Only Human (21 page)

‘
Let it out.’

I knew you
’d say that, and I am letting it out, I’m crying and so are you. They are gone, they are really gone, and all I can see is the vast hole in my life where my mother and father used to be. It’s not fair! Why can’t they just walk in the room? They could a few hours ago, why not now? Where did they go? I will follow them. I will close my eyes and they will appear to me, in a wonderful rich, green meadow which is bathed in warm sunlight. They will be free of the curse damning them to darkness now that they are in heaven, and it will be heaven because Vampires began with Humans, and they can share our heaven. Well, the good ones can, can’t they friend?  I’ll sleep now so that I can be with them for a while, and tell them all the things I should have said before they went to sleep in death.

6.02.3012

Well Good morning to you Amica! I can start my journal again properly now that my mind is clearer, and I have made my peace with my parents. Their loss, as with all the others, is a wound that is now part of me, but I have no doubt what they would expect me to do in their stead. Get up, dust myself down, and continue! That is exactly what I am going to do! The Watchers have said that my bandages can come off today and I can try to walk! Try to walk! Are they kidding me? I’m going to run like a lunatic and investigate every single inch of this fire mountain, and every living thing that is in it! I’ll find Uncle, and pin him down until he tells me every minute detail about everything I have missed, and then I’m going to eat till my stomach looks pregnant. I am starving!!

The lady that was lying next to me is sitting up and she looks a bit better. I wonder if anyone has given her a name yet. If not, then this lady should be called Lillie. She looks skinny
, but kind of graceful, in the way she holds herself. She has brown eyes, and they are like saucers in her head, because her poor face is still so thin. I’m going to shake her hand and see if she responds.

‘
My name is Aecia.’

‘‘
I am Linda.’

Well, you could knock me over with a feather, she knows the language already
, and she shook my hand. Nice one! They are so clever these people; it’s exciting to see them develop into what they were meant to be. Where are the little guys, I want to get out of this bed. ‘Hey, could anyone help me off with these bandages?’

Wow, they just appear out of nowhere
, and line up waiting for you to tell them what to do. That’s cute, but I’m not having it all the time. They are too subservient and humble, they’ve got rights too. I will just let them help me though, this time, and then we’ll talk about the not being subservient idea, at a later date. I can get a closer look at them now that they are unwrapping me. They’re really unusual looking, and each one is different. Some have wispy clumps of hair, in various shades. They all have two eyes, I think, except for one I’ve seen, but each eye isn’t necessarily the same shape or colour as the other one.  No Watcher is covered with the same colour skin all over its body; there are patches of black, yellow, brown, and pinkie white.  Some of them have tiny fangs with cat like eyes, and others have human teeth. I used to have a book when I was a child, which had each page cut in half. The pictures on each page were of Vampires variously dressed, mythical creatures, and animals and so on. You could mix up a different top half of each page with a different lower half. This book is what the Watchers remind me of Amica, but with a more complicated mix up than merely their top and bottom half. I must ask Uncle what their species is called. If they were a word they would be, ‘supercalafragalisticexpialadoscious.’ Now do you understand what I mean? They don’t make sense. They are very weird and sort of ugly, but really adorable and cute. They chatter on to each other as well, but at such a speed it is impossible to recognise or understand the language; they have to stop abruptly to speak at our speed, and then their words are stilted and abrupt. I think they are AWESOME, and I want to become good friends and find out about their culture and so on.

Yay!! I have
legs, they are still here! I wouldn’t say they look their best, covered in brown goo with sticky patches of old bandage everywhere! ‘Can I use the bathroom?’ Three of them have rushed off, probably to get a bedpan for me. That qualifies for another ‘Ugghh.’ What a performance trying to use one of those, and keep your sheets clean!

‘
No, not one of those things, I meant, can I walk to the bathroom and clean myself up?’

‘
You wait minute.’ It’s like watching a baby speak friend, mesmerizing!

Listen, I have just written down every thought on this page as I was thinking it
, and recorded every reply from the people I’ve spoken to. My brain is getting confused so I’m going to sign off from the writing (you’ll still be with me in my thoughts) and see if they bring Uncle to me. I presume that is where they have run off to; after all, he is the Doctor. XX

They have been gone ages
, and I’m sitting here like a half-eaten chocolate bar. My legs are beginning to stick to the sheets; it’s so warm in here. That’s it! Enough is enough! I’m getting up, my feet are dry, and my legs look the shape they have always been, so there should be no problems whatsoever. Oooh, I can feel my toes again, even the rock floor is warm, if I can just stand carefully. ‘Oh no! OW!’ I’m on the floor; my stupid legs don’t work. Oh my god, what if I’m paralysed for the rest of my life? No, that won’t happen, I have some vamp healing powers in my blood! I think I cracked my skull again though, where’s Uncle? Someone’s coming, I can hear them padding along with longer strides and heavier feet, so it must be Uncle. That’s odd, he’s running, maybe he heard me fall and he’s panicking. Here he ISNT!! It’s a Sanguis!! It’s just run past the entrance of the room. Oh My God! What do I do? I have to walk; I have to! Help me Amica and give me your strength!

‘
HELP, WATCHERS, PEOPLE, THERE’S A SANGUIS!!!’

I
’m up; I managed to get on my feet, thank you friend. I don’t understand; everyone is looking at me like I’m a lunatic! The other patients saw the red blur of that monster go past us; why aren’t they scared, and where did all the little people go? I’m going after it, I can stand so I can walk, and that thing could be biting chunks out of all the little Watchers as it goes. It wasn’t very fast, it was kind of limping, or hopping or something, I wasn’t even sure it had legs, because I only saw the top half when we were in the half light of the tunnels. I’m going to see where it went, or at least tell someone it is in here. The Clones don’t seem bothered by it at all. I hate to say it, but maybe some of them were grown without their full set of marbles, because the sight of that thing should have had them climbing the walls.

This place is crazy, I
’ve never been out of the bedroom before, and it’s like walking inside an intricately designed sandcastle. You know, the ones sometimes seen on the beach, which some kid has taken hours to design, with windows and towers and stairs. The same one that some other kid decides is his absolute duty to destroy. The stone in here is moulded in the same amateurish way, shaped with hands, not machines, and yet the structure is just as sound and strong. It’s a hollowed out, hidden world!  The reason I even have time to take any of this in, is because my legs are working, yes, but they’re doing things in their own time, no matter what my brain is urging them to do. My head has already attacked the Sanguis, knocked it out, bound its arms and legs with thick rope (this has appeared from thin air) and I am dragging it in full view of everyone, being praised unreservedly by all concerned. I wish!

Now I can hear a hundred other feet running closer, behind me. It sounds like a stampede of squirrels chasing after a nut. It must be the
Watchers, and if they’re not careful they’ll stampede all over me! There must be thirty or more of them racing in the same direction as the Sanguis. There’s a faint rumbling sound in the distance, and I can only presume it’s coming from the mountain itself, unless the Watchers have pinned down the Sanguis and are pummelling the living daylights out of it.

Panic is an infectious disease
, and it’s spreading throughout the mountain. More and more Watchers are pouring out of every orifice to join the herd, and I am pinned to the side of the wall trying to remain on my wobbly legs. The crazy speed at which they are able to move is creating a wind as they go past, and is helping my cause. Whatever is happening has the whole fire mountain quivering in its solid, lava boots. Granted, the Watchers are small, but does it really take that many to capture one Sanguis? This is a slight case of ‘overkill’, on their part.

The
Clones from my room are tentatively peeking out into the uneven hallway. Linda, my neighbour, has had the nerve to venture out and squeeze through the melee, to be at my side. She is as disorientated, and as baffled as I am. There is no need for words when the language is written all over her face. What on earth is going on? Are there more Sanguis invading the whole of the mountain?

There are many more pillars, stairs and alcoves in this red village, reaching far into the distance
, on either side of us. I recognise some of the Clones peering out from the other dwellings, as those we released from the farm. The poor things are trembling in their doorways at this next bewildering crisis.

‘
Aecia.’ Thank the lord, it’s Orianna! She’s ok! I was beginning to think that Uncle had purposely not told me of my three friends’ true condition, because they were dead.

‘
Has it stopped?’

‘
Has what stopped? Do you mean have they caught the Sanguis, Orianna?

‘
Sanguis? No, no, the cave in at the entrance of the mountain.’

‘
THE CAVE  IN!!! This gets worse! Are we all going to be buried in a mountain of rubble?’

‘
It’s ok Aecia, there’s no more noise, no more rumbling, it must have ceased crumbling. There was a storm last night, and it weakened the outside of the mountain.’

Even though I
’m scared, some part of me is registering the fact that Orianna’s communication skills have come on in leaps and bounds.

‘
Look Aecia, they are coming back!’

The little ones are trooping back at a much more acceptable pace
, and they are covered in a film of fine, rusty red coloured dust. They look like a band of toddlers retrieved from a coloured sandpit. I can see you Amica, sitting on their shoulders, punching the air and laughing your head off. They do look hilarious, but I’m too bemused to laugh out loud. I want to know what has happened to that bloodthirsty Sanguis.

The
Watchers are ushering us all back into our respective rooms, when really we should be ushering them into a shower! There’s no way in hell I’m going back into that bed until I’ve found Uncle and told him about the Sanguis. It looks like Linda’s coming with me, as she’s attached herself to my hand.

‘
Orianna, where are Sebastian, Lupe and Uncle? Have you any idea?’

‘
Yes, follow me. Your Uncle wouldn’t leave Sebastian at the moment, as he is still very ill. Lupe is with them.’

Orianna
’s face is a rainbow of green, blue and yellow bruises around her right eye and chin. ‘Your face Orianna, did you get those bruises in the accident, when we were escaping from the farm?’

‘
Yes, but they are nearly gone now aren’t they? I don’t like Sebastian seeing me ugly.’

‘
You could never be ugly Orianna, but, hang on, what did you just say about Sebastian? You two aren’t… Are you?’ She’s beaming with a multi-coloured, bruised grin Amica. This is superb news! Who can I tell?

‘
He is my mate!’

‘
What! Not already Orianna, you have to be paired and blessed. Uncle has to instruct you in certain things, and you’ll have children, if you don’t do stuff to not have children. It’s like this…. well you’re not supposed … I’m not prepared to discuss this now, and you better speak to Uncle, sharpish!’ Am I bright red Amica? Shut up laughing! They are bloody clever these Clones, and not just about the English language! Well, it’s enough to make anyone swear!

Walking inside this exquisitely hollowed out village is an experience I never thought possible Amica. It is like travelling back through time
, but so far back, that this civilisation was never heard of or documented as part of history. Little individuals are passing us up and down the stairs, obviously content, and obviously with a specific purpose to their journey. Some have custom sized pick axes and shovels, and some have sewing materials, wool and pins in a basket and so on. The place must have taken many years to create with this amount of detail, so they must have lived here for a long time. Where did they come from? Are they related to the Vampire virus, or from the original Humans that initially ruled the Earth? It’s all so fascinating that, as usual I’m drifting off from my own purpose, which is to warn Uncle about the marauding Sanguis, that’s probably eaten half the population already! ‘Are we nearly there Orianna?’

‘
Aecia!’ It’s Uncle’s voice coming from the dwelling on the right. It has a large round hole as its entrance, but has no door. The Watchers don’t seem too bothered about privacy. He’s coming out to greet me, bless him.

‘
What on earth are you doing wandering around? Your bandages weren’t due off till tomorrow, and even then, you shouldn’t be walking around straightaway after having them removed. You could fall Aecia, or you could easily get lost; you haven’t been guided through the village yet.’