Sharp

The bell rung for the elevators and the door slid open. Neither of the two sisters were in sight. Tiffany took the first steps outward into the lobby. Then she turned left towards a hallway. My quiet bare feet followed closely behind.

I could imagine Tiffany knew exactly where the sisters were and which way to go to escape. Until I saw Amelia waiting in the kitchen, with a wine glass in hand. It appeared to be a red wine. Knowing what she is, it probably wasn’t wine.

“How did you get out.” Amelia was completely caught off guard and threw her glass at Tiffany.

Tiffany dodged it, leaving it to spill all over the floor with the glass to shatter along with it. She practically flew at Amelia and twisted her neck when she got her hands on her head. Leaving her head completely backwards.

Her neck twisted unnaturally, her body still remained in good health. Tiffany grabbed a chair in a weightless motion and broke one of the legs off. Tossing the remainder of the chair to the side. Without a second guess or a change of mind, she stuck the chair leg into her chest. The same spot that Alexis was struck, right in the heart.

Her skin turned an ashy gray, similar to her sister. The pink long sleeve shirt that Alexis wore started to grow a bloody circle around the chair leg. It almost looked like a rose painted onto her shirt.

“Anastasia is outside. She’s the one I’m most worried about.” Tiffany confided to me.

“Why? You literally just killed both of her sister with ease.”

“She drank your blood this morning. She would be as strong as me, possibly even stronger.”

“What? Why don’t I remember that? Also how would that make her stronger?”

“You’ve been out for almost a week. They consistently beat you up everyday to make sure you didn’t wake up. Not only that, but they would heal you while you were sleeping, just to be able to beat you all over again. I head it from the metal cell, every day single day. I could tell you didn’t wake up because you didn’t say a word. Especially when I heard them beat on your bones and break them in half. You would yell or scream. I almost thought you were dead to be honest.

“After the vervain drained from your system yesterday, she was the one brave enough to drink from you. She fooled her sisters into thinking you still had the poison inside of you. Smart thinking on her part, especially when she found out your blood type. She didn’t want her sisters to have in on the fun too. From what I could tell, when we were down there, she had quite a bit of it. Unlike me, I had a few sips to make me strong enough to escape.” She headed for the kitchen door that led outside.

Not opening it just yet, but looking through the window.

Her height lacked the requirement to look through it unless she was on her top toes. Assuming to see if Anastasia was outside waiting.

Tiffany turned back to me, “Alright. When you get outside, I need you to just run. Keep going with all your strength. If Anastasia comes after you or atttacks you, I will heal you or do whatever it takes to keep you alive. I need you to be a distraction so I can try and kill her. Got it?”

“You want me to risk my life? All for the means of distraction?” Tiffany walked over to the same chair that she took one leg off. On the bottom of the chair, she took both of her hands to each leg and snapped them both off in one smooth motion.

“Yes.” She smiled, as she stood strong with both wooden chair legs in each hand. “Now go.” Gesturing to the door with the wooden chair legs ready in her hands.

I opened the door and did as she said. I began racing down the large lawn, looking only straight ahead. Headed for the vast amount of trees in the distance. Possibly 100 yards away.

The trees there had only a handful of leaves left on them. Signifying that fall was almost over. The grass felt cold and soft under my feet. The yard had an open field until you hit the boarder of tree, they looked to be the beginning to a set of woods.

I was only five or 6 feet away from the first tree until someone grabbed my shirt from the back of me. Yanking it hard enough to choke my neck from the opening of the shirt and sending me off my feet.

Then letting go so I fell backwards into the grass, landing on the back of my head. It didn’t hurt as badly as you would expect, especially on top of the plush grass beneath me.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going? Running off to your boyfriend?”

As I look up, Anastasia is face to face with me. The sister, that from the very beginning, that scared me more than the others. The sister that seemed the most heartbroken by Tony. The one who was holding more secrets, which in turn gave her resentment.

Tiffany feared her from drinking more blood, which no doubt that would have made her stronger. On the other hand, I feared her for her drive. There was something pushing her. You could see it in her eyes. She hated me. Not on a simple level. On a level of jealousy and desperation.

The man she loved didn’t love her. Instead, he wanted me and cared for me. He was willing to put himself in danger and be unhappy to make sure I was alive and well. He cared for me more than I had anyone.

“Since you’re being quiet, maybe you’re ready to die. Huh?” She got down on her knees, closer to my face. “Any last words before I kill you?” Both of her hands were on the sides of my head. Holding me still in one place.

“I’m sorry he doesn’t love you.”

“Out of all thing to say, you say that?” Anastasia squinted her eyebrows in confusion. Then just rolling her eyes. “Whatever makes you happy I guess.”

“I know you loved him and he just ran away.” I blurted out before she could do anything else.

“Of course I loved him. Who wouldn’t? The only thing that stands in the way of him returning his love is whether or not he deems you worthy enough to love back. The thing you don’t see, is he’s controlled by history. He reads all these dumb journals and books. Letting it rule his life like it’s God or something. I can’t even imagine what stupid things he’s read. Especially the one that made him run away.” She looked up away from me and off to the distance past my feet. Her eyes lit in shock.

“I told you it was about my grandmother.” Tony’s voice said off in the distance. “She knew you’re family for quite some time. The reason why I decided to run away from your psychotic family is because my grandmother knew and saw how crazy your family can really be. Your parents were alive for centuries, killing and forcing others to do unspeakable things. I ran away because you were showing similar traits to your parents. The parents that killed for sport!” I could hear is voice come closer and closer from the trees.

“As if you don’t remember what happened in Montreal, Canada. You were so mad at me. We headed to a bar and you compelled everyone to kill each other. Only because I didn’t want to have a three some with one of your sisters and you.

“Or that other time in Spain. You deliberately went to a children’s hospital. You killed. Every. Single. Child. Only because you brought up marriage and I said I didn’t want it. You get so abrupt and furious. So much that you started fires in California, in the summer. Knowing that it would start forest fires and burn people’s homes. Only because you wanted me to move in with you and your family.”

I was still laying on the ground. Hearing all the horrible things Anastasia had done. I didn’t feel bad for her anymore. She was a complete narcissist and couldn’t see anything she did as wrong. She blamed journals for him leaving, when really her own actions did it.

“That’s how vampires act.” Anastasia looked offended and couldn’t take blame. “You just want to be human so badly that you try to act so innocent.”

“I’ve met hundred of vampires, Anastasia. You’re by far the most evil and worst one I’ve ever come across. Some how, you were my girlfriend.”

“Why’d you date my sister then? If I was so horrible.”

“I thought she was always nice. Then she showed me wrong. Did similar things to you. I must admit, they weren’t as bad. Yet, it still left a terrible taste in my mouth. I decided to go away for good.”

“Well.” Anastasia grabbed my hair and pulled my up. Her grip was incredibly strong. Her mouth was only a few inches away from my neck. “Why don’t I drink her to death for your punishment on this one. Running away from me. I still haven’t returned the favor. For how much you hurt me. I’ll return that same pain.”

Her teeth were in my neck and I could feel my blood drain from my carotid artery. I struggled to keep my head up and started to slump in her arms. She held me up without a problem.

Then all of a sudden, she stopped sucking on my neck and I started to fall towards the ground. Tony quickly ran to my side to catch me before falling down. He bit his wrist and placed it gently into my mouth. Making sure his blood was making it into my mouth. A few gulps and I felt complete rejuvenated.

To see his face again seemed like a dream. He played a better distraction than me. I saw Tiffany push the chair leg through her whole body. The similar transition of skin color happened to her and I couldn’t have been more satisfied. Tony said only a few atrocious things she had done made me excited for her death. Her death was to avenge for those helpless lives.

“Thanks Tony. I’m sorry.” Tiffany confessed. “I should have listened to you when you told me not to side with them.”

“I forgive you. They’re fantastic manipulators. I’m sorry you had to do that to Alexis.” His voice sounded truly sympathetic. He must have known they were together.

“After she smashed my head into the wall, I absolutely knew she was a lost cause.”

“I can’t imagine how you must have felt.” Tony responded back, still holding onto me.

“I’ll be fine. I promise. I’m glad to be out of there safe.” She then looked towards me. “I’m glad you’re safe as well. I don’t know if I would have been okay with myself if you had died.”

It was weird hearing those words come out of her mouth. The caring side of her was nice to see.

“Did you know she was related to Eunice?” Tiffany asked Tony. Tony’s response seemed off. As if he was caught off guard from the question.

“Yes. I did.”

“And when exactly were you going to tell me?” Tiffany seemed a bit offended.

“Honestly, I wasn’t going to.” Tiffany rolled her eyes at Tony.

“Let’s burn the bodies before someone decides to cast a spell on them. I’ll take care of the two sisters inside. I’m sure you two can handle her, right?”

“Yes, Tiffany. We got it.”

Her body vanished like the Flash, leaving Tony and I alone.

Tony let go of me.

“Care to tell me why you didn’t listen to me?” His focus was directly on me eyes.

“Well. I. I just couldn’t.”

“Couldn’t what?” He didn’t seem angry. Just more concerned and wanted answers.

“I couldn’t do it. It felt like that would have been the last time I was going to see you and I wasn’t okay with that.”

His smile reassured me that he in fact wasn’t mad.

“Honestly, it probably would have been. Your decision wasn’t one I would have picked. Since your life would have been jeopardized.” He paused as he held a lighter in his hand. “I couldn’t find you for days and I almost started to go insane. The thought you dead scared me.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I forgive you. If it had turned out different though, I don’t know what I would have done. I’m incredibly grateful that Tiffany was with you.”

“The only reason she saved me was because of me being related to my grandmother, Eunice. If she hadn’t known that, I easily could have been dead.”

“How did they figure that out?” He threw the lighter onto Anastasia. The flame caught onto her shirt, slowly making progress as we were talking.

“They asked about a book that Anxillion wrote, Hanson. They wanted to know what was in it and I couldn’t help them with the information. They asked about my relatives. Once I brought up Eunice, Tiffany was like a deer in headlights. She told the Huntington sisters that they shouldn’t hurt me. The only reason they wanted to know about the book was because you ran away from Amelia after it. Also, Anxillion was killed for withholding information about it.”

“It’s an important book. It’s even in a secret spot after I finished reading it. It’s not the reason I ran away. The sisters thought it was because of the books. The books and journals might have helped conclude my decision, but it wasn’t the reason I left them. Their actions is what did it for me. Amelia acted similar to Anastasia and it just turned me off. I had a duty to marry one of them and I just couldn’t follow through.”

“You don’t have to marry them now.” I shrugged.

“It looks like a happy ending. Rest assured, it isn’t going to be when the Huntington parents find out their daughters are dead. The end to their bloodline. The only thing that will protect us is our family property.”

“Oh.” I said, since I had been a bit naive.

“Yeah, I’m not too excited. At least for now it’ll be okay. A little breather if you had to call it.”

Anastasia’s body was near to ash. Her bones even burned down with her clothes and skin, which I didn’t expect.

“Can I ask, what was in the Hanson book?”

“It’s actually about Eunice.” He said after taking a deep breath.

“How did Anxillion know my grandmother? And why would he write about her?”

• • •