so much to him.”

“What do you want, vampire?” Hazel asked, clearly not wanting to hear more about her life.

“I do not mean to make you feel bad, Hazel. I get everything that you did. Aiden does not support what the church did during that era. He understood you and doesn’t care about the kind you are. He only wants to save the world, and so do you. And the reason you were helping him was because your fiancé would have wanted that too.”

Hazel scoffed and her expression suddenly turned serious. “Don’t get it wrong, Caitlin. I am only helping Aiden because if this world comes to an end…I’ll lose. If it does come to an end, how then will I get my revenge? I am going to make sure it does not so that if by means, there is a miracle that we could go back to the past, I would go back and burn those Fathers myself and then hang their bodies at every poles of the street.”

Caitlin held a little frown which didn’t look obvious. Hazel could have decided to go back to the past anytime she wants by tapping into the black magic and casting some spells, but she didn’t, instead, she was looking for some kind of a miracle. This must be one of the reasons Aiden trusted her. She is pure, maybe not by heart though, she thought.

“Now tell me, what brings you here in the first place?” Hazel asked.

“I want to know if you’ve found a way to stop what is going to happen,” she said and when Hazel’s eyes moved to look at the side, she added, “without involving my daughter in it.”

Hazel returned her eyes to look at her and released a sigh. She went to take her seat and Caitlin followed her, taking a seat facing her. She said, “The only viable solution I have come up with for the past eighteen years now is that we let the vampires take over the world and let the worst happen. What could possibly happen that time?” she asked as if thinking to herself. “The humans would become slaves, have their bloods dried and their bones might be used as turning sticks, which would be useful for me. Or well, there could be hunters, again and war would break out. But we already know who would win.”

“Or maybe there could be someone out there who will try to stop the vampires…like the Elders,” Caitlin suggested.

Hazel sighed and looked at her with a bored expression. “The Elders…won’t stop this. Do you even think they will accept to lay down their immortality and live as humans? They will bring down hell if that is what it takes to not have their immortality stripped from them and the sooner we make the sacrifice, the better, because if they get to know about your daughter, they will come for her.”

They suddenly heard something fall behind the shelves and they both turned their heads immediately to the direction. Looking at either sides of her, Caitlin realized her daughter was not with her and she stood up immediately with Hazel before walking to the back of the shelve where the noise came from. There, Caitlin saw Kyra standing and stretching her hand to touch an orange-haired girl of about her age who seemed to be shocked as she stared intensely at Kyra.

“No!” Hazel raised her voice and quickly went to drag the orange-haired girl away while Caitlin held her daughter back.

“Who is she?” Caitlin was about to ask when she noticed the girl holding the sleeve of Hazel’s dress and hiding behind her and then she raised her eyes to look at Hazel who had a look of disappointment on her face.

“She is your daughter,” Caitlin stated the obvious and almost scoffed at it.

“Didn’t you train your daughter to not wander around people’s place,” Hazel asked, sounding annoyed.

“Well my daughter knows just where to go,” Caitlin retorted and she dipped her hand into her dress before pulling out a book. Hazel recognized it immediately. It was the book of prophecy. “Now I have decided that nothing in this book will decide what I need to do. My daughter’s fate will not be decided by a mere book. A sacrifice?” she said with a frown. “Like hell it is. I am sure you would also know how it feels if it were to be your daughter. Let this world come to an end if it must. Nothing can change that now,” she said and pushed the book into the shelf before pulling her daughter along with her and they exited the place into the night.

Hazel stood there with her daughter and the book of prophecy now in her hands which she had lost years back. She opened the pages and skimmed through to the last page when she heard her daughter say;

“Mother, she was nice.”

Hazel raised her eyes from the book and replied her, “No Echo, she isn’t.”